325^th Glider Infantry Regiment

The 325th Glider Infantry entered the war as part of the 82nd's conversion from triangular infantry division to airborne division. After North African staging, it landed in Sicily and then moved back through North Africa and Sicily before joining the Salerno campaign. During the beachhead crisis, while the parachute regiments were flown into the VI Corps perimeter, the 325th came forward by landing craft and gave the line badly needed infantry strength as the beachhead stabilized and the division moved toward Naples. In Normandy the regiment became central to the 82nd's Merderet fighting. Elements arrived through the beachhead and by glider, and on 9 June the regiment helped force the La Fiere causeway and establish the west-bank bridgehead after costly fighting under mortar, artillery, and machine-gun fire. The 325th then advanced with the 505th toward St. Sauveur-le-Vicomte, reached the Douve on 16 June, and helped open the westward drive across the Cotentin.

In Holland, delayed glider arrivals brought the regiment into the Nijmegen-Groesbeek battle after the first parachute assault. It relieved the 505th and fought on the southern high ground near Kiekberg as the division defended the Waal bridgehead. In the Ardennes it moved rapidly into the Werbomont sector, sent a battalion toward Hotton, held reserve and blocking positions around Manhay, and later fought through the Salm and Herresbach phase of the campaign. The regiment finished the war with the division's February fighting near the Roer, Rhine security duty, and the April-May advance from the Elbe toward the German surrender in central Germany. Its record was that of a glider infantry regiment repeatedly used as hard infantry once an airborne lodgment had to be held and enlarged.