Figure 1.--Here two GIs from an American engineer unit comfort a little French girl and her puppy dog at Colleville-sur-Mer, one of the villages over looking Omaha beach a week after the landings (June 13, 1944). The soldiers are sappers Private Roland Bonnell from Cleveland, Ohio,Sergeant James Devine from New York City. It was the sappers that blew a hole in thesea wall which contributed to the American victory.

Omaha proved to be the most deadly landing beach and would go down in history as 'Bloody Omaha'. Omaha was mostly undeveloped beach. There were two small villages overlooking the beach. One had some 330 people--Vierville Sur-Mer. Another dated back to the Viking era, Colleville-sur-Mer. The village apparently dates back to a farm owned by a certain Koli, a Viking settler. There is another Colleville in Normandy, presumably with silimar Viking origins. During the subsequent Norman conquest of Englnd, William the Conqueror gave Gilbert de Colleville land in England. The English Colville/Colvin family descended fom that Norman knight. This includes the Scottish Clan Colville and the Barony de Colville, of Castle Bytham in England. This time of course the invasion was headed in the other direction. Suddenly these quiet vilages which time had past buy were at the center of perhaps the most monentous battle in history. And because the pre-invasion air bombardment was off target, they were not completely destroyed. As far as we know there was not an intense battle fir the village. The fight was for the bluffs. Once they were scalled the Germans either surendered or retreated as best thy could on foot from the coast. The Germans were badly outnumered. And no reinfircements and resupply reached them. Only Rommel's defensive implacements allowed to make a stand and threaten the suscess of the invasion. Once the bluffs were secured by the Americans, the German defenders were unable to resist further. Colleville-sur-Mer is now again a picturesque sa-side village, but now also the site of the American Cemetary. France has granted the United States a special, perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery, free of any charge or any tax.

Created: 10:38 PM 7/15/2015
Last updated: 10:38 PM 7/15/2015