school training regiment for the Cavalry School. Here at Fort Riley, the regiment was equipped with its first armored cars in 1936, the year they celebrated their centennial, marking 100 years of proud national service. In 1938, the 1st Armored Regiment and the 13th Armored Regiment joined the 2nd Cavalry for maneuvers at Fort Riley, to practice and develop combined arms tactics. These maneuvers combined infantry, cavalry, armored, artillery, and aviation units. Nazi Germany's Invasion of Poland in 1939 forced American strategists to focus on building up the Army's armored capabilities, and the Attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the US into the war. On 15 July 1942, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment was inactivated, and all the troops and equipment were transferred to the newly formed 2nd Armored Regiment, 9th Armored Division. The regiment was reactivated on 15 January 1943 at Fort Riley as the 2nd Mechanized Cavalry Group, or the 2nd MCG (Between 1943-46 cavalry were organized into Groups, but this term is interchangeable with Regiment in this context). Charles H. Reed became the 31st Colonel of the Regiment. It was reorganized as the Headquarters and Headquarters Troop (HHT), 2nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized (present day 1st Squadron), and 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized (present day 2nd Squadron). In July 1944, the 2nd MCG landed in Normandy as part of General Patton's Third Army. Their early assignments during the Battle of Normandy included rear area security, attempting to disrupt the activities of German infiltrators. They were then attached to General Troy Middleton's VIII Corps during Operation Cobra, and served as a flank security and reconnaissance element for the 4th Armored Division. The cavalry scouts performed such daring reconnaissance missions that their German foes gave them the nickname, "Ghosts of Patton's Army." In August, the 2nd MCG conducted recon of the city of Nantes and aggressively used its light armor and firepower to probe the edges of the Wehrmacht's defense. As the Third Army began to advance east, the 2nd MCG protected the vulnerable rear and supply lines over a large frontage of 45 miles between Nantes and Angers, as well as the area west of Nantes. In small patrols, the cavalrymen screened the main drive east and disrupted German movement in the Rennes-Nantes Corridor for ten days until 23 August 1944. Now assigned to XII Corps, the 2nd MCG began moving east toward Lorraine. On 26 August, the 42nd Squadron