swept up Paderborn in its advance to shut the back door to the Ruhr Pocket. In April, the division crossed the Saale River north of Halle and sped on toward the Elbe River. On 11 April 1945, the 3rd Armored discovered the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp. The division was the first to arrive on the scene, reporting back to headquarters that it had uncovered a large concentration camp near the town of Nordhausen. With help from the 104th Infantry Division, the 3rd immediately began transporting some 250 prisoners to nearby hospitals. The division's last major fighting in the war was the Battle of Dessau, which the division captured on 23 April 1945 after three days of combat. Following the action at Dessau, the division moved into corps reserve at Sangerhausen. Occupational duty near Langen was given to the division following V-E Day, a role it filled until inactivation on 10 November 1945. Casualties The 3rd Armored Division suffered the following casualties: Total battle casualties: 9,243 Killed in action: 1,810 Wounded in action: 6,963 Missing in action: 104 Prisoner of war: 366 Enemy casualties The division inflicted the following enemy casualties: Combat vehicles destroyed: 6,751 Prisoners of war: 76,720 Individual awards Members of the division received the following awards: Distinguished Service Crosses – 17 Legions of Merit – 23 Silver Stars – 885 Soldiers Medal – 32 Bronze Stars – 3,884 Purple Hearts – in excess of 10,500 Air Medals – 138 Distinguished Flying Crosses – 3 Cold War The division was reactivated on 15 July 1947 at Fort Knox, Kentucky as a training formation. In 1955, the 3rd Armored Division was reorganized for combat and was shipped to Germany the next year. It replaced the 4th Infantry Division under a program called Operation Gyroscope. It was the first U.S. armored division to be stationed east of the Rhine in the Cold War. The division, headquartered at Frankfurt am Main, served in Cold War Germany for approximately 36 years, from May 1956 to July 1992, with the exception of time spent in Saudi Arabia and Iraq during the leadup to and fighting of the Gulf War. The three main combat forces headquarters for the 3rd AD were (1) Ayers Kaserne at Kirch-Goens and Schloss Kaserne at Butzbach (The forces at these Kasernes initially formed Combat Command "A" [CCA] of the 3rd Armored Division), (2) Coleman Kaserne at Gelnhausen (CCB/2d Brigade); and (3)