66th Infantry Division

The US Army's 66th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Black Panther Division, was activated on August 15, 1942, and trained in the United States before being deployed to Europe at the end of 1944. It was assigned to the European theater of operations for security missions and to reduce German pockets remaining after the liberation of most of France.

The division crossed the Atlantic in December 1944. During this transfer, part of its personnel was affected by the Leopoldville troop transport disaster, torpedoed on December 24, 1944, in the English Channel by a German submarine, causing heavy human losses within the division even before it saw action on land.

After arriving in France, the 66th Infantry Division was deployed to Brittany, where it was tasked with siege and containment missions against German forces entrenched in fortified pockets along the Atlantic coast. Its main area of operations was the Lorient pocket, where German units had been surrounded since the summer of 1944. The division conducted surveillance, patrol, perimeter security, and military pressure operations to prevent any enemy sorties or resupply.

Throughout 1945, the 66th Infantry Division remained engaged in these missions in Brittany, without being redeployed to the main front in Germany. The German forces entrenched in Lorient did not surrender until after Germany's general surrender in May 1945, at which point the division participated in receiving the local surrender and disarming enemy troops.

After the end of hostilities, the 66th Infantry Division was briefly employed in security and control duties before being gradually deactivated. The division's service record during World War II includes a campaign credit for Brittany. Its operational engagement was geographically limited, but spanned the final phase of the conflict in Western Europe.