ACROSS EUROPE

From Omaha and Utah Beaches Normandy, combat began for the 8th ID

and the 121st Infantry on July 4, 1944 and ended 10 months later

at the 1,000 year old capital city province of  Schwerin, Germany, May 3, 1945

DETAILS OF THE UNIT'S EXTRAORDINARY

COMBAT HISTORY IS ON THE LINKS PAGE

IT'S OVER IN EUROPE

MAY 1945

The 8th Division had fought its final battle in the European Theater of Operations. In ten months of combat, the units of the Division had captured 316,187 prisoners of war and vast stores of enemy war material. The Division had taken a major part in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland and Central European campaigns. Enlisted men and officers of the Division killed, wounded and captured during the ten-month period of combat totaled 13,293. Non-battle casualties brought the total number of casualties above 18,000.

Several hundred emaciated bodies of men who had been starved and beaten to death in the Wobbelin concentration camp were unearthed and buried after funeral services in the town squares of nearby communities. The civilian population was ordered to attend the burials, and many German men and women were shown through the concentration camp itself.
 

WE'RE GOING HOME

JULY 3, 1945