Military Patch
c 1941-1945
8th US Infantry Division Cloth Shoulder Patch

The U.S. 8th Infantry Division arrived by convoy from Northern Ireland onto Utah Beach on July 3, 1944, After fighting its way through the hedgerow terrain in Normandy, it was sent to take part in the capture of the city of Brest in Brittany, France. The German garrison there had been ordered by Hitler to fight to the last man. The 2nd German Parachute Division occupying the city determined to do just that. On September 12, 1945, their commander rejected an American demand for the garrison’s surrender.

Together with several other combat tested units, the 8th Infantry Division fought furiously house-to-house and street-to-street in the city over the next several days. After a week of intense urban warfare the Americans finally overran the enemy. The division, whose units included the 13th, 28th, and 121st Infantry Regiments, later also fought in the battle for the Huertgen Forest. There it relieved the exhausted, fought-out 4th Division. By November 28, 1944, the 8th Division had secured that area, but at a heavy price. At the war’s end it counted 2,532 killed, 288 mortally wounded, and 10,057 who were wounded but had survived.

Cloth. H 6.5, W 4.3 cm
Eisenhower National Historic Site, EISE 10374