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Printable cute dragon coloring pages2/18/2024 ![]() In mid-October, the 29th loaned the 116th Infantry to the 30th Division, and it joined in the American effort to capture Aachen against a resolute enemy defense. Fully recovered from the debacle in Normandy, the Germans gave little ground and inflicted heavy casualties each time the 29ers launched an attack. For more than a month, the division engaged in frustrating positional warfare as the weather deteriorated sharply and an ammunition shortage worsened to a critical level. The 29th entered Germany on October 1, 1944, holding an extended front north of the historic city of Aachen. In late September 1944, the 29th Division was transferred 500 miles from Brittany to southern Holland, a journey that half the division took in uncomfortable “forty-and-eight” boxcars, while the other half made the move in trucks and jeeps. Eisenhower decided to abandon Brest and use other harbor facilities much closer to the front, which by that time had reached the western frontier of Germany. ![]() Defended by thousands of fanatical German paratroopers, the Americans took more than three weeks to subdue the enemy and seize the port, but by then the Germans had destroyed all the port facilities and rendered the harbor useless unless the Americans could commit months of repair work. What was conceived as a comparatively easy operation, however, turned out to be one of the 29th’s most costly operations of World War II. On August 25, Gerhardt’s men commenced their attack on Brest. After a five-day break, he ordered the 29th with two other divisions to race into Brittany to seize the port of Brest, one of France’s largest harbors. Ten days later, as the Americans raced toward Paris, General Bradley pulled the 29th Division out of the line. Lo, liberating the key crossroads city of Vire in on August 6. After a short rest behind the front, the 29th joined in the destruction of the enemy in the Falaise Pocket by advancing southward from St. First Army to launch a devastating breakthrough of the German lines in Operation Cobra. Only on July 18, 1944, six weeks after D-Day, did the division secure St. Over the next two weeks, the 29th Division advanced toward the key objective of St. The 115th Infantry landed at about 11 AM, and the 175th the next morning. Despite heavy losses, the 116th penetrated the enemy defenses and established a tenuous beachhead by nightfall. The 116th Infantry landed in the first wave at 0630 hours on the western half of the beach and met unexpectedly fierce resistance from German troops entrenched on the coastal bluffs. The 29th Division joined with the 1st Division to assault Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Major General Charles Gerhardt, a cavalryman and member of the West Point class of 1917, was a tough disciplinarian, but transformed the division into one of the finest fighting outfits in the U.S. ![]() In July 1943, a new commanding general arrived who would instill a unique spirit within the 29th and carry it through to the end of the war. The division began incessant training in central and southwest England, which would continue for twenty consecutive months. The 29th Division sailed for England in September 1942 aboard the famous Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and America’s entry into World War II, however, would eventually extend that one year to nearly five. On February 3, 1941, President Roosevelt called up the 29th Division’s component National Guard units from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia for one year of active service. THE 29TH INFANTRY DIVISION IN WORLD WAR II ![]()
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