290^th Infantry Regiment

The 290th Infantry Regiment was activated with the 75th Infantry Division at Fort Leonard Wood on April 15, 1943, trained in the United States, and arrived in France on December 13, 1944. It crossed into Holland on December 18 and Belgium the next day, then entered battle attached to the 3rd Armored Division. Its first action came north of Hotton and around Petit Han, where the regiment was ordered from a defensive position to assemble at Ny for an attack south of the Soy-Hotton road. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions crossed a ravine and open, snow-covered ground toward a wooded ridge in the dark and early morning of December 25. The attack cost the new regiment heavily, but the battalions reached cover at the foot of the ridge, reorganized with tank-destroyer and infantry support, and carried onto the objective.

The regiment remained in the Ardennes through late December and then passed through successive attachments to the 83rd and 84th Infantry Divisions in the counteroffensive period. With the 75th Division it shifted to Alsace, where the division crossed the Colmar Canal on February 1, 1945, drove through the Foret Domaniale and canal belt, and reached the Rhine near Neuf-Brisach. After refitting near Luneville, the 290th reentered Belgium and Holland, briefly served under British airborne control, and moved into Germany on March 10.

Its 1st Battalion crossed the Rhine on March 24 to help defend the bridgehead behind the 30th and 79th Division assaults; the regiment then operated with the 30th Infantry Division and 8th Armored Division during the breakout. On April 1 the 289th and 290th attacked through pinned armored elements to the Dortmund-Ems Canal near Datteln. The 290th joined the canal crossing and Ruhr operations, reached Witten with the division, and ended the war on occupation duty in Westphalia.