The 8th Infantry Division, ("Pathfinder") was an infantry division of the United States Army during the 20th century. The division served in World War I, World War II, and Operation Desert Storm. Initially activated in January 1918, the unit did not see combat during World War I and returned to the United States. Some units served in the American Expeditionary Force to Siberia. It was activated again on 1 July 1940 as part of the build-up of military forces before the US entered World War II. It then took part in the Normandy landings and fought in France and Germany. Following World War II, the division was moved to West Germany, where it remained stationed at the Rose Barracks in Bad Kreuznach until it was deactivated on 17 January 1992.http://www.fatherswar.com/8thinfdiv/70s90s/inactivation_orders.jpg Inactivation Orders
History World War I Activated: January 1918 Overseas: November 1918 Commanders: Col. Elmore F. Taggart (5 January – 14 February 1918) Col. G. L. Van Deusen (15 – 24 February 1918) Brig. Gen. Joseph D. Leitch (25 February – 9 March 1918; 18 March – 17 July 1918; 4 – 10 August 1918; 12 August – 1 September 1918) Maj. Gen. John Frank Morrison (10 – 17 March 1918) Maj. Gen. William S. Graves (18 July – 3 August 1918; 11 August 1918) Maj. Gen. Eli A. Helmick (2 September 1918 – 19 November 1918; 26 November 1918) Brig. Gen. John J. Bradley (20 – 26 November 1918)
Structure
On 17 December 1917, the War Department directed the organization of the 8th Division at Camp Fremont, California, from Regular Army units.
Headquarters, 8th Division 15th Infantry Brigade 12th Infantry Regiment 62nd Infantry Regiment (formed with a cadre from the 12th Infantry) 23rd Machine Gun Battalion 16th Infantry Brigade 8th Infantry Regiment 13th Infantry Regiment 24th Machine Gun Battalion 8th Field Artillery Brigade 2nd Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm) 81st Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (formed from the 23rd Cavalry) 83rd Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm) (formed from the 25th Cavalry) 8th Trench Mortar Battery 22nd Machine Gun Battalion 319th Engineer Regiment (formed with a cadre from the 3rd Engineers) 320th Field Signal Battalion Headquarters Troop, 8th Division 8th Train Headquarters and Military Police 8th Ammunition Train 8th Supply Train 8th Engineer Train 8th Sanitary Train 11th, 31st, 32nd, and 43rd Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals
Moving abroad In August 1918, Major General Graves, along with his staff, 5,000 men, and 100 officers, was transferred to Siberia to occupy Vladivostok in Russia as part of the intervention in the Russian Civil War. Major General Eli A. Helmick succeeded Graves in command of the division. The overseas movement of the division to Europe commenced on October 30, 1918.
The 8th Field Artillery Brigade, 8th Infantry Brigade, 16th Infantry Brigade headquarters, and the 319th Engineer Regiment were the only divisional units to go to France. The 13th and 62nd Infantry Regiments were at sea when recalled after the Armistice. The 12th Infantry did not leave its pre-embarkation point at Camp Mills, New York, because it was quarantined for Spanish influenza. The troops who did reach France became the garrison of Brest and assisted in building huge camps for troops about to embark for return to the United States. The 8th Infantry Regiment became part of the American occupation forces in Germany until August 1919 and the remainder returned to the United States in January 1919, after which the division disbanded.
Between wars The 8th Division officially demobilized at Camp Lee, Virginia, in September 1919. The division was partially reconstituted on 24 March 1923, allotted to the Third Corps Area for mobilization purposes, and assigned to the III Corps. Camp George G. Meade, Maryland, was its designated mobilization station for reactivation. The 16th Infantry Brigade (12th and 34th Infantry Regiments), the 1st Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment, the 15th Ordnance Company, and the 8th Tank Company (Light) were assigned to the division in June 1923 as Regular Army active units, and formed the force from which the remainder of the division would be reactivated in the event of war. The commanding general of the brigade was considered the division commander for planning purposes. The 16th Infantry Brigade was stationed at Fort Howard, Maryland, from 1922 to 1928; Fort Hunt, Virginia, from 1928 to 1931; in Washington, D.C., from 1931 to 1936; and at Fort Meade from 1936 to the activation of the division.
The division headquarters was organized in April 1926 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a "Regular Army Inactive" (RAI) unit using personnel of the Organized Reserve, and by mid-1927, most of the division's other inactive elements were also organized as such. The active units of the division conducted annual training with the III and XIII Corps and the 79th, 80th, and 99th Divisions. Summer training camps were usually conducted at Camp Meade., pp. 216–217
The 16th Infantry Brigade's 12th and 34th Infantry Regiments, reinforced by the 3d Cavalry and the District of Columbia National Guard's 260th Coast Artillery, were called out on 28 July 1932 to quell potential trouble from the Bonus Army in Washington, D.C. The 12th Infantry was ordered to clear the United States Capitol and the camps on the Anacostia Flats of the veterans that afternoon. From June 1936 to August 1937, the 16th Brigade was commanded by Lorenzo D. Gasser, who went on to serve as the Army's assistant chief of staff for personnel (G-1) and Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
The division was also provisionally organized in 1939 for the First Army Maneuvers at Manassas, Virginia, with the 16th Brigade reinforced by the 66th Infantry (Light Tanks). In preparation for becoming a "triangular" division, the 8th Infantry Division was reactivated on 1 July 1940 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, less Reserve personnel, and assigned to the I Corps .
