By Staff Sgt. Gene Arnold
14th Public Affairs Detachment
Professor Sir Hew Strachan, professor of International Relations with an emphasis in military history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, shares strategic and developmental knowledge on the 4th Infantry Division’s involvement in World War I during a lecture March 24, 2017. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Gene Arnold)
Some historians, military strategists or military historical enthusiasts may come to argue that the greatest generation of American Soldiers occurred during the World War I era. This war that changed the world 100 years ago, has been set as a precedent in the evolution of military strategy and equipment for the adaptability of the modern warfighter.
Leadership from across the installation listened to a historical and strategical lecture March 24, 2017, at the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters. One of multiple events planned to celebrate the centennial of the 4th Inf. Div. this year, the lecture covered some of the early history of the newly formed 4th Division at the start of World War I.
Organized shortly after the start of the war, poorly trained and scarcely equipped, this brand new fighting force trekked, trenched and fired its way across the front lines alongside French and British troops, learning the maneuvers of war as they moved along.
“When the division started there was no doctrine on how to fight in a mechanized war front,” said Professor Sir Hew Strachan, professor of International Relations with an emphasis in military history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “The Soldiers didn’t even have pistols in their pistol holders, just towels.”
Strachan said that even though they faced many lessons on the ground, they were the only fighting force at the time to implement those lessons while still in combat.
“I can say that the lessons learned were seen at the lowest levels first, then instituted at the higher levels across the division,” he said.
Outlined in the lecture were the strategical offsets of collateral damage minimization, the importance of doctrine in warfare and the importance of interagency relationships among military fighting forces on the ground.
From that rough start as American Soldiers, the “Steadfast and Loyal” Division has become a premiere fighting force. The 4th Inf. Div. was once chosen to be the experimental division in motorized warfare in the early 1940s, and now has become the experimental division to spearhead a new adaptable strategy soon to be implemented across the Army’s battle structures.