7th Division, Victors Of Attu, Kwajalein,
Reviewed By Nimitz
High-ranking Army and Navy officers paid tribute to a striking force which has made
a proud reputation in amphibious operations from the Aleutians to the Marshalls,
as the seventh Army Division passed in a review at Schofield Barracks yesterday--the
first anniversary of its landing on Attu.
General and admirals were a dime a dozen on the parade ground. But the eyes of spectators
kept straying to the young men in the wine-red hospital robes, some still wearing
bandages, many of them on crutches, and several carried to the edge of the field
on stretchers.
Three hundred of them, the wounded from the Seventh's latest battle at Kwajalein,
were guest for the review-- a reminder that the division has suffered 3,700 casualties
since that Attu landing, 700 of them killed in combat.
It was the first public review in the Central Pacific of an entire division which
has seen action. And to the men of the Seventh--who in a year had made the transition
from Attu's icy mountains to Hawaii's coral strand (and Schofield's red dust)--there
must have been incredible contrast between the mud and cold of a year ago and yesterday's
spit-and-polish smartness.
Behind the reviewing staff flew the three star flag of Lt. Gen Robert C. Richardson,
Jr., and the colorful regimental banners and battalion guidons, together with the
Stars and Stripes, brought applause and salutes from the 2,000 spectators.
Every Unit on Field
While the division band played, every unit of the
Seventh--wearing field leggings and helmets and carrying small arms -- wheeled around
the long parade ground and seemed to march away endlessly into the Hawaiian mountains.
(Continued on page 11, Col. 6)
First unit goes by. Photo by George A. Smith. Larger Pic. |
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Units forming in background. Before the review
begins. Photo by George A. Smith. Larger Pic. |
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Nimitz Reviews Seventh Division At
Schofield Barracks
Some of the shiniest "brass" in the Central Pacific Area was on hand to
celebrate the Attu anniversary. Included in the reviewing staff were the reviewing
officer Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific fleet; Lt. Gen.
Robert C. Richardson, Jr., commanding Army forces in the Central Pacific area; Brig.
Gen. Archibald V. Arnold, Seventh Division commander; Admiral Raymond A. Spruance,
commander of the 5th Fleet; Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, USMC, CPA amphibious commander;
Vice Admiral Richard Kelly Turner, Pacific Fleet amphibious commander; Vice Admiral
Robert Lee Ghormley, Jr., commander 14th Naval District and Hawaiian Sea Frontier,
and Vice Admiral W. L. Calhoun, commander service forces Pacific Fleet.
General Richardson paid eloquent tribute to the Seventh, and to divisions like it,
when he said, "Despite all the modern weapons of war, we still have to depend
on the infantry for victory. There is something very ennobling in seeing infantry
en masse. There is something about the humility of infantry the exalts the heart."
Nimitz Speaks
Admiral Nimitz declared, "I wish ever American could have had the opportunity
of seeing the Seventh Army Division this morning. I consider it a great honor and
a high privilege to have been invited to participate in this review.
The whir of movie cameras and the flare of flashbulbs punctuated the parade, while
war correspondents-most of whom had see the seventh in action in the Aleutians or
the Marshall--were scattered thickly among the spectators. On hand too were Army
nurses, Wards, Red Cross workers and some civilians.
Several of the battalions which marched in yesterday's review hold Presidential unit
citations for distinguished service in the present war. Some have traditions of outstanding
records dating back through other wars.
Particularly bound up with Hawaii is one regiment, formed at Schofield in 1916, which
was presented its regimental flag by the late Queen Liliuokalani and was long known
as the Queen's Own Regiment.
A descendant of the late Queen, Miss Kekaulike Kawananakoa, was a guest yesterday
in the absence of her grandmother, Princess David Kawanakoa, who is ill.
It was in April, 1943, that the Seventh Division sailed from San Francisco, making
the Attu attack on May11. Organized resistance on the island ended May 30. It was
the Seventh too which sailed against Kiska, only to find the Japs had withdrawn a
few days earlier.
Since transferring its base to Central pacific the division has had further training
and experience as an amphibious force. In addition to the Kswajalein action, small
units from the division participated in the battle of Eniwetok.
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