Battleships in World War II part of Operation Neptune, in support of the D-Day landings in June 1944. D-Day also saw the deliberate sacrifice of two old dreadnoughts ( and ), which were scuttled as part of the breakwater around the Allied Mulberry harbours. The sinking of "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" off the coast of Malaya in 1941 demonstrated that even the most modern battleships could not hold off aerial attacks without decent aerial defenses. The British HACS fire control system had been rendered inoperable by the extreme heat and humidity of the Malaya tropical climate, and the anti-aircraft artillery had managed to shoot
History of the US Army National Guard In Europe, the 34th Infantry Division was one of the first two US infantry divisions to fight in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) when it landed in Algeria as part of Operation Torch. The 29th Infantry Division of the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and District of Columbia National Guards was one of two assault divisions on Omaha Beach in Normandy during the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. National Guard units participated in all combat theaters and took part in 34 separate campaigns and seven assault landings, sustaining 175,000 casualties (killed and wounded). 48 Presidential Unit Citations were awarded to