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Pre - July 1944 information on the 8th Division |
The 8th Division was reactivated on 1 July 1940 at Fort Jackson, S.C. There the newly enlisted men filled the ranks and underwent a period of training. The division was raised as a "square division", with four regiments of infantry in two brigades, and a brigade of artillery in two regiments. The division structure was changed to a "triangular division with only three infantry regiments and no brigades in
In September 1942 it was redesignated a Motorized Division, in that enough trucks and other vehicles were assigned to it so the entire division could be mobile all at once. This seemed to be the future of modern warfare, however extensive testing showed that it was wasteful of men and equipment. Most of the time the trucks and drivers were sitting idle with nothing to do. More importantly, with he trucks the division was quite large in terms of men, equipment and supply needs: all of which would become a major factor in shipping units and material overseas.
In December 1942 the 8th Motorized Division was reassigned to Fort Leonard Wood, MO. More training followed, and in March 1943 the Division moved to the Laguna Desert Training Camp near Yuma, Arizona. The camps at the Desert Training Center, California-Arizona Maneuver Area were not designed to teach the men how to fight in a desert, but rather they were the best available open areas which military units could train without civilians in the way. They could fire live ammunition and run tanks and vehicles anywhere they pleased without some farmer screaming about his fences being knocked down.
While in the desert the regiments lost their bands. This was another attempt to streamline units to get rid of any position or equipment that was not really necessary. The 13th and 121st Infantry Regimental bands were merged to form a single division band. The 28th Infantry Regimental band was transferred to become the 65th Infantry Division band at Camp Shelby, Mississippi
After four months of training in the hot desert sun, followed by four
weeks of large scale maneuvers, the division moved to Camp Forest, Tenn. at
the end of august 1943. More training followed, and the men were obviously
being prepared for shipment overseas. A small advance detachment shipped out
for parts unknown in mid-November 1943. Two weeks later the rest of the
division was on the move to the east coast and the staging area at Camp
Kilmer NJ. A convoy of ships bearing the division left New York Harbor on 5
December 1943.
After a rough 10 day Winter Atlantic crossing, the men landed in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 15 December 1944. There the various units were divided up among various locations in Northern Ireland for more training.
In early April the division was twice assembled for memorable speeches: one from General George Patton, and the other from General Eisenhower. On 30 June the division was ordered to the docks of Belfast Harbor. The boarded ships and sailed for France on 1 July 1944. On the 4th of July 1944 the majority of the Division landed on Utah Beach and immediately headed inland. Their baptism of fire would come quickly.
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