World War II Activated: 1 July 1940 at Camp Jackson, South Carolina Trained at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in late 1942 Trained at Camp Laguna, Arizona, in 1943 Overseas: 5 December 1943 Campaigns: Normandy Northern France Rhineland Central Europe Days of combat: 266. Distinguished Unit Citations: 5 Awards: Medal of Honor – 3; Distinguished Service Cross (United States) – 33; Distinguished Service Medal (United States) – 2; Silver Star – 768; LM – 12; DFC – 2; SM – 24; BSM – 2,874; PH – 1; AM – 107. Commanders: Maj. Gen. Philip B. Peyton (June 1940 – December 1940) Maj. Gen. James P. Marley (December 1940 – February 1941) Maj. Gen. William E. Shedd (February 1941) Maj. Gen. Henry Terrell Jr. (March 1941) Maj. Gen. James P. Marley (April 1941 – July 1942) Maj. Gen. Paul E. Peabody (August 1942 – January 1943) Maj. Gen. William C. McMahon (February 1943 – July 1944) Maj. Gen. Donald A. Stroh (July 1944 – December 1944) Maj. Gen. William G. Weaver (December 1944 – February 1945) Maj. Gen. Bryant E. Moore (February 1945 – November 1945) Maj. Gen. William M. Miley (November 1945 to inactivation). Returned to U.S.: 10 July 1945. Inactivated: at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, 20 November 1945.
Order of battle
Headquarters, 8th Infantry Division 13th Infantry Regiment 28th Infantry Regiment 121st Infantry Regiment Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 8th Infantry Division Artillery 28th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm) 43rd Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 45th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 56th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm) 12th Engineer Combat Battalion 8th Medical Battalion 8th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized) Headquarters, Special Troops, 8th Infantry Division Headquarters Company, 8th Infantry Division 708th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company 8th Quartermaster Company 8th Signal Company Military Police Platoon Band 8th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment
Major General William C. McMahon was relieved shortly after the division arrived in Normandy. His replacement, Major General Donald A. Stroh was temporarily relieved during the Hurtgen fighting; the death of his son Harry, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces who was shot down over Brittany, had made a deep psychological impact. After a rest, Stroh went on to command the 106th Infantry Division.
Combat chronicle During World War II, the 8th Infantry Division was sent to Europe to fight against the Axis. After training in Northern Ireland, the division would begin its training for its eventual role in the Normandy Campaign. The 8th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach, Normandy, 4 July 1944, and entered combat on 7 July. The Division would go into action in support of actions in the Battle of La Haye-du-Puits, with the Division relieving the 82nd Airborne Division and moving south east of La Haye Du Puits towards the village of Lessary. Fighting in brutal hedgerow fighting the 8th would suffer heavy losses. The division acting as the far left flank of Operation Cobra would cross the Ay River on July 26 and move southward down the Norman coast before eventually crossing into Brittany after the 4th Armored Division secured a crossing over the Selune River at Avranches. Shortly after crossing into Brittany, the division captured the French cities of Rennes and Brest. pushed through Rennes, 8 August, and attacked Brest, France in September. When U.S. Brigadier General Charles Canham, who was at the time the deputy commander of the 8th Infantry Division, arrived to accept the surrender of German troops in Brest, the commander of the Brest garrison, General Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke asked the lower-ranking man to show his credentials. Canham pointed to his nearby troops and said "These are my credentials". That phrase has since become the 8th Infantry Division's motto.
Following these actions, the 8th turned eastward toward the German border, taking part in the heavy fighting in the Hürtgen Forest in November 1944. The Crozon Peninsula was cleared on 19 September, and the division drove across France to Luxembourg, moved to the Hürtgen Forest, 20 November, cleared Hürtgen on the 28th and Brandenberg, 3 December, and pushed on to the Roer.
That river was crossed on 23 February 1945, Düren taken on the 25th and the Erft Canal crossed on the 28th. The 8th reached the Rhine near Rodenkirchen, 7 March, and maintained positions along the river near Koeln. In early March 1945, the 8th had advanced into the Rhineland. It fought its way into the Ruhr region the following month.
On 6 April the division attacked northwest to aid in the destruction of enemy forces in the Ruhr Pocket, and by the 17th had completed its mission. After security duty, the division, under operational control of the British Second Army, drove across the Elbe, 1 May, and penetrated to Schwerin when the war in Europe ended.
On 2 May 1945, as it advanced into northern Germany, the 8th Infantry Division encountered the Neuengamme concentration camp Wöbbelin subcamp, near the city of Ludwigslust. The SS had established Wöbbelin in early February 1945 to house concentration camp prisoners who had been evacuated from other Nazi camps to prevent their liberation by the Allies. Wöbbelin held some 5,000 inmates, many of whom suffered from starvation and disease. The sanitary conditions at the camp when the 8th Infantry Division and the 82nd Airborne Division arrived were deplorable. There was little food or water, and some prisoners had resorted to cannibalism. In the first week after liberation, more than 200 inmates died. In the aftermath, the United States Army ordered the townspeople in Ludwigslust to visit the camp and bury the dead.
The 8th Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the U.S. Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988.
Casualties