changed to 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion. Continuing on to cross the Rhine and enter Germany, the battalion completed the Rhineland, Ardennes Alsace, and Germany campaigns. Significant events included defending the flank of 3rd Army during the Battle of the Bulge, assault on the Maginot line, liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, and the capture of a town named Traunstein. This was the only occasion in the entire war in which a chemical mortar battalion was credited with such a capture. In Traunstein HQ Company captured a young Luftwaffe deserter named Joseph Ratzinger, who later would become Pope Benedict XVI. After the German surrender, the battalion was assigned guard duty over numerous sites where the Germans had stored chemical munitions, including Zyklon B, the nerve gas used for mass executions in the concentration camps. On 26 July 1946 the battalion was deactivated in Germany, with remaining personnel going to the 9th Infantry Division. During the war the battalion was in combat for 511 days, the same as the 45th Division, and more than any other unit in the US Army. Fifty-eight men were killed in action. Korean War The 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion was reactivated at Edgewood Arsenal on 1 February 1949. Personnel and equipment came from the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion. For the next year and a half, the Red Dragons trained to a high state of readiness under the command of Lieutenant Colonel V. H. Bell. The battalion taught the Chemical Warfare School for the entire Army. They trained Army and National Guard troops on use of the 4.2-inch mortar. They conducted PORTEX, a practice invasion of Puerto Rico, and trained on airborne operations with the mortar. The Korean War broke out on July 25, 1950. The battalion received movement orders on 7 September 1950 and moved so quickly that 47 days later, on 24 October, they fired their first combat mission. The journey. included travelling 700 miles up the Korean peninsula in four days, from Pusan South Korea to YongByon, North Korea. They were assigned the code name NATIVE and kept it for the rest of the war. A week later the battalion was over run at Unsan when the Chinese made their first significant entry into the war. Many guns and vehicles were lost and 19 men were killed, some by capture and execution. On 26 November the Chinese made a major assault against the US 9th