Courtesy Photo | Lt. Ramon Arrizabalaga (left), commanding officer, 92d Infantry Division CIC,...... read more read more
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by Fiona G. Holter, USAICoE Staff Historian
On August 10, 1944, the War Department pulled the 92d Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) Detachment from the 92d Infantry Division’s Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E) at the request of Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) in the Mediterranean Theater. Only two months later, AFHQ was forced to form an ad hoc detachment to conduct counterintelligence activities in support of the division in Italy.
During World War II, 241 CIC detachments with more than 3,000 officers and enlisted personnel served in the various theaters of operation. Initially, in the European Theater, each of the Army’s combat divisions had a seventeen-man detachment to support operations. In January 1944, under a new TO&E, CIC detachments were restructured from divisional to cellular lines to increase the support provided by CIC agents at every echelon.
In early August 1944, advance elements of the all-African American 92d Infantry Division, the “Buffalo” Division, arrived in the Mediterranean Theater to support operations in Italy. On 10 August, the War Department pulled the 92d CIC Detachment from the TO&E at the request of officials in the Mediterranean Theater who asked that no black CIC agents be sent to combat divisions. They explained that black CIC agents were unsuitable for service in the theater because they “could not be inconspicuous in civilian groups to perform refugee control, interrogations of civilians, or to complete other counterintelligence duties.”
By October 1944, the debate over black CIC agents resurfaced when the rest of the 92d Infantry Division arrived in Italy without a supporting detachment. Because of the lack of CI support within the division, any arising issues had to be handled by elements of the IV Corps’ CIC detachments. Within weeks, this extra burden was preventing the IV Corps agents from carrying out their other responsibilities. As a result, AFHQ requested an allotment of personnel to form a CIC detachment for the Buffalo Division. The War Department refused to approve a detachment of white personnel to serve with a black division but would consider a proposal if the detachment employed soldiers from the 92d already in Italy. In an exchange of cables on the matter, AFHQ proposed such a detachment, but the War Department still waffled.
In response, AFHQ dropped their official request and formed an ad hoc detachment made up of CIC personnel from other detachments already in the region. Under the command of Special Agent Ramon Arrizabalaga, Jr., the impromptu unit was given “full detachment prerogatives, rights, and responsibilities” without the official designation as the 92d CIC Detachment.
Throughout the Italian campaign, the 92d’s CIC agents accrued an impressive record. Amongst their vast duties across civil affairs administration, the collection of human intelligence, and CI operations, they recorded more than 23,000 interrogations and had 102 convictions of enemy agents.
| Date Taken: | 08.08.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.08.2022 11:33 |
| Story ID: | 426768 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 97 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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