D-Day at 75: The Guns They Carried in Normandy

By Chris Eger

These soldiers of the U.S. Army’s “Big Red One” 1st Infantry Division are embarking in England in June 1944. Destination: Omaha Beach. Note the M1 Garands (Photo: National Archives)
On June 6, 1944, the Allies launched Operation Overlord on the French coast of Normandy to liberate Europe from German occupation. These are the guns they carried.
About half of the 160,000 troops that went into battle on D-Day were American, with nearly 50,000 U.S. soldiers tasked with taking two of the five invasion beachheads — designated Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. Those headed across the rough seas of the English Channel from British embarkation ports largely did so in small landing craft, with the first waves largely going into combat with just the equipment on their backs and the rifles in their hands.
The way many American troops got to France, first landing on the beaches of Normandy. The 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions landed on Omaha, while the 4th and 90th Divisions took Utah Beach. (Photo: National Archives)
The primary U.S. Army rifle of World War II was the M1 Garand. Designed by Canadian-born Springfield Armory engineer Jean Cantius Garand, the .30-06 caliber semi-automatic was fed with an eight-round en bloc clip through

Source: Guns.com