WHAT WAS THE MOST DECORATED UNIT IN WW2?


By mrixon
The U.S. Army 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in WW2, stands in formation at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, June 1943.

Involving more than 30 countries and consisting of an estimated 56 million deaths, World War II remains the biggest and most gruesome war ever fought in human history. The sacrifices made by countries, men and women, fathers and mothers, and their children will never be forgotten. The most decorated unit in WW2 was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the U.S. Army. It can be argued that because of the 442nd, WW2 turned out the way that it did. In the midst of all this chaos, this storied regiment served their country even when it had forsaken them. Formed during WWII, the 442nd consisted entirely of Japanese-Americans who volunteered to serve in World War II, and it remains the most decorated army unit in American history. Read Next: Japanese-American Soldiers in WW2 Served While Losing Their Rights

The Story of the Most Decorated Unit in WW2

Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in February 1942, caused every citizen of Japanese descent on the West Coast to be sent to internment camps. While such a blatant disregard for human rights would be considered completely un-American today, the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor had left people fearful of a possible Japanese invasion. This fear showed itself in the form of racial discrimination, even though two-thirds of those sent to the camps were American citizens who had been born in the U.S. It was during this rampant discrimination that a few Japanese-Americans decided they had had enough and set out to prove their love for the country they grew up in once and for all. These Japanese Americans would go on to form the 442nd WWII unit, also known as the Purple Heart Battalion.

In WW2, 442nd would "Go For Broke"

As the most decorated unit in WWII, the 442nd developed the motto, “Go For Broke,” meaning that they gambled everything to win. This was an appropriate motto for a regiment fighting two wars: WWII and the war against racism. For the 442nd, WWII was an opportunity to serve their country and prove to everyone that no matter what they looked like, they bled red, white, and blue. Related: 5 Asian-American War Heroes We Should’ve Learned About in School The 442nd is known as the most decorated army unit because of the sheer length and size of its service. The unit consisted of over 18,000 soldiers and between them they collected roughly:

  • 21 Medals of Honor
  • 4,000 Purple Hearts
  • 560 Silver Star Medals
  • 4,000 Bronze Stars
  • seven Presidential Unit Citations
  • and a Congressional Gold Medal

The Lost Battalion

The Purple Heart Battalion’s most impressive accomplishment was the “Lost Battalion” rescue. It happened on a chilly October evening in 1944 when the Lost Battalion, or the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry unit, found themselves in a tough spot. They were surrounded by Germans in the Vosges mountains in France. The Japanese-American 442nd unit was considered somewhat expendable during this time and was ultimately sent to liberate their brothers-from-another-unit. Their numbers were already low and they had suffered heavy casualties from a recent mission they’d just completed in a little town called Bifontaine. Nevertheless, they marched forward and brought back the Lost Battalion. Greatly outnumbered against the Germans, they fought with everything they had, in some cases using suicide charges to bring down German soldiers and suffering 800 casualties in all.

The Legacy of the 442nd

VeteranLife article

Suggested Read: Meet Isoroku Yamamoto, the Man Who Planned the Pearl Harbor Attack


CONNECT WITH US
VeteranLife Logo

©2024 VeteranLife. All rights reserved.