The 342nd Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Howze, Texas, on December 15, 1942, and remained assigned to the 86th Infantry Division through its stateside training. After maneuvers in Louisiana and camps in Louisiana and California, it staged at Camp Myles Standish, sailed from Boston on February 19, 1945, landed in France on March 1, and entered Germany on March 27. Its combat record was concentrated in the war's last weeks, as the division moved from the Rhine into the Ruhr pocket and then into Bavaria.
The 342nd opened the division's first attack on April 9, advancing north through a narrow zone to the Hotolpe-Altenhundem area while the 341st returned from attachment to the 97th Infantry Division. It pressed northwest toward Attendorn on April 10 and overran the town on April 11. The division then formed Task Force Pope from a reinforced 3rd Battalion, 342nd Infantry, on the night of April 12 to drive through the 8th Infantry Division toward Luedenscheid. On April 13 the regiment seized Luedenscheid and moved toward Hohenlimburg, which it took as the 86th reduced the Ruhr pocket.
On April 24 the 342nd attacked with the 341st in the renewed southward drive, reached Eichstatt and the Altmuhl River, and crossed on April 26. It then sped to the Danube at Ingolstadt and crossed the same day, placing the regiment among the division's leading elements in Bavaria. Foot elements of the 342nd crossed the Isar by April 30, continued to the Mittl Isar Canal, and began crossing near Eitting. On May 1 the regiment advanced on the division's left from the canal toward Erding while Task Force Pope headed for Wasserburg. It later redeployed through the United States to the Philippines, where it was inactivated on December 30, 1946.
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