Hier komt diverse informatie betreffende de 4th Infantry Division.
World War II:
The 4th Division was reactivated on 1 June 1940 at Fort Benning, Georgia, under the command of MG Walter E. Prosser. Commencing in August the formation was reorganized as a motorized division and assigned (along with 2d Armored Division) to the I Armored Corps, being officially given its motorized title in parenthesized style and then formally as the 4th Motorized Division effective 11 July 1941. The division participated in Louisiana maneuvers held during August 1941 and then in the Carolina Maneuvers of October 1941, after which it returned to Fort Benning. The division transferred to Fort Gordon, Georgia, in December 1941 and rehearsed training at the Carolina Maneuvers during the summer of 1942. The division then moved on 12 April 1943 to Fort Dix, New Jersey, where it was again reconfigured and redesignated the 4th Infantry Division on 4 August of that year. The division participated in battlefield maneuvers in Florida starting in September and after this fall training exercise arrived at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on 1 December 1943. At this station the division was alerted for overseas movement and staged at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, beginning 4 January 1944 prior to departing the New York Port of Embarkation on 18 January 1944. The 4th Infantry Division sailed to England where it arrived 26 January 1944.
France:
The 4th Infantry Division assaulted the northern coast of German-held France during the Normandy Invasion, landing at Utah Beach. The 8th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division claimed being the first surface-borne Allied unit (as opposed to the parachutist formations that were air-dropped earlier) to hit the beaches at Normandy on D-day, 6 June 1944. Relieving the isolated 82d Airborne Division at Sainte-Mère-Église, the 4th cleared the Cotentin peninsula and took part in the capture of Cherbourg on 25 June. After taking part in the fighting near Periers, 6–12 July, the division broke through the left flank of the German Seventh Army, helped stem the German drive toward Avranches, and by the end of August had moved to Paris, and gave French forces the first place in the liberation of their capital. During the liberation of Paris in World War II, Ernest Hemingway took on a self-appointed role as a civilian scout in the city of Paris for his friends in the 4 ID. He was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment when it moved from Paris, northeast through Belgium, and into Germany.
Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany:
The 4th then moved into Belgium through Houffalize to attack the Siegfried Line at Schnee Eifel on 14 September, and made several penetrations. Slow progress into Germany continued in October, and by 6 November the division entered the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, where it was engaged in heavy fighting until early December. It then shifted to Luxembourg, only to meet the German winter Ardennes Offensive head-on (in the Battle of the Bulge) starting on 16 December 1944. Although its lines were dented, it managed to hold the Germans at Dickweiler and Osweiler, and, counterattacking in January across the Sauer, overran German positions in Fouhren and Vianden. Halted at the Prüm River in February by heavy enemy resistance, the division finally crossed on 28 February near Olzheim, and raced on across the Kyll on 7 March. After a short rest, the 4th moved across the Rhine on 29 March at Worms, attacked and secured Würzburg and by 3 April had established a bridgehead across the Main at Ochsenfurt. Speeding southeast across Bavaria, the division had reached Miesbach on the Isar on 2 May 1945, when it was relieved and placed on occupation duty. Writer J.D. Salinger served with the division 1942–1945.
World War II casualties:
4,097 killed in action
17,371 wounded in action
757 died of wounds
Units:
Troops of the 4th Infantry move off the Utah Beachhead on D-Day
8th Infantry Regiment
12th Infantry Regiment
22nd Infantry Regiment
20th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm)
29th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
42nd Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
44th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
4th Reconnaissance Troop
4th Engineer Battalion
4th Medical Battalion
4th Quartermaster Battalion
4th Signal Company
704th Ordnance Company (LM)
July 1945 – May 1956
The division returned to the United States in July 1945 and was stationed at Camp Butner North Carolina, preparing for deployment to the Pacific. After the war ended it was inactivated on 5 March 1946. It was reactivated as a training division at Fort Ord, California on 15 July 1947.
