Operation Overlord is an Allied offensive operation involving an air and sea landing in Normandy (northern France), which began on June 6, 1944, and officially ended on August 30 of the same year. On the Allied side, in the first several days of the operation, about 1.4 million soldiers took part in it, and this number finally increased to about 2.1 million people. The commander-in-chief was the American General DD Eisenhower. By the way, the later president of the USA in 1953-1961. On the German side, approx. 0.3 million soldiers were fighting initially, with a total force estimated at approx. 0.65 million people. The formal commander in chief was Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. Plans for the Western Allies' landing operations in Europe had been developed since 1942, but their final form crystallized in 1943. The operation, which was eventually codenamed Overlord, assumed the landing of allied forces - Americans and British, but also Canadians, Free French troops, and later Poles - in Normandy, with simultaneous sea and air landing. It assumed the involvement of a gigantic flotilla of auxiliary and landing craft (over 4,000 vessels in total) and over 10,000 aircraft. For this reason, Operation Overlord has gone down in history as the largest landing operation in the history of wars! The operations began on June 6, 1944 (the so-called D-Day) with the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy. After the capture of the bridgeheads and their merger, there was a period of stalemate and the impossibility of penetrating the German defense, as exemplified by the repeated Allied attacks on the city of Caen. The breakthrough was only Operation Cobra at the end of July 1944, which led to the breakthrough and the exit to the rear of the German troops. As a result of this maneuver, the German retreat took place, which cost the Wehrmacht a lot of effort and resources. The political and military effect of the operation was the liberation of Paris and the lion's share of France, and the actual creation of the so-called Of the 2nd front in Europe.
American 29th Infantry Division, commonly known as " Blue and Gray Division " was formed in July 1917. Unlike the 1st Infantry Division, it was sent to the Western Front only at the beginning of the summer of 1918. She managed to take part in the Battle of Meuse-Argonne in June 1918, but it was her first and last great battle in World War I. The unit was demobilized in May 1919. However, in 1923 it was re-formed. As early as 1942, the unit was transferred from the USA to Great Britain, where it was prepared for the landing on the continent. Its troops first attacked Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, and later fought in northern France (including Saint-Lo). After the campaign in Normandy, the unit was responsible for the siege of Brest from August 25 to September 18, 1944. From December 1944 to the end of February 1945, she was stationed in Belgium . It also took part in the crossing of the Rhine and the occupation of western Germany in April-May 1945. During World War II, the division lost about 3,900 killed and about 15,500 wounded.
Already after the first experiences of fighting in North Africa at the turn of 1942-1943, the US Army changed the position of the American infantry division. From 1943 onwards, each infantry division had three full-time infantry regiments, in turn composed of three infantry battalions. In addition, the infantry regiment also included other units, for example: an anti-tank company, an artillery company or a staff company. In total, the US Army's infantry regiment numbered approximately 3,100 soldiers. It should also be remembered that the division also included a strong artillery component consisting of four artillery battalions - 3 light and 1 medium, most often armed with 105 and 155 mm howitzers. There was also, among others, an engineering battalion, a repair company, a reconnaissance unit and a Military Police platoon. In total, the US Infantry Division numbered approximately 14,200 people from 1943. It quite clearly dominated the artillery over the German division and had much better and - above all - fully motorized means of transport, which made it a highly mobile tactical formation. It also had much richer "individual" anti-tank weapons in the form of a large number of bazooka launchers, of which there were over 500 in the entire division.
