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1st Army


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NAME:

First Army / 1st Army / First United States Army

 

NICKNAME:

None.

 

BATTLE HONORS:

 

World War I

St. Mihiel

Meuse-Argonne

Lorraine

 

World War II

Normandy (with arrowhead)

Northern France

Rhineland

Ardennes-Alsace

Central Europe

 

ACTIVATED:

Aug 10, 1918

Oct 1, 1933

 

DEACTIVATED:

April 20, 1919

 

LINEAGE:

The United States First Army was Organized on August 10, 1918 in the Regular Army in France as Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, First Army.

 

Headquarters Troop was reorganized and redesignated in September 1918 as Troop A, Headquarters Battalion, First Army. It saw action in the American Expeditionary Force in the latter stages of World War I and included many figures who were later to become very famous, such as Douglas MacArthur.

 

Troop A, Headquarters Battalion, First Army was redesignated on March 1, 1919, as Headquarters Troop, First Army, and Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, First Army, demobilized on April 20, 1919 in France.

 

First Army was Constituted August 15, 1927 in the Regular Army as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Seventh Army, but was Redesignated October 13, 1927 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, First Army.

 

Headquarters, First Army activated October 1, 1933 at Governors Island, New York. It had the mission of training Army formations at the time, as did all the other field armies.

 

Headquarters Company activated November 18, 1940 at Governor's Island, New York.

 

A separate First Army was Reconstituted on June 27, 1944 in the Regular Army as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, First Army; concurrently consolidated with the original Headquarters and Headquarters Company, First Army. The consolidated unit designated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, First Army.

 

First Army was Redesignated January 1, 1957 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, First United States Army.

 

In 1966, the U.S. First and Second Armies merged and First Army headquarters moved to Fort Meade, Maryland.

 

Headquarters Company inactivated June 5, 1970 at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, while Headquarters, First U.S. Army continued to function.

 

In 1973 the First Army again changed its orientation to improving the readiness of the Reserve Components.

 

In 1995, First Army headquarters was moved to Fort Gillem, Georgia (the former Atlanta Army Depot).

 

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._First_Army

 

 

HISTORY:

The 1st Army today is a U.S. Army Training, Readiness, and Mobilization Command formation.

 

World War I

 

The Army was first activated in August 1918. It saw action in the American Expeditionary Force in the latter stages of World War I and included many figures who were later to become very famous, such as Douglas MacArthur. First Army was deactivated after WWI in 1919.

 

 

Pre-World War II

 

In 1933, First Army was reactivated. It had the mission of training Army formations at the time, as did all the other field armies.

 

 

World War II

 

After the US entered World War II, the army moved overseas, to the United Kingdom, in order to prepare for D-Day, the invasion of Normandy.

 

Upon going ashore on D-Day, First Army came under 21st Army Group and commanded all American ground forces. Three American divisions were landed by sea at the Western end of the beaches, and two more were landed by air. On Utah Beach the assault troops had a relatively easy time, but Omaha Beach came nearest of all of the five landing areas to disaster. The two American airborne divisions that landed were scattered all over the landscape, and caused considerable confusion amongst the German soldiers, as well as largely securing their objectives, albeit it with units completely mixed up with each other. First Army captured much of the early gains of the Allied forces in Normandy. Once the beachheads were joined up, its troops struck west and isolated the Cotentin Peninsula, and then captured Cherbourg. When the American Mulberry harbour was wrecked by a storm, Cherbourg became much more vital than it had been thought it would be.

 

After the capture of Cherbourg, First Army struck south. In Operation Cobra, its forces finally managed to break through the German lines. The newly arrived Third Army was then fed through the gap and raced across France. The Army then passed from the control of 21st Army Group to the newly arrived 12th Army Group. First Army followed Third Army and helped to surround the Falaise pocket. After capturing Paris, First Army headed towards the south of the Netherlands.

