where they were ordered to set up a defense and wait for the Red Army. The regiment waited for three weeks on the Russians and the end of the war. On 27 May 1945 British troops occupied Magdeburg and the 117th Infantry moved south to Oelsnitz and Bad Elster, Germany near the Czechoslovakian border for occupation. Plans were to transfer the regiment and the 30th Infantry Division to the Pacific Theater to fight the Japanese. On 13 August 1945 the regiment boarded the Liberty Ship Marine Wolfe and sailed to Southampton, England. Before departing Southampton, news of the Japanese surrender canceled to the plans to move the regiment to the Pacific. On 17 August 1945 the regiment sailed on board the from the Ocean Pier at Southampton. They arrived at Pier 90 in New York City, the port of debarkation on 21 August 1945. The 117th Infantry Regiment moved to Fort Jackson S.C. on 21 August 1945. The 117th Infantry Regiment was inactivated 17–24 November 1945 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Cold War In a letter to the 30th Division commander in May 1946, the Supreme Allied Headquarters Army Historian Colonel S.L.A. Marshall called the 30th Infantry Division the "Finest Infantry Division in the European Theater of Operations". Marshall wrote, "It is the combined judgments of the approximately 35 historical officers who had worked on the records and in the field that the 30th merited this distinction. It was our finding that the 30th had been outstanding in three operations and we could consistently recommend it for citation on any of these occasions. It was further found that it had in no single instance performed discreditably or weakly ... and in no single operation had it carried less than its share of the burden or looked bad when compared to the forces on its flanks. We were especially impressed with the fact that it consistently achieved results without undue wastage of its men." On 31 July 1946, the 117th was reorganized. The 1st Battalion at Cleveland was withdrawn, expanded, and re-designated as the 278th Armored Infantry Battalion. The 2nd Battalion at Kingsport was withdrawn, converted, and re-designated as the 168th Military Police Battalion. New 1st and 2nd Battalions were constituted in West Tennessee. The 278th Armored Infantry Battalion was federally recognized on 1 September 1947 in eastern Tennessee with headquarters at Cleveland, continuing the lineage of the 117th Infantry Regiment.