Patch, 63rd Infantry Division

Genuine WWII US shoulder sleeve insignia of the 63rd Infantry Division 'Blood and Fire'.

The 63rd Infantry Division was activated on 15 June 1943, at Camp Blanding, Florida, using a cadre from the 98th Infantry Division. Shortly thereafter, the division removed to Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi to prepare for deployment to Europe. On three occasions during the next seventeen months, the division trained up fresh recruits into effective combat teams, only to have them pulled from the division and sent overseas as replacements. The first elements of the division, anxious to get in the fight, finally arrived in Europe in December 1944 and were joined by the rest of the division in January 1945.