 

When the Germans attacked during the Battle of the Bulge, First Army found itself on the north side of the salient, and thus isolated from 12th Army Group, its commanding authority. It was thus transferred back to 21st Army Group. The salient was reduced by early February 1945. Following the Battle of the Bulge, the Rhineland Campaign began, and First Army was transferred back to 12th Army Group. In Operation Lumberjack, First Army closed up to the lower Rhine by 5 March, and the higher parts of the river five days later.

 

On 7 March, in one of the great strokes of luck of war, First Army found an intact bridge across the Rhine at Remagen. It crossed the river in force quickly. By 4 April, an enormous pocket had been created by First Army and Ninth Army, which contained the German Army Group B under Field Marshal Model, the last significant combat force in the north west of Germany. Whilst some elements of First Army concentrated upon reducing the Ruhr pocket, others headed further east, creating another pocket containing the German Eleventh Army. First Army reached the Elbe by 18 April. There the advance halted, as that was the agreed demarcation zone between the American and Soviet forces. First Army and Soviet forces met on 25 April. First Army was slated to deploy to the far east to take part in Operation Coronet, the second phase of the invasion of Japan, but the Japanese surrender in August caused those plans to be cancelled.

 

Post-World War II to Present

 

After the war, First Army returned to the United States relatively quickly. Since then, during its active periods, it has controlled training formations in the United States itself. Immediately after the war, First Army had its headquarters at Governor's Island, New York. Twenty years later, in 1966, First Army and Second Army were merged and at the same time First Army moved its headquarters to Fort Meade in Maryland. The emphasis of First Army changed in 1973 from dealing with active units to reserve unit training and preparation. It remained at Fort Meade until 1995 when it moved to Fort Gillem in Georgia.

 

Current composition:

78th "Lightning" Division, Edison, NJ (Training Support)(USAR)

1st Brigade (Training Support)

2d Brigade (Training Support)

3d Brigade (Training Support)

4th Brigade (Training Support)

5th Brigade "We Dare" (Training Support)

 

85th "Custer" Division, Arlington Heights, IL (Training Support)(USAR)

1st Brigade (Training Support)

2d Brigade (Training Support)

3d Brigade (Training Support)

4th Brigade (Training Support)

 

87th Division "Golden Acorn", Birmingham, AL (Training Support)(USAR)

1st Brigade (Training Support)

2d Brigade (Training Support)

3d Brigade (Training Support)

4th Brigade (Training Support)

5th Brigade (Training Support)

 

Army Units

4th Cavalry Brigade (Training Support)

157th Infantry Brigade (Training Support)

188th Infantry Brigade (Training Support)

205th Infantry Brigade (Separate) (Light)

 

 

Divisional history from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._First_Army

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1st Army, with the Signal Dot. Notice the ribbed embriodery pattern. This is Pre-WWII or WWII. I forgot. :blink: ... ermm.gif ...

Andrew

post-889-1207951876.jpg

post-889-1207951913.jpg

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Odd Example of a 1st Army Artillery Greenback SSI.

 

post-4247-1233092164.jpg

post-4247-1233092173.jpg

 

It seems colored in with a pen but the label on the back was selling it as a 1st Army Artillery piece.

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My girlfriends grandfather said he was pretty sure he was attached with the 1st Army heading into Belgium. He was in the 106th Division, captured on the 19th of December 1944. He had the patch in an old box of his, I think it was circular, and blue and red, and a possible white ring around the edge. I'll ask to see it again, sounds like he may have been with another Army group than he thought.

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My girlfriends grandfather said he was pretty sure he was attached with the 1st Army heading into Belgium. He was in the 106th Division, captured on the 19th of December 1944. He had the patch in an old box of his, I think it was circular, and blue and red, and a possible white ring around the edge. I'll ask to see it again, sounds like he may have been with another Army group than he thought.

 

 

Check 3rd Army.. That'd be a blue disc with a white A and a red ring around it.. That's what it sounds like to me.

 

Fins.

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Not Third, I'm familiar with those guys. I think it might an I corps patch, only blue and red. I could see how he would get 1st and I confused, especially if he only read it off of his paperwork.

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