The American Traveler SPECIAL-EDITION PUBLISHED DAILY BY 1st U. S. INFANTRY-DIVISION June 6, 1945. Salute to the Armies The American First Army lives up to its name. It is probably the most powerful American army. It was the first to land in France, the first to take Paris, the first to enter Germany. Its divisions were handpicked be General Bradley, who turned it over in top form to Lieut. General Courtney Hodges. Hodges is a conservative infantryman and the hard core of his army is infantry. He is cautions; the First never moves until sure of itself. Yet Hodges has the good military technician;'s ability to move fast when opportunity knocks. Bradley and Hodges put their army together in England during the winter of 1943-44. Their prize unit was the historic 1st Divison, whose officers and men are still entitled to wear a Fourragere around their left shoulder in token of the Croix de Guerre which the French gave the division for heroic service in the last war. When the 1st Division got to England to join Bradley, it was already blooded by bitter fights at Gafsa and El Guetter in North Africa and by the campaign in Sicily. On D-day the 1st Division, along with other units of the First Army, took a terrible beating on Omaha Beach, on one side of the Vire River estuary. The First Army, said General Montgomery, "hung on by their eyelids."
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