180^th Infantry Regiment

The 180th Infantry, an Oklahoma National Guard regiment of the 45th Infantry Division, entered combat in Sicily after the Scoglitti landings. Its early movement was uneven, but the regiment reorganized, secured Biscari, and then became central to the north-coast advance. Passing through the 157th, it fought over difficult ground at Pizzo Spina, reached Tusa, and made early attempts to force the Tusa River before the division shifted units for the final push toward Santo Stefano and Messina. At Salerno the 180th arrived after the first crisis had begun, assembled near Monte Soprano, and served as a fresh reserve while German counterattacks pressed the beachhead.

In the advance up Italy the regiment fought through the Calore-Volturno sector and the Winter Line. It captured Monte la Posta in December 1943 and later attacked the hills north of Cassino along the S. Elia road. At Anzio the 180th joined the May breakout, reached objectives northwest of Carano, overran a German panzer-grenadier battalion, and captured its commander. In the subsequent drive toward Rome, it followed armor toward Campoleone Station but was held when tanks bypassed German strongpoints that still covered the infantry route with automatic fire.

After landing in southern France, the 180th fought through the Rhone-Moselle advance and played a major role in the Epinal operation. It cleared western Epinal, crossed near the city, and later forced a Mortagne River bridgehead east of Fremifontaine during the Vosges fighting. At Mertzwiller in December it was caught in a sharp German counterattack before the division settled into the Alsace winter line. In March 1945 the regiment entered Germany and crossed the Rhine north of Worms under heavy fire. Its follow-up assault waves lost many boats, but the regiment broke inland and continued through the Main, Nuremberg, Danube, and Munich operations.