US Army 8th Infantry Division shoulder sleeve patch with a number 8 pierced by a yellow arrow

Shoulder sleeve insignia, 8th Infantry Division, United States Army, known as the Golden Arrow or Pathfinder Division, of the type used during World War II. The shield shaped blue badge has an 8 pierced by an upward arrow. The arrow originally represented John Fremont, a famous explorer from California, the state where the Division was activated in 1918. The 8th Infantry fought in France and along the German border to the Elbe River in central Germany. In May 1945, the 8th Infantry and the 82nd Airborne Divisions liberated Wöbbelin, a subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp, where they found approximately 1000 dead inmates. The Units ordered the people from the nearby town of Ludwigslust to bury the bodies. An additional 200 inmates died from exposure after liberation and the Divisions held public funeral services for them on May 7, 1945, the same day Germany surrendered. The 8th Infantry Division was sent back to the United States in July 1945 and inactivated in November.