Figure 1.--Here we see American soldier near Vierville Sur-Mer, amonth after D-Day. The caption read. "One of the cooks of an open field kitchen in France, tells the French boy 'Louis', their mascot, that he must eat all the food he takes. He will, after eating 4 years under German rule." He dies not look to us like a mascoy. He is wearing a school smock and is thus more likely just dropping in for a visit and a meal. Perhaps he did so regularly. Milirary rules prohibited feeding civilians except in emergency circumstances. Few units, hoever, could turn away children. The photograph is dated July 7, 1944. US Army Signal Corps Photo.SC191238-S

The success of D-Day was settled on OmahaBeach--arguably the most importnt battle of history. Omaha was mostly undeveloped beach. There was one small village with some 330 people--Vierville Sur-Mer. Can you imagine the people of this small village ;ived in a French backwater, remote from any fighting for 4 years under German occuotion. Then suddenly with no warning they wake up in the morning to find themselves on the front lines of the war. Not only were they suddenly thrust into the middle of the War (June 6, 1944), but thuy were at the focal point of the War and facing the gratest naval armada ever assembled up to that point. . The U.S. Army's 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, along with the 5th Ranger Battalion, and A, B, and C Companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion landed on Dog Green, Dog White, Dog Red, and Easy Green sectors of Omaha Beach, below Vierville-sur-Mer. The landings began at 6.30 am. Miraculously, very few villagers were harmed. This was in part because the American commanders, unlike the Brirish commanders, elected for a minimal pre-invasion bombardment. The decesion almost resulted in the failure of the landings. One of the reasons Omaha became known as 'Bloody Omaha'. Here we see a scene a month after the landings (figure 1).

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