505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment

The 505th Parachute Infantry became one of the 82nd Airborne Division's principal assault regiments from Sicily through Germany. Activated in 1942 and assigned to the division in February 1943, it made its first combat jump during Operation Husky on the night of 9-10 July 1943. Dropped widely across southeastern Sicily, the regiment and the attached 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry, still disrupted enemy communications, fought around road junctions and Ponte Dirillo, and supported the seizure of the Ponte Olivo airfield area by the 1st Infantry Division. At Salerno the 505th parachuted into the beachhead on the night of 14 September, assembled near Paestum, and reinforced the southern flank as the German attack lost force.

In Normandy the regiment jumped behind Utah Beach on 6 June 1944. It fought through the Merderet lodgment, captured Montebourg Station on 10 June, and advanced with the 325th Glider Infantry to St. Sauveur-le-Vicomte on 16 June, helping push the division across the Cotentin. In Holland the 505th dropped south of Groesbeek, secured Groesbeek and nearby ridge positions, sent patrols toward the Heumen and Malden canal bridges, and later helped defend the Nijmegen-Groesbeek high ground against German counterattacks at Riethorst, Mook, and Kiekberg. Elements also fought into Nijmegen with British armor as the Waal bridges were taken.

In the Ardennes the regiment moved into the Trois Ponts sector, reinforced the engineer-held crossings, and held a long Salm River front as German forces tried to reopen routes to Kampfgruppe Peiper. After the Vielsalm withdrawal it fought through the Bra, Salm, Comte, and Herresbach phase, then served in the Roer, Rhine, and Elbe operations before returning to Fort Bragg after the war. Its record linked the division's earliest parachute combat to its final ground campaigns in Germany.