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1st Infantry Division
Big Red One
(Page 4 - Division Artillery)
Looking for more information from military/civilian personnel assigned to or associated with the U.S. Army in Germany from 1945 to 1989. If you have any stories or thoughts on the subject, please contact me.

DIVISION ARTILLERY UNITS

Division Artillery
 

HQ Bldg, 1st Inf DivArty, Bldg 13, Leighton Bks, Würzburg, 1954 (Webmaster's collection)
(Sometime between Aug 1953 & Aug 1954, DivArty HQ moved from Erlangen to Würzburg)
 

1st Div Artillery

5th FA Bn

7th FA Bn

32nd FA Bn

33 FA Bn
 

Organization of the 1st Division Artillery, 1952 (Walter Elkins)
 
If you have information, personal recollections and/or photos of the 1st Division Artillery in Germany 1945-1955, I would be very interested in hearing from you (webmaster).

MISCELLANEOUS

HHB, 1st Division Artillery, Leighton Barracks, Würzburg
5th FA Bn, Harvey Barracks, Kitzingen
7th FA Bn, O'Brien Barracks, Schwabach
32nd FA Bn, Ready Barracks, Aschaffenburg
33rd FA Bn, Warner Barracks, Bamberg
48th AAA AW Bn, Ferris Barracks, Erlangen
Division Artillery

HHB, DIVARTY

Division Artillery Air Section

5th Field Artillery Bn

7th Field Artillery Bn

32nd Field Artillery Bn

33rd Field Arillery Bn

48th Antiaircraft Artillery Bn
7th Field Artillery Artillery
 
7th Field Artillery Bn crest
 
(Source: Email from Tommy Knox, 7th FA Bn, 1948-52)
 
I was stationed in the 7th F.A. Battalion in Schwabach, Germany from 1948 to 1952.

We had a country band and played all over Germany. In fact, we were the cause of AFN opening a radio station at Nuernberg. They had a country program called the Hillbilly Gasthaus. We auditioned to play that program live every day from 3 to 3:30 pm in Frankfurt, Germany. We would have had to transfer into Special Services. Our COL wouldn't release us to do that, so they opened a station in Nuernebrg and we played the program there.

Enclosed is a letter for song request from the U.S.S. Midway (6th US Fleet aircraft carrier) . As you can see they were in Turkey when they picked us up.





As you probably know, AFN covered all of Europe and more. We got a lot of requests from the German people. They loved country music in Germany. They had a French lady opera singer one time at the Nuernberg Opera House. Of all people, they asked our country band to play intermission for her. That was probably the biggest we ever played for. The Nuernberg Opera House had three balconies. It could hold a lot of people.

Another time we got an official looking letter in German. None of us could read German so we got one of the German Service Club hostesses to read it for us. She said it was from the biggest recording studio in Germany asking us to record a record. We went to our colonel, the same one who had turned us down for Special Services. We were giving the 7th FA a lot of publicity that he did not want to lose. So he turned us down again. He said we would be making too much money.

I would love to hear from some of the old band members or anyone else wants to email me.

7th FA Bn
Schwabach
 

1. Main gate

2. 7th FA Bn Parade

3. Autobahn

 

4. 105mm Howitzer

5. (KB)


 
Division Artillery Air Section
 

7711th Air Liaison Det personnel work on a liasion aircraft
at the Grafenwohr air strip during FTX Delay, May 1948
(Click on the images to view a higher resolution)
 

L-5 of the 32nd FA Bn air section
L-5 aircraft of 5th FA Bn
 
1948 
(Source: US Army Heritage Center)
L-5 Liaison planes of the 1st Inf Div Artillery Air Section are used during maneuvers for reconnaissance (photo and observation) and the direction of artillery fire upon the enemy. These planes are also used in the delivering of messages from the field to the Division command posts behind the front lines, and the fast transporting of wounded men to field hospitals and station hospitals for medical attention.

The L-5's are ideal for field puposes because they can land and take off in small places such as roads and combat-type landing strips.

In the above photos, the L-5 Liaison planes from different 1st Division units are being used in the Field Problem "Exercise Delay", which was another in the series of maneuver problems executed by the 1st Infantry Division at the Grafenwohr Training Center. This problem familiarized the men in the use of M-8 reconnaissance cars, medium type tanks and the 75mm recoilless rifle.
 

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