157^th Infantry Regiment

The 157th Infantry, a Colorado National Guard regiment in the 45th Infantry Division, entered combat in the Sicily landings of July 1943. After the Scoglitti assault it moved against Comiso and Ragusa, helped take Comiso Airfield, and later shifted to the north-coast drive. There it cut Highway 113, fought around Motta and Bloody Ridge, and helped press the German withdrawal toward Messina. At Salerno in September the regiment crossed the Sele toward Eboli, but the fortified Tobacco Factory area stopped the advance. German tanks, artillery, and infantry counterattacks struck the regiment during the beachhead crisis and drove the 1st Battalion back from the factory area.

The 157th carried that experience into the long Italian campaign. It fought through the Calore-Volturno line, Monte Acero, and the winter approaches north of Cassino before landing at Anzio. During the May 1944 breakout it attacked near Carano and the railroad east of the Albano Road, held against an armor-supported counterattack, and then joined the drive that opened the route to Rome. Recommitted in southern France on August 15, 1944, the regiment crossed the Durance, advanced through the Rhone and Moselle corridor, and fought at Girmont, Niederbronn, and the Vosges forest line. In January 1945, during Operation Nordwind, a battalion-sized force northeast of Reipertsweiler was cut off in snow and sleet and largely lost after repeated relief attempts failed.

The regiment recovered for the final drive into Germany. It entered the Reich in March, fought through the West Wall zone, crossed the Rhine with the division, and then took the lead role in clearing Aschaffenburg. For six days the 157th reduced the city block by block with artillery and air support. From there it continued through northern Bavaria, fought into Nuremberg, crossed the Danube, and advanced with the division to Munich.