Edwin F . Harding Edwin Forrest Harding ( September 18 , 1886June 5 , 1970 ) commanded the 32nd Infantry Division at the beginning of World War II . He graduated 74th among his classmates from the United States Military Academy in 1909 , who included John C . H . Lee ( 12 ) , Jacob L . Devers ( 39 ) , George S . Patton ( 46 ) , Horace H . Fuller ( 59 ) , Robert L . Eichelberger ( 68 ) , and William H . Simpson ( 101 ) . His first field command , the 32nd division was the first American unit , after the Battle for Guadalcanal , to engage in offensive operations in the Pacific Theater of Operations . The 32nd was understrength , ill - trained , poorly equipped , and thrust into its first battle against seasoned Japanese units . The unit finally logged a total of 654 days of combat during World War II , more than any other U . S . Army division . They were among the first to enter the war and were still engaging attacking Japanese after the Armistice was declared . Education and early life . Edwin Forrest Harding was born on September 18 , 1886 , in Franklin , Ohio , the son of Clarence Henry ( Larry ) Harding , the manager of the Harding Paper Division of the American Writing Paper Company , and his wife Lilly , née Woodward . Forrest was educated at Franklin High School and Phillips Exeter Academy . He also spent a year at Charles Braden Preparatory Academy , a special preparatory school for the United States Military Academy at West Point . He passed the entrance examination and was appointed to West Point by then Secretary of War , William Howard Taft . He graduated from West Point in the class of 1909 , which also included future generals George S . Patton , Jacob L . Devers , John C . H . Lee , Robert L . Eichelberger , and William H . Simpson . Early military service . Prior to World War II , he was in 1938 a Colonel in command of 27th Infantry Regiment . In 1941 he was promoted to Brigadier General and Assistant commander of the 9th Infantry Division . Harding had an agile mind . He could quote T . S . Eliot or Tennyson or Kipling , and discuss history or astronomy like an Ivy League professor . Harding understood the modern military and had literally written the book on it . During 1934 , Col . George Marshall was assistant commandant at Fort Benning and selected Harding as an instructor and put him in charge of the Infantry School ' s publications . He edited " Infantry in Battle " , a book that codified new ideas on how to organize infantry in battle . Harding was responsible for planning the book and supervising preparation and editing of the manuscript . The triangular division structure it described was composed of three regimental combat team s each supported by its own simplified support and command structure . The organizational structure emphasized speed , agility , a lower casualty rate , and adaptability . This contrasted with the square division structure of World War I which was designed for attrition combat characteristic of trench warfare . " Infantry in Battle " is still used as an officer ' s training manual in the Infantry Officer ' s Course , and was the training manual for most of the infantry officers and leaders of World War II . World War II commands . The 32nd Infantry Division had been scheduled to receive a year of training before it left the United States . It was authorized to have a peace - time strength of about 11 , 600 soldiers , but like almost all units in the National Guard and the Regular Army prior to World War II , was not at full strength nor was it assigned all of the equipment it was authorized . Training for many soldiers was incomplete . Harding was a leader who exuded confidence . The 2nd Battalion of the 126th Infantry Regiment , was deployed on an extremely arduous flanking maneuver on the Kapa Kapa Trail over a divide toward Jaure . The total distance over the mountains to the Japanese positions was over , and most of the trail was barely a goat path . The Kapa Kapa trail across the Owen Stanley divide was a " dank and eerie place , rougher and more precipitous " than the Kokoda Track on which the Australians and Japanese were then fighting . It was " one of the most harrowing marches in American military history . " In a first for World War II , General Douglas MacArthur ordered the 128th Infantry Regiment to be flown from Australia to New Guinea , the greatest distance the Air Force had airlifted men up to that time . When he learned how the trek across the mountain divide was so debilitating and lengthy , Harding requested that the remainder of the division be flown to the Buna area , to join Australian units in an assault on the main Japanese beachheads in eastern New Guinea . A local priest informed the Allies that there was a landing field on the western slopes and MacArthur ordered the rest of the 32nd flown across the Owen Stanley Range , becoming the first U . S . Army artillery flown into combat in the Pacific in World War II . Attacked Buna . With no roads through the jungle , the only way to keep the troops furnished with the food , ammunition and other goods necessary to operate against the Japanese was via airborne supply . This proved to be very problematic in the deep razerback ridges of the Owen Stanley Mountains . Because of a lack of parachutes , material was shoved off airplanes at a height of 40 or more feet , and were often damaged or completely lost due to mis - drops . His division was tasked with attacking Buna on November 19 , 1942 . General Douglas MacArthur received intelligence from Brigadier General Charles Willoughby , who told MacArthur before the operation that there was " little indication of an attempt to make a strong stand against the Allied advance . " The intelligence that led him to believe that Buna was held by about 1000 sick and malnourished soldiers . Harding was nearly killed before the attack began . He was on board a coastal trawler with his headquarters company when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft . Harding saved himself by diving overboard and swimming to shore . The attack destroyed many of the supplies Harding was relying on for the upcoming attack . Combat stalemate . Harding accepted MacArthur ' s decision to rely on direct air support in place of tanks or heavy artillery , and his troops were stopped cold by formidable Japanese field fortifications . With the only artillery support provided by a single 25 pounder battery with limited ammunition , the division was unable to make further progress against these positions . A stalemate ensued . When the 32nd Division failed to advance , MacArthur became so concerned about the lack of progress that he sent General Robert Eichelberger , commander of I Corp , to report on the situation . MacArthur famously said to Eichelberger , Harding sacked . Eichelberger and his staff flew into Buna , and on December 2 , he inspected the left or westward - lying U . S . front , the Urbana Force . Two of his staff officers , Colonels Martin and Rogers , inspected the right flank , which was designated the Warren Force . They found the troops were ill with malaria , dengue fever , tropical dysentery , and other ailments . They discovered the men had few rations causing them to lose weight , and lacked hot meals , vitamins , and cigarettes . Some were unshaven , their uniforms and boots were dirty and in tatters , and they showed " little discipline or military courtesy . " Having been on the front at Buna for two weeks with virtually no progress to show for it except for hundreds of casualties , their morale was very poor . Eichelberger relieved Harding on December 2 , 1942 . ( Harding and Eichelberger had been West Point classmates in 1909 . ) Eichelberger also sacked the regimental commanders and most battalion commanders . He replaced Harding with the division ' s artillery commander , Brigadier General Albert W . Waldron . " Some of the 32nd ' s officers privately denounced Eichelberger as ruthless , Prussian . " Eichelberger later noted that after he relieved Harding he " ordered the medicos to take the temperature of an entire company of hollow - eyed men near the front . Every member , I repeat , every member of that company was running a fever . " Eichelberger found the men lacked even the oil and patches require to keep their guns free of rust . He put an officer in charge of supply who ignored all protocols to obtain whatever the men needed . Eichelberger conspicuously wore his three stars on his shoulders among the front - line troops , ignoring the rule that officers remove their insignia at the front because they will attract the enemy . He lost thirty pounds in thirty days at the front . Martin later admitted , after some experience with the Japanese defenses , that had attacks been continued on the day he conducted his inspection , they would not have been successful . Later commands . MacArthur had initially promised Harding a new assignment elsewhere in the Southwest Pacific , but Harding was recalled to the United States a few weeks later . In 1943 , he was made Commander of the Mobile Force in the Panama Canal Zone , and in 1944 Commander of the Antilles Department in the Caribbean , an unimportant assignment comprising 20 forts , camps and fields in the lesser islands from Cuba , Haiti , Costa Rica to Aruba , and portions of northern South America . In 1945 , he was made Director of the Historical Division at the War Department for the Joint Chiefs of Staff . There he oversaw the planning of the Army ' s comprehensive history of World War II . He submitted a plan on December 18 , 1945 , in which he estimated that the full historical series would contain about 120 volumes , although only 101 of them were described . Harding retired after 37 years of military service in 1946 .