First Infantry Division

First Infantry Division. “The Big Red One”. Constituted in May of 1917 from active Army units serving throughout the United States, the First Expeditionary Division was officially organized on 8 June 1917. Transported to Europe six days later, it was designated the First Division on 6 July 1917. The first American rounds of World War I were fired on 23 October of that year by the Division's 6th Field Artillery. From then until the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, the Big Red One served with distinction in seven campaigns. , , On 1 August 1942, the Division was designated the First Infantry Division. The Division's first engagement of World War Il was an amphibious assault at Oran, North Africa, on 8 November 1942, which was part of Operation Torch, the first Anglo-American operation of the War. Though the Vichy French defenders crumbled, both forces were bloodied, and by the end of the campaign in Tunisia the following spring, the Big Red One had again become a seasoned fighting force. Two months after the surrender of the German-Italian forces, the Division made its second amphibious assault, this time at Gela, Sicily, as part of Operation Husky. It took the invading forces about a month to open what Churchill had called "the soft underbelly of Europe" and set the stage for the invasion of France, for which broad plans and preparations had already proceeded for some two years. , , At Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944, the First Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner, made its third amphibious assault of the war. On the basis of the Division's combat experience and familiarity with the complexities of seaborne operations, the V Corps Commander, Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow, configured Gen. Huebner's D-Day command (Force "O") to include the 16th and 18th Infantry Regiments (organic) as well as the 116th and 115th Infantry Regiments (attached). The Division's two assaulting regimental combat teams (RCT) - the 16th on the left (east) and the 116th on the right (west), on beach sectors Charlie, Dog, Easy, and Fox from west to east - carried the Big Red One forward. Brig. Gen. Norman D. Cota, who had been the First Division's Chief of Staff in North Africa and now served as the Assistant Division Commander of the 29th Infantry Division, landed with the 116th RCT to assist General Huebner in handling the 29th's units until they were detached to their parent division. , , Within minutes of the first wave's arrival, the beaches became too congested with equipment and casualties for reinforcements to land with any effect. "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach," Col. George Taylor assured his 16th Infantry troopers, "the dead and those who are going to die! Now, let's get the hell out of here!" As many as could did - at both landing sites. Thus the arduous move inland got underway. The Division established its first command post at a captured German blockhouse above the beach and presciently named it "Danger Forward." , , The Big Red One is the U.S. Army's oldest continuously serving division. , , In memory of T/Sgt. Russell Livingston Stone (Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, Good Conduct Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge) of Long Island and Lynchburg, Virginia, who made three amphibious assaults with the 26th Infantry Regiment and served in seven of the First Infantry Division's eight World War II campaigns. Given in love by his daughter, Sandra Stone Whitehead.