Campaign Stories

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France, Rhineland-Vosges

The Vosges Battles as Experienced by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team

Background The following is an extract from:  Shirey, Orville C. Americans: The Story of the 442nd Combat Team.  Infantry Journal: Washington, D.C., 1946. This narrative was researched and written by 442nd RCT soldiers in their headquarters at Livorno, Italy, while on occupation duty in 1945 after the war had ended.  They had direct access to all the Combat Team’s records in the unit’s files.  Captain Orville C. Shirey was the 442nd Headquarters officer in charge of this unit history project. After return to the US, he published this history in the Infantry Journal, a publication of the United States Infantry Association. Sectioning of this narrative by date has been added. Also the names of soldiers who were killed in action or died of wounds for...

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France, Rhineland-Vosges

Rhineland-Vosges Campaign Overview

Introduction Before drilling into the details of the 442nd’s battles in the Vosges Mountains, it is important to understand the bigger picture of the tactical situation.  The following describes the U.S. Army units who were fighting to break through the densely wooded mountains into the Alsace plains to the east and across the Rhine River into central and southern Germany.  The Nazi forces defending this mountain barrier, and their advantages of terrain, weather, manpower, and weapons are described.  This “bigger picture” is followed by a day-by-day narrative of the 442nd’s battles in this campaign, as written in 1945 while the 442nd was on occupation duty following the end of the war. U.S. 7th Army Tactical Situation Background The following is a direct extract from:  Keith...

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Germany, Central Europe

Solly Ganor Rescued by Nisei

On September 5, 2013, Eric Saul wrote to his email audience: Dear Friends, I wanted to take out a few moments and send you some material that I thought might be of interest to you. I just received a letter from Mr. Solly Ganor, who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.  He is a child survivor of the Holocaust from Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania.  He survived one of the most brutal Nazi occupations in Europe.  He was a survivor of the Kovno Ghetto and several camps of the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp.  His mother and brother were murdered by the Nazis during the war.  More than 92% of the Jews of Lithuania were murdered by the Nazi occupiers. In 1992, I started actively researching the role of...

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Italy, Po Valley

Po Valley Heroes

The following quote is one example of many where a commander of soldiers writes of the horribleness of war (the “plague of Mankind” refers to war). My first wish is, to see this plague to Mankind banished from the Earth; & the Sons & daughters of this World employed in more pleasing & innocent amusements than in preparing implements, & exercising them for the destruction of the human race. George Washington in a letter to his former aide-de-camp David Humphreys, July 25, 1785, written nearly 2 years after the end of the Revolutionary War. The 442nd RCT and the Po Valley Campaign, April-May 1945This is a synopsis of several written accounts of the Po Valley Campaign; links are provided below. The stories that are summarized...

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France, Southern France

442nd Anti-Tank Company in Operation Dragoon

The Flight of the Anti-Tank Company (photo courtesy of the U.S. Army) The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was an U.S. Army infantry unit, as we the friends and family of the 442nd veterans know. Not all may know, however, that just weeks after the 442nd arrived in Italy and entered combat in June of 1944, the men of the Anti-Tank Company were separated from their 442nd brethren to be trained as glider troops taking to the air to transport anti-tank guns, Jeeps and ammunition. Here are some details of the flight of the Anti-Tank Company. For general background, the 442nd HQ, 2nd and 3rd Battalions had all arrived in Italy by mid-June 1944. The battle hardened 100th Infantry Battalion was attached to the 442nd RCT...

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France, Rhineland-Vosges

Overview of the Vosges Battles

RHINELAND CAMPAIGN-VOSGES (October 10, 1944 – November 21, 1944) There were five major battle campaigns that were fought by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, of which the Rhineland Campaign-Vosges was one of them.  The 442nd arrived in France in October 1944 to join the 36th Division as part of the 7th Army, after fighting in and then leaving Italy, where the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) had become the “1st Battalion” of the RCT and was no longer “Separate”.  At this point in time, the Allies were about 40 miles from the France/Germany border, and the Vosges Mountains brought a new type of terrain experience for the 442nd soldiers. In order to proceed ahead toward the border, the soldiers needed to secure the town of Bruyères. ...

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France, Rhineland-Maritime Alps (Champaign)

From the Vosges to the Riviera

October 30, 1944 was a Monday, but for many with a sense of history it is the day the 442nd RCT reached the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment in what has come to be known as the “Rescue of the Lost Battalion.”  This is a short summary of the movements of the 442nd following the brutal fighting in the Vosges Mountains, including the Rescue. According to historical information in the National Archives, the 100th Infantry Battalion was detached from the RCT on November 10 and was sent to Nice on the southern coast of France.  The rest of the 442nd RCT was given relief on November 17 after the more than one month of fighting in the Vosges.  They traveled by truck a distance of...

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France, Rhineland-Maritime Alps (Champaign)

Jan 1945 Action Reports

The Champagne Campaign in the French Maritime Alps, Part 2 A brief summary of the “Champagne Campaign” was included in the November 2017 E-newsletter.  The 100th/442nd was assigned to protect the right flank of the Sixth Army Group along the French-Italian border in the French Maritime Alps from November 1944 to March 1945.  Despite the use of the term “champagne” and the liberty granted many of the men to Nice, Paris, and other French towns and cities, there was still war at hand and daily patrols and fighting took place. Excerpts from the Headquarters 442nd Regimental Combat Team Monthly Historical Report for the month of January 1945 will serve to highlight some of what the men lived through during this “campaign.” New Year’s Day 1945,...

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