301^st Infantry Regiment

The 301st Infantry Regiment was organized at Fort Custer, Michigan, on September 15, 1942, and assigned to the 94th Infantry Division. After training at Camp Phillips, the Tennessee Maneuver Area, and Camp McCain, it departed New York on August 6, 1944, reached England on August 11, and landed in France on September 14. Its first combat service came in Brittany, where the division contained the German garrisons at Lorient and St. Nazaire until January 1945.

The regiment entered Germany on January 8, 1945, as the 94th moved into the Saar-Moselle Triangle facing the Orscholz Switch Line. After the 376th and 302nd Infantry Regiments opened the division's January probes, the 301st became central to the effort to broaden the penetration. It fought house to house to capture Sinz on February 7-8, then attacked with the 376th in the Bannholz Woods on February 9-10 but was driven back by German armor and infantry. On February 19 it made the main effort from Sinz toward the hogback ridge and Muenzingen, reaching the crest as the division broke the switch position under mines, shellfire, pillbox fire, rain, and mud.

During the Saar crossing, the 3rd Battalion crossed opposite Serrig on February 22, secured a foothold under confused conditions, and linked with the 302nd's Taben bridgehead by nightfall. The regiment helped expand the Saarburg bridgehead, cleared Beurig on February 26 after the German escape route had been cut, and fought in the bridgehead while the 10th Armored Division drove toward Trier. In March the 301st attacked through the Ruwer-Hunsrueck country, clearing Schillingen, Kell, and Gusenburg as the 94th advanced toward Hermeskeil and Birkenfeld. Withdrawn after the Ludwigshafen phase, it later served on the Rhine and in military government duties near the Ruhr and Dusseldorf.