Activated again on 1 July 1940 as part of the build-up of military forces prior to the United States' entry into World War II, the division saw extensive action in the European Theatre of Operations.

Following World War II, the division was moved to West Germany, where it remained stationed at the Rose Barracks in Bad Kreuznach until it was inactivated on 17 January 1992.

[2] On 17 December 1917, the War Department directed the organization of the 8th Division at Camp Fremont, California, from Regular Army units.

In August 1918, Major General Graves, along with his staff, 5,000 men, and 100 officers, was transferred to Siberia to occupy Vladivostok in Russia as part of the intervention in the Russian Civil War.

The 8th Infantry Regiment became part of the American occupation forces in Germany until August 1919 and the remainder returned to the United States in January 1919, after which the division disbanded.

The 16th Infantry Brigade (12th and 34th Infantry Regiments), the 1st Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment, the 15th Ordnance Company, and the 8th Tank Company (Light) were assigned to the division in June 1923 as Regular Army active units, and formed the force from which the remainder of the division would be reactivated in the event of war.

[4] The division was also provisionally organized in 1939 for the First Army Maneuvers at Manassas, Virginia, with the 16th Brigade reinforced by the 66th Infantry (Light Tanks).

His replacement, Major General Donald A. Stroh was temporarily relieved during the Hurtgen fighting; the death of his son Harry, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces who was shot down over Brittany, had made a deep psychological impact.

[6] Fighting through the hedgerows, it crossed the Ay River, 26 July, pushed through Rennes, 8 August, and attacked Brest, France in September.

Following these actions, the 8th turned eastward toward the German border, taking part in the heavy fighting in the Hürtgen Forest in November 1944.

On 6 April the division attacked northwest to aid in the destruction of enemy forces in the Ruhr Pocket, and by the 17th had completed its mission.

After security duty, the division, under operational control of the British Second Army, drove across the Elbe, 1 May, and penetrated to Schwerin when the war in Europe ended.

On 2 May 1945, as it advanced into northern Germany, the 8th Infantry Division encountered the Neuengamme concentration camp Wöbbelin subcamp, near the city of Ludwigslust.

In the aftermath, the United States Army ordered the townspeople in Ludwigslust to visit the camp and bury the dead.

The 8th Infantry Division operated its own jump school at Wiesbaden Air Base to support its 1st Brigade as well as other elements of the United States Army, Europe.

The 2022 real-time strategy video game Warno features the 8th Infantry Division as a playable battlegroup based on its order of battle in 1989 in the Fulda Gap.