HONORING THE HEROICS OF THE UNITED STATES FIRST ARMY. A LEGACY FOR ALL GENERATIONS. PREFACE CHAPTER ONE

 

The United States First Army as a fighting group was initially commissioned in France in 1918 at the height of WW1 as American infantry forces arrived in France in sufficient numbers under General John J Pershing to constitute an Army. The term First Army was thus coined to mark the first functional American Army that assembled in France on their way to the Western front in support of the Allies in WW1 in 1918. The US First Army was thus activated under General Hunter Liggett who took command of the activated force on the 10^th of August as the first of the three United States field Armies that were established as part of the Allied Expeditionary Force .

The First Army was thus to prove a veritable training ground for many notable officers that were to emerge later during WW2, following the end of WW1 in November of 1918. The First Army served as part of an occupation force in Germany until its demobilization and inactivation in April 1919.

The First Army however continued to exist as part of the four American Armies that were created when Douglas MacArthur was Army Chief and had to re-organize the Army in compliance with the National Defense Act of 1916 which was amended in 1920. The First Army was thus located in the North east of the United States with its headquarters at Fort Jay’s Governor’s Island in New York. On 11^th September 1933, it was thus re-activated under the command of General Dennis E Dolan.

The First Army was composed of three Corps, with the first Area Corps being quartered in Boston, the second Corp Area was situated at Fort Jay, Governor’s Island in New York and the third Corp was situated at Fort Howard (Maryland) near Baltimore Maryland.

First Army as it then was, was more of an administrative unit saddled with the responsibility of training the regular army reserve and National Guards units in the three Corps Area. In 1938 , First Army  under the command of General Hugh A Drum  was tasked with the responsibility of creating a true field Army as the wind of war began to blow all over Europe. A Staff recruitment program began and its troops were programmed to take part in large scale military exercises in Louisiana and North Carolina between 1939 and 1941.

As the United States entered the war in 1941, General Dolan was given the command of the newly established Eastern Defense Command which he held until he retired in 1943 as he approached retirement age. The command of the First Army thus passed over to General Grunnert who remained in control until the First Army Headquarters was moved to Bristol in England in January 1944 under the command of Lieutenant General Omar N Bradley. 

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