MAY 1, 1944
 
     442nd Regiment Combat Team boards Troop Ship to cross Atlantic Ocean.
 
MAY 24, 1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
JUNE 2, 1944
 
     Troop ship lands in Naples Italy.
 
JUNE 4, 1944
 
     Fall of Rome
 
JUNE 6,1944
 
     442nd boards Troop ship in Naples and sails to Anzio
 
JUNE 7, 1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
JUNE ?, 1944
 
     Travel through Rome to Civatavecchia, joins with 100th Infantry Battalion.
 
JUNE 15,1944
 
     The 100th Battalion is designated the 1st Battalion of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
 
JUNE 23, 1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
JUNE,1944 Last half
 
     The Second and Third Battalions advanced to Belvedere Italy
 
JULY 13, 1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
JULY ?,1944
 
     Three weeks of fighting end with liberation of Livorno Italy
 
JULY 20, 1944
 
     The Second and Third Battalions Liberate Pisa Italy
 
July 25th,1944
 
     The 100th/442d RCT was pulled back to Vada on Highway 1 near the Cecina River for rest and recuperation.
 
JULY 30, 1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
AUGUST 6, 1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
AUGUST 15.1944
 
     The 100th-442nd were split up, the 442nd 2 and 3 Battalions were sent to Florence Italy to be attached to the 88th Infantry Division.
 
AUGUST ,1944
 
     442nd sent to Naples
 
SEPTEMBER 27,1944
 
     Departs Naples on Transport ship.
 
SEPTEMBER 30.1944
 
     442nd arrives Marseille France, 3 Battalion advances up Rhone Valley by fright train.
 
OCTOBER 1, 1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
OCTOBER 12,1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
OCTOBER 13,1944
 
     All elements of the 442nd , including 100th, 2 Battalion and 3rd Battalion are massed at the French German Border. The Regimental Combat Team is attached to the 36th Infantry Texas National Guard.
 
OCTOBER 15, 1944
 
     Beginning of attack on Bruyeres France.
 
OCTOBER 18,1944
 
     442nd 3 Battalion joins with the 36 th Infantry's 142nd Regiment fight into the city of Bruyeres.
 
OCTOBER 19,1944
 
     442nd Regiment Combat Team 2nd and 3rd Battalions advance towards La Broquaine
 
OCTOBER 20,1944
 

Discovery of German Defense plans by 2 Battalion K Company, leads to the formation of Task Force O'Connor: "consisting of Companies F and L and led by 3d Battalion's Executive Officer Major Emmet O'Connor. Task Force O'Connor, bolstered by the new intelligence information, moved out with dawn the following day along the left flank of the 2d and 3d Battalions. After fierce fighting, the task force closed ranks with their comrades in a pincer movement that virtually secured the area from Bruyeres to La Broquaine by the evening of October 21st. Along the way the task force killed 80 enemy soldiers, captured 54, sent most stragglers deeper into the Belmont Forest, and earned a Presidential Unit Citation for the two companies." From Home of Heroes.  Home of Heroes

 
OCTOBER 24,1944 Ed's Letter To Home
 
OCTOBER 26,1944
 
     Secure Belmont France
 
OCTOBER 28,1944
 

Ordered by General Dalquist to advance on Vosges to rescue the "Lost Battalion". "Colonel Pence ordered Company L out of reserve. The division commander was desperate, the loss of the Lieutenant Blonder and his "Lost Battalion " would be a major catastrophe. Not only did the General order an unrelenting frontal assault by the 442d regardless of cost, he went to the front himself...issuing orders and pushing men forward. To many of the Nisei, none of whom still were aware that their mission was one to rescue a lost battalion of friendlies, it was senseless. It was difficult to see themselves as anything other than cannon-fodder, expendable in the push through the Vosges." Home of Heroes.

 
OCTOBER , 1944
 
     442nd Regimental Combat Team rescues the "Lost Battalion" the Texas Regiment that had been trapped in the Vosges Mountains. The 3 Battalion of the 442nd receives it's second Presidential Unit Citation in 21 days. Over 140 soldiers of the 442nd would be killed in action during the Vosges Mountain campaign.
 
