engineers, extensive mountain training, and four amphibious invasion exercises. Most important, they trained with the 45th Infantry Division, with which they invaded Sicily in Operation HUSKY, and which they supported on many occasions during the war. During the Sicilian campaign, 10 July – 18 August 1943, operating under the code name SAPPHIRE, the Red Dragons were the only Allied unit to serve the entire 38-day campaign without relief. Their performance in supporting infantry attacks was so remarkable that shortly after the invasion of Italy, Fifth Army ordered that no infantry division would ever go into combat without a chemical mortar battalion attached, and no infantry regiment without a chemical mortar company attached. Eventually 32 chemical mortar battalions were activated and in 1947 the 4.2-inch mortar was standardized by Ordnance and was the primary heavy support weapon for fifty years. These decisions rested heavily on the mortar's performance in the hands of the 2nd Separate Chemical Battalion. The battalion was cited specifically for its actions on 6 August 1943 at San Fratello Ridge, known as “Hill 715.” Two battalions of the 15th Infantry became trapped while attacking across the Furiano River. The Red Dragons laid an eight-hour smoke screen on a 3500-yard front to protect the infantry which was under direct observation and fire from the ridge. Two chemical mortar companies were shelled out of their positions but set up elsewhere and continued firing. That night the two infantry battalions returned safely under cover of darkness. On 7 September 1943 the unit was re-designated the 2nd Chemical Battalion, Motorized being one of the few Army units with enough organic transport to move itself unassisted. Under this name the battalion participated in the invasion of Italy at Salerno (Operation AVALANCHE.) The 45th, 34th and 3rd Infantry Divisions went into the line and were rotated out, but the Red Dragons remained in action to support each in turn. The unit participated in the Naples-Foggia and Rome-Arno campaigns, then prepared for the invasion of southern France in operation ANVIL-DRAGOON, Company A joined the First Airborne Task in a glider assault 15 miles inland from the beaches. The battalion continued with the ABTF defending against any German penetration of the French-Italian border in the Maritime Alps. They then proceeded to the Vosges Mountains, attached to the First French Army. At this point they had completed the Southern France campaign. On 31 December 1944 the designation