The 6th Armored Division landed in Normandy in July 1944 and joined George Patton's Third Army, driving into Brittany where its combat commands raced to isolate and invest Brest before the German garrison could be reinforced. With the port contained, the division shifted east to Lorraine in the autumn, fighting through the river crossings and fortified villages that marked the approach to the Saar as German resistance on the frontier hardened.

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World War II Campaign Map of the 6th Armored Division. Map courtesy of HistoryShots.

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During the Ardennes counteroffensive, the division drove north to the Bastogne sector and entered heavy fighting south and east of the city. Its combat commands fought for Wardin, Mageret, and along the Our River line as Allied forces compressed the German penetration through January 1945.

The division crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim in March 1945 and advanced rapidly into central Germany. Turning east, it drove through Erfurt and toward the Mulde River, where its forward elements established positions facing Soviet forces approaching from the east. Its campaign moved from Brittany's contested ports through Lorraine, the Ardennes, and the Rhine to the final bound of the Allied advance in Germany.