Original Items: Only One Group Available. The Fifth Division (Regular) was organized in December 1917, with headquarters at Camp Logan, Houston, Texas, as a part of the program for the expansion of the armed forces for service in World War 1. No specific date was designated for the division's activation but the initial personnel assigned to the division had a reporting date of December 1.

William H. Weller was born on June 15, 1887 and enlisted in the United States Army on September 19, 1917 at 30 years old. Upon completion of his basic training he would soon be assigned to Company G, 11th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division, bound for the Western Front. On April 24, 1918, the regiment sailed for France. By May 1918 it joined the 5th Division near Chaumont, France. The 11th then took part in the Vosges Mountains, Saint-Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne offensives. In the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the regiment forged a brilliant crossing of the Meuse River.

During his time in France, PFC Weller was wounded twice in action, once on July 1, 1918 from enemy shell fire in the Anould Sector in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace and a second time on September 13, 1918 after receiving a gunshot wound to the face point blank by an enemy soldier armed with a sidearm during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. He survived both wounds. The gunshot he sustained to the face, although an unfortunate and fatal location, was a lucky shot, passing through his jaw and mouth. We have not been able to find much information on the locations of where he was wounded, but the wounds were not severe enough to be sent home for them. He remained overseas fighting in France up until the Armistice. Afterwards he was a part of the occupying force and on September 1, 1919, in Brest, France, he boarded the SS Leviathan and was enroute back to the United States. That just happened to be the ship's last voyage from France transporting military personnel. On September 25, 1919 PFC Weller was honorably discharged from the Army. He lived out his remaining years in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and passed away on March 14, 1972 at 85 years old.

The Following Items Are Included:

-”The FIFTH U.S. DIVISION in the WORLD WAR 1917-1919” Book: This is the official history of the 5th Division during WWI. The book was published in 1919 by the Society of the Fifth Division. The book talks about the “Period of its Organization and of its Operations in the European World War, 1917-1919”. The book contains the information as well as pictures and maps of the 5th division during the war. Part 1 is for the Command and Administration of the division, Part II is the history of the division from the Trench Warfare to the Occupation, Part III is the appendix which contains copies of important Field Orders, winners of decorations, citations, materiel captured, prisoners captured by the division, enemy units opposed, 5th division personnel captured and missing in action, monuments and crests. The book is just absolutely filled with information and knowledge about the Division’s involvement during the war.

-Citations of Fifth Division: This is a booklet which contains 12 pages of General Orders and telegrams in relation to the division. Some of the pages are translated messages received from French military leaders for their praise of the Division.

-5th Division Calendar: The calendar is for the year 1919. It was printed at the Base Printing Plant, 29th Engineers, U.S. Army. The front features the different months in the surrounding borders and in the middle is 5th Division’s “Red Diamond” poem.

-Tunic & Overseas Cap: This is the tunic and cap attributed to PFC Weller. We unfortunately have not been able to find his name or service number anywhere on the uniform. The tunic does have quite a bit of mothing to it and was definitely not stored properly. The tunic features the 5th Division red diamond patch on the left shoulder, complete and without damage and appears to have been hand stitched on. The only decoration on the tunic chest is the WWI Victory Medal RIBBON with 3 campaign stars. The left sleeve has a hand stitched PFC chevron just below the red diamond. Further down the left and right sleeve are 2 overseas stripes. The overseas cap is in good condition but is no longer soft. The size stamps and maker information is still visible on the inside. The size is 7 ⅜ and was supplied by Grant & Sons LTD.

This is a wonderful grouping of a great unit that fought in France during WWI. All items come ready to display in your Great War collections!

Measurements:
Collar to Shoulder: 9”
Shoulder to Sleeve: 22”
Shoulder to Shoulder: 16”
Chest Width: 15”
Waist Width: 17”
Hip Width: 23”
Front Length: 32”

The 5th Division in WWI
The 5th Division was activated on 11 December 1917, just over eight months after the American entry into World War I, at Camp Logan, near Houston, Texas and began training for deployment to the Western Front. The first general officer (Major General Charles Henry Muir) assumed command- - as the activation date of the division. The organization was a "square" division (i.e., there were four infantry regiments) with an authorized strength of 28, 105 personnel.

