Taking the long view, the history of the 314th Infantry Regiment extends back almost 100 years. This proud regiment of citizen soldiers has answered the nations' call from the First World War, the Second World War and continuing through today where components of the 314th Infantry Regiment have seen service in Iraq.

In 1917, as part of the 79th Infantry Division, the 314th helped liberate Europe from the yoke of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Imperial Germany. During World War I causalities for the 79th for its one year of combat in France totaled 6,752 brave Americans killed. In 1919 at the end of what was popularly referred to at the time as the “War to end all Wars,” the 314th Infantry Regiment was demobilized and the veteran doughboys of the horrors of trench warfare returned home to their civilian occupations in America.

	Built sometime in the 1920s, this World War One Memorial, located in Central Florida has the history of each unit etched in granite.
This doughboy is smiling, apparently happy and proud...	...while this doughboy has on his war face!
World War One 79th Division Patch	A proud Doughboy with his German prize! 1917-1918, somewhere in France

Soon after the roaring twenties and the great depression of the 1930’s, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Emperor Hirohito’s Imperial Japan ignited the Second World War. Bent on world domination, these two dictatorships came very close to succeeding. Nazi Germany’s war was unlike any the world had ever known. Combining cutting edge 20th Century technology with a deliberate policy of genocide the Nazi regime industrialized mass murder and in the process killed millions of innocent civilians.

Once again the 314th Infantry Regiment was reactivated in World War II as part of the 79th Infantry Division. The 314th was again called upon to liberate Europe and again the cost to our nation in lives lost was huge. Just a month after D-Day during the Normandy campaign, the 314th Infantry Regiment and its parent 79th Infantry Division helped capture the French port of Cherbourg. Cherbourg was pivotal to the success of the D-Day invasion. Without the use of a large port, the allies would be unable to sustain the initial invasion force which would have meant failure in liberating Western Europe. One book on Normandy by respected English historian Max Hastings commented that in just the combat operations culminating with the capture of Cherbourg, the 79th Infantry Division’s combat losses of over 2,000 killed, wounded and captured were not due to any deficit in leadership but simply to the high cost paid for bitter resistance put up by the well entrenched Nazi Army.

As part of General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army, the 314th Infantry Regiment was the first across the Seine River and helped liberate France. Later in the winter of 1944 when the Germans launched their massive counter offensive now known as the Battle of the Bulge, the now veteran 314th had to retake its own positions after other “green” US army units which had rotated in succumbed to the massive German onslaught.

At the end of World War II the United States had one of the largest armies in history. However, at wars end millions of soldiers of America’s greatest generation put down their arms and returned to civilian life. And once again, the 314th Infantry Regiment was deactivated in 1945 as its citizen soldier G.I.s returned to diverse occupations and in so doing helped catapult a victorious America to become the world’s leading super power.

World War Two 79th Division Patch

Monument to 79th Infantry Division, World War II Located In La Haye du Puits, France

More World War II photographs below.

Unlike the majority of the United States Army’s Regiments of World War II, the 314th Infantry Regiment was reactivated in 1947 and has continued to exist as part of today’s United States Army. In 2009 the 1st Battalion of the 314th Regiment, Infantry, and the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 314th Regiment, Field Artillery are part of the 174th Infantry Brigade based in Fort Drum, NY. The mission of the 1st of the 314th and the 3rd of the 314th include providing a full spectrum of training, readiness and mobilization operations to the 1st Army. Components of the 314th have served in Iraq in support of what the US Army refers to as “theater strategic objectives.”

Soldiers of the 79th Division moving through Gehrville, France during the division's advance toward Germany. September, 1944

Under the watchful eye of a Sherman tank, GI's of the 314th dig in near the Meurth River, France. September 22, 1944

Two young GI's of the 314th IR tensely scan the dense foliage on the banks of the Meurth River, France. September, 1944

After taking a direct hit from this M-4 Sherman tank, flames billow from a building which housed German snipers. They were firing on advancing soldiers of the 314th IR. France, September, 1944

On the bleak winter morning of 6 January, 1945, these two GI's of the 314th IR took cover from incoming German artillery under an M-4 Sherman tank.

Recon Troop, 314th IR, December, 1944 Winter Offensive Pictured to the left is Valentin Gill. Note the bullet hole on the left-hand side of the windshield. When asked about it by his son, Gill replied with spartan brevity: "They shot at us... We shot back."

Infantrymen of Companies K and M, 3d Battallion, 314th IR dig in to protect the unit's right flank. Near Overbruke, Germany, March, 1945. NOTE: Can anyone identify or remember any K or M Company veterans of the 3d BN? If so, contact us!

Normany Campaign, Summer of 1944. Major General Ira T. Wyche of the 79th Division confers with Four star General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the French countryside.

For a detailed account of the 314th Infantry Regiment, please visit
The 314th Infantry Regiment - 79th Division, US Army, World War Two