United States Army 5th Infantry Division (Red Diamond)

U. S. ARMY 5TH INFANTRY DIVISION (RED DIAMOND) -  The 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)—nicknamed the "Red Diamond",  the "Red Devils", or "die Roten Teufel"—was an infantry division of the United States Army that served in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War, and with NATO and the U.S. Army III Corps.  During the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in World War I, the Germans referred to the division as "Die roten Teufel" (German, "The Red Devils"). It was disbanded and deactivated on November 24, 1992.

The 5th Division was activated on December 11, 1917, just over eight months after the American entry into World War I, at Camp Logan, near Houston, Texas and began training for deployment to the Western Front.  The entire division had arrived in France by May 1, 1918 and components of the units were deployed into the front line.  The 5th Division was the eighth of forty-two American divisions to arrive on the Western Front.  The 5th Division trained with French Army units from June 1-14, 1918.   The first soldiers of the unit to be killed in action died on June 14th of that year.  On September 12th, the unit was part of a major attack that reduced the salient at St. Mihiel.   The division later fought in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest battle fought by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) (and the largest in the history of the U.S. Army) in World War I.  The war ended soon after, on November 11th, 

The 5th Division was provisionally activated in August 1936 at Fort Knox, Kentucky for the Second Army's Maneuvers using the 10th Infantry Brigade and the West Virginia Army National Guard's 201st Infantry Regiment.  During April 1942, the 5th Division received its overseas orders and departed the New York Port of Embarkation (NYPOE) at the end of the month for Iceland.  The 5th Division debarked there in May 1942, where it replaced the British garrison on the island outpost along the Atlantic convoy routes, and a year later was reorganized and re-designated as the 5th Infantry Division on May 24, 1943.

After two years of training the 5th ID landed in Normandy on Utah Beach, July 9, 1944, over a month after the initial D-Day landings,  The 5th ID crossed the Rhine River on the night of  March 22, 1945.  After capturing some 19,000 German soldiers, the division continued to Frankfurt-am-Main, clearing and policing the town and its environs.   In April the 5th ID, now commanded by Major General Albert E. Brown, took part in clearing the Ruhr Pocket and then drove across the Czechoslovak border, May 1st, reaching Volary and Vimperk as the war in Europe ended.

WWII Casualties

• Total battle casualties: 12,818
• Killed in action: 2,298
• Wounded in action: 9,549
• Missing in action: 288
• Prisoner of war: 683

When the 1st Infantry Division deployed to Vietnam in 1965, additional maneuver battalions were required; thus two infantry battalions from the 2nd Brigade, 5th Infantry Division, at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, were relieved and assigned to "The Big Red One."  The division was inactivated for the final time on November 24, 1992, and reflagged as the U.S. 2nd Armored Division as part of the post-Cold War draw down of US forces.  The 2nd Armored Division moved from Fort Polk to Fort Hood, Texas in 1993, with the majority of the 5th Division's equipment.