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1.35th vignette model depicts US 29th Infantry Division - 116th Infantry Regiment Combat Team (RCT) during 6 June 1944 Normandy Invasion (D-Day). The 116th RCT was first assault wave to hit Dog One sector of Omaha Beach. They ran directly into well defended German emplacements, some of its companies suffered 90% casualties in ensuing battle. Its survivors on Omaha Beach had to wait until subsequent reinforcements landed to bolster offensive. Normandy Invasion, June 1944 Overview and Special Image Selection - www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-eur/normandy/normandy.htm
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Rollover : German beach barricades included apparatus called Hedgehogs (American nickname, Hedges in being obstructive items, Hogs in reference to Ground Hogs which burrow into the ground. Hedgehogs were steel I-beams welded together in triangular  fashion. Some have contact or magnetic mines attached to its upper arms.
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During high-tides, hedgehogs would be hidden from landing crafts. Hence, Allies decided on Normandy landing during low-tides to avoid obstacles. Normandy Invasion - www.army.mil/cmh-pg/reference/normandy/normandy.htm
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Inset 1 : Hedgehog apparatus construction was straightforward, used I-beam plastic styrene bars and glue them into triangular fashion. Its legs were sanded flush with surface, main joint reinforced with triangular sheet styrene. Extensive nature of underwater defenses persuaded Allies to launch invasion at low-tides season, otherwise high-tides would conceal such obstacles. Blockhaus en Normandie (French site) - bunker14.skyblog.com
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Also had to consider conducive weather for ship transit across English Channel, and full moon for airborne paratrooper drops night before D-Day invasion. With about 250,000 men in transit, Naval support operation was called Operation Neptune, amphibious landing of a total of 150,000 men in successive waves called Operation Overlord. Operation Neptune - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Neptune
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Model shows 116th RCT men clustering around a hedgehog, first assault wave shattered to such extent that surviving veterans openly admit in personal memoirs that men threw away their rifles so they can run faster off the beach, while others who made to beach bluffs were being swept with German machine-gun fire and grenades, thus they ran back onto the beach escape the crossfire. US soldier figures from 1.35th TAMIYA US Soldiers - European Theater kit, built straight from the box with modification to arms and heads placement (had them all look toward one direct). U.S. M1943 Field Uniform - www.atthefront.com/us_uni_M43Field_Uniform.htm
- Inset 2 : Sketch from veteran descriptions of Omaha Beach landings, US demolition team men clustered around Hedgehogs for protection against distant enemy machine-gun fire, but offered no
 protection from enemy artillery rounds as shown by KIA US infantrymen spew in foreground. Other beach apparatus in background included barbwire (defense against landing troops in low-tide) and long timber pole with razor blades (to cut into soft metal under-belly of landing crafts) and mine attached to its upper tip (defense against landing crafts in high-tide). Battle of Normandy - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_Invasion
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