Elements of the 2nd Armored Division entered combat during Operation TORCH on November 8, 1942, landing with the Western Task Force at Safi, Fedala, and Mehdia-Port Lyautey; Combat Command B received the surrender of Mazagan three days later. The division fought as a full formation in Sicily, where Combat Command A landed at Licata and the rest of the division came ashore east of Gela. After the beachhead battles it was committed to the inland drive, entered Palermo on July 22, 1943, and then moved to England for the invasion of France.

Campaign map image

World War II Campaign Map of the 2nd Armored Division. Map courtesy of HistoryShots.

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The division landed in Normandy on June 9, 1944, and first reinforced the Auville-sur-le-Vey bridgehead. In Operation COBRA it attacked through the 30th Infantry Division, took St. Denis-le-Gast, and then pushed through Tessy, Domfront, and the country west of Dreux as the German front broke apart. By late August its columns were moving toward Le Neubourg and the Seine crossings, then across northern France toward Cambrai and Belgium.

The autumn campaign was much less fluid. Combat Command A crossed the Albert Canal on September 13 and reached the Maas, but German counterattacks restored the line near Gangelt and Geilenkirchen. In October the division crossed the Wurm at Marienberg to expand the 30th Infantry Division bridgehead, fighting through Uebach, Baesweiler, Oidtweiler, and the Aachen gap. In November it attacked the outer Juelich defenses at Puffendorf, Apweiler, Merzenhausen, and Barmen, reaching the Roer on November 28.

The Ardennes offensive pulled the division to the Durbuy-Marche sector. Combat Command A moved toward Buissonville, while Combat Command B struck Celles on Christmas Day and helped stop the forward elements of the 2nd Panzer Division short of the Meuse. The division also fought around Humain, Havelange, Odeigne, the Ourthe, and Houffalize before withdrawing for rehabilitation.

In 1945 the division crossed the Roer and Nord Canal, drove across the Cologne Plain to the Rhine near Uerdingen, and crossed the Rhine on March 27. Its linkup with the 3rd Armored Division at Lippstadt on April 1 closed the Ruhr Pocket. It then fought through the Teutoburger Wald, crossed the Weser and Leine, seized the Oker bridge at Schladen, and reached the Elbe south of Magdeburg on April 11. A bridgehead near Westerhausen and Elbenau was lost under counterattack, but the division helped reduce Magdeburg on April 17-18 before moving into occupation south of Braunschweig.