1^st Infantry Division

The 1st Infantry Division first saw combat in World War II during Operation TORCH, landing at Oran on November 8, 1942. The 16th Infantry Regiment and 18th Infantry Regiment went ashore east of Oran while the 26th Infantry Regiment landed at Les Andalousos; by November 10, Oran was in American hands. In Tunisia, the 26th Infantry cleared the Ouseltia Valley and moved into positions at Kasserine Pass before the division attacked east from El Guettar on March 16, 1943. The 18th and 26th Infantry beat back strong German armored counterattacks on March 23 before Axis resistance in North Africa finally collapsed in May. In July the division assaulted Sicily, the 16th Infantry fending off German armor at Gela while the 18th Infantry cleared Hill 407 and the 26th Infantry seized Hill 575. The campaign ended with difficult fighting around Troina in August.

Campaign map image

World War II Campaign Map of the 1st Infantry Division. Map courtesy of HistoryShots.

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After training in England for the cross-Channel invasion, the Big Red One landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. The 16th Infantry led the assault under devastating fire; by June 10 it had reached the St-Lô–Bayeux highway, while the 18th and 26th Infantry seized Caumont on June 13. The division fought through the Normandy hedgerows, took part in the COBRA breakout in late July, and swept east across France. In September the 16th Infantry mopped up the Belgian Mons Pocket before the division crossed the Meuse at Liège and reached the German frontier. The Big Red One played a central role in the siege of Aachen, the first major German city captured by Allied forces, which fell in October 1944, with the 18th Infantry pushing through Verlautenheid to complete the encirclement.

During the Ardennes fighting the division helped anchor the northern shoulder of the German offensive. It then resumed the drive east, crossed the Rhine from the Remagen bridgehead in March 1945, and continued through Germany and into Czechoslovakia by war's end. Its campaign stretched without interruption from the shores of North Africa to the final advance in Central Europe — one of the longest and most varied combat records of any American division in World War II.