8th Infantry Division “Golden Arrow” / “Pathfinder”

Patch: Gold arrow with silver “8” on a blue shield.

Slogan: “These Are My Credentials.”

History: Activated Jan. 1918, Camp Fremont, CA; went overseas Sept. 1918, too late for combat; reconstituted inactive March 1923. Reactivated July 1940, Fort Jackson. Trained at Camp Forrest, Fort Leonard Wood, and the Atlantic coast; maneuvered in Tennessee and California-Arizona. Motorized Apr. 1942–May 1943. Deployed to ETO Dec. 1943.

Commanding Generals: Maj. Gen. James P. Marley (Apr. 1941–Jul. 1942); Maj. Gen. Paul E. Peabody (Aug. 1942–Jan. 1943); Maj. Gen. William C. McMahon (Feb. 1943–Jul. 1944); Maj. Gen. Donald A. Stroh (Jul.–Dec. 1944); Maj. Gen. William G. Weaver (Dec. 1944–Feb. 1945); Maj. Gen. Bryant E. Moore (Feb. 1945–).

Component Units (Dec. 1943): 13th, 28th, and 121st Infantry Regiments; 43rd, 45th, 56th, and 28th Field Artillery Battalions. Under First and Ninth Armies.

Awards: Distinguished Unit Citation, 3rd Bn/28th Inf, for Bergstein, Germany (Dec. 1–5, 1944).

Combat Highlights: Landed in France D+28. Attacked toward the Ay River July 8, crossing it the next day; by month’s end the German 7th Army was retreating. Took Rennes in August, pushed toward Brest, then shifted to the Crozon Peninsula, forcing a German surrender there Sept. 18. Drove across France into Luxembourg, fought through the Hürtgen Forest, crossed the Erft Canal (Feb. 2, 1945) and the Ruhr (Feb. 23), then took Cologne and Hochenburg. Ended the war near Schwerin, Germany.