Near La Neuveville, France. 25 October, 1944. Official wartime caption: “Infantrymen relieved from combat for rest, await removal to a rest camp.” 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division. Left to right: Pfc. Arthur H. Muth, Allentown, Pa.; Sgt. Carmine H. Sileo, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Sgt. Kelly C. Lasalle, Jeanette, Pa.
Signal Corps Archive. SC 195623-S
Note the mix of M1 Carbine (Muth) and M1 Garands (Sileo and Lasalle) along with camo-netted M1 helmets and E-tools. Also note the NCO (Lasalle) has binos and a map case, as befitting his role.
The men are likely of 1st Bn, 314th, who are noted to have bedded down in after the regiment captured three 88mm guns, three 75mms, five 20mms, four half-tracks, four sedans, a 10.5 cm leFH 18 (Sf.) auf Geschützwagen 39H(f), a C&R, car, and a 1/2 ton truck earlier than day– a fair sampling of the enemy’s ordnance.
As part of Patton’s 3rd Army, the 314th Inf Rgt was the first across the Seine River and helped liberate France, having landed in Normandy at Utah Beach on D+8 with its parent 79th “Cross of Lorraine” Inf Div and helped push the Kriegsmarine out of Cherbourg. Then came the Battle of the Bulge and the push into the Rhineland where they occupied Dortmund on 13 April 1945 before pushing into Czechoslovakia.
You are now entering Germany, courtesy of the 79th Inf. Div
In all, they spent 329 days on the Continent during the war, with 262 of those in combat. They suffered 5,057 casualties in that period (862 killed, 4139 WIA, 59 missing), against an authorized strength of 3,118 officers and men– a casualty rate of 162 percent. In exchange, they accounted for 11,822 enemy POWs and earned two MoHs, 3 DSCs, 282 Silver Stars, and 757 Bronze Stars, among other decorations.
The Regimental History of the 314th in WWII, some 151 pages long, is available online and makes great reading.
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