The 262nd Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Blanding on April 15, 1943, assigned to the 66th Infantry Division, and trained at Camp Joseph T. Robinson and Camp Rucker before moving overseas. It reached England on November 26, 1944, and landed in France on December 25. The division's arrival was marked by heavy losses when a troopship was torpedoed in the English Channel, but the 66th was still sent into the Brittany-Loire area to take over a containment mission from the 94th Infantry Division.
The regiment's wartime role differed sharply from that of assault divisions moving across Germany. The 66th Division became the 12th Army Group Coastal Sector, controlled French forces in the area, and contained the German garrisons sealed inside the Lorient and St. Nazaire pockets. For the 262nd, this meant positional warfare along a static front: manning defensive sectors, conducting reconnaissance patrols, supporting limited objective attacks, maintaining pressure on German outposts, and helping keep the pocket forces from interfering with Allied communications in western France.
In March 1945 the coastal sector passed under Fifteenth Army as the main Allied armies drove beyond the Rhine. The division continued its siege mission. A German counterattack near La Croix was repulsed on April 16, and several strongpoints were captured between April 19 and 29, but the purpose remained containment rather than a general assault. Lorient and St. Nazaire surrendered in May 1945. The 262nd later entered Germany for occupation duty.
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