WW1 US ARMY 2ND DIV. HAND PAINTED LARGE WOOD SIGN

WW1 US Army 2nd Division large wooden sign being made of multi piece construction and also being hand painted with an incredible amount of detail. The wood sign measures 36 X 48 inches. Excellent History World War I The 2nd Division was first constituted on 21 September 1917 in the Regular Army.[6][7][8][9] It was organized on 26 October 1917 at Bourmont, Haute Marne, France. Order of battle Headquarters, 2nd Division 3rd Infantry Brigade 9th Infantry Regiment 23rd Infantry Regiment 5th Machine Gun Battalion 4th Marine Brigade 5th Marine Regiment 6th Marine Regiment 6th Machine Gun Battalion 2nd Field Artillery Brigade 12th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) 15th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) 17th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) 2nd Trench Mortar Battery 4th Machine Gun Battalion 2nd Engineer Regiment 1st Field Signal Battalion Headquarters Troop, 2nd Division 2nd Train Headquarters and Military Police 2nd Ammunition Train 2nd Supply Train 2nd Engineer Train 2nd Sanitary Train 1st, 15th, 16th, and 23rd Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals Twice during World War I the division was commanded by US Marine Corps generals, Brigadier General Charles A. Doyen and Major General John A. Lejeune (after whom the Marine Corps Camp in North Carolina is named), the only time in U.S. military history when Marine Corps officers commanded an Army division. The division spent the winter of 1917–18 training with French and Scottish veterans. Though judged unprepared by French tacticians, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was committed to combat in the spring of 1918 in a desperate attempt to halt a German advance toward Paris. Major General Edward Mann Lewis Commanded the 3rd Brigade as they deployed to reinforce the battered French along the Paris to Metz road. The Division first fought at the Battle of Belleau Wood and contributed to shattering the four-year-old stalemate on the battlefield during the Château-Thierry campaign that followed. On 28 July 1918, Marine Corps Major General Lejeune assumed command of the 2nd Division and remained in that capacity until August 1919, when the unit returned to the US. The division went on to win hard-fought victories at Soissons and Blanc Mont. Finally the Indianhead Division participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive which ended any German hope for victory. On 11 November 1918 the Armistice was declared, and the 2nd Division entered Germany, where it assumed occupation duties until April 1919. 2nd Division returned to U.S. in July 1919. The 2nd Division was three times awarded the French Croix de guerre for gallantry under fire at Belleau Wood, Soissons, and Blanc Mont. This entitles current members of the division and of those regiments that were part of the division at that time (including the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments) to wear a special lanyard, or fourragère, in commemoration. The Navy authorized a special uniform change that allows hospital corpsmen assigned to 5th and 6th Marine Regiments to wear a shoulder strap on the left shoulder of their dress uniform so that the fourragère can be worn. The division lost 1,964 (plus USMC: 4,478) killed in action and 9,782 (plus USMC: 17,752) wounded in action. Major operations Third Battle of the Aisne Belleau Wood Château-Thierry campaign St. Mihiel Meuse-Argonne Offensive