Combat With Company H 317th Infantry Regiment 80th Division. In 1943, Andrew Z. Adkins, Jr. joined the 80th Infantry Division, then undergoing its final training cycle in the California-Arizona desert. Upon reaching the division, 2nd Lieutenant Adkins was assigned as an 81 mm mortar section leader in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 317th Infantry Regiment. When the 80th Infantry Division completed its training, it was shipped in stages to the United Kingdom and then on to Normandy, where it landed on 3 August 1944. The first real test came on 20 August 1944, when the battalion attacked high ground near Argentan during the Allied drive to