232^nd Infantry Regiment

The 232nd Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, on July 14, 1943, with the 42nd Infantry Division. It staged at Camp Kilmer, departed New York on November 25, 1944, and reached France on December 7. The division was committed before all its elements had arrived, so the regiment first fought as part of Task Force Linden on the Alsace front. In late December it helped take over the broad Rhine sector near Strasbourg. During the January 1945 German offensive, elements along the canal east of Weyersheim were pulled back to organize the defense of the town as the 42nd Division and neighboring units fought to contain the Hatten-Rittershoffen and Gambsheim threats.

After the full division entered combat near Haguenau in February, the 232nd joined the March attack through the West Wall at Baerenthal and crossed into Germany on March 18. In the early April advance to the Main it fought in the Wertheim-Marktheidenfeld area, cleared west of the river, and forced a crossing at Homburg. At Wuerzburg the 232nd followed the 222nd into the city on April 4, crossing under smoke after engineers restored the bridge route. It worked north and east through the city as the last organized resistance was broken.

The regiment then took a leading role in the Schweinfurt operation. On April 9 it advanced on the division left to the Alt Bessingen-Schwebenried line, and on April 10 circled north of Schweinfurt, overrunning Zell and Hambach before the division's regiments converged and cleared the city. The 232nd moved with the 222nd to the Aisch River near Neustadt on April 15, fought into Fuerth and the Nuremberg battle, and then turned south. On April 26 it crossed the Danube with the 242nd at Schaefstall and Altisheim, opening the division's final drive through Bavaria toward Munich and Austria.