407^th Infantry Regiment

The 407th Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Maxey, Texas, on September 15, 1942, and assigned to the 102nd Infantry Division. After stateside training in Texas, Louisiana, and New Jersey, it staged at Camp Kilmer, departed New York on September 12, 1944, and landed in France on September 23. The regiment entered combat attached to the 29th Infantry Division from October 28 to November 3, then returned to the 102nd as the division assembled along the Wurm-Roer front.

During the late November drive to the Roer, the 407th gave the division its right-hand reach toward the river. On November 30 it cleared Welz, within a mile of the Roer. On December 2 it attacked Roerdorf and Flossdorf, taking Roerdorf; Flossdorf fell the next day as XIII Corps reached the Roer. The regiment then held in the winter line while the division patrolled and trained for crossings. On February 23, 1945, the 407th joined the assault crossing at Roerdorf. A patrol crossed before H-hour and knocked out machine guns facing its sector, but bridge failures and shelling delayed movement of antitank weapons and follow-up elements. Once across, the regiment surprised German troops at Gevenich and held the village while the 405th and 406th absorbed repeated counterattacks around Boslar.

The regiment took Lovenich by February 25 and seized Rheindahlen on February 27 as the 102nd cut through Erkelenz and drove toward the Rhine. After Krefeld and the Rhine defense, the 407th crossed at Wesel in April. It was attached to XIII Corps during parts of February and April and briefly to the 5th Armored Division on April 17-18. East of the Weser, it was motorized to clear the Oberkirchen region, helped reduce resistance in the Wesergebirge, reached the Elbe, and ended the war in Germany.