 In order to co-operate more closely with the 5th Armored, the battalion was split up, with one company going to each of the division's Combat Commands.The force moved south through Avranches and then southwest to Le Mans, before pushing north on 10 August to help close the Falaise Pocket.On 11 August a Panzer IV was destroyed, the first of the battalion's tank kills, and the same night, the rearguard of Company A encountered a German column, and in a close-range action accounted for eight vehicles and 240 enemy troops; a sergeant of the company received both the Silver Star and the Croix de Guerre for this action, giving the battalion its first tank kill and its first combat decoration on the same day.