US Army 2nd Infantry Division shoulder sleeve patch with a Native American caricature on white star

Shoulder sleeve insignia of the 2nd Infantry Division, United States Army, nicknamed the Indian Head Division, due to the design of their black badge with a cartoonlike head of a Native American on a white star. The patch was created by the unit’s troops during World War 1. The unit landed on Omaha Beach on D Day plus one, June 7, 1944, and were in Germany in October. In early April 1945, the division occupied Hadamar, liberating a psychiatric clinic that was a major killing center for the Nazi euthanasia program for the physically and mentally disabled. The unit provided aid for the remaining inmates. They then liberated Leipzig-Schönfield concentration camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald, on April 14, 1945, where they interred the uncovered corpses in graves. On the following day, troops liberated Spergau/Zöschen labor education camp in Zöschen. The division continued into Czechoslovakia in early May, taking the city of Pilsen on VE Day, May 8th. The unit remained in Pilsen until they returned to the US on July 10, 1945 to train for a scheduled invasion of Japan. The division was still in training when victory over Japan was announced on August 14, 1945.