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. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

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, in order to strengthen the defenses of the Normandy area, Rommel 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 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 U.S. Army's 5th Army, transported by O Formation under the command of Rear Admiral Hall.

When we arrived at the transfer area at 3 o'clock on 25 August, the wind was force 5 on the sea, the wave was 12 meters high, and 10 landing craft capsized and sank due to the strong wind 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, and 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 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 25 August, the naval artillery fire support fleet 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 the 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, which were scheduled to provide timely fire support to the landing troops, 27 of them sank in a few minutes after being launched, and 2 of the remaining 5 were driven to the beach by skilled drivers who overcame the wind and waves.

The other three were thanks to the initiative of a tank landing craft commander, who, seeing that the first tank had sunk in the wind and waves as soon as it was launched, immediately ordered the bow door to be closed and the remaining three vehicles were 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.

On the beach, 150 rangers climbed up Cape Hawke with difficulty, and found that the so-called 155mm coastal guns were actually camouflaged by telephone poles, eliminating the threat of coastal guns.

Then the destroyer fired at every newly discovered target, and as soon as it saw the army firing tracer bullets, it took it as if it were indicating the target, and immediately bombarded it. It was the active assistance of the destroyers, which gradually suppressed the fire of the Germans and created the conditions for an American attack on the beach. American commanders on the beachhead also tried to motivate their subordinates, such as Brigadier General Kota, deputy commander of the 29th Division, who shouted on the beach with shrapnel:

"There are only two kinds of people left on the beach, those who are already dead and those who are about to die. Come on! Rush with me! Colonel Taylor, commander of the 16th Regiment of the 1st Division, also encouraged the soldiers: "If you stay here, you will only die, and if you die, you will rush out of the beach!" ”

Under their leadership, although the US troops on the beach suffered heavy casualties, they were after all a battle-hardened ace division, especially the 1st Division, which had made great achievements since the First World War, and had the reputation of "the big red 1st Division" in the US army.

At noon, the fresh forces of the three regiments of the second echelon went ashore in advance, and with the support of naval guns and tanks, they expanded the landing ground step by step, and then under the guidance of the "Spitfire" aircraft, the heavy guns on the American battleships and cruisers also joined the counter-shore shooting, which caused heavy casualties to the Germans, and the Allied firepower was too strong, which was also the reason why Rommel was unwilling to fight with the Allies on the coast.

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