Day 8 (Saturday): To Bayeux in Normandy
About the Omaha Beach Landing
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About the Omaha Beach Landing“Omaha Beach” is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France. As you will see for yourself, this 5-mile strip of coastline to the West of Arromanches is composed of steep chalk cliffs that rise precipitously one hundred feet or more above the sea. 
Landing at Omaha Beach was necessary in order to link the British Gold Beach landing to the east, with the American Utah Beach landing to the west. When combined with Juno and Sword beaches, this provided a continuous 5-beach lodgment along the Normandy coast—Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Taking Omaha Beach fell to the American troops, who suffered heavy losses, earning this beach the name "Bloody Omaha." If the Normandy landings were to have failed anywhere, it would certainly have been at Omaha Beach. Of the five landing zones, Omaha Beach was the most heavily defended, with the well-organized and resolute German 352nd Infantry Division defending the high bluffs with machine guns, mortars, and artillery, and formidable anti-invasion obstacles placed on the beaches, including heavy obstructions made of angled iron. General Eisenhower sent a message to these troops prior to the invasion, saying: “You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you, I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.”  The first American assault offloaded waves of engineers, tanks, and infantry. These troops took heavy casualties, and succeeded in blowing only a few gaps through the beach obstacles. Of the 16 tanks that initially landed, only two survived. This resulted in grave delays for successive landings.
The heavily defended vehicular routes off the beach were impassable at first. This backed up traffic, and resulted in the beach being closed to all but infantry landings. At one point, the Allied commanders considered abandoning the beachhead. But small contingents of infantry pushed their way forward, often in ad-hoc groups supported by surviving tanks and whatever other equipment they could muster. Eventually these groups infiltrated through the coastal defenses and scaled the bluffs between the strongpoints. Subsequent waves of infantry exploited these initial penetrations. By the end of D-Day at Omaha Beach, American troops had fought their way across 300 yards of open beach, scaled the heights overlooking the channel, and occupied the plateau where the American Cemetery is now located. They suffered more than 3,000 casualties during the attack, the highest for any Allied landing zone. On D-Day, a combined total of around 156,000 Allied soldiers, including 73,000 Americans, landed on the five beaches. Over the following days, the Allies expanded these tenuous beachheads, and within a week, with the aid of constant naval and air support, the five separate landing sectors were linked. Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2016 2016 -> 2017 afoCo Landmark Scholarship Program 2016 -> Instructions for the Preparation of Camera-Ready Contributions to the Conference Proceedings 2016 -> Step student Scholarships for Year 10-13 2016 -> The united church of canada 2016 -> Idan raichel biography – May 2016 Brief Producer, keyboardist, Lyricist, composer and Performer Idan Raichel 2016 -> An introduction to centre’s interventions expanding access to justice 2016 -> Sanchar Shakti 2016 -> Unit analysis should help here. We want number of bananas 2016 -> The Autobiography of Elder Joseph Bates 2016 -> The Great Heat and the Rhode Island Deep Water Bay Scallop (Argopecten irradians) Fishery 1875-1905 Download 6.05 Mb. Share with your friends:
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