With the 75th Anniversary of the June 6, 1944 Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France upon us (D-Day) I thought it would be appropriate to highlight one of the more important contributions to the D-Day effort. That being the armor tasked with supporting the assaulting infantry at Omaha beach. During the abortive Dieppe raid of August 1942 it had become obvious that significant armored support was essential if any Allied invasion force had hopes of getting past the German beach defenses. There, only 29 Churchill tanks landed.
Of all the U.S. Army units to serve in Czechoslovakia during 1945, none was as combat experienced as the 1st Infantry Division. From the assault landing at Oran, Algeria on 8 November 1942 to V-E Day in north-west Czechoslovakia on 8 May 1945, the “Big Red One” spent an astonishing 443 days in combat across two continents.
