Constructed in the conventional two-piece style, both the textured steel outer shell and the fiberboard inner liner are painted in a matte green, with the back of each adorned with a black "2" inside an orange diamond on the rear. This emblem is associated with the 2nd Ranger Battalion of the United States Army. Formed in 1943, 2nd Ranger was almost immediately sent to Great Britain to make their preparations for Operation Neptune, the Allied invasion of France via Normandy. In support of the invasion, the 2nd was initially tasked in it's entirety for the assault on Pointe du Hoc. An elevated position directly between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, the Germans had heavily reinforced it as a fighting point and artillery emplacement; the concern was that if left intact, the position could be use to bombard American landing forces. Many things went against the Rangers during the assault; uncooperative tides put them behind schedule, the ladders brought for the ascension phase of the assault were too short, the schedule disruption caused their second wave to be deployed elsewhere in Normandy instead, and after fighting their way in, found that the heavy 155mm guns that were the cause of greatest concern had been removed by the Germans and repositioned elsewhere to attack the beach. Undaunted, the Rangers proceeded to hunt down the removed artillery, locating five of the six heavy guns they were originally sent to silence, and slagging their firing mechanisms with thermite charges. While this was going on, the companies of the 2nd that were intended to be part of the next wave against Pointe du Hoc were instead rerouted to Omaha Beach, where they fought at heavy cost to help American forces break through the defenses of Normandy. Reunited after the invasion, the 2nd would see action at the Battle for Brest and the Battle of Huertgen Forest, and during the latter they would be responsible for leading the assault to take German fortifications on "Hill 400" outside of Bergstein.