353^rd Infantry Regiment

The 353rd Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Carson, Colorado, on July 15, 1942, and trained with the 89th Division through its light-division period and later standard infantry reorganization. It left Boston on January 10, 1945, landed in France on January 21, crossed into Luxembourg on March 8, and entered Germany on March 10 as the division moved toward the Moselle.

The regiment entered combat on March 16, crossing the Moselle in assault boats in the Bullay area with the 354th Infantry. On the division left, it pressed toward Grenderich and helped form the shallow bridgehead through which the 11th Armored Division soon passed. After clearing southward toward the Nahe, the 353rd joined the March 26 Rhine assault. Its crossing at Oberwesel used assault boats and DUKWs to reinforce the bridgehead while German flares, 20-mm fire, and shelling swept the gorge. Once across, the regiment fought out of the river towns and captured Dorscheid as the division expanded east from the Rhine cliffs.

After the division shifted to the Hersfeld area, the 353rd met strong opposition at Eisenach on April 6, then helped clear the Thuringer Wald and Friedrichroda. On April 11, motorized elements of its 1st Battalion formed part of Task Force Crater with the 89th Reconnaissance Troop and supporting units for the dash through Bad Berka to the Saale near Rothenstein. With the 355th, it cleared the Rothenstein-Beutelsdorf sector west of the Saale on April 13. The regiment then moved east as the division crossed the Weisse-Elster and Weida, reached the Pliesse, and established a Zwick Mulde bridgehead near Zwickau. On April 18 the 353rd took towns east of the autobahn before the advance halted near the Mulde.