The 6th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army active in World War I, World War II, and the last years of the Cold War. Known as "Red Star", it was previously called the "Sight Seein' Sixth". The six points of the star refer to the unit's numerical designation.

World War I On 17 November 1917, the War Department directed that the 6th Division be organized with a cadre from Regular Army units stationed at Camp Forrest, Georgia, Forts Leavenworth and Riley, Kansas, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Vancouver Barracks, Washington, and other posts. The division headquarters was established at Camp McClellan, Alabama. Division units commenced training at their respective posts; the 11th and 12th Infantry Brigades and the division trains at Camp Forrest, while the division artillery moved to the training center at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma, in April. In May and June, the division headquarters, 12th Infantry Brigade, 16th and 17th Machine Gun Battalions, 6th Field Signal Battalion, and 6th Train Headquarters and Military Police moved to Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina. In May and June 1918, 15,000 Selective Service men arrived from Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin to complete the division.

Subordinate Units:

Headquarters, 6th Division 11th Infantry Brigade 51st Infantry Regiment (formed with a cadre from the 11th Infantry in June 1917) 52nd Infantry Regiment (formed with a cadre from the 11th Infantry in June 1917) 17th Machine Gun Battalion 12th Infantry Brigade 53rd Infantry Regiment (formed with a cadre from the 6th Infantry in June 1917) 54th Infantry Regiment (formed with a cadre from the 6th Infantry in June 1917) 18th Machine Gun Battalion 6th Field Artillery Brigade 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) 11th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) (formed with a cadre from the 6th Field Artillery in June 1917) 78th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (formed from the 20th Cavalry in June 1917) 6th Trench Mortar Battery 16th Machine Gun Battalion 318th Engineer Regiment 6th Field Signal Battalion Headquarters Troop, 6th Division 6th Train Headquarters and Military Police 6th Ammunition Train 6th Supply Train 6th Engineer Train 6th Sanitary Train 20th, 37th, 38th, and 40th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals

The division went overseas in June 1918, and saw 43 days of combat in the Geradmer sector, Vosges, France, 3 September-18 October 1918, and during the Meuse-Argonne offensive 1–11 November 1918. Casualties totalled 386 (KIA: 38; WIA: 348).George B. Clark, The American Expeditionary Force in World War I: A Statistical History 1917–1919, McFarland, 2012, , , p. 106 Separately, the 11th Field Artillery became engaged earlier in the Meuse-Argonne offensive and fought from 19 October until the Armistice.

Commanders +Commanding officers (26 November 1917 – 1 June 1919)Col. Charles E. Tayman26 November 1917 – 28 December 1917Brig. Gen. James Brailsford Erwin29 December 1917 – 27 August 1918Maj. Gen. Walter H. Gordon 28 August 1918 – 1 June 1919

Interwar period

The 6th Division arrived at Camp Mills, New York, on 10 June 1919 after completing 6 months of training at Aignay-le-Duc, France, and occupation duty near and in Bad Bertrich, Germany. On arrival, emergency period personnel were discharged from the service at Camp Mills. The division proceeded to Camp Grant, Illinois, arrived 17 June, and remained there until September 1921. As a part of the War Department's decision to maintain only three fully-active stateside infantry divisions, The 6th Division was inactivated, less the 12th Infantry Brigade and several smaller units, on 30 September 1921 at Camp Grant. Concurrently, the inactivated units were assigned active associate units for mobilization purposes. The 6th Division was allotted to the Sixth Corps Area for mobilization responsibility and assigned to the VI Corps. Camp Grant was designated as the mobilization and training station for the division upon reactivation. During the period 1921–39, the active elements of the 6th Division consisted of the 12th Infantry Brigade and other assorted divisional elements that formed the base force from which the remainder of the division would be reactivated in the event of war. The division headquarters was organized on 17 April 1926 with Organized Reserve personnel as a “Regular Army Inactive” (RAI) unit at Chicago, Illinois. Additionally, most of the division's inactive elements were also organized in the Chicago area by mid-1927 as RAI units. The active elements of the division maintained habitual training relationships with divisional RAI units, as well as those of the VI Corps, XVI Corps, and the 85th, 86th, and 101st Divisions. The RAI and Reserve units often trained with the active elements of the division during summer training camps which were usually conducted at Camp Custer, Michigan, Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and at the regimental home stations of the 2nd and 6th Infantry Regiments. These two regiments also supported the Reserve units’ conduct of the Citizens' Military Training Camps held at Fort Sheridan and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.

The 12th Infantry Brigade, reinforced by the active elements of the 6th Tank Company, 6th Field Artillery Brigade, 3rd and 14th Field Artillery Regiments, and the 6th Quartermaster Regiment, held maneuvers at Camp Custer in those years when funds were available. During these maneuvers, the 6th Division headquarters was often formed in a provisional status to train Regular and Reserve officers in division-level command and control procedures. The division was also provisionally formed for the August 1936 Second Army maneuvers at Camp Custer and near Allegan, Michigan. For that maneuver, the division (12th Infantry Brigade as the nucleus) was reinforced by the Illinois National Guard's 8th Infantry (Colored), in addition to the other active divisional elements. Under the new “triangular” tables of organization, the 6th Division was reactivated 10 October 1939 at Fort Lewis, Washington. It was transferred to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on 9 November 1939, relieved from the VI Corps, and attached to the IV Corps. After maneuvers in Louisiana in May 1940, the division was transferred to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and assigned to the Second Army. The division participated in the Second Army maneuvers at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, in August 1940, in the Second Army maneuvers in Arkansas in August 1941, and in the GHQ maneuvers in Louisiana in September–October 1941. After the GHQ maneuvers, the 6th Division was moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, for permanent station and arrived there 10 October 1941.

