OMAHA Beach on D-Day

First Allied troops to land: 16th Regimental Combat Team (US 1st Division) and 116th Regimental Combat Team (29th Division), 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions.

The beach had strong German defences. The German troops stationed there were in greater numbers, and of higher quality, than the Allies had believed.

Objective: The only breaks in the 100-foot high cliffs running between UTAH and GOLD Beaches were at OMAHA Beach. The landings at OMAHA were therefore vital to connect the US troops at UTAH Beach with the British and Canadian beaches to the east.

Landing craft are loaded 11 miles from beach, leading to problems with rough seas. Ten landing craft sink.
05.35 – 27 DD (swimming) tanks sink on launching in rough seas.

05.55 – The Allied naval barrage and bombing raids on the German defences are ineffective.

06.35 – The first units try to land, but are cut down in the surf by defenders' fire. There is terrible carnage.

07.00 – Chaotic situation on the beach, as troops are pinned down and take cover behind mined beach defences. Engineers are unable to clear obstacles.

07.08 – 2nd Ranger Battalion Lands and assaults Pointe du Hoc, the site of a battery of German long-range guns (to the west of the main landings on Omaha Beach).

07.30 – The second wave of troops adds to the confusion and over-crowding on Omaha Beach.

07.40 – 5th Ranger Battalion lands on beach.

08.00 – The attack up the cliffs begins, assisted by tanks and destroyers firing from close inshore.

08.30 – Rangers and 116th Infantry reach top of the cliffs at Les Moulins.

09.15 – After scaling 80-100 foot cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, the US Rangers find the battery empty, but discover the guns further inland and destroy them.

10.00 - 11.00 – The advance on Vierville and St Laurent gradually begins. The beach is very congested.

11.00 – Vierville is captured.

12.00 – German defences are penetrated in four places. US troops begin to move inland, although the beach is still under heavy fire.

14.00 – The first beach exit is cleared.

16.00 – Tanks and vehicles begin to move off the beach.

20.00 – St Laurent and Colleville are captured.

24.00 – A tiny, precarious beachhead has been established. There are pockets of US forces over an area approximately five miles wide by 1.5 miles deep.
OMAHA Beach was the worst of all the Allied beaches on D-Day. By midnight, 34,250 troops had been landed, with around 2,000 casualties. Three men won the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Uncle Reed went in on Normandy at Omaha, and was nearly fatally wounded in France - -

Thank God we had such MEN!!

Graywolfghost, I also had an uncle on Omaha Beach with the first wave. He was in an Engineer battalion tasked with destroying German beach obstacles.

Are you aware that many of our schools are NOT teaching much if anything about D-Day and/or WW II??

My grandson brought home a History book that had reduced WW II to ONE (1) paragraph.

Sgtleo

quote:

Originally posted by Sgtleo:



Are you aware that many of our schools are NOT teaching much if anything about D-Day and/or WW II??

My grandson brought home a History book that had reduced WW II to ONE (1) paragraph.

Sgtleo

Schools do not teach about war. Maybe they feel if they don't the wars will go away? We will not forget! Yesterday I told a group of 15 people over the age of 21, to remember the 2500 men that lost thier lives for us on this day in 1944. A Day called D Day. After the close of the meeting many ask me who the 2500 was. Kind of sicking isn't it?

I retired from teaching at the end of this year, but I always taught a full section (3 class periods in an every-other-day schedule) on each major war: Revolution, Civil War, Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection, WW I, WW II, Korea, Viet Nam, and Desert Storm. That may not seem like much, but a class only meets 90 times in a school year (84 minute classes). We discuss the causes, major battles, major figures, etc., but I also tried to humanize the conflicts with vignettes on common individuals that did extraordinary things, such as Audey Murphy in WW II, trying to help them get a true sense of what "Patriotism" and "Hero" aught to really mean. Doing that in four 84 minute classes every day containing 30-37 students each is almost like running a marathon on a daily basis - -

But about mid May, as I was teaching a class about Desert Storm, I looked out in the hall, and there stood a student from last year, all decked out in a sharp-looking Marine uniform! I called him in and introduced him to the class. He informed me and them that he was on 2 weeks leave before going to the "Sandbox." I had mixed feeling. I was so proud of him, but at the same time, had I sold him a bill of good that might get him killed??

You, see - the 8-10,000 students I have taught over the last 30 years are MY kids - just like the three of my own that are in uniform now -

What ever Patriotism you hand to someone might get them killed, so make sure it's not just the company line - -

Something to ponder on.....

A group of Americans (retired teachers) recently went to France on a tour.
> Robert Whiting, an e! lderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
>
> At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his
> carry
> on. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
> sarcastically.
>
> Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
>
> "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."
>
> The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
>
> "Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in
> France !"
>
> The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly
> explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to
> help
> liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to show it to.


GOD BLESS the Greatest Generation
GOD BLESS all our fighting men and women
S/F

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4124354.ece

Seems like forgotten or trying to erase.

It seems that history is nothing but trivial. Schools seem more aimed at getting their kids to pass these yearly tests. Anything not covered on the test, gets pushed off to the side.

Too true. An English Honors course (All the classics from ancient Greece to the Moderns) that I taught was trashed because it "Did not fit the core require by No child left behind". It did not matter that all my students scored higher than any students in the district 3 years in a row. It did not matter that my students loved English, read and wrote wonderfully, and pulled down scholarship after scholarship. It did not fit the "core", so it was scrapped, and I switched to teaching history for 5 years before retiring...

"No Child Left Behind" has made multiple-choice testing the new god of education, and it's high priest is a president whose brain-waves have been in neutral most of his life - Go Figure!!