US WW2 28th Infantry Division Patch "Bloody Bucket" - Market ...

The 28th Infantry Division, nicknamed the "Bloody Bucket" by German forces, was a Pennsylvania National Guard unit that sustained roughly 16,000+ combat casualties in World War II. Known for its red keystone patch, the division saw intense combat in the Normandy hedgerows, the 1944 liberation of Paris, the brutal Battle of Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge, where it played a critical role in slowing the German advance. The 28th Infantry Division ("Keystone")[1] is a unit of the United States Army National Guard, and is the oldest division-sized unit in the Army.[2] Some of the units of the division can trace their lineage to Benjamin Franklin's battalion, The Pennsylvania Associators (1747–1777).[3] The division was officially established in 1879 and was later redesignated as the 28th Division in 1917, after the entry of America into the First World War. Today, the division contains units from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and New Jersey.