116^th Infantry Regiment

The 116th Infantry Regiment was a Virginia National Guard regiment inducted at Staunton on February 3, 1941 and assigned to the 29th Infantry Division. After training in the United States, it reached England in October 1942. Attached to the 1st Infantry Division for the assault, the regiment landed in the first waves on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Its battalions came ashore between Vierville-sur-Mer and Les Moulins under heavy fire, with Ranger battalions attached for the Pointe du Hoc mission. Elements cleared Vierville and defended the beach exit while other groups fought inland toward St. Laurent.

After the beachhead was secured, the 116th helped relieve the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc and moved west to Grandcamp. In the advance toward St. Lo, it crossed the Elle, entered St. Clair-sur-Elle and Couvains, and then fought on the approaches to Martinville Ridge. In mid-June and July the regiment attacked toward St. Andre-de-l'Epine, Hill 150, and the St. Lo road network, where enemy positions in hedgerows and villages repeatedly broke up forward movement. During the siege of Brest the regiment fought on the Le Conquet Peninsula and was later assigned Fort Montbarey. With engineers and British Crocodile flame-throwing tanks, it helped reduce that fortified position, opening the Recouvrance defenses.

The regiment's Rhineland fighting was equally hard. In October 1944 it fought in the Uebach bridgehead and then was attached in the Aachen Gap battle, attacking through Wuerselen against artillery, dug-in armor, and strong urban defenses. In November it seized Engelsdorf and fought for Koslar during the 29th Division's drive toward the Roer; elements in Koslar became isolated and had to be supplied by air. After the winter line on the Roer, the 116th rejoined the division's February-March 1945 advance across the Cologne plain. It helped take Muenchen-Gladbach with the 175th Infantry and later served briefly with the 75th Infantry Division before ending the war in northern Germany near Lehe.