Rare relic from the desperate fighting on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, a U.S. 75mm. brass shell case recovered from offshore, believed to have been from one of the tanks in the 741st Tank Battalion. The brass casing measures 13.75 in. long and shows obvious signs of long exposure to marine conditions and embedding in sand. By the end of D-Day, the 741st had only three combat-ready tanks, as 48 others had been either sunk or destroyed. Personnel losses were nearly as high, with 45 men killed and another 60 wounded. For its actions on Omaha Beach, the battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. This relic originates from the collection of World War II and Civil War historian Michael Miner, whose 30-year collection was built through an extensive system of contacts he developed with artifact hunters and diggers in Europe and the Far East, and he maintained careful records of the items he amassed.