Third Battalion

The C. O.
Lt. Col. James C. Leighton

The Exec
Capt. Robert J. Chambers

Third Has Record of "Firsts" The Third Battalion of the 385th was the first of the Battalions of the Regiment to span the Sauer and go into action on the soil of Germany.  And the first days of combat for Third Battalion men were successions of pillboxes and prepared defenses until the Line had been breached and the Regiment began moving at an ever accelerated speed.  The Third moved through the remains of Irrel, Kirch, Trierweiler, Newel, Herforst and Landscheid, and on to Grosslittgen, where Companies L and K had a tough struggle, engaging enemy tanks and infantry.  The Battalion scored another first when it became the first Regiment of the Division to cross the Rhine. Beyond the Rhine the Battalion had its roughest moments fighting for Camberg and Usingen.  Then came the jump to the vicinity of Kassel and the beginnings of the real rat-race, following the 6th Armored in the final drives.  Arriving at Limbach, the Battalion established bridgeheads across the Mulde and sat down to sweat out the end of the War and the junction with the Russians, the farthest penetration of American troops into Germany on the Western Front.