318th Infantry Regiment History Wwii

Daily Operational History of the 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, during WWII. Includes maps and casualty figures.

A young soldier’s memoirs of fighting in WWII: “Fascinating . . . A personal record like this is a valuable resource to anyone interested in the period”(Military Model Scene). After the Citadel and Officer Candidate School, Andrew Z. Adkins Jr., was sent to the 80th Infantry Division, then training in the California-Arizona desert. There, he was assigned as an 81mm mortar section leader in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 317th Infantry Regiment. When the division completed training in December 1943, it was shipped in stages to the United Kingdom and then Normandy, where it landed on August 3, 1944. Lieutenant Adkins and his fellow soldiers took part in light hedgerow fighting that served to shake the division down and familiarize the troops and their officers with combat. The first real test came within weeks, when the 2nd Battalion, 317th Infantry, attacked high ground near Argentan during the drive to seal German forces in the Falaise Pocket. While scouting for mortar positions in the woods, Adkins met a group of Germans and shot one of them dead with his carbine. This baptism in blood settled the question faced by every novice combatant: He was cool under fire, capable of killing when facing the enemy. He later wrote, “It was a sickening sight, but having been caught up in the heat of battle, I didn’t have a reaction other than feeling I had saved my own life.” Thereafter, the 2nd Battalion, 317th Infantry, took part in bloody battles across France, sometimes coping with inept leadership and grievous losses, even as it took hills and towns away from the Germans. In the fighting graphically portrayed here, Adkins acted with skill and courage, placing himself at the forefront of the action whenever he could. His extremely aggressive delivery of critical supplies to a cut-off unit in an embattled French town earned him a Bronze Star, the first in his battalion. This is a story of a young soldier at war, a junior officer’s coming of age amid pulse-pounding combat. Before his death, Andy Adkins was able to face his memory of war as bravely as he faced war itself. He put it on paper, honest and unflinching. In 1944-45, he did his duty to his men and country—and here, he serves new generations of military and civilian readers.

“An engaging and often frightening story” of a member of the 305th Engineering Battalion of the 80th Infantry Division (Andrew Z. Adkins III, coauthor of You Can’t Get Much Closer Than This). A Combat Engineer with Patton’sArmy is the untold story of Frank Lembo, one of George Patton’s men who helped move the American command in the battle of Argentan in the Normandy Campaign, in the high-speed pursuit of the German Wehrmacht eastward across France, and in the brutal battles waged during the Battle of the Bulge and during the final combats along the borders of the collapsing Reich. Throughout his time in Europe, Lembo maintained a running commentary of his experiences with Betty Craig, his fiancée and future wife. This extensive correspondence provides a unique eyewitness view of the life and work of a combat engineer under wartime conditions. As a squad (and later platoon) leader, Frank and his comrades cleared mines, conducted reconnaissance behind enemy lines, built bridges, and performed other tasks necessary to support the movement of the 317th, 318th, and 319th Infantry Regiments of the Blue Ridge Division—Patton’s workhorses, if not his glamour boys. Frank’s letters go beyond his direct combat experiences to include the camaraderie among the GIs, living conditions, weather, and the hijinks that helped keep the constant threat of death at bay. His letters also worked to reassure Betty with hopeful dreams for their future together. Including dozens of previously unpublished photographs, A Combat Engineer with Patton’s Army offers the rare perspective of what day-to-day warfare at the ground-level looked like in the European Theater through the eyes of one of the men spearheading the advance.

Daily Operational History of the 319th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, during WWII. Includes maps and casualty figures.

Daily Operational History of the 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, during WWII. Includes maps and casualty figures.

Few units in the U.S. Army can boast as proud a unit history as the Third Infantry Division; it fought on all of the Europe and North African fronts that American soldiers were engaged against the Axis forces during World War II. The 3rd Infantry Division saw combat in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany and Austria for 531 consecutive days. In this official division history written by the officers who served with the unit at the time serves as a fascinating memorial and a detailed history of the “Marne Division” during World War II. The 3rd Inf. Division made landfall in Fedala on the 8th November 1942 as part of Operation Torch during the Allied invasion of North Africa and was engaged in heavy fighting before the German and Italian troops were finally levered out of the continent. The division was back in the thick of the fighting in Sicily under the command of such famous leaders as Generals Lucien Truscott, Omar Bradley and George S. Patton. As part of General Mark Clark’s U.S. Fifth army it engaged in some of the bloodiest engagements of the Italian campaign at Salerno beaches, Volturno river, Monte Cassino and Anzio. Under their old division commander General Truscott they formed part of the force that landed in Southern France and battled into the heart of Germany before the eventual capitulation of the Nazi High command in 1945. Richly illustrated with maps and pictures throughout.

The complete Operational History of the 80th Infantry Division during WWII; covers from the Division's forming in July 1942 in Camp Forrest, TN through the end of the war in May 1945. Includes maps and casualty figures