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 on 16 December 1944, assigned to contain the enemy in the Lorient Pocket, but the Von Rundstedt offensive (Battle of the Bulge) 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.

After the liquidation of the Bulge, the Siegfried Line was pierced, and then after a brief rest, the division crossed the Prum and Kyll Rivers, taking Gerolstein and Nieder Bettingen against violent opposition. 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 and headed for the Thuringian Forest, reaching Oberhof on April 3rd. The offensive then raced through Bavaria. Forward elements of the 11th Armored Division advance into Wernberg in Germany on 22 April 1945.

In the final drive, the division crossed the Regen river on 24 April, and plunged toward the Danube. The enemy put up its last fanatical resistance along the approaches to Linz, Austria, but the 11th entered that city on 5 May. Pushing onward, elements contacted Soviet forces on May 8th, the first unit of Pattons Third Army, to meet the Soviet Red Army.

On 5 May 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.