Campaigns and RCT Motto
The bottom information was pulled from another site, as I think it best describes a short history of the 350th.
Activated and organized at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma as an element of the 88th Division On July 15th, 1942. Deactivated Sept 23rd-October 16th, 1947 at Leghorn Italy.
When the United States entered World War II the 350th was again activated as a component of its old parent unit, the 88th, the reactivation took place at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma on July 15 1942. The Division was triangulated at this time, and consisted of the 349th, 350th and 351st Infantry Regiments.
On this occasion the major part of its personnel came from New England, New Jersey, and New York, and the cadre from Fort Bragg's 9th Infantry Division. Training began on August 1 1942. After completion of training in the United States and North Africa, the Division was moved to Italy in January 1944, ready for combat. The 88th Infantry Division was the first organized Reserve Division to go overseas, and also the first to enter combat.
Committed to action on the main Fifth Army front north of Naples on March 4 1944, in what was later known as the Rome-Arno Campaign, the Regiment played an active part in the liberation of Rome. On June 5 1944 the 350th Infantry was the first Allied unit to enter the Italian capital.
Spearheading the entire Fifth Army drive north from Florence towards the Po Valley in the autumn of 1944, the 350th Infantry progressed step by step until the unit captured a strategic high point of resistance that was to become famous in the annals of history. The place was Mount Battaglia - in English, "Battle Mountain".
After consolidating positions on Mount Battaglia, the Regiment repelled attack after attack by strong German forces for seven straight days. A full fifty percent of the Regiment became casualties in this action, with every company commander except one either killed or wounded. For their achievement in holding this mountain at such bitter cost the Second Battalion received the Presidential Unit Citation.
After this fierce mountain action the Regiment was nicknamed the Battle Mountain Regiment. It was "Axis Sally" herself, in her infamous broadcasts from Berlin during the war, who gave the 88th Infantry Division the nickname "Blue Devils" by which the Division is still known today.
In the great spring offensive of 1945 the Regiment assisted in the capture of key points of the German lines in the northern Apennine mountains, crossed the Po Valley, and attacked to capture the key city of Vicenza. The Regiment then turned north into the Alps, heading for the Brenner Pass with other elements of the Division towards a link-up with the 7th Army forces then moving southward through Austria. Deep in the Italian Alps the Regiment received word that the war in Italy had ended on May 2 1945.
The record shows that the 350th Infantry during the time it was in combat - March 4 1944 to May 2 1945 - suffered over four thousand battle casualties, of whom twelve hundred were killed in action.
After the cessation of hostilities the 350th Infantry started the job of rounding up the remnants of the German Army in Northern Italy. When this task was completed the Regiment, along with the rest of the 88th Division, was assigned the delicate job of occupying the Morgan Line in the Venezia-Gulia Province of Italy, facing east towards Yugoslavia. This area of agitation was the focal point in the Italian-Yugoslav border controversies of the first years after the war.
To learn more about Battle Mt. click on our links page.
