Though the 52 men inducted with Company I in 1940 rendered excellent service, their “band of brothers” did not endure much past their first months in combat. 

Louis M. Prevost, the father of newly elected Pope Leo XIV, participated in the landings in Normandy and Southern France during World War II.

The Allied capture of Rome in June 1944 marked the fall of the first Axis capital but was ultimately overshadowed by the D-Day landings in Normandy.

From the hedgerows of Normandy across the rivers of northern France and into the dense forests of the Hürtgen and the Ardennes, Royal Air Force (RAF) and US Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft cleared the way for the advance of the Allied ground armies. 

Company E far exceeded the simplistic expectations of “Americanization” that marked its beginning, and its men went on to prove what it meant to be truly American. 

Originally designated Operation Anvil and intended to support the hammer blow of the Normandy landings two months earlier, the renamed Operation Dragoon fulfilled an American desire for a lodgment in southern France that shifted forces from the strategic cul-de-sac of Italy.

In a series of high-stakes strategic conferences in late 1943, the Allies made several key decisions that shaped wartime strategy, while reflecting the changing balance of power between the Allied nations and foreshadowing the postwar emergence of the bipolar world.

Classified for 50 years, the sinking of the HMT Rohna remains one of the least known—yet most catastrophic—events of World War II.

The cascade of disasters that followed Benito Mussolini’s entry into World War II made possible a resurgence of anti-Fascism in Italy. 

Navy Ensign John Joseph Parle risked his own life to save a ship and ensure a successful Allied amphibious invasion of Sicily in 1943. 

Many of the tactics, techniques, and procedures used during the invasion of Sicily set a precedent for further development in Allied amphibious assaults in the European theater of operations.

For his heroic service as an infantry officer during the Allied invasion of Sicily, Second Lieutenant Robert Craig was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on July 11, 1943.