Show historic rainbow division e el Is born anew by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union phe HE other day veterans of athe 1 the division of world war I 1 held their reunion in tulsa okla then they went to camp gruber near muskogee there to see the reactivation of their tradition rich outfit to pass on to the new division of world war II 11 their honored battle flags and to gaze proudly upon the shoulder patch adorning the uniform of each man in it the red yellow and blue striped quarter circle which was the sign and symbol of a first class fightlin figh tin man a member of the rainbow division the reactivation took place at midnight the champagne hour so go called because it was the hour when the last great german push of world war I 1 the champagne offensive began that offensive which started on july 14 1918 broke to pieces against the stubborn resistance ot f those fighting yanks of the rainbow R anbo ow division and from that day the might of the kaisers keisers kai sers armies ebbed until it reached low tide in a railroad car in Com forest four months later two messages before the veterans of the rainbow division of a quarter century ago adjourned their 1943 meeting they sent two messages to widely separated parts of the world one was flashed t to 0 gen douglas macarthur somewhere in the southwest pacific because it was he who had given their division its nickname the other was the traditional reunion greetings to one armed gen henri joseph eugene gouraud who commanded the fourth french army which included the american division at the historic battle in the champagne sector july 14 and 15 1918 the message was sent to gen dwight D eisenhower Elsen hower commander ln in chief of the allied forces in the european theater of war to be transmitted to general gouraud somewhere in occupied france in the early summer of 1917 a young colonel named douglas macarthur was serving as censor tor for news new coming out of the war department I 1 in n washington visited by newspaper men one day he told them of the forthcoming tion of a new division to be composed of units from 27 states and the district of columbia As the journalists were leaving macarthur remarked that the assembling of so many units from so many states into one division was somewhat like making up a rainbow struck by the aptness of the expression the newspaper men used it in their stories and the nickname stuck to the division when it was organized on august 1 1917 and concentrated at camp mills on long island in new york while the division was still salu at camp mills many different kinds of rainbow designs were used as divisional In insignia signie they were irregular in size but nearly oil all were a half circle with the three colors of red yellow and blue in them it was not until the division was engaged in a major action in the meuse argonne that the final official design deign was conceived and adopted col william N hughes jr who hod had succeeded col douglas macarthur as chief ot of staff of the division determined the measurements reduced the original design to a quarter circle and telegraphed the description with the approval of maj gen charles T then division F commander to corps headquarters it is one of the cherished traditions of the that general Me nober acting on an omen of a rainbow in the sky aa od 1 Z GEN CHARLES T he saw a rainbow on the battle THE RAINBOW became the insignia of the he division sent the division into action la in the champaine Champa ene gme operation from the time that hp ho told of seeing the rainbow in the sky from his bivouac in the Bae baccarat carat sector rainbows rainbow kept showing up at decisive hours in the divisions history as it if to justify its sel selection estion as the talisman before long veterans of our regular lar army as well as veteran french and british troops were joining to in proclaiming the rainbow division as one ot of the hardest fighting outfits in france here Is its record as given in a series ot of articles on divisional insignia written several years ago by sergt herbert E smith tor for the united states recruiting news first taste ot of war it trained under veteran french soldiers in lorraine Lorr dine and elements ot of the rainbow division entered the front line trenches tor for the first time february 21 isia this was along the Lu neville sector at a point north of celles sur plaine through neuviller Ancer ancerviller viller the eastern edge 77 Z 0 o s 1 I at W 0 F ip ta to him each year a greeting of the bois banal to the eastern and northern edges of the foret de parroy carroy elements of the artillery brigade entered the dom basle basic sector also on the night of the to receive their first taste of combat warfare affiliated ah with the french alst division from march 31 to june 21 the division occupied the baccarat sector in lorraine Lorr Lori alne raine moving from there to chatel sur moselle in the then came july with its heavy fighting in the champagne and champagne marne mame areas the highlight of the divisions activities at this time would seem to be the battle of la croix rouge farm this farm was a low widespread group of stone buildings connected by walls and ditches the germans had bad made an enormous machine gun nest of this natural stronghold and had defied several earlier determined efforts ot of allied troops to dislodge them from this key position the and the infantry regiments old alabama and iowa troops respectively struggled all day july 26 against this nest of horrors it was practically impossible to rush this enemy stronghold across the open endeavors to work around the edges were thrown back by flanking fire an accurate punishing shell fire from the german artillery ripped through the wet underbrush gas made doubly dangerous by the moisture swirled about in terrible gusts gust at last two platoons of assembled casuals volunteers all from the and led by two lieutenants squirmed their way tor for ward indian fashion and closed upon the farm buildings with grenades and bayonet the raid staged at dusk was successful the possessed la croix rouge farm arm at nightfall but at a fearful cost in dead and wounded less than a week later these same regiments with their sister outfits of the rainbow were pressing forward toward the river upon the fell the chief burden ol of the m main a in attack it was ordered to storm the heights on both sides of 0 sergy and in conjunction with the french on the left leatto to take hill northwest of fere en A deadly hall of fire the infantry crossed the ahe stream under a deadly hall of fire to climb by slow stages to the crest of hill between sergy and clerget cierges Cl Ci erges the meanwhile had made its way down the rue de lot la ta taverne v erne crossed the and sw swept ept on up the northern slope of the hilly country vew new yorks fighting irish of the emerged from villers and secured lodgment on the slopes on either side of mercury farm subjected to the same raking fire that had bad made this push so costly this fine regiment still carried on plunging forward to the sunken road north ard and west of sergy by the weary dough boys of the division divisi ph were battling in mortal hand to hand combat with the germans inthe streets of sergy the enemy troops were of the ath prussian auard guard grim and spirited fighters embittered by recent german setbacks veterans all and determined men twice the americans were rushed out of sergy but thrice the yanks returned return d ani the third time the americans the entire village again the men of the rainbow division had proved to be of heroic mould in the st drive launched in mid september the with the and 2nd and formed the spearhead of the attack which penetrated deepest into the enemy positions in the main attack the 2nd and division captured aucourt the took nonsard Non sard and the division drove through to pannes through the thick of the heaviest action of the meuse argonne operation the rainbow carried on it penetrated the line swooped up the lire fire swept slopes about romange domange and cote dame marle it seized cote de chatillon by skillful infiltration behind its krotec and in november on the extreme left flank of the american americ a n attack it began to fight through bulson The lonne and ba ze jeilles zel lles illes on the meuse to gain the cherished final objective sedan the taking of sedan for sentimental and historic reasons however we was left to the french ath I 1 corps on the left of the rainbow on the night of november 10 the tha 4 and 2nd division was relieved and assembled in the area of artamise le vivier and les petites armoises the full fail tide of 0 victory the thus shared in the full tide of victory on the morning of november 11 II 1918 the american second army was even then ing for a general assault in the direction of metz to in an offensive with the famous mangin and 20 french divisions the meuse had been crossed french troops in sedan in retaliation for the terrible french defeat there in 1870 the germans were on the run almost in utter rout naturally the rainbow was one of the crack divisions of the chosen to be a part of the american army of 0 occupation concentrating near stenay it began the long hike into the rhineland on november 20 on december 14 it took its station in germany la in the krels kreis of ahrweiler training continued there on the steep hill of the rhineland through the winter and spring of 1918 1918 1919 until april 5 when the division began entraining tor for brest on april 9 the first element to sail for the united states the trench mortar battery boarded a transport for an american port by may 12 demobilization had been completely effected at camps upton dix grant and dodge after the storm the rain rainbow bowl F 1 0 11 1 7 91 P GEN DOUGLAS macarthur he named it the rainbow division |