—NORMANDY, FRANCE—
JUNE 6, 1944
The eyes of the world are, indeed, upon Allied troops when they invade the five Normandy beaches at dawn on June 6, 1944, with nine battleships, twenty-three cruisers, a hundred and four destroyers, seventy-one large landing craft, troop transports, minesweepers, merchantmen, and more than a hundred thousand fighting men.1
The paratroopers and glider troops come first, landing behind enemy lines and capturing roads and bridges. Invasion from the sea begins at 0630 (H hour), with troops quickly loading into Landing Craft Vehicle & Personnels and Landing Craft Assaults from mother ships, a process made difficult by strong winds and six-foot-high, choppy waves. Rough seas hammer the small craft filled with men and equipment, veering them off course, snagging them on sandbars, and filling them with water. The pumps overwhelmed and the vessels threatening to sink, the men use their helmets to bail water from boat bottoms. Some vessels sink, sending equipment-laden soldiers to their deaths at the bottom of the sea. Others spend hours in the sea trying to stay afloat, waiting, hoping, praying for rescue.
Troops landing on Gold, Juno, Sword, and Utah Beaches find medium to light resistance. But Omaha Beach, stretching the length of six miles and overlooked by high cliffs, proves a different story. Some of the twenty-nine amphibious Sherman tanks sink into the sea. Strong winds and tidal currents push landing craft off course. American troops are battered with German artillery fire before they come ashore. Boats are shelled, many breaking apart and sinking, taking a number of soldiers down with them.
When, one by one, the boats’ ramps drop, wet, chilled, and seasick GIs jump into the water, dodging machine-gun fire and mortars bombarding them from the cliffs. The first men, wading through waist-high water, are torn apart by German fire. Some, only somewhat wounded, drown, pulled underwater by their heavy equipment, unable to swim to the surface while strapped to waterlogged packs. Some cling to the boat trying to keep their heads above water, while others are swept away by powerful tides. Bodies float on the surface, staining the sea red with blood. Many who make it to shore are cut down by machine-gun fire or consumed by sheets of flame. The victims of German artillery fire lie facedown and motionless, bleeding onto the sand. Others encounter land mines planted on the beach and are blown apart in fiery explosions. Some become tangled in coastal obstacles and are shot trying to escape them. Omaha Beach is no longer an aggressive invasion. In a short time, it becomes a rescue operation, each man trying to help himself and others. A few survivors crawl to a space beneath the shadow of the cliff, exhausted, wounded, and shocked, without rifles, food, or water. They simply hang on to life and hope for rescue.
• • •
General Eisenhower interrupts the morning’s radio broadcasts, announcing the first D-day landings to the people of Western Europe.
“All patriots, young and old,” he states, “will have a part to play in the liberation.”2
After the first landings, additional small craft, filled with men and equipment, drop their ramps, sending more soldiers into strong sea currents, storms of machine-gun fire, and mortar blasts. Weighed down with burdensome packs, they struggle among the bobbing corpses to come ashore, trying to stay alive. Some reach and climb the bluff, making it through deadly chaos, blanketing smoke, and artillery fire.
When U.S. Navy destroyers come close to shore, they set off German mines planted in the sand. There are terrific explosions, but the “tin cans” don’t back off. They hug the coastline, pouring fire into German positions.
Later shipments, containing trucks, jeeps, and half-tracks, have problems getting close enough to shore to unload their heavy equipment. When numerous vehicles land too close together, they produce a bottleneck traffic jam, becoming easy targets for enemy artillery. Much-needed matériel is sunk or damaged.3
By nightfall, Americans have landed thirty-four thousand troops at Omaha Beach, suffering twenty-four hundred casualties.4
During the next week, the Allies continue to move more troops, equipment, and supplies to Normandy. In spite of delays, rough seas, overcast skies, off-course landings, heavy enemy artillery fire, shore obstacles and mines, beachfront traffic jams, and loss of men and equipment, Eisenhower’s D-day operation proves a success. The Allies have a foothold in France, but it is purchased at a high price: nine thousand dead, wounded, or missing. Now they must begin the long, bloody trek across occupied Europe and into the heart of Hitler’s Reich.5