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The Americal Division is not the American Division.
Americal is not the nickname of a division; it is its name.
And the men who wear the Southern Cross shoulder patch of our Army’s only active unnumbered division would rather you didn’t forget it.
When the war started there was no Americal Division, and none was contemplated. But there were a lot of Japs on the rampage in the Southwest Pacific, and as part of the Allied plan to throttle any hopes they might entertain of invading Australia and the islands immediately off its coast, Task Force 6814 was rushed to Australia and then over to New Caledonia. Troops trained for action on the decks of their ships.
The Japs never dared hit Australia, or New Caledonia, either, but Task Force 6814 wasn’t through. Its defensive mission accomplished, it began to prepare for the attack. Its various units were organized into a regular infantry division, under Major General Alexander M. Patch, who was later promoted to command of the Seventh Army on the other side of the world. Its name—derived from a combination of America and New Caledonia—was invented by a sergeant in its ranks.
Its deeds spoke for themselves.
The story began in October 1942, two months after the 1st Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal. Sent in to relieve the Marines, the Americal found that there was still plenty of Jap resistance. Henderson Field was firmly in our hands, but from the nearby heights of Mount Austen, the Japs had excellent observation on the vital airfield. The hill had to be taken, and on December 17 the Americal’s 132nd Infantry set out to do the job. Seven times the Doughboys charged up, and seven times Japs of the crack Oka Regiment counterattacked. But finally the Japs were washed out, and they lost all interest in Henderson Field. For actions like that, some elements of the Americal were rewarded by the Navy with its Presidential Unit Citation—the only Army units to be thus honored.
Fighting on Guadalcanal lasted until February 1943, and the Americal moved to the Fiji Islands for defense of that area and further combat training. Once again no Japs dared come near them, and once again they set off on an offensive mission when, in December 1943, they joined the fight at Bougainville. On Christmas Day, the Americal went into the line. It stayed on Bougainville for nearly a year, battling the Japanese in thick jungle on the edges of an American perimeter beyond which thousands of enemy soldiers waited, suicidally throwing them-selves again and again at our positions. By the time the Americal was relieved there, on December 10, 1944, it had established itself as a veteran, jungle-wise outfit.
Its experience came in handy. It was transported north to the Philippines, where General MacArthur’s forces had landed on Leyte late in October. In less than five months, Americal units saw action on no less than thirteen Philippine islands. After mopping up on Leyte and Samar, the men who wore the Southern Cross landed on the small islands of Ticao, Burias, Biri, Capul, Poro, Mactan, Cauit and Olongapo, and hit the major islands of Bohol, Negros and Cebu. The men who had started out without a name and who ended up without a number had done all right.
From Fighting Divisions, Kahn & McLemore, Infantry Journal Press, 1945-1946.
