42nd Infantry Division

I believe he was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

And here at the memorial, we obviously do a lot with his story because he served in the 42nd Rainbow Division with Douglas MacArthur.

So he's an important part of the stories we tell.

And I think it's really interesting that he's from New Jersey.

Between then and our entry into the war in 1917, he first drove an American ambulance on the British and French fronts and later as a war correspondent made numerous visits to various parts of the Western Front and during the summer of 1915 to the most vital parts of the German-Russian Front.

He participated in all the combats of our famous 42nd or Rainbow Infantry Division, first in command of a light artillery regiment and then of an infantry brigade.

Besides the distinction of receiving this promotion in battle was the unusual fact of an artilleryman being given an infantry command.

In 1920, he accompanied the Polish army in two campaigns against the Bolsheviki, the first in the spring, in which the Poles took the offensive, finally capturing Kiev, the second in the late summer, when the Poles, driven far back, finally stood on the Vistula, stopped the Bolsheviki, and then attacked, capturing such large numbers as practically to wipe the Bolsheviki army out of existence.

While the German surprise was complete and resulted in their getting some prisoners, they lost prisoners to us and left wounded and dead on the ground.

Our dead were found at their posts, their wounds and their positions showing that they had not flinched but had died at their posts facing the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.

The first daylight raid by American units was made by two companies of the 168th Infantry of the Rainbow Infantry Division.

This raid had for its objective the destruction of a strong point in the third line of enemy trenches.

A perfectionist, a reformer, a man who would remake the army to fit the dimensions of his ambition.

In World War I, MacArthur commanded the 42nd Rainbow Division and turned mud-soaked French trenches into testing grounds for a new kind of officer.

He wore a soft cap instead of a helmet, refused to dig in, and moved up and down the lines under fire.

His men followed him not because he barked orders, but because he lived out front, where the bullets hummed like locusts.

While outside of the village of Esse, he had his first chance meeting with Brigadier General, a brigadier just more of the attack that he was leading with those tanks.

He had his first meeting, chance meeting, with Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, then commanding a brigade of the 42nd Rainbow Division, who at just 38 was already one of the more highly decorated officers with the American Expeditionary Forces and with whom Patton would later serve during his career.

Patton's brigade was then moved to support I Corps for the upcoming Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which began on the 26th of September.

He personally, personally led a troop of tanks through thick fog as they advanced five miles into German lines.

This is going to be one of the great battles, fights that comes out of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

The events surrounding Sergeant York with the 42nd Division becomes another one of the great American lore and legend of the First World War.

For people who aren't familiar with it, York was a...

I mean, I feel like Sergeant York, I mean, like, at least I feel like that is like a, I don't want to say a household name, but like I know that name.

Um, come the war, he, um, he tries to stay out of it, but after 1941, he did kind of what was expected of, of every man at that time socially, which was, uh, enlist in the United States Army.

He enlisted in the 42nd Infantry Division in Kalamazoo, Michigan, um, was sent to basic training, underwent that.

Um, I, I don't, I do not know what specific job training he got while he was in the Army, um, because, you know, if you go into, like, these dog tag databases, you can actually find his name.

His serial number is known.

From then until we declared war, he was a war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and part of the time for the New York Herald as well.

Since his return to this country with the Rainbow Division from the Rhine in the summer of 1919, he has been at various times a special correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in Europe and for the Hearst papers in Eastern Asia and editor of the Army and Navy Journal.

Besides this, he has written for various magazines on foreign affairs and military subjects.

General Riley's qualifications are not limited to participation as an actor in or close spectator of interesting events.

Corporal George B. Reed of the 151st Field Artillery was seriously wounded by the fire from a low-flying German airplane.

However, he stuck by his gun, refusing to be evacuated until fire then being executed was finished.

The Rainbow Division trench mortar battery, made up of men from Baltimore, had been put in front of the main line trenches so that their projectiles might reach farther into the advancing Germans.

Despite heavy losses, they remained not only until the last round had been fired, but until all their mortars had been destroyed or buried by the enemy's fire.

"'What mob did you go over with?' asked the Britisher.

"'The Rainbow Division,' responded the American.

"'Never heard of it,' laconically remarked the Britisher.

"'What?' ejaculated the American.

"'Never heard of the Rainbow Division? The famous Rainbow Division?' "'Ah, let me think,' pondered the other.

"'Let me think.

Ah, yes, by Jove, that's the one that came out after the storm was all over.' the englishmen admit their insulting stories about the americans but defend the practice by declaring the stories to be of a friendly character on the other hand they declare the american insults to be bitter our friendly insults appear to be a horse of another color what chance is there for permanent peace the soapy wiggle shimmy There are ways and other ways, but—' "'How do you wash your back when you bathe?' queried one fair maiden of her companion on a streetcar as they rode to work one morning last week.