Dear all,
I am building a diorama about the US 29th div landing Omaha beach. I learnt that the Big Red One and the 2nd and 5th ranger were also landed on that beach. And from the movie " Saving private Ryan" I saw the 29th and Rangers were fighting side by side with some other units. Is that true?
Since I only get the DML 29th GI and I don't want to add a vest on them to make them look like the Rangers. Can I place, let's say, 3 or 4 29th GI and 2 or 3 Big Red One GI side by side? TIA.
MC

I personally dont know specifically which units were on Omaha.

If you do a google search on each unit you can easily find the deployment history of each and that will confirm it.

here is one
http://www.1id.army.mil/1ID/History/History.htm

Hi MC,

this is what I did find:

As by the Osprey Volume about OMAHA (Campaigns 100) by Steve Zaloga:

1st Infantry Division landed on the eastern part of Omaha, 29th on the Western part. Planning was that E and F Co's 16th IR (1st ID) would land on Easy Red, together with 741st Tank Battalion. Bordering to the west, on Easy Green, E and F Co's of 116th IR (29th ID) would land.
However, the landings were a bit messed up, and 741st Tank Battalion, E Co 16th inf and E Co 116th Inf ended up at Easy Red.

Therefor it is, IMHO quite likely that these fought there side by side considering the mess it was. Of course various combat enigineers were mixed in as well.

So yes, it is certainly possible.

I hope this answers your question. Now about Saving Private Ryan....

The scene in Saving Private Ryan you refer to takes place on Doc Green, that is the far western edge of Omaha. Here 2nd and 5th Rangers landed together with parts of 116th IR (Cos. A,B,C and D).

The other soldiers in that scene could be of 743rd Tank Battalion, 146th Combat Engineers, 149th Engineer Beach Battalion, and 121st Engineers.

Yes, easily.

The 29th actually landed under control of the 1st ID, IIRC.

As stated above, they were all over the place. If you ever get into the details, you'll see units mixed all over the beach & even inland.

For a good, recent book, I recommend "Omaha Beach D-Day June 6 1944" by Joe Balkowski. The illustrations of unit placement go directly to your question.

John

Thanks for the information, Gentleman
MC

MC,

Just to reiterate the above mentioned the beaches became quite confused. Two excellent sources to decipher the confusion of the Omaha landings Flint Whitlock’s "The Fighting First: The Untold Story of the Big Red One on D-Day", and Michael Reynolds’ "Eagles & Bulldogs in Normandy 1944: The American 29th Division from Omaha to St. Lô and the British 3rd Division from Sword to Caen". Both books have maps, photos, and detailed descriptions of Omaha landings.

Jay