D-Day Remembering 78 Years On | Omaha Beach - Exploring France

Omaha beach, what a place.  A place for remembrance, contemplation and thanks to those who risked their lives to give us all a better future.  We went only a couple of days after the 78th anniversary of D-Day, although there weren't any celebrations still happening, there were loads of flowers everywhere in honour of D-Day, lots of flags and extra information stands dotted about. 

So, what was Omaha beach?  This is a code name for one of the five sections of beach that were occupied during World War II.  Omaha refers to a five mile stretch of coast line which starts at Saint-Honorine-des-Pertes to Vierville-Sur-Mer. It is situated between Gold beach which was defended by the British and Utah beach which was also defended by Americans. 

The American army landed on the beaches via 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 13 destroyers along with over 1,000 other vessels.  The first wave of soldiers were unaware of the dangers that faced them. On the night of 5th June 1944, American and British 

Air Force flew over this part of normandy and dropped 13,000 bombs in order to push the German troops away from the beaches. However, it was a foggy, dark evening and the location of the bomb drops were miscalculated. Rather than dropping the bombs at the coast line, they were actually dropped about 2km inland. The allies had no idea this had happened, and so they went into D-Day expecting there to be less resistance from Germany. 

When they got to the beaches, they were faces with 7,800 German infantry, 8 artillery bunkers, 35 pillboxes, 4 artillery pieces, 6 mortar pits, 18 anti-tank guns, 45 rocket launcher sites, 85 machine guns and 6 tank turrets. German troops waited for the first wave of Americans to get off the landing craft before opening fire. upon reflection, the really didn't stand much of a chance in this first wave. The first wave of soldiers was almost wiped out by the Germans within the first half an hour.

 

It was a badly organised battle, and although the beach was divided into sections and everyone had clear instructions, the weather was bad on the day and due to the number of mines on the beaches, barbed wire, shingle, concrete fortifications and shells showering down, there was a lot of confusion. American soldiers had to run 500 metres from the landing crafts across the open beac before they saw any sign of safety. At the end of the day, troops all came together to find whichever officers remained, they were often organised geographically and they organised themselves to fight another day. 

Unlike the four other landings, Omaha had support of 112 amphibious Sherman tanks. These were equipped with snorkels and Sherman bulldozers, however, these tanks were designed to sail in calm weather, and did not withstand the strong swell of the English Channel. Of the first 32 tanks that set sail, only three survived. The remaining tanks were taken by ship directly to the beaches. A total of 58 tanks reached Omaha beach, but only 30 minutes later, 14 of them had been destroyed or abandoned. The others were blocked on the beach by German anti-tank walls. The soldiers that were manning these tanks were left helpless as they lacked firepower and many were sitting ducks in the tanks on the beach. By the end of the day, only 3 of the tanks were operational, and sadly almost all of the soldiers manning the tanks, lost their lives.  

Only a hour or so after the first landing crafts reached the beach, most were being destroyed before they had time to dock. Germans were firing at anything that moved, and at this point a breakthrough seemed impossible.  The tide was coming in, and any wounded soldiers that were stuck on the beach faced a certain death by drowning if no one came to their aid. 

By 9.30, things were starting to change towards the east of the beac, shooting was less dense here and a group of Americans managed to move eastwards towards the town of Port-en-Bessin in order to make contact with British troops who were about 16 km away. 

At 10am, Americans from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 16th regiment of the 1st infantry division attempted a break through.  They were made up of only 200 soldiers but they took advantage of the thick smoke caused by the bombings and they progressed, equipped with their gas masks to protect themselves. 

General Bradley, who was on the deck of USS Augusta, watched with his binoculars the evolution of the war. Due to the high number of casualties, Bradley considered redirecting all ships and landing crafts to Utah beach to avoid any further deaths.  But Bradley thought if there was any hesitation from the US army, the German troops would have time to regroup and get reinforcements.  So, he kept sending wave after wave of American soldiers to fight. 

The German army was starting to struggle, reinforcements did not come, and the generals of the Third Reich were not well informed and did not consider it necessary to progress themselves to the beaches, so they stayed in their armoured bunkers and up on cliff tops to keep the advantage.  From the ocean, the situation for the US army did not look good. There was a scattering of burned out vehicles, casualties from the fighting, helmets, clothes, cartridge belts and weapons littering the beaches. By mid morning, high ranking officers of the American army were worried.  Major General Clarence Huebner, asked for naval artillery to support the infantrymen as close as possible.  Some approaching allied ships, 800m off the shore, shot at the German fortified points that had continued to shower bullets and shells on the beach. 

At around 11am, the breakthrough multiplied and hinfred of soldiers rushed to sassily the German positions dominating the beached. The Germans positions defending the shore were taken one bu one, and in the early afternoon, shooting ceased at Omaha.  Later the beach was under control, but intermittently, German snipers open fire on troops awaiting evacuation to England. 

It is unknown the total amount of casualties at this beach, but it is estimated that over 1,500 German soldiers lost their lives and over 5,000 of the 43,000 American troops that landed on the beaches were lost. 

We went to go and see a couple of bunkers at Colleville-sur-Mer, here you will see mass grave sites of soldiers who have lost their lives as well as the beautiful American cemetery honouring all those who died.

In the years following the war, it took many companies years and years to clean up the 150,000 tons of debris that was spread out on the beach. Even today, it's not unheard of to find scrap bits of metal and shells that remained from the war. 

This is a wonderful stretch of coastline, and it is a beautiful place to contemplate and give thanks to all those who lost their lives. 

W3W

We started in a car park right on the beach front at the main memorial (W3W - ) and we walked along the beach and up to the cliff top. Walked along the ridge before depending back down to the beach. On our way, we did pass a camper van park up (W3W - ). We walked back to the car park where there was a cafe so it would have been rude to have not stopped and had a coffee. From there, we headed to a network of bunkers, tunnels and cannon sites (W3W - ) there were some memorials here and bunkers and tunnels that could be accessed. Its a very touching and moving area to be in, especially during the week of the D-Day memorials.

Social Media & Website
Buy us a coffee/beer - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/seastheday1
YouTube - youtube.com/channel/UCafklL7k4CrfWgiA9H3RawQ/featured
Website (Sailing) - seasthedaysailing.wixsite.com/home
Instagram - @seasthedayzelande 
Facebook - @seasthedayalbatros 
Photography website - shamrockphotography0.wixsite.com/home
Photography Instagram - @shamrock___photography
Photography Facebook - @ShamrockPhotographyFR
Patreon - patreon.com/seastheday
Support us - gofund.me/addc179f