551st Parachute Infantry Battalion - Arlington, VA
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ToRo61
N 38° 52.889 W 077° 04.091
18S E 320605 N 4305658
The memorial dedicate to 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion.
Waymark Code: WMT5YV
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 10/01/2016
Views: 5
The 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion (551st PIB) was, for many years, a little-recognized airborne forces unit of the United States Army, raised during World War II, that fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Originally commissioned to take the French Caribbean island of Martinique, they were shipped instead to Western Europe. With an initial strength of 800 officers and enlisted men, the remaining 250 members of the Battalion were ordered on 7 January 1945 to attack the Belgian village of Rochelinval over open ground and without artillery support. During the successful assault the unit lost more than half its remaining men. The Battalion was inactivated on 27 January 1945 and the remaining 110 survivors were absorbed into the 82nd Airborne Division. Virtually nothing of the unit's history was known to the American public until the 1990s when renewed interest prompted its veterans to seek recognition for their costly success at Rochelinval. The battalion was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation in 2001 recognizing its accomplishment.
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At the Arlington National Cemetery, the tree with the memorial commemorating the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion.