The 42nd Infantry Division (42ID) ("Rainbow") is a division of the United States Army National Guard. It was nicknamed the Rainbow Division because, during rapid mobilization for service the First World War, it was formed from 27 National Guard units from across the US. The division was engaged in four major operations between July 1918 and the armistice in November 1918, and demobilized in 1919. The division then served during World War II in Europe. After the September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001, it carried out multiple homeland security activities; deployments to the War in Afghanistan (2001-2021); as well as to the Iraq War (U.S. phase, 2003-2010).
The division is currently headquartered at the Glenmore Road Armory in Troy, New York. The division headquarters is a unit of the New York Army National Guard. The division currently includes Army National Guard units from fourteen different states, including Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. , 67 percent of 42ID soldiers are located in New York and New Jersey.
World War I
Rainbow Division
When the United States entered World War I by declaring war on Germany in April 1917, it federalized the National Guard and organized many of its units into divisions to quickly build up the Army. Douglas MacArthur, then a major, suggested to Major General William Abram Mann, the head of the Militia Bureau, that he form a division from the units of several states that had not been assigned to divisions. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker approved the proposal, and recalled MacArthur saying that such an organization would "stretch over the whole country like a rainbow."
On 1 August 1917, the War Department directed the formation of a composite National Guard division, comprising units from 26 states and the District of Columbia. As a result, the 42nd Division came to be known as the "Rainbow Division". The name stuck, and MacArthur was promoted to colonel and became the division's chief of staff, with Mann as its commander.
The 42nd Division was assembled in August 1917 at Camp Mills, New York, four months after the American entry into World War I. The 42nd arrived at the Western Front of Belgium and France in November 1917, one of the first divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) to do so, under the command of Mann, although he was soon to be replaced by Major General Charles T. Menoher, who remained in this position for the rest of the war. Colonel Douglas MacArthur was the division's chief of staff until assigned command of its 84th Brigade.
After initially landing at St. Nazaire, France, the 42nd was temporarily located at Vaucouleurs, Lorraine, from 7 November – 7 December 1917, to preliminarily train before transferring to another training area between Lafauche and Rimaucourt. The day after Christmas, the 42nd, along with other divisions it had now linked up with, departed for another training area near Rolampont, Langres. French officers had been attached to the 42nd at Lafauche, Rimaucourt, and Rolampont as instructors in trench warfare who "...seemed, from Menoher and MacArthur's view, to think more highly of the Rainbow's performance than did AEF commander General John Pershing and his Chaumont staff".
"On February 13, 1918, the day that the [3-day] inspection [by General Pershing's headquarter's staff from Chaumont was completed, Pershing ordered the 42nd division to move to the Lunéville sector of southern Lorraine for a month's training at the front with the French VII Corps". "Rainbow division entrained for the Lunéville sector on February 16, 1918, and it was joined by the 67th Field Artillery Brigade shortly thereafter. Rainbow's soldiers were distributed over the entire sixteen-mile front of the sector, from Lunéville past St. Clément to Baccarat. As far as administration, supply, and discipline were concerned, the division was part of Major general Hunter Liggett's I Corps, A.E.F., but for combat and training purposes it was under Major General Georges de Bazelaire, of the French 7th Army Corps, with each of the 42nd's regiments assigned to one of the French Divisions holding the sector. Each American battalion served one week at a time on the front line, then spent the next week on the second line of defense, and the third week in reserve Acute shortages of some types of equipment still existed, as evidenced, for example, by Menoher's order that troops of a battalion leaving the front line were to yield their pistols to the men of the relieving battalion".
On 16 June 1918, General Pershing ordered the 42nd to entrain to "the Champagne region east of Rheims (a sector comparatively more active than Baccarat) to be assigned to General Henri Gouraud's Fourth Army"; relinquishing the current Baccarat sector "to the relieving American 77th and French 61st divisions".
During 1918, Rainbow division, specifically with the 67th Field Artillery's "1650 projectiles" in the Bois des Chiens, engaged German forces with and experienced bombardment by German forces with deadly, poison-gas bombardments, specifically with German 75-mm. and 105-mm. shells filled with palite and yperite (also known as Mustard gas). The 42nd took part in four major operations during the last four months of World War I: the Champagne-Marne, the Aisne-Marne, the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. In total, it saw 164 days of combat, third behind only the 1st Infantry Division (220 days) and 26th Infantry Division (193 days).
Casualties: total 14,683 (KIA/DOW – 2,810; WIA – 11,873).Reilly, Henry J. Americans All - The Rainbow at War: Official History of the 42nd Rainbow Division in the World War. Page 880. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005393957 Commanders: Maj. Gen. W. A. Mann (5 September 1917), Maj. Gen. Charles T. Menoher (19 December 1917), Maj. Gen. Charles D. Rhodes, (7 November 1918), Brig. Gen. Douglas MacArthur (10 November 1918), Maj. Gen. C. A. F. Flagler (22 November 1918), Brig. Gen. George G. Gatley (28 March 1919), Maj. Gen. George Windle Read (10 April 1919 to Division's deactivation on 9 May 1919).
The 42nd Division was demobilized in May 1919 at Camp Upton, New York, Camp Grant, Illinois, Camp Dix, New Jersey, and Camp Dodge, Iowa.
