Luxembourg

The Regiment was just getting set to start on a training program when another movement was ordered on March 5. This trip took the Regiment all the way across northern France into Luxembourg. The foot troops made the trip by rail, packed into 40 and 8 cars. The rest of the Regiment traveled by road -- through Compiegne, Soissons, Rheims and Luxembourg City. The CP was in a schoolhouse in Helmdange, a few kilometers north of Luxembourg City. The entire Regiment closed into the new area by March 8.

The next day a quartering party of four officers went forward to reconnoiter the next area. The Regiment was to move into Germany, just across the border west of Trier. The 353rd Infantry was already moving forward and 55 of the 354ths 21/2-ton trucks had been dispatched to help them move. On the evening of March 11 the Regiment started shuttling into the Reich as Division reserve. It bivouacked on high ground overlooking the little town of Igel. The next day the troops moved further into enemy country -- up the Kyll River, through battered Bitburg and east to Binsfeld in the wake of the 76th Division.

On March 13 the foot troops started their long hike through Germany. The Regiment's first shot was fired by the 3rd Battalion at snipers in Wittlich at 1000 on March 12. The Regiment moved further east to Hasborn with each battalion walking half the distance and shuttling the rest. The roads around Hasborn had been thoroughly mined and even though they were repeatedly cleared the mines kept reappearing. Mine accidents became a regular occurrence during the two and a half days that the Regiment stopped there.