Figure 1.--Omaha was the key to D-Day. Without Onaha, it would not have been possible to create one contiguous beachhead. The British and Canadian beaches were nestled very close together and thus vulnerable. It was Omaha that created the possibility of creating an expansive beachhead. It was at the outset a bloody shambles, the most costly of the landing beaches. But the American got ashore and established the critical beacheachd. They did not get very far inland, but they got off the beach. Here are some very happy civilians that the Americans reached just behind the beach. The Signal Corps caption read, "Lt Donald K. Johnson (US Navy) and Gilbert Desclos (7), Private Donald Sheneman (19) carrying Georgette Godes (8) in his arms in June 1944 — at Omaha Beach." We are not sure what the Navy officer is doing here, but he may be a forward artillery observer helping to direct naval gunfire, an important support for the initial beachhead. Click on the image for a colorized version to what looks like a more acurate caption.

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. It is now the site of the American Cemetary. 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 were not completely destroyed. Omaha beach fronted on a 100 ft cliffs cut by four ravines. Hardened German positions and a sea wall provided cover for machine gun and motor fire backed by artillery that desimated the landing force. Omaha was assaulted by the bttle-tested 1st Infantry Division (eastern half) and the inexperenced 29th Infantry Division and Ranger units (western half). The assault began to go wrong from the beginning. Most of the American tanks failed to make it to the beach and the first wave had little armour support against whithering fire from still in tact beach defenses. The pre-invasion air attacks had completely failed to destroy the German defenses and American commanders decided against a major pre-invasion bombardment with naval artillery. The issue on Omaha was in doubt for several hours. The beach was littered with dead and wounded soldiers. One uthor writes, "At the height of the fighting, when utter disaster at Omaha seemed a rel poosibiity to nerly everyone, Colonel George Taylor, the commander of the division's lead assault regiment on D-Day, strode the beach--risking death and dismemberment with every confident step--and uttered the day's most famous words, 'Only two kinds of people are going to be on this beach, the dead and thse who are going to die. Now get moving!' [Manus] A key aspect of the Omaha landing plan was seizing gun emplacements on Pointe du Hoc that has a line of fire covering all of Omaha Beach. This task was given to the Rangers. And somehow the 68 men of Companu D (Dog) made it up the sheer 90-foot cliffs, a virtually impossible accomplistment. One author writes, "THUD! Small armd fire had just hit the Ranger in front of him. Yelling down, Stein barked, 'Cole's been hit! Hit the dirt!' So the men climbing below him would stay low when they reached th top of the cliff. Throughout the carnage, they stayed focused on the missionand most of the mn in Force A made it to the top. When one man fll, another took his place. By 7:20 A.M., nearly all the twenty-two men in Lomell's boat successfully scalled the cliff. Sniper, machine gun, and 37 mm antiaircraft fire ripped through the air. Lomell thought to himself, 'God damn it, we made it this far; we will beat them! We're in their land. We're gonna regroup here.' As they had been trained to do, small gtoups of men now set out to complete their mission; find the guns of Poine du Hoc and destroy them." [O'Donnell] But this just meant that the Germans could nit destroy the landing force from Poinr du Hoc. The men landing on the Beach still had to crack open the still intact Beach defenses. Bradley for a time considered abandoning the beach and landing the second wave on the British beaches. There were two central turning points. First was vital naval gunfire. American destroyers came in close to provide covering fire. Second, the Germans manning the began defenses to run out of amunition--one more dividend of air power and rge Transportation Plan. Somehow small units began to make it up the cliff and overpowered the German defenders. The success of D-Day was settled on Omaha, arguably the most important battle of history. The 2nd Infantry Division came ashore on D-Day plus 1 in a rush to cram the expanding bridgehead so full of men and material that the Germans could not dislodge the Allies. The Americans did not move very far inland, that first day, but they did establish their beachead.

Sources

O'Donnell, Patrick K. Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe du Hoc--The Rangers Who Accomplished D-Day's Toughest Missionand Led the Way Across Europe (2012), 288p.

Created: 9:40 AM 10/30/2017
Last updated: 1:35 PM 9/6/2019