The Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI) of the 104th Training Division was originally approved on 20 July 2006 while the unit was designated the 104th Division (Institutional Training). Also called a unit crest, the DUI's main feature—a wolf’s head tilted upward in a howl—is taken almost directly from the Division’s Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI), approved on 16 August 1924 when the unit was known as the 104th Division and the patch was the source of the original nickname of “Timberwolf Division.”
But the unit crest has a couple of extra features, namely a horizontally oriented bayonet at the top of the insignia, a grenade at the bottom, and the inscription “Night Fighters” on a scroll over the grenade. All of these are a reference to the fact that the 104th Infantry Division was the first entire Army Division to train specifically for nighttime operations as its standard operating procedure. The Division’s Commander, Major General Terry Allen, had first used night attacks in North Africa when he led the First Infantry Division, and success led him to repeat the process in Europe.
Although some lore claims that the “Night Fighters” of the 104th always launched assaults armed only with bayonets and hand grenades, combat accounts from Division personnel make it clear that the troopers were sometimes armed with rifles and ammo, including hard-hitting Browning Automatic Rifles. Nonetheless, the records seemed to indicate the men of the 104th Infantry Division preferred the nighttime tactics, and over nearly 200 hundred days of continuous combat they never gave ground to the enemy.
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Related Items
104th Training Division Patch (SSI)
104th Training Division Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)