254th Infantry Regiment awarded French Croix de Guerre, 41 years after battles took place.
Headquarters Department of the Army General Orders 43, 1950 awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Palm to the 3rd Infantry Division and attached units. The citation read as follows:
3RD INFANTRY DIVISION
254th Infantry Regiment attached
FRENCH CROIX DE GUERRE WITH PALM, awarded under Decision No. 508, 15 March 1945, by the President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, with the following citation:
An elite Division which has remained faithful to the traditions of courage and sacrifice which it had already made during the last war, when it won the nickname "Rock of the Marne". Under the vigorous impetus of an enegetic chief and skilled maneuverer, General O'Daniel, it fought without interruption for 169 days, from the Mediterranean beaches to the banks of the Rhine. Placed under the command of the Commanding General of the 1st French Army, for the operations of the Alsace pocket, it contributed greatly, by the power of its repeated attacks, to the victorious battle of Colmar. During the nights of January 23 to 24 January 1945, it succeeded in crossing, by surprise, the Fecht and Ill rivers and in taking the first enemy position, in spite of a violent snowstorm and a field of action sown with obstacles. Allowing the adversary no respite and pushing its action harder and harder, it crossed the Colmar Canal in order to circle and conquer by sheer fighting, the city of Neuf-Brisach, thereby cutting one of the two remaining routes of retreat left to the German troops still defending the Colmar region. It captured during these actions, more than 4000 prisoners, thus concluding brilliantly the series of glorious operations which took place from the Mediterranean to the Rhine.
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(In 1986, Department of The Army General Order 45 amended the 1950 order to add the 254th Infantry Regiment as an attached unit for the period 28 December 1944 to 6 February 1945, thus making the men of the 254th recipients of The French Croix de Guerre with Palm.)
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