254^th Infantry Regiment

The 254th Infantry Regiment was activated with the 63rd Infantry Division at Camp Blanding on June 15, 1943, and reached France in December 1944. Unlike the division's other regiments, it spent much of its first combat phase detached, serving with the veteran 3rd Infantry Division during the Colmar Pocket campaign. In January 1945 it moved through the 3rd Division's bridgehead system north of Colmar, attacked toward Jebsheim, and helped clear that communications center after repeated German armor-supported counterattacks in the Riedwihr-Jebsheim area. From Jebsheim the regiment pushed east toward the Rhone-Rhine Canal and the Rhine while the pocket collapsed.

After a short attachment to the 100th Infantry Division, the 254th returned to the 63rd for the Saar-Palatinate offensive. On March 15 the division attacked the West Wall southeast of Saarbruecken. By March 20 the 254th had reached Ober Wuerzbach as the division broke through near St. Ingbert. A reinforced task force built around the regiment's 3rd Battalion was assigned to clear the Neukirchen area while armor exploited through the gap toward Homburg and the Rhine.

The regiment crossed the Rhine with the division late in March and entered the fast-moving campaign through southwestern Germany. After relieving the 44th Division near Heidelberg, the 63rd advanced into the Jagst-Kocher region. The 254th established a bridgehead across the Kocher near Ingelfingen, consolidated around Kuenzelsau, and cleared south toward Kupferzell and Rueblingen as the division opened routes for the 10th Armored Division. In the final April drive it advanced through Schwaebisch Hall, the Rems crossing, and the movement to the Danube. At Riedheim the regiment crossed on a damaged bridge and held against a German armored counterattack before the division left the line for security duty.