Finalist, 2016 Army Historical Society Distinguished Writing Award.
The 4th Infantry Division has always been there in America's modern
wars. On 14 September 1918 the men of the "Ivy" Division stood up in
their trenches and prepared to attack. It would be one of the first
times that American troops would operate autonomously, aside from
Anglo-Franco command. They would go over the top on uneven ground to be
blown to pieces by German artillery and fall in their hundreds to the
spitting of German machine guns, yet nevertheless win the day.
In World War II on D-Day they scrambled ashore across the sands of Utah
beach and remained fighting in Europe until Hitler was dead and Germany
had surrendered. From the Normandy campaign to the hell of the Hürtgen
Forest and the Battle of the Bulge, no other American division suffered
more casualties in the European theater than the 4th, and no other
division accomplished as much.
In Vietnam they would execute precarious "search and destroy" missions
in dense jungles against a determined and resourceful enemy. They
experienced a series of major engagements that would entail 33
consecutive days of vicious, close-quarters combat in the battle of Dak
To in 1967. For their actions in Indochina they would receive no less
than 11 Medals of Honor.
They fought in Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, and in May 2009, at the
height of Operation Enduring Freedom, the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat
Team deployed to Afghanistan for a 12-month combat mission. They
operated in the birthplace of the Taliban along the Arghandab River
Valley, west of Kandahar City, a place often ominously referred to as
"The Heart of Darkness." The 2nd Battalion 12th Infantry Regiment saw
heavy combat throughout.
Through firsthand interviews with veterans, across the decades, and the
expert analysis of the authors, the role of one of America's mainstay
divisions in its modern conflicts is in these pages illuminated.
