No Sacrifice Too Great

The 1st Infantry Division In World War II

Reviewed by Timothy A Willging

Article published on: June 1, 2024 in the Army History Summer 2024 issue

Read Time: < 6 mins

No Sacrifice Too Great: The 1st Infantry Division In World War II. By GreGory Fontenot, University of Missouri Press, 2023 Pp. xxi, 571. $37

The 1st Infantry Division is the oldest continuously serving division in the U.S. Army and is among its most heralded. Although the unit has amassed an impressive combat record stretching from World War I through the Global War on Terrorism, it is perhaps best known for its achievements in World War II. The division features prominently in the works of such eminent authors and historians as Stephen Ambrose, Rick Atkinson, and John C. McManus. However, it is surprising that it has taken more than eighty years for a serious academic study of the unit to appear on the market. Retired Col. Gregory Fontenot’s timely study thus fills a significant void in the historiography of the American Army in World War II. Fontenot makes a compelling argument in this exceptional unit history that the 1st Infantry Division succeeded by absorbing lessons learned and proving itself adept at adapting to rapidly changing battlefield circumstances and situations.

The author is eminently qualified to write this history of the 1st Infantry Division during the largest conflict in the Army’s history. Fontenot commanded a tank battalion within the division during Operation Desert Storm. He is also a gifted author and historian whose previous works include On Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom (Combat Studies Institute Press, 2004), The 1st Infantry Division and the U.S. Army Transformed: Road to Victory in Desert Storm, 1970–1991 (University of Missouri Press, 2017), and the exceptional unit history Loss and Redemption at St. Vith: The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge (University of Missouri Press, 2019).

Fontenot’s narrative comprises fifteen chapters. The first chapter explains the context of the interwar period, including the development of doctrine, the enhancement of professional military education, and the organization and sustainment of units. Chapter 2 focuses on how the 1st Infantry Division trained for war and deployed to Europe. The subsequent twelve chapters contain the meat of the author’s narrative, chronicling the division’s actions in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Finally, Chapter 15 details the division’s transition into occupation duty and the outcomes of various individuals highlighted in the narrative, and offers the author’s conclusions.

The 1st Infantry Division served more than fourteen months in combat during World War II, fighting in nine separate campaigns and suffering more than 20,000 casualties. In each campaign, the division learned and grew as an effective combat force. Fontenot writes that “for those in the 1st Infantry Division, learning, training, and adaptation were continuous processes because they had to be” (3). After the division’s first successful assault landing in Operation Torch, the unit suffered reverses at the beginning of the Tunisian Campaign. Despite these setbacks, the 1st Infantry Division persevered, learning the importance of digging in and conducting effective reconnaissance, with the unit’s performance consequently improving by the Battle of El Guettar and the final drive on Tunis.

The 1st Infantry Division built on its experiences in North Africa during Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. Fontenot observes that in this campaign, the division first functioned as the “combined arms team the army had intended it to be” (175). The Big Red One also had to adapt to wildly changing terrain, from coastal plains to rugged mountains, while simultaneously confronting a determined enemy. Although the unit was praised for its performance in Sicily, most notably in repulsing a German counterattack on the beachhead, there remained room for improvement, such as the need to employ suppressing fire effectively rather than only engaging observed targets.

Fontenot efficiently describes the transition in division command between Maj. Gen. Terry de la Mesa Allen and Maj. Gen. Clarence R. Huebner. The division’s soldiers loved and respected Allen so much that they were not particularly warm toward their new commander. Huebner is perhaps underrated but proved an exceptional division commander. Fontenot describes how Huebner strove to enhance discipline within the 1st Infantry Division and to improve marksmanship and physical fitness, while also encouraging lower-level leaders to demonstrate initiative. These efforts paid dividends when the division next saw combat.

In the weeks and months after its famous assault landing at Omaha Beach, the division constantly transitioned between confronting an entrenched enemy—first in the Normandy hedgerows and later in the streets of Aachen and the forbidding Hürtgen Forest—and the fast-paced open warfare during the race across France and the drive into Germany in 1945. Amid these varied operations, the division faced high turnover because of casualties and the consequent need to incorporate a steady stream of replacements. Fontenot notes that Huebner instituted a school for replacements that instilled esprit de corps and taught marksmanship, and that NCOs imparted “tribal wisdom” and supervised on-the-job training at the company level and below (519). Fontenot convincingly assesses that the 1st Infantry Division achieved the status of an expert division because it effectively used learning to change its behavior to succeed on the dynamic modern battlefield.

The book is well-written, superbly organized, and impeccably researched. Authors and historians will find value in mining Fontenot’s notes and bibliography when conducting their research. The author also includes an exceptional photo essay that will help both casual readers and more experienced scholars visualize the division’s wartime experience. Additionally, the author includes many maps throughout the work, which aid in understanding complex military operations. These maps depict operations at various echelons, from battalion through army group, and experienced military professionals and historians will find them invaluable. However, more general readers may struggle with the complexity of maps depicting higher-echelon operations.

Although No Sacrifice Too Great certainly sets a new standard for divisional histories, it also reveals opportunities for further research. Limitations on size and scope limit Fontenot’s ability to examine closely the extent to which the 1st Infantry Division may or may not have been unique in its ability to absorb lessons learned and adapt to changing battlefield circumstances. Some readers may emerge curious as to whether other units with similarly extensive combat records, such as the 3d and 9th Infantry Divisions, possessed an ability to adapt to dynamic combat conditions in a manner comparable to that of the Big Red One. In 2010, Mark E. Grotelueschen released The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I, a groundbreaking study examining how four American divisions in World War I adapted to combat on the Western Front. Although historians such as Michael D. Doubler and Peter R. Mansoor have examined how the Army learned during World War II, a study covering American divisions in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, like that of Grotelueschen’s book, certainly would find an avid readership.

Fontenot’s first-rate history of the 1st Infantry Division will prove invaluable for scholars and general readers interested in understanding the U.S. Army’s experience in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of World War II. Moreover, this work should be required reading for Army leaders at all levels, as it compellingly depicts how an excellent unit trains for combat and continually adapts to the ever-changing battlefield.