Posted on 06/20/2002 2:35:55 AM PDT by pad 34
Hail to the Army's Oldest Division - The 'Big Red One'
By J. David Galland
The U.S. Army celebrated its 227th birthday last Friday, June 14. Amid the celebrations, speeches and cake cuttings, my memories drifted back to when I first began soldiering 34 years ago in 1968, just after the Army's 193rd birthday.
Both now and then, my first year as a soldier, American troops are serving in combat against America's enemies overseas. Thinking of that span of time and the Army's rich history, I thought it fitting to remember and celebrate the legacy of the oldest division in the U. S. Army, a unit that has done much to secure our freedom - the "Big Red One."
The "oldest division's" soldiers serve as an integral part of the Germany based U. S. V Corps, forward deployed today as always. This division's lineage and honors span a period of 85 years punctuated by unmatched excellence and gallantry. Heroes and their legendary exploits define the division's legacy.
The 1st Infantry Division was first established in May 1917 as the "First Expeditionary Division" as the United States prepared to send combat troops to France at the height of the Great War. It was formed from regular Army units then in service on the Mexican border and at various posts throughout the United States. The first units sailed from the ports of New York and New Jersey on June 14, 1917, and the rest of the division arrived at St. Nazaire, France, and Liverpool, England over the next few months.
On July 4, 1917, the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment marched through the boulevards of Paris in an effort to boost the downtrodden spirits of the French. It was then, at the Marquis de Lafayette's tomb, that one of Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing's staff articulated the famous words, "Lafayette, we are here!" Two days later on July 6th, the First Expeditionary Division was re-designated as the 1st Infantry Division.
Three months later, the division went into combat against the German Army. On the morning of Oct. 23, 1917, division artillery fired the first American shell of the war, and two days later, the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry suffered the first American casualties.
In April 1918, the Germans were within 40 miles of Paris. The Big Red One then moved into the Picardy Sector to bolster the exhausted French First Army and counter the German threat. To the Division's front lay the small village of Cantigny. The town was situated on the high ground predominating a forested countryside and it would be here that the division's, "Black Lions of Cantigny," would forge their place in history, attacking the town and capturing it and 250 German soldiers after 45 minutes.
The doughboys pushed on and took Soissons in July 1918, a victory that came at a profound cost: 7,000 infantrymen killed or wounded. On Sept. 13, 1918, the division launched a vicious, three-day attack to clear the St. Mihiel salient. On Sept. 26, 1918, the division joined the battle of the Meuse-Argonne Forest, which would be the location of the last major battle of the war. By the time the war ended in the Armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, the "Big Red One" had defeated and rendered combat-ineffective eight German divisions.
When the guns fell silent, the 1st Infantry Division had suffered 22,320 casualties, but had also seen five of its brave soldiers receive the Medal of Honor. It proudly returned to the United States with its colors carrying campaign streamers for Lorraine, 1917; Lorraine, 1918; Picardy, 1918; Montdidier-Noyon; Aisne-Marne; St. Hihiel; and Meuse- Argonne.
Sadly, however, for the 1st Infantry Division the call to arms would come all too soon again.
On Nov. 8, 1942, following training in the United Kingdom, soldiers of the Big Red One landed on the coast of Algeria near Oran as part of the "Operation Torch" invasion force. The initial lessons of combat were harsh and the division took many casualties during the campaign in Tunisia.
After the surrender of Germany's elite Afrika Korps on May 9, 1943, the division moved on to take part in the invasion of Sicily in "Operation Husky." With the help of naval gunfire, its own artillery and that from our Canadian allies, the 1st Infantry Division fought its way over Sicily's hills. The GIs advanced to seize Troina and secured the allied road to the straits of Messina.
But the World War II heroics of the Big Red One were just beginning.
Who can forget the division's performance on D-Day, June 6, 1944? The Big Red One stormed ashore at Omaha Beach. Soon after H-Hour, the Division's 16th Infantry Regiment was fighting for its life on a strip of beach, known as "Easy Red" near Coleville-sur-Mer. It was then that Col. George Taylor, Commander of the 16th Infantry Regiment, told his men "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach! The dead and those who are going to die! Now lets get the hell out of here!"
The division fought through the Normandy hedgerows and pushed on to liberate Liege, Belgium, before pressing ahead to the German border and crossing through the fortified Siegfried Line. It then attacked the city of Aachen, Germany, and after days of pitched infantry battle, the German commander surrendered on Oct. 21, 1944.
The division continued its thrust into Germany, when on Dec. 6, 1944, the Germans counter-attacked in what still stands as the largest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army - the Battle of the Bulge. Ten German armored divisions and fourteen infantry divisions went at the GIs in a massive maneuver in the Ardennes sector.
On Jan. 15, 1945, the 1st Infantry Division attacked and penetrated to the town of Remagen, Germany, on the banks of the Rhine River. There, lay the strategically critical crossing over the Rhine, the Remagen Bridge.
