The 2nd Division on D-Day

I love discovering new information about different units during World War II and researching some of the lesser known actions that various units participated in. You could say it is one of my favorite aspects of being an amateur historian. This past week I was able to uncover some pretty incredible history on the very unit that my reenacting group portrays, the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Division. This information was found in my all-time favorite D-Day book, Spearheading D-Day by Jonathan Gawne. What follows is the passage that got me so excited:

"The Special Engineer Task Force was still short of manpower so roughly 150 engineers from the 2nd "Indianhead" Infantry Division were added to the 900 men of the Gap Assault Teams to bring them up to full strength. Along with the 2nd Division engineers were a few infantrymen from the 23rd and 9th Infantry Regiments. Two to five of these 2nd Division men - whose patch they continued to wear on the field jacket - were added to each gap team that landed in the first waves on D-Day. Their contribution and presence in the initial assault has rarely been recognized."

Pretty crazy to think that there were 150+ engineers and as many as 125 infantrymen (there were roughly 27 Gap Assault and Gap Support Teams) who landed at H+3 minutes wearing the Indianhead patch. This new found information has made me even more humble to represent the unit that has always been "Second to None" since World War One!