World War II

Activated: 12 October 1939 at Fort Lewis, Washington state Overseas: 21 July 1943 Campaigns: New Guinea (with arrowhead device), Luzon (with arrowhead device) Days of combat: 306 Distinguished Unit Citations: 7 Awards: MH: 2, DSC: 10, DSM: 3, SS: 697, LM: 18, DFC: 3, SM: 94, BSM: 3,797, AM: 45.

Order of battle

Headquarters, 6th Infantry Division 1st Infantry Regiment 20th Infantry Regiment 63rd Infantry Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 6th Infantry Division Artillery 1st Field Artillery Battalion 51st Field Artillery Battalion 53rd Field Artillery Battalion 80th Field Artillery Battalion 6th Engineer Combat Battalion 6th Medical Battalion 6th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized) Headquarters, Special Troops, 6th Infantry Division Headquarters Company, 6th Infantry Division 706th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company 6th Quartermaster Company 6th Signal Company Military Police Platoon Band 6th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment

World War II combat chronicle

In March 1942, the 6th Infantry Division was converted to a motorized division equipped with half-tracks; only the 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry made actual use of them during training maneuvers at the Desert Training Center, and "most...never left [Fort Leonard Wood] and some never left the motor pool." Only a few months after they were issued, the half-tracks were taken away after the tables of organization of the motorized division were revised, and they were replaced with 2 1/2-ton trucks. The division was reorganized as a standard infantry division in May 1943.

The division moved to Hawaii in July and August 1943 to assume defensive positions on Oahu, training meanwhile in jungle warfare. It moved to Milne Bay, New Guinea, 31 January 1944, and trained until early June 1944. The division first saw combat in the Toem-Wakde area of Dutch New Guinea, engaging in active patrolling 14–18 June, after taking up positions 6–14 June. Moving west of Toem, it fought the bloody Battle of Lone Tree Hill, 21–30 June, and secured the Maffin Bay area by 12 July.

After a brief rest, the division made an assault landing at Sansapor, 30 July, on the Vogelkop Peninsula. The 6th secured the coast from Cape Waimak to the Mega River and garrisoned the area until December 1944.

The division landed at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, in the Philippines on D-day, 9 January 1945, and pursued the Japanese into the Cabanatuan hills, 17–21 January, capturing Muñoz on 7 February. On 27 January, Special Operations units also attached to the Sixth United States Army took part in the Raid at Cabanatuan. The division then drove northeast to Dingalan Bay and Baler Bay, 13 February, isolating enemy forces in southern Luzon. The U.S. 1st Infantry Regiment operated on Bataan together with the Philippine Commonwealth forces, 14–21 February, cutting the peninsula from Abucay to Bagac.

The division then took part in the Battle of Manila, shifting to the Shimbu Line northeast of Manila, on 24 February to take part in the longest continuous combat operation of the division in the Battle of Wawa Dam. The 6th Division faced a tough seesaw battle versus the Shimbu Group as the Japanese Shimbu Group created network of tunnels, artillery positions, and machine gun nests in the hill country of Antipolo, San Mateo, and Montalban in Rizal Province. On March 14, while divisional commander of the 6th Edwin D. Patrick was inspecting troops near Mount Mataba, south of Montalban, a Japanese soldier who had remained in hiding behind American lines, opened fire from with a machine gun, mortally wounding Patrick,The Michigan Alumnus, Vol. LI, 7. October 1944 - September 22, 1945, Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, page 359"Sixth Infantry Division in World War II, 1939-1945", 1983, Battery Press Inc, , page 114 who died the next day.Walter Krueger:"From Down Under To Nippon: The Story Of Sixth Army In World War II", 1989, Battery Press Inc, , Chapter 30 The terrain is formed by sharp hills and deep valleys, where direct assaults could be made in a day, and the next day units would be forced to retreat. The 6th Division took Mount Mataba on 17 April, Mount Pacawagan on 29 April, Bolog on 29 June, Lane's Ridge of Mount Santo Domingo on 10 July, and Kiangan, 12 July. The 6th remained with the Philippine Military forces in the Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera Mountains until VJ-day.

After the war, the division moved to Korea and controlled the southern half of the United States zone of occupation until inactivated.

Casualties

Total battle casualties: 2,370Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II, Final Report (Statistical and Accounting Branch Office of the Adjutant General, 1 June 1953) Killed in action: 410 Wounded in action: 1,957 Missing in action: 3

Medal of Honor recipients Medal of Honor recipients for the 6th Infantry Division during World War II:

Corporal Melvin Mayfield of Company D, 20th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division—Cordillera Mountains, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 29 July 1945 Second Lieutenant (then T/Sgt.) Donald E. Rudolph of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division—Munoz, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 5 February 1945

Commanders