413^th Infantry Regiment

The 413th Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Adair, Oregon, on August 15, 1942, and assigned to the 104th Infantry Division. After training in Oregon, the California-Arizona maneuver area, Colorado, and New Jersey, it departed New York on August 27, 1944, and landed in France on September 7. The regiment entered combat in the Schelde approaches under British command. On October 27, supported by artillery and British Churchill tanks, the 413th stormed Zundert during the division's first major action and helped open the northward movement toward the Mark and Maas Rivers.

In November the regiment moved with the division to the Aachen sector and entered the Roer plain fighting. After the attack opened on November 16, the 413th advanced through industrial and village terrain north of the Inde. It fought for Puetzlohn and Hill 154 on November 22-23, holding exposed ground against artillery, assault-gun fire, and counterattack. The division then pressed to the Inde and later to the Roer. On February 23, 1945, the 413th crossed the swollen Roer opposite northern Dueren. Some boats overturned or were hit near the crossing sites, but the regiment shifted troops through adjacent sectors, cleared Birkesdorf, captured much of northern Dueren, and helped open the VII Corps bridgehead.

The regiment next helped force the Erft Canal line at Ichendorf, then fought through Cologne. On March 7, its 3d Battalion advanced through the southern outskirts to the Rhine. After the Rhine crossing from the Remagen bridgehead, the 413th overran the airfield east of Eudenbach, followed the 3rd Armored Division in the Ruhr operation, and cleared Forst Hardehausen on April 4. It reached the Weser and crossed at Gieselwerder on April 8, then advanced through central Germany toward Halle, Delitzsch, the Mulde, and the Soviet contact line near Pretzsch.