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The U.S. Army in Action
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The Rock of the Marne
DA Poster 21-42

Near Mézy, France, July 1918. Here the German Army made its last great attack of World War I. It struck in the Marne River area along the road to Paris, and the weight of the blow fell on the 30th and 38th U.S. Infantry Regiments of the 3d Division. This was their first fight. Firing in three directions, blasted by artillery fire, taking all flesh and blood could stand, the regiments held on doggedly and threw the enemy back across the Marne. This defense checked the Germans' assault and made an Allied offensive possible. General Pershing called it "one of the most brilliant pages of our military annals."

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The Remagen Bridgehead - 7 March 1945.
DA Poster 21-32

Here, on the Ludendorf Bridge crossing the Rhine at Remagen, Combat Command B, 9th Armored Division -- headed by the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion -- with "superb skill, daring and esprit de corps" successfully effected the first bridgehead across Germany's formidable river barrier and so contributed decisively to the defeat of the enemy. The 27th Battalion reached Remagen, found the bridge intact but mined for demolition. Although its destruction was imminent, without hesitation and in face of heavy fire the infantrymen rushed across the structure, and with energy and skill seized the surrounding high ground. The entire episode illustrates that high degree of initiative, leadership and gallantry toward which all armies strive but too rarely attain, and won for the Combat Command the Distinguished Unit Citation.

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Follow Me!
DA Poster 21-43

Leyte, Philippine Islands, 20 October 1944. The American Army returned to the Philippines over the beaches of Leyte Island. Red Beach was defended by the Japanese occupying a number of large, well-camouflaged pillboxes. Immediately after their landing, the leading elements of the 3d Battalion, 34th Infantry - one of the units of the U.S. Army's 24th Division - were pinned down by heavy machine gun and rifle fire. The Regimental Commander, Colonel Aubrey S. Newman, arrived on the beach and, taking in the situation at a glance, shouted to his men: "Get up and get moving! Follow me!" News of the success of the American Forces in establishing a beachhead on Leyte - the first foothold in the Philippine Islands - was joyfully received by the American nation. The President radioed congratulations to General MacArthur and added, "You have the nation's gratitude and the nation's prayers for success as you and your men fight your way back ......"

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Go For Broke
DA Poster 21-91

France, October 1944. The rain and chill which precedes winter in the Vosges mountains had started. The 442d Regimental Combat Team was weary and battle-scarred after fighting in Italy. Most of its members were Americans of Japanese ancestry. Men with names like Sumida, Miyamoto, Takemoto and Tanaka would write a bright page in the history of the U.S. Army.

On 27 October, the 442d was called on to rescue a surrounded U.S. battalion. They attacked the heavily fortified defenses of a superior German force. Fighting was desperate, often hand-to-hand. By 30 October, nearly half the regiment had become casualties.

Then, something happened in the 442d. By ones and twos, almost spontaneously and without orders, the men got to their feet and, with a kind of universal anger, moved toward the enemy positions. Bitter hand-to-hand combat ensued as the Americans fought from one fortified position to the next. Finally, the enemy broke in disorder.

"Go For Broke" was more than a motto for the 442d Regimental Combat Team. At a special ceremony to honor the 442d, seeing only a few hundred men, the Divison Commander asked why the whole regiment was not present. Colonel Charles W. Pence is said to have replied. "Sir ... this is the entire regiment."

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Cuidado - Take Care, Bushmasters!
DA Poster 21-41

WWII, Bicol Campaign, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 3-4 April 1945. Cries of "Banzai" rang through the jungles - the staccato of enemy machine guns, mortars and rifles broke through the jungle silence. The bayonet charges were suicidal, but the 158th Regimental Combat Team, the "Bushmasters", repulsed the enemy and advanced. It fought day after day, in critical battles, to open the Visayan passages for allied shipping in the Pacific. The merciless campaign lasted 2 months in terrain laced with tank traps, wire, mines and bamboo thickets.

This proud Arizona National Guard unit, organized as the Arizona Volunteer Infantry for the Indian campaigns in 1865, had its motto, "Cuidado" -- Take Care. Mustering in the great southwest desert, the unit was mainly "Mexican-American" and North American Indian from twenty tribes. Expanded in Panama, it was one of World War II's few organizations to complete the trail from "down under" to Japan.

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Breakthrough at Chipyong-ni
DA Poster 21-47

In February of 1951, the 23d Infantry Combat Team of the 2d Infantry Division, with attached French and Dutch units, while moving forward to attack in advance of the Eighth Army, was cut off and surrounded by overwhelming forces of Chinese Reds in the narrow Korean valley of Chipyong-ni. The Reds occupied the commanding ridges, while the American commander, Colonel Paul Freeman, isolated far in advance of the general battle line, used a ring of lower hills within the valley itself for his defensive perimeter. For more than three days in near freezing weather the defenders held these positions. The action pictured is on the fourth day when an American armored unit broke through from the south. At this time the valiant 23d Infantry Combat Team smashed out of the perimeter at the lower end of the valley to break the encirclement, and with its units and most of its equipment intact, rejoined the Eighth Army.

General Matthew B. Ridgway in his official report to a Joint Session of Congress said of this action: "These American fighting men with their French comrades in arms measured up in every way to the battle conduct of the finest troops America or France has produced throughout their national existence."

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