Editing 3rd Infantry Division (United States) (section)

==== Chips ====
The 3rd Infantry Division also had a [[German Shepherd]], [[Border Collie]] and [[Siberian Husky]]-mix war dog named "Chips" from [[Pleasantville, New York]] given to them by the [[Dogs for Defense]] program.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2022-04-12 |title=The Dog Hero of the 3rd Infantry Division |url=https://www.army.mil/article/255579/the_dog_hero_of_the_3rd_infantry_division |access-date=2024-04-06 |website=www.army.mil |language=en}}</ref> He was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division from October 1942 until he was discharged in December 1945, serving on a variety of missions including the Algerian-Moroccan, Tunisian, Sicilian, Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns.<ref name=":0" /> 

The 3rd Division, under the command of [[Major general (United States)|Major General]] Jonathan W. Anderson, after spending many months training in the United States after the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], first saw action during the war as a part of the Western Task Force in [[Operation Torch]], the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] [[Operation Torch|invasion of North Africa]], landing at [[Fedala]] on 8 November 1942, and captured half of [[French protectorate in Morocco|French Morocco]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Offensive, Deliberate Assault, Amphibious, 8 November 1942 |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA151625 |website=Defense Technical Information Center |access-date=10 October 2024}}</ref> The division remained there for the next few months and therefore took no part in the [[Tunisian Campaign]], which came to an end in May 1943 with the surrender of almost 250,000 [[Axis powers|Axis]] soldiers who subsequently became [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] (POWs). While there, a battalion of the 30th Infantry Regiment acted as security guards during the [[Casablanca Conference]] in mid-January 1943 with Chips as one of the guard dogs. Some soldiers say that Chips saved lives before the conference took place by sniffing out a time bomb set up by enemy saboteurs. In late February, Major General Anderson left the division to return to the United States and command the [[X Corps (United States)|X Corps]], and was replaced by Major General [[Lucian Truscott|Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.]], who had formerly been on the staff of the commander-in-chief of Allied forces in North Africa. Truscott instituted a tough training regime and ensured that all ranks in the division could march five miles in one hour, and four miles an hour thereafter; the troops called it "the Truscott Trot". The division began intensive training in [[Amphibious warfare|amphibious landing]] [[Military operation|operations]].

On 10 July 1943, the division made another amphibious assault landing on the [[Italy|Italian]] island of [[Sicily]] (codenamed [[Allied invasion of Sicily|Operation Husky]]), at [[Licata]],<ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. 3rd Infantry Division in WWII : Dogface Soldiers |url=https://www.dogfacesoldier.org/info/thirddivision.htm |website=Dogface Soldiers |access-date=10 October 2024}}</ref> a town on the beach, with Torre di Gaffi and Mollarella to the west, and, to the east, Falconara. During the invasion, a platoon of soldiers from the 30th Infantry Regiment, accompanied by Chips, moved inland into the Sicilian countryside when they got ambushed by Italian mortar and machine gun fire. Cut off from the rest of the regiment by Italian skirmishes and the field telephone line cut from the bombardment, the platoon fought hard until Chips, ordered by his handler Pvt. John P. Rowell, ran back to HQ with a phone line to restore communication while dodging enemy fire. Chips ran back through enemy fire as he returned to his handler and the platoon received word that reinforcements were on their way. Meanwhile, another Italian machine gun team made their way around the rear of the platoon and opened fire. The platoon leader sent a lone American soldier to take out the enemy machine-gun (MG) nest. But when he was pinned down, Chips broke free from his handler and ran toward the MG nest, jumped in and attacked the Italian soldiers manning the gun. Pvt. Rowell and the other soldier ran to help Chips and the gunners were forced to surrender.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A dog called Chips – US War Dogs Heritage Museum {{!}} National Headquarters |url=https://uswardogsheritagemuseum.org/a-dog-called-chips/ |access-date=2024-04-06 |language=en-US}}</ref> Chips sustained a scalp wound and gunpowder burns from the explosions. After his honorable discharge in 1945, Chips returned to New York to spend the rest of his days at home with his civilian family, the Wrens. He died about a year after returning home, as a result of injuries suffered during the war.<ref name=":0" /> 

