542nd Parachute Infantry Battalion w Br - Ribbon X 300 Tank Top

542nd Parachute Infantry Battalion Airborne Command decided to cut its losses. On 17 March 1944, the 542nd Parachute Infantry Regiment was deactivated and reactivated as the 542nd Parachute Infantry Battalion, utilizing the 3rd Battalion, 542nd Parachute Infantry Regiment. 400 men were sent as replacements to the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, then fighting in the Anzio beachhead on the Italian Front. The battalion remained at Fort Benning, Georgia, until 1 July 1944, when it was relocated to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, where it was attached to Airborne Center Command Headquarters, an attachment that would last for one year. While at Mackall, the battalion became an experimental unit of sorts.