76^th Infantry Division

The 76th Infantry Division landed at Le Havre in January 1945 and moved into Luxembourg, relieving the 87th Infantry Division along the Sauer and Moselle near Echternach on January 25. The 417th Infantry Regiment attacked across the Sauer on February 7, battling through Echternachbrück and the West Wall pillboxes before taking Ernzen with the 5th Infantry Division by February 14. The division then crossed the Prüm and Nims Rivers in late February, the 385th Infantry operating as Task Force Onaway to outmaneuver the western approaches before the division reached the Rhine by mid-March.

Crossing at Boppard on March 26-27, its regiments fought house-to-house through Kamberg against German officer-candidate forces before the advance resumed. Moving east behind the 6th Armored Division through Thuringia, the division fought for Zeitz over April 13-15 and then raced to take over the 6th Armored's bridgehead across the Mulde near Chemnitz. Holding the Zwickau-Mulde line against Soviet forces approaching from the east, the division remained on the war's easternmost American halt line when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.

Its campaign — from the winter crossing of the Sauer to the Mulde River contact line — reflected the rapid transformation from deliberate West Wall operations to the breakneck advance that carried American forces to the center of Europe in a matter of weeks.