Omaha Beach is a world apart from Utah Beach, the heaviest of the five landing beaches, and is known as the "Bloody Omaha." That is why the 1994 commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the D-Day landings was held on Omaha Beach. The 20-minute shocking war scenes at the beginning 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 east of Utah Beach, The beach is 6.4 kilometers long between the mouth of the Ville River at the southern end of the Cotangent Peninsula and the port of Basing, 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 sandy ground with a high pebble embankment, behind it are dunes, meadows, woods, the only road leading inland There are three small villages along the way, the cottages are made of thick stones, surrounded by a field, the ridges of the fields are covered with small trees, this is the unique hedge terrain of Normandy, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The Germans made full use of the favorable natural terrain to construct fortifications, and set up three obstacles between the low tide line and the high tide 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 fortified support points along the coast, equipped with machine guns and anti-tank guns, and there are bunkers built on the cliffs with powerful 88mm guns that can cover the entire beach, and 6 155mm coastal guns on the cliffs of Cape Hawke. It poses a great threat to the activities of warships at sea.

The reason why the Allies chose to land here was because the area from the mouth of the Ville River to Aromench was in the middle of the American Utah Beach and the British Beach, and only this section of the 32-kilometer coast was barely able to land, and the rest of the area was a cliff that could not be landed at all. In addition, the Allies believed that the defenders here were a regiment of the 716th Coastal Defense Division, which had neither armored troops nor motor vehicles, and that most of the soldiers were reservists, and their combat effectiveness was very poor.

In fact, Li Mo wanted to strengthen the defenses of the Normandy area. The elite field unit of the 352nd Infantry Division was transferred from Saint-Lô. One of the division's main regiments was deployed in Omaha, and Allied intelligence did not find out the whereabouts of the 352nd Division until after the landing force had departed, too late.

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

To make matters worse, the Allies did not bomb the area in advance of the landing fire preparations in order to achieve tactical suddenness. At 5:50 a.m. on 6 June, the naval artillery fire support flotilla consisting of 2 battleships, 4 cruisers, and 12 destroyers prepared for 40 minutes of naval artillery fire.

At 6 o'clock, 480 B-26 bombers prepared for direct aviation fire on the German defensive positions, dropping 1,285 tons of bombs, but the clouds were low and thick at that time, and the pilots deliberately delayed dropping bombs for 30 seconds for fear of accidentally injuring their own troops, with the result that all 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 fire began to fire.

Of the 32 amphibious tanks in the western sector, 27 of the 32 tanks in the western sector sank due to strong winds and waves within a few minutes of launching, two of the remaining five were driven to the beach by their skilled drivers, and the other three were due to the initiative of a tank landing craft commander, who saw that the first tank sank in the wind and waves as soon as it was launched, and immediately ordered the bow door of the boat to be closed and the remaining three vehicles sent directly to the beach.

The commander of the eastern section saw that the wind and waves were too strong and the amphibious tanks could not be launched, so he ordered the tanks to be sent directly to the beach, but in this way, the time to reach the beach was advanced, and 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, and the Germans seized the opportunity to fiercely shell and sink two tank landing craft, and it was not until 6:45 that the amphibious tanks and armored vehicles drove onto the beach, but as soon as they got on the beach, several 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. To land, the soldiers had to wade through shallow waters 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 intense German fire.

So for the first half hour, these 1500 soldiers could not go into battle at all, just struggling to survive in shallow water, on the beach. Of the 8 companies that landed in the first batch, only 2 companies landed on the intended 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 jammed on the beach to allow the German shelling.

The second wave reached the beach at seven o'clock, just in time for high tide, and the German artillery fire was very accurate and fierce, completely pinning the landing force on the narrow beachhead. For two hours, not a single American soldier washed up on the beach in the western sector, and only occupied a 9-meter-wide section of the beach in the eastern sector. The sea was crowded with landing craft, and the order was extremely chaotic, so the beach attendant had to order that only personnel should be allowed to land, and all vehicles and supplies would not be 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 at Omaha and let the follow-up units of the US 5th Army land on Utah Beach or the British beachhead.

At this moment, however, the situation took a turn for the worse, 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 fire control group on the shore and the naval liaison group had no news, 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......)