Rainbow unit insignia
The 42nd Division adopted a shoulder patch and distinctive unit insignia acknowledging the nickname. Division lore includes the story that division commander Charles T. Menoher approved the patch after observing a rainbow shortly before a battle, deciding this was a favorable omen. The original version of the patch symbolized a half arc rainbow and contained thin bands in multiple colors. During the latter part of World War I and post war occupation duty in Germany, the patch was changed to a quarter arc. According to the division's official history, Colonel William N. Hughes Jr., who had succeeded MacArthur as chief of staff, was credited with modifying the design to a quarter arc in an attempt to standardize it. According to World War I veterans of the 42nd Division, soldiers removed half the original symbol to memorialize the half of the division's soldiers who had been killed or wounded during the war. They also reduced the number of colors to just red, gold and blue bordered in green, to standardize the design and make the patch easier to reproduce.
Description: The 4th quadrant of a rainbow with three bands of color: red, gold and blue, each 3/8-inch (.95 cm) in width, outer radius 2 inches (5.08 cm); all within a 1/8-inch (.32 cm) Army green border.
Background: The shoulder sleeve insignia was originally authorized by telegram on 29 October 1918. It was officially authorized for wear on 27 May 1922. It was reauthorized for wear when the division was reactivated for World War II. On 8 September 1947, it was authorized for the post-World War II 42nd Infantry Division when it was reactivated as a National Guard unit.
Order of battle
Headquarters, 42nd Division (future General of the Army, then Colonel Douglas MacArthur, served as the chief of staff of the 42nd Division) 83rd Infantry Brigade 165th Infantry Regiment (formerly 69th Infantry, New York National Guard) Notable members: Major William "Wild Bill" Donovan, Chaplain Francis P. Duffy, Sergeant Joyce Kilmer Significant events: Rouge Bouquet 166th Infantry Regiment (formerly 4th Infantry, Ohio National Guard) 150th Machine Gun Battalion (formerly Companies E, F, and G, 2nd Infantry, Wisconsin National Guard) 84th Infantry Brigade (this was the brigade that Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur commanded from July 1918 to November 1918) 167th Infantry Regiment (formerly 4th Infantry, Alabama National Guard) 168th Infantry Regiment (formerly 3rd Infantry, Iowa National Guard) 151st Machine Gun Battalion (formerly Companies B, C, and F, 2nd Infantry, Georgia National Guard) 67th Field Artillery Brigade 149th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (formerly 1st Field Artillery, Illinois National Guard) 150th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) (formerly 1st Field Artillery, Indiana National Guard) 151st Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (formerly 1st Field Artillery, Minnesota National Guard) 117th Trench Mortar Battery (formerly 3rd and 4th Companies, Coast Artillery, Maryland National Guard) 149th Machine Gun Battalion (formerly 3rd Battalion, 4th Infantry, Pennsylvania National Guard) 117th Engineer Regiment (formerly Separate Battalions, Engineers, California and South Carolina National Guards) 117th Field Signal Battalion (formerly 1st Battalion, Signal Corps, Missouri National Guard) Headquarters Troop, 42nd Division (formerly 1st Separate Troop, Cavalry, Louisiana National Guard) 117th Train Headquarters and Military Police (formerly 1st and 2nd Companies, Coast Artillery, Virginia National Guard) 117th Ammunition Train (formerly 1st Ammunition Train, Kansas National Guard) 117th Supply Train (formerly Supply Train, Texas National Guard) 117th Engineer Train (formerly Engineer Train, North Carolina National Guard) 117th Sanitary Train (165th–168th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals) 165th Ambulance Company (formerly 1st Ambulance Company, Michigan National Guard) 165th Field Hospital (formerly 1st Field Hospital, Washington, D.C. National Guard) 166th Ambulance Company (formerly 1st Ambulance Company, New Jersey National Guard) 166th Field Hospital (formerly 1st Field Hospital, Nebraska National Guard) 167th Ambulance Company (formerly 1st Ambulance Company, Tennessee National Guard) 167th Field Hospital (formerly 1st Field Hospital, Oregon National Guard) 168th Ambulance Company (formerly 1st Ambulance Company, Oklahoma National Guard) 168th Field Hospital (formerly 1st Field Hospital, Colorado National Guard
Interwar period As the 42nd was a composite division, it was not contemplated for reorganization after World War I, and all of its former elements were assigned to other National Guard divisions or remained demobilized.
World War II Activated: 14 July 1943 Overseas: November 1944. Campaigns: Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, Central Europe. Days of combat: 106. Prisoners of war taken: 59,128. Presidential Unit Citation: 2. Awards: MH-1; DSC-14 (1 cluster); DSM-1; SS-622; LM-9; SM-32; BSM-5,325; AM-104. Commanders: Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins commanded the 42ID during its entire period of federal service in World War II. Deactivated: 29 June 1946 in Europe.
Order of battle Headquarters, 42nd Infantry Division 222nd Infantry Regiment 232nd Infantry Regiment 242nd Infantry Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 42nd Infantry Division Artillery 232nd Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 392nd Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 402nd Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 542nd Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm) 142nd Engineer Combat Battalion 122nd Medical Battalion 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized)