The 23rd Infantry Division, also known as the Americal Division, was an infantry division of the United States Army during World War II from 1942 to 1945, briefly in the mid 1950s and the Vietnam War from 1967-71. The division was activated 27 May 1942 on the island of New Caledonia in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. In the immediate emergency following Pearl Harbor, the United States had hurriedly sent a task force to defend New Caledonia against a feared Japanese attack. This division was the only division formed outside of the United States during World War II.