10^th Infantry Regiment

The 10th Infantry Regiment served with the 5th Infantry Division from the prewar Regular Army through the end of the European campaign. After training at Fort Thomas, Fort McClellan, Fort Benning, Camp Beauregard, and Fort Custer, it sailed from New York in September 1941 and spent nearly two years on Iceland security duty. The regiment moved to England in August 1943 and landed in France on July 9, 1944. In Normandy and the pursuit across France it fought as part of the division as the 5th moved from Caumont and Vidouville through Angers, Chartres, the Seine crossing at Montereau, Rheims, and Verdun.

The regiment's decisive September fight came at Arnaville. On September 10, 1944, it crossed the Moselle between Noveant and Arnaville, surprising the defenders and establishing a bridgehead east of the river. The 1st Battalion took Hill 386, the 2nd Battalion took Hill 370 and the Bois de Gaumont, and the regiment held through tank-infantry counterattacks while engineers fought to bridge the river under shellfire. The 10th and 11th later defended the Arnaville perimeter against renewed German attacks. During the Fort Driant operation, the 1st Battalion relieved exhausted 11th Infantry companies and joined the costly attempt to expand the foothold on the fort.

In November the 10th Infantry stood in the center of the division's renewed Metz attack. It helped reduce Fort Aisne, Bois de l'Hospital, Marly, and Fort Queuleu, then pushed into Metz with the 11th Infantry on November 18. In December it fought in the Saarlautern-Sauer phase, moving through difficult woods, draws, mines, shellfire, and cold toward Hill 313 and Echternach. In 1945 the regiment crossed the Pruem near Peffingen, took Gondorf and Huettingen during the Kyll bridgehead operation, and drove east with the division. On March 26 it captured Rhine-Main airport outside Frankfurt, later attacked Arnsberg, and finished the war in the advance into Czechoslovakia and Austria.