The 2nd Marine Division (2nd MARDIV) is a division of the United States Marine Corps, which forms the ground combat element of the II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF). The division is based at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and headquartered at Julian C. Smith Hall.
The 2nd Marine Division earned renown in World War II, distinguishing itself at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa
The lineal forebearer of the 2nd Marine Division is the 2nd Marine Brigade, which was activated on 1 July 1936 at San Diego, California.
The 2nd Marine Division was officially organized on February 1, 1941 at Camp Elliott, California by change of designation from the 2nd Marine Brigade.
Description
Upon the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the victorious Allied powers asserted their joint authority and sovereignty over 'Germany as a whole', defined as all territories of the former German Reich which lay west of the Oder–Neisse line; having declared the extinction of Nazi Germany at the death of Adolf Hitler (see 1945 Berlin Declaration). The four powers divided 'Germany as a whole' into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, creating what became collectively known as Allied-occupied Germany (German: Alliierten-besetztes Deutschland). This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference (17 July to 2 August 1945).[not verified in body] In autumn 1944 the United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union had agreed on the zones by the London Protocol. The powers at Potsdam approved the detachment from 'Germany as a whole' of the German eastern territories east of the Oder-Neisse line; with the exact line of the boundary to be determined at a final German Peace Treaty. This treaty was expected to confirm the "shifting westward" of Poland's borders (back to approximately as they were before 1722), as the United Kingdom and the United States committed themselves to support there the permanent incorporation of former eastern German territories into Poland and the Soviet Union. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the agreed boundaries for the future zones of occupation, in some places by as much as 320 kilometres (200 mi). The so-called line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border was temporary. After two months in which they had held areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone, U.S. forces withdrew in the first days of July 1945. Some have concluded that this was a crucial move that persuaded the Soviet Union to allow American, British and French forces into their designated sectors in Berlin, which occurred at roughly the same time (July 1945), although the need for intelligence gathering (see Operation Paperclip) may also have been a factor.