32nd Infantry Division (United States)
1917-1967 United States Army formation
The United States 32nd Infantry Division was formed from Army National Guard units from Wisconsin and Michigan and fought primarily during World War I and World War II. With roots as the Iron Brigade in the American Civil War, the division's ancestral units came to be referred to as the Iron Jaw Division. During tough combat in France in World War I, it soon acquired from the French the nickname Les Terribles, referring to its fortitude in advancing over terrain others could not. Due to their actions in piercing the Hindenburg Line of defence in October 1918, the 32nd then adopted its shoulder patch; a line shot through with a red arrow, to signify its tenacity in piercing the enemy line. It then became known as the Red Arrow Division.
During World War II, the division was credited with many "firsts". It was the first United States division to deploy as an entire unit overseas and among the first of seven U.S. Army and U.S. Marine units to engage in offensive ground combat operations during 1942. The division was among the first divisions to engage the enemy and were still fighting holdouts after the official Japanese surrender. The 32nd logged a total of 654 days of combat during World War II, more than any other United States Army division. The unit was inactivated in 1946 after occupation duty in Japan.
During 1961, the division was called up for a one-year tour of service in the state of Washington during the Berlin Crisis.
The public source identifies “32nd Infantry Division (United States)” as 1917-1967 United States Army formation. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around 32nd, Infantry and Division.
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This entry incorporates text from “32nd Infantry Division (United States)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.