511th Parachute Infantry Regiment ( United States ) The 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment was a parachute infantry unit of the United States Army first activated during World War II . It formed the parachute infantry element of the 11th Airborne Division . The regiment was formed at Camp Toccoa , GA , in January 1943 , under the command of Col . Orin D . " Hard Rock " Haugen . It trained at Camp Mackall , NC , and Fort Benning , GA , and in December 1943 took part in the Knollwood Maneuver . After final examination at Camp Polk , LA , it proceeded to Camp Stoneman , CA , and in May 1944 embarked for the Pacific on the troop transport SS " Sea Pike " . It trained at Oro - Dobodura in New Guinea until November 1944 , when it was sent to the Philippines to join the Battle of Leyte . Its mission on Leyte was to take and hold the passes through the mountains in the center of the island , and engage and reduce the Japanese forces in the area , ultimately in support of the battle of Ormoc simultaneously ongoing . The 511th performed this mission during harsh monsoonal weather in the steep , heavily forested terrain , emerging shortly after Christmas of 1944 onto the Ormoc plain . After rest and resupply the regiment was sent to the island of Mindoro where the 11th Airborne was preparing for its part in the Battle of Luzon . On 3 February 1945 the 511th on board 48 C - 47 aircraft performed a combat jump on Tagaytay Ridge . Due to the shortage of planes , the regiment and its associated elements jumped in 3 echelons . Despite some misdrops , the 511th assembled successfully at its drop zone at the Manila Hotel Annex on Tagaytay Ridge and proceeded in battalions north towards Manila , encountering occasional Japanese resistance in the towns of Imus and Las Piñas before engaging the Japanese at the Parañaque River just south of Manila . During the Battle of Manila , the 511th fought through the Japanese Genko Line from 5 – 12 February , penetrating as far into Manila as the Dewey - Libertad area , before turning east to attack and recapture Fort William McKinley ( Fort Bonifacio , now Bonifacio Global City ) . On 23 February its 1st Battalion took part in the Raid at Los Baños , freeing over 2 , 000 foreign Allied civilians from a Japanese internment camp south of Manila , with its B Company performing a parachute jump on the camp itself . The regiment proceeded to clear a transport corridor from Manila to the towns of Lipa and Batangas City , which has an important port , and took the crossroads town of Santo Tomas . With the rest of the 11th Airborne it also engaged Japanese forces throughout the provinces of Laguna , Batangas , and Tayabas ( modern Quezon ) ; the regiment ' s 1st and 2d battalions in Sixth Army reserve in the towns of Batangas and Bauan , its 3d battalion in active fighting . From April 27 – 29 it engaged and eliminated the remaining Japanese forces entrenched in underground complexes in the Mount Malepunyo ( Malarayat ) range east of Lipa . On 23 June elements of the regiment took part in a combat jump on Aparri in northern Luzon , part of the effort to seal off the retreat of Japanese commander General Yamashita . The regiment remained in the Lipa - Batangas area , training for the planned invasion of Japan , until the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . After the surrender of Japan , the 511th went to Tokyo and then to northern Honshū to perform occupation duty .