55^th Armored Infantry Regiment

The 55th Armored Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Polk, Louisiana, on August 15, 1942, and assigned to the 11th Armored Division. It moved to the Louisiana Maneuver Area in June 1943 and then to Camp Barkeley, Texas, in August, training during the Army's conversion of armored divisions from regimental to battalion-based structures.

The regiment had no separate overseas combat record. On September 20, 1943, at Camp Barkeley, it was reorganized. The regiment, less the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, became the 55th Armored Infantry Battalion; the 3rd Battalion was disbanded; and the 1st and 2nd Battalions became the 63rd and 21st Armored Infantry Battalions. These successor battalions later served with the 11th Armored Division after its arrival in Europe, including the Ardennes fighting, the West Wall, the Rhine approaches, central Germany, Bavaria, and Austria. The 55th Armored Infantry Regiment's own history should therefore be treated as a stateside training and reorganization record, not as a combat-regiment narrative.