Show historic rainbow division Is born anew by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union HE other day veterans of T THE 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 called because it was the hour when the last great german push of world war 1 I the champagne offensive began that offensive which started on july 14 1918 broke to pieces against the stubborn resistance of those fighting yanks of the rainbow division and from that day the might of the kaisers keisers kai sers armies ebbed until it reached low tide in 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 to 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 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 for news coming out of the war department in washington visited by newspaper men ons one day he told them of the forthcoming organization 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 at camp mills many different kinds of rainbow designs were used as divisional insignia they were irregular in size but nearly 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 was conceived and adopted 3 col william N hughes jr who had succeeded col douglas macarthur as chief 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 member then division commander to corps headquarters it is one of the cherished traditions of the that general acting on an omen of a rainbow in the sk sky at sent the division into action in the champagne operation from V z wv x A m a X U 41 P GEN t T N EN 0 HER he saw a rainbow on the e eve d of battle THE RAINBOW became the insignia of the division the time that he told of seeing the rainbow in the sky from his bivouac in the baccarat sector rainbows kept showing up at decisive hours in the divisions history as it if to justify its selection as the talisman before long veterans of our regular army as well as veteran french and british troops were joining in proclaiming the rainbow division as one of the hardest fighting outfits in france here is its record as given in a series of articles on divisional insignia written several Y years ears agg by sergt herbert E smith for the united states recruiting news first taste of war it trained under veteran french soldiers in lorraine and elements of the rainbow division entered the front line trenches for the first time february 21 1918 this was along the Lu neville sector at a point north of 0 f celles celle s sur plaine through neuviller ancerviller Ancer viller the eastern edge I 1 1 I 7 1 V 4 A 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 sector also on the night of the to receive their first taste of combat warfare affiliated with the tha french division from march 31 to june 21 the division occupied the baccarat sector in lorraine moving from there to chatel sur moselle in the then came july with its heavy fighting in the champagne and champagne marne 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 made an enormous machine gun nest of this natural stronghold and had defied several earlier determined efforts 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 p punishing unish shell fire from the german artillery ripped through the wet underbrush gas made doubly dangerous by the moisture swirled about in terrible gusts at last two platoons of assembled casuals volunteers all from the ath and led by two lieutenants squirmed their way forward indian fashion and closed upon the farm buildings with grenades and bayonet the raid staged a at t dusk was successful the 42 nd possessed la croix rouge farm at nightfall but at a fearful cost in dead and wounded less than a week later these s same regiments with their sister outfits ot of the rainbow were pressing forward I 1 toward the river upon the fell the chief burden of the main attack it was ordered to storm the heights on both sides of sergy and in conjunction with the french on the left to take hill northwest of fere en lardenois A deadly hail of fire the infantry crossed the stream under a deadly hail of fire to climb by slow stages to the crest of hill between sergy and Ci cierkes cierges erges the meanwhile had made its way down the rue de la taverne crossed the and swept on up the northern slope of the hilly country new yorks fighting irish of the infantry emerged from villers and secured a precarious lodgment on the slopes on either side of mercury farm subjected to the same raking fire that had made this push so costly this fine regiment still carried on plunging forward to the sunken road north and west of sergy by the weary dough boys of the division were battling in mortal hand to hand combat with the germans in the streets of sergy the enemy troops were of the ath prussian guard grim and spirited fighters embittered by recent german setbacks veterans all and determined men twice the americans were gushed out of sergy but thrice the yanks returned and the third time the americans captured the entire village again the men of the rainbow division had proved to be of heroic mould in the st mihiel 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 di division s n captured thiaucourt Thi aucourt the took nonsard Non sard and the division drove through to panties pannes through the thick of the heaviest action of the meuse argonne operation the rainbow carried on it penetrated the line swooped up the fire swept slopes about romange domange and cote dame marie it seized cote de chatillon by skillful infiltration behind its protective wire and early in november on the extreme left flank of the american attack it began to fight through bulson The lonne and ba ze illes on the meuse to gain the cherished final objective sedan the taking of sedan for sentimental and historic reasons however was left to the french ath corps on the left of the rainbow on the night of november 10 the division was relieved and assembled in the area of artmise le vivier and les petites armoises the full tide of victory the thus shared in the full tide of victory on the morning of november 11 1918 the american second army was even then preparing for a general assault in the direction of metz in an offensive with the famous margin 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 ware on the run almost in utter rut rout naturally the rainbow was one of the crack divisions of the chosen to be a part of the american army of occupation concentrating near stenay it began the long hike into the rhineland on november 20 on december 14 it took its station in germany in the kreis of ahrweiler training continued there on the steep hill of the rhineland through the winter and spring of 1918 1919 until april 5 when the division began entraining for brest on april 9 the first element to sail for the united states the trench mortar ta 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 rainbow s T I 1 gart 0 5 0 o Y I 1 I 1 4 4 GEN DOUGLAS macarthur he named I 1 it t the rainbow division I 1 1 |