The morning of 15 Sept 1944, Unit 125 left the company headquarters in Versailles, France, and proceeded to Rennes, Ninth Army HQ. The unit consisted of Tec 3 Donald Calamar, Tec 5 Merle Nicholson, Tec 5 Charles Hopkins, and Pfc LeRoy Raddatz with Lt Kenneth J. [or L.] Butterfield in charge.

  On 18 Sept the unit proceeded on to Brest and joined the 2nd Division. The city had fallen the day before and so the unit had to wait until later for its' baptism of fire. After a week of helping the victors celebrate the capture of Brest the 2nd Division was ordered to St Vith, Belgium to take over a sector in that area. Since the 2nd Division was placed under First Army control the unit was transferred to the 29th Division. The 29th was just east of Gilrath on the Dutch/German border. Though the fighting was light during this period, the unit was getting valuable experience in the daily assignments with the troops.

  The morning of the 16th of November the Blue and Gray Division Jumped off for the drive to the Roer River, and Calamar, Nicholson, Hopkins, and Raddatz were there ready to move with the first assaulting troops. During this action Calamar rescued two wounded men and was awarded the Silver Star By Gen Gerhardt.

  From Thanksgiving Day until the 27th of December the unit lived in a stone cellar of a bombed house in Aldenhoven, Germany. 35 days of constant shelling, within 1200 yards of the enemy, gave great opportunities for good pictures-and the men sent in a continuous stream of film to Ninth Army for transmission.

  When the great push across the Roer took place on 23 Feb 1945, the unit was with the first elements to enter Julick and the resulting photos were among the many good news shots made by the photogs that day.

  The 29th moved on to Munchen Gladback where it went into a rest period of a month before the Rhine crossing. Pfc Kageff and Tec 5 LaMond joined the unit, replacing Raddatz and Hopkins who returned to the company for a well-earned rest. During the fast-moving drive across the Rhine the unit made countless photos of prison camps, DP centers, methods of handling the freed slave laborers and prisoners of war, as well as picturing the division's part in moping up the last of the German army.

  Shortly after the end of hostilities the 29th Division moved to the city of Bremen where command was assumed of the Enclave extending from the North Sea to Bremen on both sides of the Wesser River. Unit 125 made the record shots of the cities, docks, naval installations, and all transportation facilities in that section which was to be used by the Allies for the moving of troops and material in and out of the great port of Bremen.

  At the end of May 1945, the unit was recalled to the company to prepare for the return to the U.S. During the months spent in the field the unit had built an admirable record.