36^th Armored Infantry Regiment

The 36th Armored Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, on April 15, 1941, as the 36th Infantry Regiment (Armored), assigned to the 3rd Armored Division. It moved to Camp Polk and became the 36th Armored Infantry Regiment on January 1, 1942. After training in California, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, the regiment sailed from New York on August 27, 1943, reached England on September 16, and landed in France on June 25, 1944.

The regiment entered combat as the 3rd Armored Division moved into the Normandy battle. A battalion and regimental headquarters served in Combat Command B during the Airel bridgehead operation in early July, when the command had to push thousands of men and vehicles through a narrow, congested crossing under enemy fire. The division then fought through the Villiers-Fossard salient, Haut-Vents, Marigny, Gavray, Brecey, St. Pois, Domfront, Ranes, and Fromenthal before crossing the Seine below Paris and joining the pursuit across the Marne and Aisne. Armored infantry from the regiment gave the division the dismounted strength needed to clear towns, hedgerows, roadblocks, and high ground that tanks could not hold alone.

In September 1944 the regiment fought in the division's drive into Belgium and the West Wall. The 3rd Armored Division seized Huy, cleared Liege, reached Verviers, and battled through Roetgen, Stolberg, Geisberg Hill, Weissenberg Hill, Muensterbusch Hill, and the Aachen approaches. During the Ardennes counteroffensive the regiment served in the division's defense and counterattacks around Eupen, Stoumont, La Gleize, Hotton, Grandmenil, Sadzot, Bihain, Gouvy, and Beho. In 1945 it advanced from the Elle River bridgehead to the Rhine, fought in the capture of Cologne, crossed the Rhine, helped close the Ruhr Pocket near Paderborn, and pushed east to the Weser, Mulde, and Dessau before relief along the Mulde in late April.