The entire division had arrived in France by 1 May 1918 and components of the units were deployed into the front line. The 5th Division was the eighth of forty-two American divisions to arrive on the Western Front. The 5th Division trained with French Army units from 1 to 14 June 1918. The first soldiers of the unit to be killed in action died on 14 June of that year. Among the division's first casualties was Captain Mark W. Clark, then commanding the 3rd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, who would later become a four-star general. On 12 September, the unit was part of a major attack that reduced the salient at St. Mihiel. The division later fought in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest battle fought by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) (and the largest in the history of the U.S. Army) in World War I. The war ended soon after, on November 11, 1918. The division served in the Army of Occupation, being based in Belgium and Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg until it departed Europe. The division returned to the United States through the New York Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, New Jersey, on 21 July 1919.

11th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division
On 24 April 1918, the regiment sailed for France. By May 1918 it joined the 5th Division near Chaumont, France. The 11th then took part in the Vosges Mountains, Saint-Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne offensives. In the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the regiment forged a brilliant crossing of the Meuse River.
Vosges Mountains

The Vosges Front is a mountainous area ranging from the Donon in the north and the Grand Ballon in the south. The old border between the German Empire and France from 1871 to 1918, now in Alsace and Lorraine, was the only area of the Western Front to see mountain fighting during the Great War. On May 31, Field Order No. 1 was issued moving the unit into the quiet Anould Sector in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace for indoctrination as part of the French Seventh Army. Here, the Red Devils occupied trenches along with French troops.

The division's first casualties occurred on the night of June 14, when the first elements entered the trenches. During the next month the men of the Red Diamond did an extensive amount of patrolling and raiding. Numerous attacks by the Germans were successfully repulsed. On July 14, the division was removed from the line and took over the St. Die Sector, relieving the French troops that had been defending the area.

Battle of Saint-Mihiel
The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a major World War I battle fought from 12–15 September 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and 110,000 French troops under the command of General John J. Pershing of the United States against German positions. The U.S. Army Air Service played a significant role in this action.

This battle marked the first use of the terms "D-Day" and "H-Hour" by the Americans. The attack at the Saint-Mihiel salient was part of a plan by Pershing in which he hoped that the Americans would break through the German lines and capture the fortified city of Metz. It was the first large offensive launched mainly by the United States Army in World War I, and the attack caught the Germans in the process of retreating. This meant that their artillery was out of place and the American attack, coming up against disorganized German forces, proved more successful than expected. The Saint-Mihiel attack established the stature of the U.S. Army in the eyes of the French and British forces, and again demonstrated the critical role of artillery during World War I and the difficulty of supplying such massive armies while they were on the move. The U.S. attack faltered as artillery and food supplies were left behind on the muddy roads. The attack on Metz was not realized, as the Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch ordered the American troops to march towards Sedan and Mézières, which would lead to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Meuse–Argonne offensive
The Meuse–Argonne offensive (also known as the Meuse River–Argonne Forest offensive, the Battles of the Meuse–Argonne, and the Meuse–Argonne campaign) was a major part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire Western Front. It was fought from September 26, 1918, until the Armistice of November 11, 1918, a total of 47 days. The Meuse–Argonne offensive was the largest in United States military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers. It is the second deadliest offensive in American history, resulting in over 350,000 casualties including 28,000 German lives, 26,277 American lives and an unknown number of French lives. U.S. losses were worsened by the inexperience of many of the troops, the tactics used during the early phases of the operation and the widespread onset of the global Spanish flu influenza.

Meuse–Argonne was the principal engagement of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) during World War I. It was one of a series of Allied attacks known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which brought the war to an end. It was the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I for the AEF even if, given the scale of other battles on the Western Front, its size was limited and the operation itself secondary as it was far from the main offensive axis.