Omaha Beach
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Troops from the First Division landing on Omaha beach. |
Omaha Beach was the
Allied codename for one of the principal landing points during the
Normandy landings on
June 6 1944. The beach is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long, from
Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to
Vierville-sur-Mer.
The untested
29th Infantry Division, joined by 8 companies of
Rangers redirected from
Pointe du Hoc, were to assault the western flank of the beach. The
1st Infantry Division was given the eastern approach. This was their third
amphibious assault of the war, after
Africa and
Sicily. The primary objective of the Omaha Beach assault was to secure a
beachhead between
Port-en-Bessin and the
Vire River, before pushing southward toward
Saint-Lô.
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Map of the Omaha beachhead 6 June 1944. |
The
Wehrmacht had well prepared their
Atlantic Wall defences, strewing various obstacles along the beach, and the gentle downward slope provided an excellent field of fire. The
German 352nd Division defending Omaha Beach was one of the better-trained units in the area. 27 of the 32 amphibious Sherman
DD Tanks intended to give armoured support floundered in the rough seas before reaching shore, due to a combination of adverse weather conditions (the tanks faced 2 metre-high waves which they could not withstand), improper navigation (the tanks approached in a stairstep pattern, exposing the low sides of their floatation devices to the incoming waves), and poor command (many of the tanks were launched approximately 5 kilometres offshore, too far away for the fragile tanks). The Allied air bombardment of the beach defenses prior to the landings was largely ineffective: most of the
ordnance fell too far inland. The initial naval bombardment proved just as ineffective due to the short time allotted to the naval guns (40 minutes). The result was German defences left largely intact when the first assault waves hit the beach. Soldiers who were not immediately killed found almost no
defilade on the 182 metre-deep beach (at low tide), and what little cover provided by the beach obstacles was nullified by
overlapping fields of fire pre-sighted by the Germans. Fogbanks and smoke from artillery fire created low visibility for the men on the beach, and many could only barely make out the cliffs ahead. Carefully planned assault waves turned into chaos as wind, waves, and current scattered most of the landing craft far from their assigned targets. Tired and seasick troops, weighed down by wet and sand-filled gear, could not run across the open sand (as often portrayed in movies). Most could only walk or trot the expanse toward the
seawall.
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The build-up of Omaha Beach: reinforcements of men and equipment moving inland. |
Commanders offshore considered abandoning the attack altogether and redirecting the Omaha forces to
Utah Beach. However, the largely leaderless surviving infantry who made it to the seawall managed to breach the barbed wire and
minefield defences using
Bangalore torpedoes and organized a push directly up the cliffs, opening some of the exits and enabling more troops to join the assault. The
pillboxes which continued to rain fire on the continual waves of men on the beach became enormous tombs as they were attacked from the rear. The vast network of
trenches provided several pockets of resistance, eventually broken by the now overwhelming Allied forces. Several Allied
destroyers improvised an attack on the German positions, nearly running aground to get past the smoke to open fire on the bluffs, cutting off the German defenders from retreating or receiving reinforcements.
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Present day view of Omaha Beach from inside an intact German artillery bunker. Note how the bunker faces not towards the ocean, but down the beach. This allowed multiple bunkers to create deadly crossfire patterns that caused high numbers of Allied casualties on D-Day. |
The landings at Omaha Beach resulted in heavy American casualties. The official record of the
1st Infantry Division stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded... It had become a struggle for survival and rescue". The approximately 40,000 men of V Corps incurred over 3,000 casualties, most in the first few hours.
Casualties per unit varied widely, but the first wave was hit the hardest. Although the assault occurred at low tide and many of the obstacles placed by the Germans were exposed and thus easily avoidable for most landing craft, resulting in the majority of the attacking force reaching the beach,
sticks deployed directly in front of the most fortified German positions were completely wiped out as the
landing craft ramps (referred to as "
murder-holes," after the architectural term applied to castles) dropped, the narrow opening at the front of the craft exposed the entire complement to
enfilading enemy
MG42 fire. Other units, lucky to land on portions of the beach obscured by smoke, or between or unparallel to the bunkers, made it onto the beach with substantially fewer losses. Another factor was the skill and courage of landing craft
coxswains. Some emptied their craft dozens of yards offshore after hitting
sandbars and the soldiers had to drop their weapons and supplies or drown in the surf, and were openly exposed to enemy fire as they slowly waded ashore. Other coxswains made every effort to land the troops right on the beach with multiple attempts and significant risk to their craft.
American units
*
V Corps*
1st Infantry Division*
29th Infantry Division*
2nd Ranger Battalion*
5th Ranger BattalionGerman units
*
352nd Infantry Division*
916th Grenadier Regiment*
Czech hedgehog/Tetrahedron - 3 pronged tank obstacles.
*
C-element/Belgian Gate - 2 metre-high steel gates, first utilised by Belgium
*Wooden Stakes - Large stakes with mines on the top, angled toward the sea to stop approaching landing craft
*Wooden Ramps - Ramps angled toward the bluffs with mines on the top and sides, angled so that approaching landing craft would knock them over and detonate the mines
*Mines
*Widerstandsnester - concrete
pillboxes outfitted with machine guns
Movies*
The Longest Day *
Saving Private Ryan*
Band of Brothers*
The Big Red OneMusic Videos*
My Chemical Romance's The Ghost Of YouGames*
Medal of Honor: Frontline*
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault*
Battlefield 1942*
Brothers in Arms*
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One*
Day of Defeat*
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory*
Battalion WarsChateau Thierry Monument
*
Omaha Beachhead, official Army report
*
352nd Infantrie Division History*
D-Day : Etat des Lieux : Omaha Beach
