Welcome To The 99th Infantry Division Association Archives

Welcome to the Digital Archives of Checkerboard... ...the soldier newspaper of the 99th Infantry Division during World War II, and of veterans of the post-war 99th Infantry Division Association. During the stateside training years of 1943-44, 78 issues were published, and five years after the war, when the 99th Infantry Division Association was formed, publication resumed at four-to-six times per year. The war-time issues had drawings by the gifted artist member of the division, Robert S. Robison (“Robbie”).

The issues are searchable by keywork and date, making it easy for researchers, historians, members and interested others to look into the lives and activities of “the Greatest Generation.”

The 99th (Checkerboard, see the shoulder patch) Division entered combat in Europe November 9, 1944, in widely spaced 1st U.S. Army defensive positions in the Ardennes at the Belgian-German border. It was the prime target of Hitler’s surprise offensive December 16 which became the Battle of the Bulge. There at the North Shoulder of the Battle at Elsenborn Ridge, the division, along with the veteran 2nd and 1st Infantry Divisions, resisted attacks by divisions of the 6th SS Panzer Army, completely thwarting Hitler’s plan, so that the main German attacks moved south to the area around Bastogne. The 99th was the first complete division across the Rhine River at Remagen; it fought in the Ruhr Pocket, moved south to Patton’s Third Army, and at war’s end was at the Danube River.

The archives of the 99th, including the Checkerboard, are deposited at the Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The accumulated issues of Checkerboard were sent to the Wisconsin Historical Society of Madison for microfilming, and subsequently to Heritage Microfilm of Cedar Rapids, Iowa for digitizing and indexing for the 99th Division website, now available here.