264^th Infantry Regiment

The 264th Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Blanding on April 15, 1943, as part of the 66th Infantry Division. It trained at Camp Joseph T. Robinson and Camp Rucker, staged through Camp Shanks, and sailed from New York in November 1944. The regiment reached England on November 26 and landed in France on December 25, as the division was arriving in the Cherbourg area. The crossing was overshadowed by the torpedoing of a troopship carrying division personnel, but the 66th was still committed quickly to an active containment mission in western France.

After the division relieved the 94th Infantry Division on December 29, the 264th served in the Brittany-Loire sector against the German-held Atlantic pockets. The division was designated the 12th Army Group Coastal Sector, with American and French forces assigned to hold Lorient and St. Nazaire in isolation. The regiment's work was static but not passive. It helped hold defensive lines facing fortified port garrisons, sent patrols forward, supported limited objective attacks, and maintained pressure through artillery and interdiction so the Germans could not break out or threaten Allied rear areas.

The sector became part of Fifteenth Army on March 31, 1945. On April 16 the division repulsed a heavy German counterattack near La Croix, and during the last ten days of April it captured several German strongpoints. These actions remained local because the Allied purpose was containment rather than a costly assault on the enclaves. Lorient and St. Nazaire surrendered in May after the collapse of Germany. The 264th entered Germany only after the fighting ended, then served in occupation duty in the Koblenz area.