395^th Infantry Regiment

The 395th Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, on November 15, 1942, and trained with the 99th Infantry Division before entering Germany on November 12, 1944. It fought on the V Corps front in the Monschau Forest. On December 13, during the Roer dams offensive, two battalions attacked beside the 2nd Infantry Division toward the West Wall bunker belt southeast of Wahlerscheid. They advanced through deep snow, forest, mines, wire, and log bunkers, gaining some ground but taking losses in the difficult subsidiary attack.

When the Ardennes counteroffensive opened, the regiment held the northern shoulder of the division line. The 3rd Battalion defended Hoefen, where repeated attacks by the 326th Volks Grenadier Division failed on December 16 and again on December 18. Concentrated artillery, mortars, tank destroyers, and local counterattacks restored the line after German infantry entered the village; the battalion received a Presidential Unit Citation for the action. Elsewhere the regiment withdrew and countermarched amid confused orders but helped preserve the Elsenborn defense. In February the 395th was attached briefly to the 1st Infantry Division near Hellenthal.

In March 1945 the regiment served with the 3rd Armored Division at the Pfaffendorf bridgehead, then returned as the division reached the Rhine, taking Udesheim on March 6. In the Remagen bridgehead the 395th drove east on the southern flank, reached the Wied River on March 17, and crossed it with the 393rd on March 22. It then advanced past Kurtscheid toward the Cologne-Frankfurt highway and the Dill. During the Ruhr Pocket reduction it cleared the Saalhausen-Langener sector. In Bavaria it followed the 14th Armored Division toward Allersberg and the Altmuehl, crossed the Danube after the Eining bridgehead was enlarged, and crossed the Isar near Moosburg to cover bridging operations before the final advance to the Inn.