The 322nd Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Rucker, Alabama, on June 15, 1942, and assigned to the 81st Infantry Division. After training in Tennessee and California, it staged through Camp Stoneman, sailed from San Francisco on June 29, 1944, reached Hawaii on July 4, and moved by Guadalcanal to the Palaus. On September 17 it assaulted Angaur's northern Red Beach while the 321st Infantry landed to the south and the 323rd feinted off the west coast. The regiment pushed inland against light initial fire, cleared Cape Pkul a Mlagalp, and advanced through abandoned defenses toward Lake Aztec and the phosphate plant.
On September 18 and 19 the 322nd fought through increasing resistance as Japanese forces withdrew into the northwestern hill mass. Its 1st and 2nd Battalions moved through swamp, rail cuts, and broken coral terrain toward the phosphate plant, Shrine Hill, Lighthouse Hill, and the Lake Salome Bowl. What first appeared to be final mop-up became a prolonged reduction of prepared defenses. The regiment probed the bowl from the Western Railroad defile, the east, and the coast while Japanese artillery, mortars, machine guns, caves, and ridge positions blocked rapid movement.
From September 21 into October the 322nd carried the main Angaur fight. It broke into the Lake Salome Bowl, withdrew from untenable positions, shifted approaches, and used artillery, naval air, tanks, engineers, and close-in fire to compress the remaining defenders. On September 28 it suffered its highest single-day losses on Angaur. After further bombardment and deception, the regiment resumed its final assault on October 13, and organized resistance ended on October 21. It moved to Peleliu on October 19, remained there until December, then rehabilitated in New Caledonia. In May 1945 it landed on Leyte, trained, helped mop up northwestern areas, and later entered Japan for occupation duty.
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