Omaha Beach is a world apart from Utah Beach, the most costly of the five landing beaches, and is known as the "Bloody Omaha." Because of this, the 1994 commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Normandy landings was held on Omaha Beach. The shocking war scenes in the opening of the classic war film "Saving Private Wren" shot by the famous Hollywood director Spielberg reflect the tragic battle that took place on the Omaha beachhead.

Omaha is located on the east side of Utah Beach, a 6.4-kilometer-long beach between the mouth of the Vail River at the southern end of the Cotontan Peninsula and Basin Ekspres, the coast is a steep cliff slope more than 30 meters high, there are four deep valleys washed out by the sea, which become a natural outlet to the interior, the difference between high and low tides on the beach is about 270 meters, the beach is a hard sand with a towering pebble embankment, behind which are dunes, meadows, woods, and the only road leading inland There are three small villages along the way, the cottages are made of thick stone, surrounded by a field, The ridges of the fields are covered with small trees, which is the unique hedge terrain of Normandy, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The Germans made full use of the favorable natural terrain to build fortifications, set up three obstacles between the low tide line and the ** line, mixed with a large number of mines, built a concrete fortress on the pebble embankment, in front of the fortress there were snake-bellied barbed wire and mines, and the four exits were sealed with mines and reinforced concrete obstacles. There are 16 strong support points on the coast, equipped with machine guns and anti-tank guns, and there are also bunkers built on the cliffs, which contain extremely powerful 88mm guns, which can cover the entire beach, and there are 6 coastal guns on the cliffs of Cape Hawke, which pose a great threat to the activities of warships at sea.

The Allies chose to land here because of the importance of the U.S. Utah Beach and British Beach between the U.S. and British beaches from the mouth of the Ville River to Aromench, and this 32-kilometer stretch of coast is the only one that can barely land. The rest of the area is a cliff and can't be landed at all. In addition, the Allies believed that the defenders here were a regiment of the 716th Coastal Defense Division, with neither armored units nor motor vehicles. The soldiers are mostly reservists and their combat effectiveness is very poor.

As a matter of fact. In order to strengthen the defenses in the Normandy area, Limer transferred the elite field force of the 352nd Infantry Division from Saint-Lo, and one of the main regiments of the division was deployed in Omaha, and the Allied intelligence agencies did not find out the whereabouts of the 352nd Division until after the departure of the landing force, and it was too late.

Landing in Omaha were one regiment each of the 1st and 29th Divisions of the 5th Army of the United States. The O formation, commanded by Rear Admiral Hall, was in charge of the transport, and arrived at the transfer area at 3 o'clock on June 6, when the wind force was 5 on the sea and the wave height was 12 meters. Ten landing craft capsized due to strong winds and waves, and the 300 soldiers on board were struggling on the sea. The vast majority of the soldiers on the landing craft that did not capsize were seasick, plus the sea water hit the boat, the soldiers were cold and wet, and by the time they reached the beach, the soldiers were exhausted.

To make matters worse, the Allied forces did not bomb the area in advance of the landing fire in order to achieve tactical suddenness.At 5:50 a.m. on June 6, the naval artillery fire support fleet consisting of 2 battleships, 4 cruisers, and 12 destroyers carried out a 40-minute naval artillery fire preparation, but the German shore artillery fire was afraid of the German shore artillery fire at Cape Hawke. Warships only shoot at long distances with low accuracy .

At six o'clock, 480 B-26 bombers prepared for direct aviation fire on the German defensive positions, dropping bombs amounting to 1,285 tons. However, at that time, the clouds were low and thick, and the pilots were afraid of accidentally injuring their own troops, so they deliberately delayed the bombing for 30 seconds, and as a result, 1,285 tons of bombs fell 5 kilometers away. So the German fortifications and firing points were mostly intact, and as soon as the Allied fire preparation was over, the German artillery began to fire.

Of the 32 amphibious tanks in the western sector, 27 of the 32 tanks in the western sector sank in a few minutes after launching, two of the remaining five were driven to the beach by skilled drivers, and the other three were due to the initiative of a tank landing craft commander. When he saw that the first tank had just been launched and sank in the wind and waves, he immediately ordered the bow door to be closed. Send the remaining 3 directly to the beach.

The commander in the eastern section saw that the wind and waves were too strong for the amphibious tanks to launch. In order to wait for the armored vehicles to cooperate with the operation, the tank landing craft had to linger near the coast and wait, the Germans seized the opportunity to bombard fiercely and sank 2 tank landing craft, until 6:45, the amphibious tanks and armored vehicles drove onto the beach, but as soon as they got on the beach, they were destroyed by German artillery fire.

Then the first wave of 1,500 soldiers began to assault the land, because there was an eastward tide in the sea, and the smoke of gunpowder on the shore made it difficult for the soldiers to find their way, and the formation became confused. When landing, the soldiers had to wade through shallow water more than a meter deep and 50 to 90 meters wide, and then through an unsheltered beach 180 to 270 meters wide to reach the embankment, all under heavy German fire.

So for the first half hour, these 1500 soldiers could not go into battle at all, just in shallow water, struggling to survive on the beach. Of the 8 companies that landed in the first batch, only 2 companies landed on the predetermined beach, but they were also overwhelmed by German fire.

The underwater demolition team, composed of engineers and naval divers, suffered heavy casualties and serious damage to its equipment, but it still overcame difficulties and braved German artillery fire to begin to clear obstacles, opening up two access roads in the eastern section and four access roads in the western section, but unfortunately it was too late to mark the access before the high tide, and the follow-up landing craft could not find the access and were congested on the beach to allow the German shelling.

The second wave reached the beach at seven o'clock, just in time for the high tide, and the German artillery fire was very accurate and fierce, completely pinning the landing force on the narrow beachhead. U.S. troops were not in the Western Sector for two hours. [,！ There was a man who washed up on the beach and occupied only a 9-meter-wide stretch of beach in the eastern section. The sea was crowded with landing craft, and the order was extremely chaotic, and the beach attendant had to order that only personnel were allowed to land, and all vehicles and supplies were not allowed to land for the time being.

At this time, Bradley, commander of the US 1st Army, knew from several sporadic communications and reports from warship lookouts that the landing was extremely difficult and victory was almost impossible, and he planned to abandon the landing in Omaha and let the follow-up troops of the US 5th Army land on Utah Beach or the beachhead of the British army.

However, at this moment, the situation took a turn for the better, and the US Navy, which was responsible for the fire support of the naval guns, saw that the officers and men on land were suffering heavy casualties, and that the shore fire control group and the naval liaison group had no news, and realized that the situation on the beach was extremely serious, and the 17 destroyers gave full play to their initiative and sailed to a distance of only 730 meters from the beach to provide close fire support, regardless of the danger of grounding, minering, and shelling.

…… (To be continued)