315^th Infantry Regiment

The 315th Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Pickett on June 15, 1942, assigned to the 79th Infantry Division, and trained in Florida, Tennessee, California, Kansas, and Massachusetts before sailing from Boston on April 7, 1944. It reached England that month and landed in France on June 14. In the Cherbourg campaign, the regiment attacked with the 313th Infantry on June 19, was halted southwest of Valognes, and contained the town from the west while the division closed on the fortress-city. It then fought through the Cherbourg, Ollonde, La Haye-du-Puits, and Cotentin coastal operations.

During the August pursuit, the 315th followed the division through Laval and Le Mans and crossed the Seine at Mantes-Gassicourt in trucks after the treadway bridge opened on August 20. In Lorraine it converged on Neufchateau on September 13, helped close the division on the Moselle, and entered the Luneville-Parroy fighting. At Luneville on September 22 the regiment lost and then recovered part of the town. In the Foret de Parroy campaign it was temporarily isolated around the main road junction on October 5 before the division forced the German withdrawal and secured the junction four days later.

The regiment resumed the offensive from the Montigny area in November, crossed the Vezouse with the division, and fought through Fremonville, Haguenau, Wissembourg, and the Lauter defenses. In January 1945 it was attached to the 14th Armored Division during the Hatten-Rittershoffen fighting, after German attacks forced it from both towns. On March 24 the 315th assaulted across the Rhine beside the 313th, pushed rapidly past the first railroad to Dinslaken, and helped form a bridgehead more than three miles deep. It later fought to the Rhine-Herne Canal, crossed into the Ruhr Pocket, and ended combat duty in the Dortmund area.