Later, the 3rd Infantry Division, serving under the command of [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant General]] [[George S. Patton]]'s [[Seventh United States Army|U.S. Seventh Army]], fought its way into [[Palermo]] before elements of the [[2nd Armored Division (United States)|2nd Armored Division]] could get there, in the process marching 90 miles in three days, and raced on to capture [[Messina]] on 17 August 1943, thus ending the brief Sicilian campaign, where the division had a short rest to absorb replacements. During the campaign, the 3rd Division gained a reputation as one of the best divisions in the Seventh Army.
[[File:SC 196561 - Although these infantrymen are tired and wet, they are happy and the moral is high. Bult area, France, 11 November, 1944.jpg|thumb|Infantrymen of 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment depicted near Bult, France. 11 November 1944.]]
[[File:3. US Inf.-Div. in Nürnberg, 20.04.1945.jpg|thumb|Men of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division in [[Nuremberg]], Germany on 20 April 1945]]
[[File:13 AIX-EN-PROVENCE - Plaque commémorative de la libération.jpg|thumb|223x223px]]
Eight days after the Allied [[Allied invasion of Italy|invasion of mainland Italy]], on 18 September 1943, the 3rd Division came ashore at [[Salerno]], where they came under the command of [[VI Corps (United States)|VI Corps]], under Major General [[Ernest J. Dawley]] who was replaced two days later by Major General [[John P. Lucas]] (who had commanded the division from September 1941 to March 1942). The corps was part of Lieutenant General [[Mark W. Clark]]'s [[United States Army North|U.S. Fifth Army]]. The 3rd Division was destined to see some of the fiercest and toughest fighting of the war thus far, serving on the [[Italian Campaign (World War II)|Italian Front]]. Seeing intensive action along the way, the division drove to and across the [[Volturno Line|Volturno River]] by October 1943, and then to [[Monte Cassino]], where the [[Battle of Monte Cassino]] would later be fought, before, with the rest of the [[15th Army Group]], being held up at the [[Winter Line]] (also known as the Gustav Line). In mid-November the division, after spearheading the Fifth Army's advance and suffering heavy casualties during the past few weeks, was relieved by the [[36th Infantry Division (United States)|36th Infantry Division]] and pulled out of the line to rest and absorb replacements, coming under the command of Major General [[Geoffrey Keyes]]' [[II Corps (United States)|II Corps]]. The division remained out of action until late December.

After a brief rest, the division was part of the [[Battle of Anzio|amphibious landing at Anzio]], codenamed [[Battle of Anzio|Operation Shingle]], on 22 January 1944, still as part of VI Corps, and serving alongside the [[History of the British 1st Division during the World Wars|British 1st Infantry Division]] and other units. It would remain there for just over four months in a toe-hold against numerous furious German counterattacks, and enduring [[trench warfare]] similar to that suffered on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] during [[World War I]]. On 29 February 1944, the 3rd Division fought off an attack by three German divisions, who fell back with heavy losses two days later. In a single day of combat at Anzio, the 3rd Infantry Division suffered more than 900 casualties, the most of any American division on one day in World War II.<ref name = Chronicle/> The division's former commander, Major General Lucas, was replaced as commander of VI Corps by the 3rd Infantry Division's commander, Major General Truscott; he was replaced in command of the division by [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier General]] (later Major General) [[John W. O'Daniel|John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel]], previously the assistant division commander (ADC) and a distinguished World War I veteran.

In late May, VI Corps broke out of the Anzio beachhead in [[Operation Diadem]] with the 3rd Division in the main thrust. Instead of defeating the Germans, Lieutenant General Clark, the Fifth Army commander, disobeying orders from [[General (United Kingdom)|General]] [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Sir Harold Alexander]], [[Commander-in-chief|Commander-in-Chief]] (C-in-C) of the [[Allied Armies in Italy]] (formerly the 15th Army Group), sent the division on to the Italian capital of [[Rome]]. This allowed the majority of the [[10th Army (Wehrmacht)|German 10th Army]], which would otherwise have been trapped, to escape, thus prolonging the campaign in Italy. The division was then removed from the front line and went into training for the [[Operation Dragoon]], the Allied [[Operation Dragoon|invasion of Southern France]].

On 15 August 1944, [[D-Day (military term)|D-Day]] for Dragoon, the division, still under VI Corps command but now under the U.S. Seventh Army, landed at [[St. Tropez]], advanced up the [[Rhone Valley]], through the [[Vosges]] Mountains, and reached the [[Rhine]] at [[Strasbourg]], 26–27 November 1944. After maintaining defensive positions it took part in clearing the [[Colmar Pocket]] on 23 January, and on 15 March struck against [[Siegfried Line]] positions south of [[Zweibrücken]]. The division advanced through the defenses and crossed the Rhine, on 26 March 1945; then drove on to take [[Battle of Nuremberg (1945)|Nuremberg]] in a fierce battle, capturing the city in block-by-block fighting, 17–20 April. The 3rd pushed on to take [[Augsburg]] where it liberated thousands of forced laborers from the Augsburg concentration camp, a forced labor subcamp of Dachau, and [[Munich]], 27–30 April, and was in the vicinity of [[Salzburg]] when the [[Victory in Europe Day|war in Europe ended]].<ref>Stanton, Shelby, ''World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939-1946'' (Revised Edition, 2006), p. 80</ref> Elements of the [[7th Infantry Regiment (United States)|7th Infantry Regiment]] serving under the 3rd Infantry Division captured [[Berghof (residence)|Hitler's retreat]] near [[Berchtesgaden]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-race-to-seize-berchtesgaden.htm |title=World War II: Race to Seize Berchtesgaden |date=12 June 2006 |publisher=Historynet.com |access-date=14 August 2012}}</ref>