5th Infantry Division | |
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5th Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia
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Active | 1917–21 1939–46 1947–92 |
Country | United States |
Branch | United States Army |
Type | Infantry |
Size | Division |
Nickname(s) | "Red Diamond", "Red Devils" |
Motto(s) | We Will |
Engagements |
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Commanders | |
Notable commanders |
Bernard W. Rogers |
Insignia | |
Distinctive unit insignia |
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. It was disbanded and deactivated on 24 November 1992.
Units associated with the division included:
The 5th Division was activated on 11 December 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 1 May 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 1 to 14 June 1918. The first soldiers of the unit to be killed in action died on 14 June of that year. Among the division's first casualties was Captain Mark W. Clark, then commanding the 3rd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, who would later become a four-star general. On 12 September, 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 11, 1918.