415^th Infantry Regiment

The 415th Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Adair, Oregon, on August 15, 1942, and assigned to the 104th Infantry Division. After training in Oregon, the desert 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. After Zundert fell, the 415th led the division northward, reached the Mark River on October 30, and attempted to seize the Standdaarbuiten crossing. Its first effort failed when the bridge was blown, and 1st Battalion's October 31 boat crossing was encircled and withdrawn. After heavy artillery preparation, the regiment crossed on November 2 and helped establish the bridgehead.

Moved to Germany, the 415th fought in the Roer plain campaign. It supported the November attack toward the Donnersberg and Eschweiler sector, then returned to a major assault role during the December drive to the Roer. Before dawn on December 11, a battalion executed a carefully controlled night attack toward Merken, using artillery markers and surprise to seize a hamlet northwest of the town and then Merken itself. That move opened the southern approach to Pier and helped the division complete its advance to the Roer.

On February 23, 1945, the 415th crossed the Roer on the division's north wing, taking Huchem and Stammeln and pushing to the Dueren-Juelich railroad while engineers struggled under fire to bridge the flooded river. The regiment fought the battle for Arnoldsweiler on February 24-25, then advanced with the division through the Erft and Cologne operations. East of the Rhine it joined the Ruhr campaign, fought at Kuestelberg on April 2-3, crossed the Weser at Bursfelde on April 7, and later captured Bitterfeld. It finished the war along the Mulde after contact with Soviet forces.