179^th Infantry Regiment

The 179th Infantry, an Oklahoma National Guard regiment in the 45th Infantry Division, landed at Scoglitti in July 1943 and soon became one of the division's main attacking regiments in Sicily. It helped seize Comiso Airfield from the west, pushed north from the Comiso area, and fought across the island during the advance to the north coast and S. Mauro. At Salerno in September the regiment entered some of the hardest early beachhead fighting. Its battalions advanced toward Persano, Ponte Sele, and Highway 19, but German fire from Eboli, Persano, and the Sele-Calore corridor forced withdrawals and left units under armor, artillery, and machine-gun pressure. On September 14 the 179th helped stop German armored thrusts near the corridor and coastal highway, anchoring the division's center during the crisis.

The regiment continued up the Italian peninsula through the Calore-Volturno fighting and the Winter Line, where it took Hill 769 in December 1943. At Anzio it landed on January 22, 1944, attacked to recover the Factory area in February, and helped hold the final beachhead line during the main German counterattack. In the May breakout it screened and advanced east of the Albano Road as the division opened the route toward Rome.

After the southern France landing, the 179th captured Barjols, fought at Meximieux, crossed the Moselle near Arches, and entered the Vosges campaign. Its autumn and winter fighting carried it through Mossoux, Grandvillers, Brouvelieures, the Mortagne River line, Gundershoffen, Reichshoffen, and the defenses along the Moder. In March 1945 the regiment entered Germany with the division and crossed the Rhine north of Worms after the assault waves broke through the first fire line. It helped drive to the Main, then advanced through northern Bavaria, fought in the Nuremberg operation, crossed the Danube, and moved on Munich before the German surrender.