11^th Infantry Regiment

The 11th Infantry Regiment trained with the 5th Infantry Division at Fort McClellan, Fort Benning, Camp Beauregard, Fort Benjamin Harrison, and Fort Custer, while detached companies served in Bermuda and Trinidad in 1941. It sailed from New York in April 1942, performed security duty in Iceland, moved to England in August 1943, and landed in France on July 9, 1944. With the division it entered combat from Normandy, fought near Caumont and Vidouville, and joined the pursuit through Angers, Chartres, Montereau, Rheims, and Verdun.

The regiment's defining Lorraine battles began at the Moselle. On September 8, 1944, the 2nd Battalion crossed east of Dornot and established a tiny bridgehead under fire from German positions on both banks. For three days its companies held a horseshoe-shaped pocket against repeated counterattacks before withdrawal, badly cut up but still intact. The regiment then fought inside the Arnaville bridgehead, helping defend the perimeter after the 10th Infantry's successful crossing. Later that month the 11th opened the attack on Fort Driant. On October 3, Company B forced into the fort area and Company G followed, but the defenders used tunnels, concrete works, artillery, and night counterattacks to stop the assault. The operation was abandoned after heavy losses.

In November the regiment returned to the Metz battle. It captured Prayelle Farm, fought at Frescaty airfield, contained the Verdun forts, and took Fort St. Privat before pushing into Metz with the 10th Infantry. In December, after moving from Saarlautern into the Ardennes southern shoulder, the 11th advanced in white camouflage toward Haller, then fought through Hardthof, Hohwald, Beaufort, and the ground overlooking the Sauer withdrawal routes. In 1945 it cut the Bitburg-Trier highway, cleared to the Kyll, crossed the Moselle with the 2nd Infantry, reached Oppenheim and Nierstein, crossed the Rhine on March 22, and finished the war in the drive through Germany into Czechoslovakia and Austria.