First Infantry Division, World War II: The Big Red One. Second Volume. - Review - book review

First Infantry Division, World War II: The Big Red One. Second Volume. By Major General (Retired) Albert H. Smith, Jr., Senior Editor. Turner Publishing Company (P.O. Box 3101, Paducah, KY 42002-3101), 2000. Limited Edition. 139 Pages. Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Albert N. Garland, U.S. Army, Retired.

This book is filled with maps, photographs, Medal of Honor and unit citations, "war stories," and individual biographical sketches. It has been designed and produced with one major objective: to present, in General Smith's words, "a good basic historical reference for today's Division soldiers--as well as WWII veterans and their families." And while he says the book "is not a comprehensive historical work produced by professional historians," it can be of value to any historian who works with World War II material.

The book is dedicated to the memory of the late Command Sergeant Major Ted Dobol, who served with the 26th Infantry Regiment from 1940 to 1966, and the other "great NCOs who led the 1st Division into battle."

It leads off with a reprint of The First, which is a brief history of the division. Originally published in 1945 in Europe and then republished, with addenda, in 1996 by the Division's museum here in the United States. Infantry magazine published a review of that book in its March-June 1997 issue.

This is followed by a section that honors the 16 division soldiers who were awarded the Medal of Honor during the war; 20 presidential unit citations earned by various division units; a description of the seven foreign decorations earned by the division during World War II; a statistical listing that shows casualties, campaigns (the division spent 443 days in combat during the war), decorations, and senior division officers; the "war stories" and individual biographical sketches; and a final section that is the story of the division's World War II monuments in France, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia.

Finally, on the book's last page, General Smith tells the story of the "Angel of the Big Red One," an angelic figure that is atop the 1st Division's memorial behind the Old Executive Office Building at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, in Washington, DC.

All Big Red One soldiers, past and present, can be proud of this book and the division's outstanding history of service to our country.

COPYRIGHT 2000 U.S. Army Infantry School
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group