This is one of the newest, yet most visited memorials in Normandy, and pays tribute to the US 8th Infantry Division who landed on Utah Beach on July 4, 1944, and began their journey from France to Germany.
Formed in California in 1918, they saw action in France during the first World War and were once again dispatched to help in the fight to free Europe, capturing the French cities of Rennes and Brest before heading east through Belgium into battle at Hurtgen Forest in November 1944 and then advancing into Rhineland in early 1945.
Along with paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, the ‘Golden Arrow’ or ‘Pathfinder’ Division as they were nicknamed, liberated the Wobbelin concentration camp in May 1945. By the end of the war the division’s casualties had numbered nearly 14,000.
Their motto is "These are my credentials."
The memorial is located near the Leclerc monument at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville, Normandy.