Being one of the few interwar active division of the US Army, entirely composed of volunteer professionnals, the 1st ID was among the very first units sent to Europe to take part in the war against the Germans & Italians when the USA entered the war. BRO fought in every theater the Americans were engaged in Europe : Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, France, Belgium, Germany & Czechoslovakia. Alongside the 34th Infantry Division, there isn't a more experienced American division on the ETO.
A farm boy who rose from enlisted man to Military Governor of the American Zone in Germany, Huebner was a strict disciplinarian and one of the US Army most decorated generals.
Enlisting as a private around 1910, Huebner was commissioned officer in November 1916, a few month before America's involvement in WW1. Shipped to France, he was a member of the original « Big Red One » at its creation in May 1917. Ending the war as one of the youngest American colonels, he remained with the Army in the Interwar. In 1943, although having held no command since the American entry in WW2, he was given command of that same prestigious, but unruly, 1st Infantry Division with which he had first fought. Training it relentlessly, he led it into battle from Normandy to Hurtgen Forrest in Germany before being promoted at the head of V. Corps in January 1945, with which he made first contact with the Soviets on the Elbe River.
The first Allied division to enter action on D-Day, the 6th Airborne was tasked with securing the left flank of the invasion. It was quite heavily equipped for an airborne unit, with medium AT guns & light tanks being brought by air by heavy Hamilcar cargo gliders.
BRO relies mostly on two assets : its all veteran or even elite infantry force (including regimental supports such as mortar, bazookas, light AT guns, …) and its role as an assault division. Strong in Phase A, it can deploy special assault teams, some armored vehicles supported by the US Navy's firepower and even AA guns towed across the beach by AA half-track ... but is missing most recon elements. Phase B brings no economy boost nor more tanks, but some support weapons to hold the ground until more economy and fresh troops are brought in Phase C to make up for the earlier losses.
