386^th Infantry Regiment

The 386th Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Swift, Texas, on February 25, 1943, and was one of three infantry regiments of the 97th Infantry Division. After training in Louisiana, Missouri, and California, it staged at Camp Kilmer, sailed from New York on February 19, 1945, reached France on March 1, and entered Germany on March 28. Attached to the 78th Infantry Division from April 5 to April 6, it moved into line as the 97th took over the south bank of the Sieg River and prepared for its first major combat.

After an artillery preparation on April 7, the 386th crossed the Sieg in assault boats and opened the division's drive into the Ruhr Pocket. The regiment fought through the difficult initial crossing and advanced northward as resistance in the pocket compressed. On April 12, during a 386th Infantry attack, Pfc. Joe R. Hastings repeatedly exposed himself to heavy fire while supporting his company with a light machine gun, an action later recognized by a posthumous Medal of Honor. As the 13th Armored Division passed through the 97th's sector, the 386th followed the armor through wooded and well-defended ground. On April 15 the 386th and 387th reached the Berg Neukirchen-Burscheid railway, and the division cleared Solingen before Duesseldorf fell.

Relieved from the Ruhr battle on April 20, the regiment moved with the division to the German-Czechoslovak border. On April 25 the 386th and 387th attacked toward Cheb, which fell the next day. During the final offensive toward Pilsen on May 5, the 386th advanced on the division's right, with the 387th in the center and 303rd on the left. The division took Trstenice, Chodova Plana, Plana, and Bor, invested Stribro, reached its objectives on May 6, and ended the war near Konstantinovy Lazne.