103^rd Infantry Division

The 103rd Infantry Division arrived at Marseille in October 1944 and entered combat in the Vosges in November. It attacked toward Saint-Dié on November 16, crossed the Meurthe River, and cleared the hill mass below the town before the 409th Infantry Regiment seized the evacuated objective on November 22. The division outflanked Steige Pass, drove east in the wake of the 14th Armored Division, and helped clear Selestat in house-to-house fighting in early December before crossing the Lauter River into Germany on December 15.

Campaign map image

World War II Campaign Map of the 103rd Infantry Division. Map courtesy of HistoryShots.

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Shifted to the Sarreguemines sector during the Ardennes crisis, the division then moved to defend the Moder River line against Operation NORDWIND. German attacks on January 22, 1945 pushed it from Offwiller and Rothbach, but the division restored its line by January 26 and held through February.

The offensive resumed on March 15, clearing Zinswiller and Reichshoffen before the division mopped up west of the Rhine and crossed on March 31, swinging south through the Neckar valley. In the final phase it followed the 10th Armored Division into Bavaria, the 411th Infantry capturing Landsberg and the 409th Infantry clearing Schongau before the division opened negotiations with Innsbruck on May 2. The 409th Infantry reached the Inn River at Zirl and Telfs, and on May 4 the division accepted Innsbruck's formal surrender — its patrols moving to the Brenner Pass to effect junction with Fifth Army forces advancing north from Italy, closing one of the last potential German withdrawal routes.