11th Armored Division ( United States ) The US 11th Armored Division ( 11 AD ) was a division of the United States Army in World War II . It was activated on 15 August 1942 at Camp Polk , Louisiana and moved on 24 June 1943 for the Louisiana Maneuvers . Transferred then to Camp Barkeley , Texas on 5 September 1943 , the division participated , beginning 29 October 1943 , in the California Maneuvers and arrived at Camp Cooke California on 11 February 1944 . The division staged at Camp Kilmer , New Jersey from 16 to 29 September 1944 until departing New York Port of Embarkation on 29 September 1944 , arriving in England on 11 October 1944 . The 11 AD landed in France on 16 December 1944 , crossed into Belgium on 29 December , and entered Germany on 5 March 1945 . The 11th Armored Division was deactivated in August 1945 . History . The division was activated on 15 August 1942 . It arrived in England 11 October 1944 and prepared for combat with two months ' training on the Salisbury Plain . The division landed in Normandy , 16 December 1944 , assigned to contain the enemy in the Lorient Pocket , but the Von Rundstedt offensive resulted in a forced march to the Meuse and the defense of a 30 - mile sector from Givet to Sedan , 23 December . Launching an attack from Neufchâteau , Belgium , 30 December , the 11th defended the highway to Bastogne against fierce assault . An eyewitness account by John Fague of B Company , 21st Armored Infantry Battalion of the 11th Armored Division , describes the killing of Waffen - SS prisoners by American soldiers at the Chenogne massacre " Some of the boys had some prisoners line up . Machine guns were being set up . These boys were to be machine gunned and murdered . We were committing the same crimes we were now accusing the Japs and Germans of doing " . The division acted as spearhead of a wedge into the enemy line , and its junction with the First Army at Houffalize , 16 January 1945 , created a huge trap . After the liquidation of the Bulge , the Siegfried Line was pierced , Lützkampen falling 7 February , Grosskampenberg on the 17th , and the key point , Roscheid , 20 February . After a brief rest , the division crossed the Prum and Kyll Rivers , taking Gerolstein and Nieder Bettingen against violent opposition . Andernach and Brohl fell 9 March , in the sweep to the Rhine . In the swing southward to clear the Saar - Moselle - Rhine pocket , the Moselle River was crossed at Bullay and the Worms Airport captured , 21 March . After rest and maintenance , the division drove across the Rhine at Oppenheim , took Hanau and Fulda , and headed for the Thuringian Forest , reaching Oberhof , 3 April . The offensive raced through Bavaria , Coburg falling on the 10th , Bayreuth on the 14th . In the final drive , the division crossed the Regen river , 24 April , overran Grafenau and Freyung , and plunged toward the Danube , seizing Rohrbach , Neufelden , and Zwettl . The enemy put up its last fanatical resistance along the approaches to Linz , Austria , but the 11th entered that city , 5 May . Pushing onward , elements contacted Soviet forces , 8 May , the first unit of the Third Army , to meet the Russian armies . On May 5 , 1945 , elements of the US 11th Armored Division liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp . The war in Europe officially ended 9 May , and the division was placed on occupational duty until inactivation on 31 August 1945 .