2^nd Infantry Regiment

The 2nd Infantry Regiment entered the 5th Infantry Division in October 1939 and trained at Fort McClellan, Fort Benning, Camp Beauregard, Fort Wayne, and Fort Custer before overseas service. It sailed from New York in February 1942, served on Iceland security duty, moved to England in August 1943, and landed in France on July 9, 1944. After the division entered the line from Utah Beach, the regiment shared in the Caumont-Vidouville fighting and the summer drive through western and central France toward Angers, Chartres, the Seine, Rheims, and Verdun.

Its hardest early campaign came before Metz. In September 1944 the regiment attacked along the Amanvillers-Verneville-Gravelotte line, where mines, pillboxes, artillery fire, and counterattacks stopped the advance short of the main fortress belt. The 2nd Battalion held Verneville, the 1st Battalion reached the edge of Amanvillers, and the regiment continued frontal pressure while the rest of the division fought for Moselle bridgeheads at Dornot and Arnaville. Elements later reinforced the costly Fort Driant fight. In November the 2nd Infantry formed the right wing of the renewed Metz operation, moved toward the Nied Francaise, took Ancerville, and helped the division close on the city.

In December the regiment moved from the Saarlautern sector into the Ardennes southern shoulder. In the broken ground west of the Sauer it attacked toward the Mullerthal, Kalkesbach, Berdorf, and the hill mass beside the river. By December 27 its battalions had fought through Berdorf and reached the Hamm Farm and Birkelt Farm areas. In 1945 the regiment crossed the Pruem near Peffingen, helped expand the Kyll bridgehead, and crossed the Moselle on March 14 with the 11th Infantry, seizing Treis, Lutz, and Eveshausen. It advanced through the Rhine-Main region, reached the Ruhr River on April 12, and ended the war in the final drive through Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria.