242^nd Infantry Regiment

The 242nd Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, on July 14, 1943, and assigned to the 42nd Infantry Division. It sailed from New York on November 25, 1944, reached France on December 8, and was committed almost immediately as part of Task Force Linden, the provisional forward grouping of the newly arrived division. On December 24 the task force entered the Alsace front near Strasbourg, where the 242nd soon faced the German January offensive.

The regiment's hardest early fighting came at Hatten and Rittershoffen. On January 9, 1945, a German tank-infantry attack overran Hatten in the 242nd sector and reached Rittershoffen before a counterattack drove the enemy back and partly regained the town. The 2nd Battalion was recalled as the battle widened, and elements of the regiment fought under 14th Armored Division control during the prolonged Hatten-Rittershoffen struggle. Company A's Master Sergeant Vito R. Bertoldo received the Medal of Honor for his defense at Hatten on January 9-10. Later in the month, on January 25, the 242nd repulsed a German attack across the Moder against the Kaltenhouse area.

After the 42nd Division entered combat as a complete formation in February, the regiment served near Haguenau, attacked the West Wall at Baerenthal, and entered Germany on March 18. In April it drove along the Main to positions beyond the Bronn River, then held the center of the division's Schweinfurt attack near Werneck and Ettleben while the 232nd and 222nd maneuvered on the flanks. The division's regiments converged on Schweinfurt and cleared the city on April 11. The 242nd then fought through the final Bavarian drive, crossing the Danube with the 232nd at Schaefstall and Altisheim on April 26 before passing through Munich and reaching Austria.