D Day and the battle
for Omaha beach
By
Derek Gleeson
June 1944 was a major turning point in World War 2,
particularly in Europe. Although the initiative had been
seized from the Germans some months before, so far the western Allies had been
unable to mass sufficient men and material to risk an attack in northern Europe.
By mid 1944, early mobilization of manpower and resources in
America was
beginning to pay off. Millions of American men had being trained, equipped and
welded into fighting and service units. American industrial production had
reached its war peak late in 1943, while there were still critical shortages,
production problems were largely solved
By the beginning of June 1944, the United
States and Great
Britain had accumulated in the British
Isles. Strategic bombing of Germany
was reaching its peak. In May 1943, the Compaign Chief of staff had being given
high priority to a Combined Bomber. By late summer 1943, allied bombers were
conducting around the clock bombardment of Germany
industry and communications. In general an air raid by 200 planes had being
considered large in June 1943; the average strike a year later was undertaken
by 1,000 heavy bombers.
At the Teheran
conference in Nov 1943 it was decided to open another front against the Germans
in 1944. “The meticulous planning which preceded the invasion – code name
Operation Overload”
and some mistakes by Germans ensured it would be a success. Allied equipment
was top of the range and supplies were in abundance. Tanks were invented and new
types that could move through sand and water. Two artificial harbours called Mulberries
were carried across the channel. Under-ocean lines carried oil supplies to the
attacking armies while ten thousand air crafts supported the invading fleet.
“Elaborate deception plans encouraged the Germans to think that the attack
would come in the Pas de Calais region rather than Normandy”
They also though the weather would prevent the attack. The French rail and road
system was badly damaged by allied bombing.
“By dawn on June 6, eighteen thousand British and American
parachutists were on the ground in Normandy”
taking over important bridges and disrupting German communications lines. At 06:30 early that morning the first troops
landed at ‘Utah’ beach with troops
and tanks that could float on water (Amphibious tanks). About an hour later at
about 07:30 the British soldiers first started to land at ‘Gold’ and ‘Sword’
beaches and not far from behind them were two 2,400 Canadians supported by 76
floating tanks (ambitious tanks) at 10:15 this morning news of these landings
was brought to the attention of Rommel, who was still in Germany at the time. He
quickly flew to France
at once, he was instructed to drive the invaders back into sea before midnight by Hitler. By midnight 155 thousand
allied troops had already landed upon the shore and the only place Germans
could pin down the American assaulting force of about 35 thousand men to a
perimeter no more than a mile deep was at ‘Omaha
beach’.
‘Omaha’ the code
name for the beach second from the right of five landing areas of the Normandy
invasion. This was the biggest assault area. It was over 6 miles between
Port-en-bessin on the east and the mouth of the River Vire on the west. The
western part of the beach was backed by a 3 metre high seawall and the whole
beach was looked over by one hundred foot high cliffs. There where about five
exits from the sand and shingle beach. The best paved road was in a ravine that
lead to the village of Vierville-sur-mer. Two were only dirt paths leading to
the villages of Colleville-sur-mer and Saint-laurent-sur-mer. The Germans under
field marshal Erwin Rommel had built formidable defences to protect this
enclosed battlefield. The beaches were like minefields and even the water was
heavily mined, and there were twelve strong points called ‘widerstandsnester
which means resistance nests numerous other fighting positions covered the area
supported by an extensive trench system. The defending forces consisted of
three battalions of the veteran 352nd infantry divisions. The
weapons used were fixed to cover the beach with crossing fire turning Omaha
into a killing zone.
Omaha was part
of the invasion area assigned to the U.S first army, lead by lieutenant General
Omar Bradley. The beach was going to be attached at 06:30 hours by the U.S first infantry division with the
116th regiment of the 29th division attached for D-day.
The objectives of the first division were ambitious. First of all it was to
capture the villages of Vierville, Saint-Laurent and Colleville; then it was to
continue through and cut the Bayeux-isigny road, and then it was to attack
south towards Trevieres and west towards the Pointe du hoc. Elements of the
part of the 16th regiment were to link up at Port-en Bessin with
British units from Gold Beach
to the east
At the beginning not much went right at Omaha.
Special “DD” tanks (ambitious floating tanks) that were suppose to support the
116th regiment sank in the choppy sea of the channel. Only 2 of 29
launched landed on the beach. With the exception of company A, no unit of the
116th regiment landed where it was planned. Bad weather, strong
winds and tidal currents carried the landing craft right to left. The 16th
regiment on the east half of the beach fared little better, landed in a state
of confusion with units badly intermingled.
Through-out the landing, awaiting German gunners poured
deadly fire into the ranks of the invading Americans. Bodies lay everywhere. Men
took cover behind beach obstacles pondering the deadly sprint across the beach
to the sea wall which offered some safety at the base of the cliff. Destroyed
crafts and vehicles littered the waters edge and beach, At 08:30 hours all
landing ceased at Omaha. The
landing troops on the beach were left on there own and realized that the exits
were not the way off. Slowly, and in small groups they scaled the cliffs.
Meanwhile, navy destroyers steamed in scraping their bottoms in the shallow
waters, blasted the Germans fortifications at point-blank range. By 12:00 German fire was noticeably decreased as
the defences positions were taken from the rear. Then one by one the exits were
opened. By nightfall the 1st and 29th divisions held
positions around Vierville, Saint-Laurent and Colleville. The Americans
suffered 2,400 casualties at Omaha
on June 6th, but by the end of the day they had landed 34,000 troops.
