8th Infantry Division cut edge

8th Infantry Division cut edge Patch. original, WW2.

During World War II, the 8th Infantry Division was sent to Europe. After undergoing training in Ireland, the 8th ID landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on July 4, 1944 and entered battle on July 7. During the Battle of the Hedges, it crossed the Ay river between Lessay and Périers on July 26, then liberated the city of Rennes on August 4 and that of Brest in September1. The Crozon Peninsula was liberated on September 19.

After these actions the 8th DI crossed France from west to east and was engaged in Luxembourg on the German border, took part in the Battle of the Hürtgen forest on November 20, then liberated Hürtgen on the 28th and Brandenburg, on December 3 and pushed to the edge of the Roer1 river which was crossed on February 23, 1945, Düren was liberated on February 25 and the Erft Canal on February 28. The 8th ID reached the Rhine, near Rodenkirchen, on March 7 and maintained its positions along the river near Cologne. By early March 1945, the 8th ID had advanced to the Rhineland.

On April 6, 1945 the 8th DI took part in the destruction of the enemy forces in the Ruhr Pocket in the North-West and on the 17th its mission was accomplished. After securing the area the 8th ID, under the operational control of the British Second Army, crossed the Elbe on 1 May and liberated Schwerin at the end of the war in Europe.

On May 2, 1945, as it advanced into northern Germany, the 8th ID encountered the Neuengamme concentration camp, the Wöbbelin extermination camp, near the town of Ludwigslust1. The SS had established the Wöbbelin camp in early February 1945 to house Nazi concentration camp prisoners who had been evacuated to prevent their release by the Allies. At Wöbbelin there were about 5,000 prisoners, many of whom suffered from starvation and disease. The hygienic conditions of the camp were deplorable when the 8th ID and the 82nd Airborne Division arrived. There were only small amounts of food or water and some prisoners had resorted to cannibalism. In the week following the liberation, more than 200 prisoners died. Under these circumstances, the American Army ordered the inhabitants of Ludwigslust to visit the camp and bury the dead1.

The 8th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army Center of Military History and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988