333^rd Infantry Regiment

The 333rd Infantry was organized with the 84th Infantry Division at Camp Howze in October 1942 and reached France on 1 November 1944. Within two weeks it was in Germany, entering the Geilenkirchen salient fight beside British armor and the division's other regiments. On 19 November the 333rd attacked up the Wurm valley through Geilenkirchen and Sueggerath toward Muellendorf and Wurm. Geilenkirchen fell more easily than expected, but mud, mines, pillboxes, and limited artillery support soon turned the advance into a close fight. On 21-22 November the regiment tried repeatedly to reach Muellendorf. Engineers worked to open the Sueggerath underpass, Crocodile flame tanks helped reduce pillboxes, and one platoon entered Muellendorf after dark, but it was cut off and lost.

The regiment held short of the village while the front stabilized. In the renewed Roer drive on 29 November, the 333rd supported the 335th Infantry by fire and, with the 113th Cavalry, demonstrated against Beeck. On 18 December, after earlier resistance had weakened, the division finally took Wurm and Muellendorf. Shifted to Belgium during the Ardennes crisis, the 333rd helped restore the Marche-Hotton line. Company L joined the Christmas night attack on Verdenne; on 26 December Companies A and B tested the German pocket north of the village before artillery and mortars forced its evacuation.

Returning to Germany, the regiment crossed the Roer in February and in early March reached the Niers Canal at Oedt, crossing near Suechteln as the division advanced to the Rhine. After a defensive period on the west bank, the 333rd joined the April drive through central Germany, moving through the Weser and Leine phase, Hannover, and the Elbe sector. It ended the war after contact with Soviet forces near Below and Abbendorf.