Soldiers in the Sideshows: The 409th Infantry Regiment in World War II

In the European Theater of World War II certain battlefields or campaigns such as Operation Overlord, Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of the Bulge are core aspects of American memory. However, the men of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the 103rd Infantry Division do not fall into this image. This unit fought as part of the U.S. Seventh Army across eastern France through the Vosges Mountains, defended against the German Operation Nordwind and broke through the Siegfried Line into southeastern Germany. Though the 409th represents a small portion of the men of the 103rd, the experiences of the men of the 409th serve as examples of what war was like on the margins of World War II. Furthermore, the composition of the unit sheds light on the manpower issues faced by the U.S. Army in the latter half of the Second World War. The 409th consisted of young draftees barely out of high school, older men who had been overlooked for service due to their age, and members of canceled training programs such as the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) and the Army Air Corps Cadet Program. These men were cobbled together throughout 1943 and 1944 when the 103rd Infantry Division, which had previously been an organized reserve unit, was activated for service and received combat training. This thesis utilizes personal accounts and unit documents to reveal the training, combat, and POW experiences of members of an infantry regiment which fought in the lesser-known regions of the European Theater.