103rd Military Police Platoon

The men of the 103rd Military Police Platoon were separated into four different groups based on the jobs they were expected to perform while in the Europe. The four groups were the Platoon Headquarters, the Command Post Guard, The Traffic Command, and the Prisoner of War Team.

In the documents for the 103rd Military Police Platoon, the Prisoner of War (POW) Team was cited as having the most challenging job in the platoon. This team was responsible for being on call to go to the front to collect enemy POW’s, and constantly setting up and breaking down the location of their command, sometimes daily, to stay close enough to the front lines. This group was tasked with holding prisoners in the “Prisoner of War Cage” and were the first to interrogate prisoners about any intelligence or information that might be useful or actionable.

The Traffic Command would have been the members of the 103rd Military Police that the men of the 103rd Infantry Division would have associated with and seen the most. The soldiers assigned to the Traffic Command were responsible for keeping the roadways running smoothly and directing traffic in the division’s area of operations. As some Bronze Star citations from the 103rd Military Police Platoon indicated, this job was also fraught with hazards. There were instances where the MP’s of the Traffic Command were responsible for directing vehicle traffic on and around roads and bridges that proved to be important targets for enemy artillery and ground attacks. During some of these attacks, members from the 103rd Military Police Platoon’s Traffic Command would remain out in the open, continuing to direct traffic in order to move the vehicles out of the area of enemy fire in a safe and efficient manner.

The 103rd Military Police (MP) Platoon was originally not part of the 103rd Infantry Division when it was formed in 1921. The 103rd Military Police Platoon was added to the 103rd Infantry Division when the division was activated from its Reserve status in 1942.

The Unit Journal for the 103rd Military Police Platoon is available here.

The Morning Reports for the 103rd Military Police Platoon are available here.