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the division marched 150 miles to the east of Siegen, Germany. Only seven days later they crossed the Weser River and rolled into Czechoslovakia. Five weeks later, World War II in Europe came to an end with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945.
By the end of the war, the division had taken 21,023 casualties out of the 43,743 men who had served in its ranks. Its soldiers had won 16 Medals of Honor, and captured over 100,000 German prisoners.
The 1st Infantry Division remained in Germany as occupation troops until 1955, when the Pentagon reassigned it to the old cavalry post, Fort Riley, Kansas, which to this day is its traditional home.
While it took 24 years for the Division to wait and prepare between its first and second wars, the third conflict in which it fought came just 10 years after returning home to the United States. In 1965, the call came again and the Division was ordered to Vietnam. Its highly-decorated 2nd brigade led the division into America's longest war, landing Qui Nhon in South Vietnam on June 23, 1965.
It was not long before the soldiers were in action. The Big Red One's first operations began on July 22nd, when Company B, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry conducted operations in the area around Bien Hoa.
Meanwhile, the division's main body under the command of Maj. Gen. Jonathan O. Seaman began leaving Fort Riley on Sept. 15, 1965.
The 1st Infantry Division launched a series of operations to intended to disrupt Viet Cong and North Vietnamese activity in South Vietnam. It operated in areas known as The Trapezoid, Iron Triangle, Catcher's Mitt, Song Be Corridor, Saigon Corridor and Highway 13, better know as Thunder Road. If you have been there, these names will still send a chill up your back.
The 1st Infantry Division returned to Fort Riley in April 1970 as part of the phased withdrawal of American combat forces from Vietnam. The tolling bell had rang a final time for over 2,000 of its soldiers who had died in action in Vietnam. Eleven Medal of Honor winners were added to the rolls of heroes.
Two more decades of peacetime service came to an end in 1990 when the U.S. Army and its 1st Infantry Division were summoned for war in the Persian Gulf after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Three months after the invasion on Aug. 2, 1990, the division was alerted for deployment in November. During the next two months the division deployed over 12,000 soldiers and 7,000 pieces of equipment to Saudi Arabia, where it joined other VII Corps mechanized infantry and armor units.
In the wee hours of the morning of Feb. 24, 1991, under the command of Maj. Gen. Thomas G. Rhame, the Big Red One spearheaded the VII Corps' heavy armored attack into Iraq. It smashed into the Iraqi 26th Infantry Division, breaking through the enemy lines and quickly taking over 2,500 prisoners.
The U.S.-led ground offensive was brutal, overpowering - and swift. After only 100 hours of combat, at 8 a.m., Feb. 28, 1991, the firing stopped and the Persian Gulf War formally ended several days later when Iraqi and allied negotiators agreed on a cease-fire.
The Big Red One had fought through 260 kilometers of enemy-held territory in 100 hours, destroying 550 enemy tanks, 480 armored personnel carriers and taking 11,400 prisoners overall. Unfortunately the division's victory was not free: 18 of its soldiers were killed.
As the Army celebrates its 227th birthday, the Big Red One, under the command of Maj. Gen. John Craddock, is still on duty. Headquartered in the city of Würzberg in the German state of Bayern, the 1st Infantry Division is contributing significantly to the ongoing stabilization operations in the Balkans.
Today, the silence of its guns speaks of many jobs well done over the past century. But as the United States and its allies continue to prosecute the ongoing war against terrorism, it will not come as a surprise to see the 1st Infantry Division in combat action once more.
J. David Galland, Deputy Editor of DefenseWatch, is a retired veteran of over thirty years of service in military intelligence who resides in Germany. He can be reached at defensewatch02@yahoo.com.
The rest of the division was tied up in combat and the commander ordered the MPs to take the bridge and hold it. Also, Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in WW II was a member of the 16 th. We came home en masse in August of 1955 to Ft. Rhiley, Ks., where the division has been based since then.
Actually, Murphy was a member of the 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division. I know this because I was a member of the 15th and if you expected to pass a promotion board in that unit you were expected to know that at the very least. It used to be you also had to sing the "Dog Face Soldier" song at the end of the promotion board:
I wouldn't give a bean to be a fancy pants Marine
I'd rather be the Dog Faced Soldier that I am
I wouldn't trade my old ODs for all the Navy's dungarees
For I'm the walking pride of Uncle SamIn all the posters that I read
It says the Armys builds men
So they're tearing me down
To build me over againI'm just a Dog Faced Soldier
With a rifle on my shoulder
And I eat raw meat for breakfast every day
So feed me ammunition
Keep me in the 3rd Division
Your Dog Faced Soldier Boy's okay!
Note: The words have changed a little since they were written a long time ago- It used to be: "And I eat a Kraut for breakfast every day!"
I loved the Marne Division- just didn't like the unit patch. While a member of the 3rd I served in 1/69 Armor, 4/70 Armor, 2/6 Infantry, 1/30 Infantry, 2/15 Infantry and then after the Division reflagged as 1st Infantry we also turned into 1/26 Infantry (from 2/15).
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