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.
The US Army Rangers (full name: United States Army Rangers), or Rangers for short, is a light infantry unit of the US Army whose roots date back to the 17th century! It was then that units of irregular troops (actually militia) with this name were formed, intended to fight the Indians. The unit with that name also took part in the US War of Independence (1775-1783). However, the genesis of the modern US Rangers troops dates back to World War II, and more precisely to June 1942, when on the initiative of Col. Lucian Truscotta was formed the 1st Ranger Battalion. The soldiers of this unit took part in the course of Operation Torch (1942) and later in North Africa, until the summer of 1943. Then the unit was expanded by the 3rd and 4th battalions. These units took part in the battles on the Apennine (1943-1944), but suffered such great losses during their course that they were disbanded. Simultaneously and temporarily, the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions, which took part in the fighting in Normandy, were formed almost simultaneously in the USA. However, after 1945, all battalions of this formation were disbanded. They were reformed for the purposes of the Korean War (1950-1953) and Vietnam (1964 / 1965-1975) as independent companies, theoretically forming the 75th Infantry Regiment. In 1974, the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions were created, and in 1984 the 3rd Battalion joined them. All these battalions remain in active service to the present day. The soldiers of these battalions fought, inter alia, in the Second Gulf War (2003) and during operations in Afghanistan (after 2001).