DECEMBER, 1944
 
     The 442nd is assigned to secure and patrol an area in the South of France.
 
JANUARY 1, 1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
JANUARY 21, 1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
FEBRUARY 4,1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
FEBRUARY 17,1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
MARCH 9, 1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
MARCH 19,1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
MARCH 26, 1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
MARCH 28,1945
 
     The 442nd Regimental Combat Team is sent from France to Northern Italy . They were staged in an area just south of the "Gothic Line" , Germany's defensive area at the border of Italy.
 
APRIL 1, 1945
 
     General Mark Clark of the Fifth Infantry directs the 442nd to combine with the 92nd Division. Their assignment is to join the offensive and attack the German "Gothic Line" defenses set In the mountains.
 
APRIL 2, 1945 Ed's Letter To Home
 
APRIL 3, 1945
 
     Two platoons from the 92nd Division are combined with the 442nd 3 Battalion .
 

"As darkness fell on April 3rd the 100th Battalion was moving quietly into the small town of Vallechio below the high tops of Georgia and Florida. Third Battalion moved by truck to the flank, using the cover of the dark night to silently traverse up the valley facing Azzano to the east of Mount Cerreta.         Men slipped and fell beneath backpacks laden with supplies and ammunition as the Nisei forged through the darkness, never breaking silence. The following day the two battalions, still maintaining strict silence, positioned themselves for the first day of the renewed offensive. The Purple Heart Battalion relieved the 371st Infantry at Florida, the Third Battalion positioning itself near Mount Folgorita and Mount Carchio. "  Home of Heroes

 
APRIL 4,1945
 
     The 442nd 3 Battalion advance under cover of darkness towards Mount Folgorita.
 
APRIL 5, 1945
 

"At 0500 the order was given to the Nisei of the Purple Heart Battalion to attack. At 0600 hours Company L launched the attack on its objectives. The enemy alerted the coastal batteries at La Spezia and German artillery and mortars began to create a curtain between the Nisei and the well fortified Germans. Heedless of the explosions that ripped the mountainside, the Nisei pressed forward, often engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Meanwhile Company K, reinforced by an M Company mortar platoon, began a bold, daylight climb towards the crest of Mount Folgorita. From their high vantage point on Mount Altissimo, the enemy rained effective mortar fire on the brave Nisei. Seventeen young Nisei were killed, eighty-three wounded. Still the company pressed their attack, destroying one enemy strong-hold after another."  Home of Heroes

 
APRIL 6, 1945
 

"With the dawn of April 6th the soldiers of the 442d continued to press the attack. By mid-day the Nisei had secured the area all the way from Georgia to Mount Folgorita. Only Ohio 1, 2 and 3 remained with any measured resistance, much of the enemy now cut off from the rest of their command. Throughout the day American artillery pounded the last defenders, effectively nullifying their impact on the advance through the mountains. Meanwhile, Company L assaulted and took control of Mount Cerreta and Company F and Company I took control of Mount Carchio in the shadow of Mount Belvedere and Mount Altissimo. The latter were the only remaining major enemy positions between the Nisei and a complete breach of the Gothic Line."  Home of Heroes

 
APRIL 8,1945
 

Jap-Americans in Italy Drive Within 2 Miles of Massa BY NOLAND NORGAARD   ROME, APRIL 8 (AP) - Crack Japanese-American infantry, spearheading the United States Fifth Army's drive on the Western Flank of the newly-active Italian battle front, have captured 3,000-foot Monte Belvedere and driven within to miles of Massa, Allied headquarters announced today.      The Nazi grip on Massa and nearby Carrara; centers of the world famous Italian marble quarrying industry, was threatened by the fifth Army's surge northward near the Ligurian coast. An apparent objective of the offensive is the enemy's important naval base of La Spezia, 14 ½ miles northwest of Massa.      The Americans of Japanese ancestry, members of the 442d Infantry Regiment, gained four miles in 48 hours, wiped out one company of Germans, and virtually destroyed two others.      Through infiltration and with the aid of Italian patriots the Japanese-Americans descovered a secret mountain trail the Germans had used to send spies to the Fifth Army position.      Monte Belevedere's cloud covered peak was taken after a battle of several hours.

Article that appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer April 9,1945