Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
D-Day is a very biased example since only two or three US Divisions in that invasion had even seen combat (the 82nd, and 1st are the ones I know of, maybe some of the Ranger Divisions did too, I'm not sure).
The few other US divisions that had seen combat at the time were still fighting in Italy and stayed there for most of the war or were diverted to the southern France invasion, Operation Dragoon (which was meant to be conducted in concert with Overlord but could not due to lack of ships).
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The only Ranger involvement during D-Day was at Point du Hoc the 2nd Ranger Battalion they as a unit had never seen action before.The most sizable formation of Rangers you will ever see is a regiment.It is very likely that some members of the 2nd Rangers where transferred from the 1st Ranger Battalion they had seen action in North Africa.
Of course the general rule in warfare is that you do not put all of your most elite,experienced and hardened units into the battle at the start unless you absolutely need them for a specific action.