49^th Armored Infantry Regiment

The 49th Armored Infantry Regiment was activated at Fort Knox, Kentucky, on April 1, 1942, and assigned to the 8th Armored Division. It moved with the division's stateside training program to Camp Campbell, Kentucky, in January 1943 and to Camp Polk, Louisiana, in March. Its regiment-level service came during the period when the Army was still organizing armored divisions around regiments.

The regiment did not deploy overseas or fight as a regiment. On September 20, 1943, at Camp Polk, it was reorganized into the armored division's battalion structure. The regiment, less the 1st and 2nd Battalions, became the 49th Armored Infantry Battalion; the 1st Battalion became the 58th Armored Infantry Battalion, and the 2nd Battalion became the 7th Armored Infantry Battalion. When the 8th Armored Division reached France in January 1945 and later fought in the Moselle-Saar salient, across the Roer and Rhine, in the Ruhr Pocket, and in the Harz Mountains, its infantry operated as these battalion-era units. The 49th Armored Infantry Regiment's own history is therefore limited to activation, training, movement, and reorganization.