Showing posts with label Cantigny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cantigny. Show all posts

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Monday, April 14, 1919. Nothing to return to in France, returning to U.S. from Italy, temporary housing.

Where Cantigny had been, April 14, 1919.

The 332nd Infantry on the Duca d'Acosta returning from their World War One service in Italy.  They arrived in New York on this day in 1919.

On this same day, the Red Cross photographed its set of instructions for temporary housing, a critical need at the time.  I don't know if they published it on this day as well, but it must have been close to this day.





Friday, July 6, 2018

The 1st Division in World War One.


I've oddly, I suppose, posted on the 2nd Division and the 3d Division, but not the 1st Division.   We seek to correct that omission here.

Rather obviously, the 1st Division was one of the very first U.S. Army divisions to be formed as the United States sought to build an Army to send to France.  Like the 2nd and the 3d, it was a Regular Army division made up of units of the standing U.S. Army.

The 1st Division is the oldest continually serving division on the U.S. Army.  Most sources will indicate that the division was formed on May 24, 1917, just after the American declaration of war, but like the 2nd Division and the 3d Division, it has a Civil War antecedent and a case can be made that the 1st Division first existing during that conflict.  At any rate, it's been serving continually as the 1st Division ever since May 24, 1917 and its seen action in every major American conflict since that time.  It's arguably the most famous U.S. division, although that could be contested I suppose.  It's the only US division to have its nickname, The Big Red One, used for the title of a movie, which says something.

The 1sts was the first U.S. division to fire an artillery mission during World War one and the first to sustain casualties.  It was also the first to launch an offensive operation, Cantigny.

It's make up was typical for an American "square division" for the war:
  • Headquarters, 1st Division
  • 1st Infantry Brigade
    • 16th Infantry Regiment
    • 18th Infantry Regiment
    • 2nd Machine Gun Battalion
  • 2nd Infantry Brigade
    • 26th Infantry Regiment
    • 28th Infantry Regiment
    • 3rd Machine Gun Battalion
  • 1st Field Artillery Brigade
    • 5th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
    • 6th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 7th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
    • 1st Trench Mortar Battery
  • 1st Machine Gun Battalion
  • 1st Engineer Regiment
  • 2nd Field Signal Battalion
  • Headquarters Troop, 1st Division
  • 1st Train Headquarters and Military Police
    • 1st Ammunition Train
    • 1st Supply Train
    • 1st Engineer Train
    • 1st Sanitary Train
      • 2nd, 3rd, 12th, and 13th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals.

Monday, May 28, 2018

The first major offensive action of the AEF. Cantigny

On this day in 1918 the U.S. Army began offensive operations in a major way during World War One.



The Army and the Marine Corps had already been in action.  Units had deployed in quiet sectors of the French line, and earlier the British line (which was not quiet by this time), to gain experience in combat. And U.S. troops had already deployed to assist the British and the Portuguese to hold back the Germans deployed in Operation Georgette.

May 28, 1918 aerial view of the Canigny sector.

On this day, however, the 1st Division committed to an outright offensive action at Catigny.  Starting at 06:45 U.S. troops of the 28th Regiment, 1st Division, advanced to take and reduce a German salient that had developed the prior day with the resumption of the German spring offensive. The mission was accomplished and the unit withstood German counterattacks, although it ultimately took slightly more casualties than the Germans.

While a minor battle, it was significant in that it convinced the other Allies that American troops were battle worthy.