The Germans 352nd division lost 20 percent of its strength with
1,200 casualties but it had no reserves coming to continue the fight.
To the west of Omaha
beach, 226 commando-style U.S rangers had also had a tough day. Early that
morning they had assaulted a battery believed wrongly, it turned out – to be on
the 30m (100foot) Pointe du Hoc headland. They were to remain stranded there
until June 8, by when fewer than 90 men were still on their feet. In the
Anglo-Canadian sector, meanwhile, the first sign of activity had been almost
imperceptible. At 4.45 am, two midget
submarines slid silently to the surface of the Channel, 1.6km (1 mile) offshore
and 32km (20 miles) apart, at the outer limits of the assault area. Their job
was to guide in the invasion craft with radar and sonar signals. Forty five
minutes later, the naval bombardment began. It started 20 minutes earlier than
planned off the American sector and over an hour longer, until 7:20 am. At 7:05,
groups of frogmen swam into clear paths through underwater obstacles. But by 7:25, with there first landing craft
approaching, their work was still unfinished. One frogman, Private Peter Jones,
watched helplessly as a vessel, caught in heavy swell off ‘Gold’ beach,
collided with a mine-tipped steel tripod. It ‘shot up into the air as through
lifted by a water spout,’ he remembered. ‘At the top of spout bodies and parts
of bodies spread like drops off water.’ The run in for the British and Canadian
craft had been shorter than for the Americans and they arrived in better order.
But they to met fierce resistance
Fighting inshore, the allies also encountered difficulty.
Thanks to the success of the air born landings, had been noted but efforts to
break out of the centre were frustrated by fierce German resistance. A large-scale
infantry offensive west of Caen, called Operation “Epsom,”was also defeated on
June 25-29 as the success of the German defence, led the Americans to doubt the
plan’s viability. In fact, the Germans were also depressed, for their bitter
defences was using up men and equipment that could not be replaced. These
setbacks brought about a crisis in the German high command, which in any case
now suffered unforeseeable casualties, Dollman commander of the 7th
army died of a suspected heart attack, though it was quite likely it was he
committed suicide. Rommel was injured in his car by a British fighter. Worst of
all, Rundstedt confessed defeatism to Hitler and urged him to make peace he was
later dismissed and his successor Gunther Von ‘Kluge who soon thought the same.
On June 20 conspiracy officers believed the only hope of securing peace was to
remove Hitler. The German defence of
Normandy had by then taken a turn for the worse Operation “Goodwood” failed on July
18-19; the 1st army conducted a bitter battle of attrition around
Saint –Lo in the second and third week of July. Its success was to lay the
bases for the long-awaited allied breakout.
Meanwhile operation Anvil – the landing of troops on the
French Riviera – had occurred without any setbacks and by early September
troops had linked up with the troops from Overload. Belgium
and the important port of Antwerp
were taken in September. At this stage a disrupt broke out between Montgomery
and Eisenhower. The former wanted to concentrate on a single attack into the Ruhr
in order to destroy German industry. Eisenhower decreed that the various armies
advanced on a broad front in a co-ordinated fashion. An attempt to outflank the
Siegfried line, i.e. the German fortification by crossing the Rhine
at the Dutch bridge of Arnhem
failed due to strong German resistance. Hitler was also replying to the allied
offensive by firing V1and V2 rockets at London.
They caused nine thousand deaths in 1944.
One book used for this essay was D day and the battle for Normandy
1944
This was wrote by Max Hastings
The famous D-day landing of 6th June 1944 marked the beginning of
Operation Overload, the battle for liberation of Europe.
Max Hastings has overturned many traditional legends to write this study.
Drawing together the eyewitness accounts of survivors from sides and sources
and documents, this text provides a controversial perspective on the
devastation battle for Normandy.
REVIEW
For military history buffs this is Max Hastings at his best
(a good historian whose conservative politics don’t intrude). The book covers
the building up in the early 1944, and then takes us through the invasion in
its various phases culminating with the German collapse and the retreat in
August. Hastings questions are
fascinating. Why did the Germans not collapse faster, given allied air power
and superiority in manpower and guns? Why were their small formations so effective
and why was morale so high (even though most officers knew the war was lost)? It’s
highly readable stuff with excellent maps, and provides a nice balance between
personal narrative (largely from soldiers’ correspondence) and the big picture.
After reading three previous books about the D-day invasion,
I can finally say that I won’t be buying any more after reading this one. Other
historians write as well as Max Hastings, but none have included both the
perspective from the allies as well as the Germans. When you put this book down,
you’ll have the experience of truly understanding what it was like you be in
Northern France in 1944, and not only in the staff rooms of the generals involved,
but also what the average private had to endure, in both armies. Anyone who is
interested in this topic and doesn’t read “overload” by Hastings
is really missing out. Its money well
spent.
Question 2. Review
1. One of the books that I used for this project was D Day
and the for battle normandy by Max Hastings this book was a good source of
information because
1. It was written in clear and easy understand way
2. It contained plenty of pictures, photographs and
documents
3. It had a good bibliography
Question 3. Skills
1. Two skills that I learned were:
1. Computer skills: I learned how to use Microsoft Word, to
type up an essay, how to use the Internet to find information and how to print
out documents.
2. I learned how to write a proper Leaving Cert essay with
footnotes and a list of books at the end
(Bibliography) The list of books used.