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The above sculpture represents a fairly standard example of the World War II 2nd Ranger officer as he would have appeared on D-Day.

The soldier depicted here is a Captain, indicated by the 2 white bars painted on the front of his helmet. The "aiming stake" painted on the rear behind the orange diamond also serves to identify him as a unit officer. NCOs would have painted a horizontal stripe across the bottom, just under the diamond. Some period photos show the bar painted behind or over the diamond. The "2" painted in the center of the diamonds identifies him as a member of the 2nd battalion.

He is wearing the HBT uniform impregnated with an anti gas treatment, canvas leggings and "roughout" boots. He wears an M-41 OD jacket with the Ranger diamond patch on the left shoulder. Over the jacket he wears an Assault Vest made from OD #7 canvas. The Assault Vests were issued to officers and NCOs in the initial landing waves but were quickly discarded once ashore. On his upper right sleeve is a Gas Brassard, which was issued to the invasion troops to alert them of the presence of chemical gas, should it be used against them.

He carries an M-43 entrenching tool mounted to the rear of his vest, a canteen attached to a pistol belt and an ammo bag on a shoulder strap for carrying additional clips for his M-1928 Thompson submachine gun.

Other equipment that he probably would have carried would be an M7 rubberized gas mask bag with an M5 assault gas mask inside, an M-3 trench knife, 1911 pistol and holster, an M-26 Life belt, plus fragmentation, smoke and thermite grenades.

Several excellent reference sources for 2nd Ranger Battalion gear and uniforms are:

                                       by Jonathan Gawne
                                                                                  also by Jonathan Gawne
                                                                                     by Robert Todd Ross

The Best References for 2nd Ranger written History are:

                               by Col Robert Black
                           by Col Robert Black
                                    by the Historical Division War Department Washington DC
                                                            by Joanna M McDonald
                                   by Ronald Lane
                                      by Marcia Moen and Margo Heinen

I strongly recommend each of these books as the best sources of information available on the Battalion and their battle history. I have read each cover to cover several times.