1st Infantry Division

D-Day Battle for Easy Red & Fox Green Beaches

By Flint Whitlock

Forming the very tip of the Allied spearhead that thrust onto the heavily fortified Omaha beachhead at Normandy was the U.S. Read more

1st Infantry Division

From Omaha Beach to Victory

By Ralph and Mark Puhalovich

Ralph Puhalovich was born on April 17, 1925, in Oakland, California, to Flora and Ivan Puhalovich. Read more

1st Infantry Division

The Lions of Carentan Part II: Defending Carentan

By Volker Griesser

Background: Fallschirmjäger Regiment 6, under the command of Major Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, had the fortune (or misfortune) to be stationed in Normandy at the time of the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944. Read more

1st Infantry Division

Voices of the Bulge, Part II

By Michael Collins & Martin King

In the first installment, a large German force made a surprise counteroffensive against American positons along the Belgian-German border—an operation that became known in the West as “the Battle of the Bulge.” Read more

1st Infantry Division

The Path of Heroism

By Stephen J. Ochs, PHD

On the morning of April 18, 1945, amid street fighting in rubble-strewn Nuremberg, Germany, 20-year-old U.S. Read more

1st Infantry Division

George C. Marshall: The Indispensable Man

By Eric Hammel

George Catlett Marshall was the greatest American military man of his age. If the United States Army had kicked off the 20th century with the specific intent of constructing a chief of staff to lead it to victory in World War II, it could not have done a better job than what chance provided in the triumphs and travails over the 40 years that molded George Marshall. Read more

1st Infantry Division

Last Man In Hell: A Navy Beachmaster on Omaha Beach

By Kevin M. Hymel

The Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) carrying Army engineers and Navy beachmasters hit a mine on its way into Omaha Beach. Read more

1st Infantry Division

Who Fired Terry Allen and Ted Roosevelt, Jr., the best Combat Generals?

By Walter Holden

During World War II, Terry de la Mesa Allen and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,were ”relieved” during a victorious campaign. Read more

1st Infantry Division

Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg

By Roscoe C. Blunt

Perhaps the most feared group of accused criminals in the annals of history was a potpourri of personalities who had been associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Read more

1st Infantry Division

Harry Truman on the Western Front

By Robert F. Dorr

In the darkness and driving rain on August 29, 1918, German artillery shells smashed down on American artillerymen fighting on a fir-clad slope in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace. Read more

1st Infantry Division

Blue and Gray at Omaha Beach

By Major General Michael Reynolds

The U.S. 29th Infantry Division was formed in July 1917, three months after America entered World War I. Read more

1st Infantry Division

American Tank Destroyers at El Guettar

By Christopher Miskimon

In the early morning hours of March 23, 1943, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division was preparing to attack. Read more

1st Infantry Division

Letters Home from the Battle of the Bulge

By Flint Whitlock

On Christmas day 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, Sergeant David Warman, a member of Company E, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, wrote a letter home.  Read more