Storming
the Beach |
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At dawn on June 6, 1944 German soldiers
occupying the Normandy coast of France looked out into
the morning fog and saw dark shapes on the water. Moments
later artillery shells began to fall amongst them and
the Battle of Normandy had begun.
Within hours over 600 American soldiers would
lie dead on the very beach pictured below. On June
6 over 2,000 young American men would die violent deaths
on the sands of the beach codenamed Omaha. The name
by which the beaches at Colleville and Vierville sur
Mer are still called today.
The following web pages give a very incomplete tour
of Omaha Beach. I will show you what American soldiers
saw as they hit the beach, and what the German soldiers
saw. I will show you the insides of German bunkers. I
hope I can give you a small idea of sheer horror that
the brave soldiers of the United States Army faced as
they crossed a once pristine beach turned into a killing
field. To really even begin to understand you must stand
on that beach and look up at that hill while imagining
the bullets and the shells all around you with nowhere
to run but towards the skilled men that are trying their
best to kill you. |
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The red arrow points
to a German gun emplacement which controlled this
section of
beach and supported the 88mm main battery (
visible on monuments page). Roll you mouse over the picture
to see the
view from that gun emplacement.
The pier was built by the Allies after the battle
and so would not have been there to provide cover
for the invading soldiers. |
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Pictured below is the "rocky shoal" which
some American soldier had the bad luck to encounter on
D-Day. I tried to walk across this and couldn't because
the rocks are too slippery. Anybody caught under fire
here would likely have been killed. These spliced photos
were taken from the center of the right half of the shoal.
There are
two pictures layered in beneath the one you can see.
Move your mouse into the space below and towards
the shoal to see it from the German perspective. The
people you can see in the enlarged photo were moved
into position to show the size of the obstacle.
The speckeled black line running
along the edge of the road is the sea wall. It is probably
in the same place as the original sea wall which the
invading troops were desperately trying to reach to
shelter themselves from the withering German fire. |
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To download a hi-res version of the above photo, click
here. |
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Over 2,000 tons of shells were dropped
on the German positions every 10 minutes. Many
of the holes still remain. Here you can see where
two big ones dropped.
BUT, it's
not as bad as it looks. Roll your mouse over
the picture to
see it from the German perspective. That bit of cement
you can see is the unscathed German command bunker.
They missed it by 'that' much. |
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| Here I stepped right
to the edge of the falaise (cliff) to show you the
illusion. What illusion
is that you ask? The illusion that this is a normal
coastal cliff. From below it appears
to be entirely unexceptional. Even from the top it
appears so. Nothing to fear right? |
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Step back a few feet and you will find
something to fear. All along the coast the edge of
the hill has been fortified. From below it is completely
invisible. This "atlantic wall" is designed so that
it is comfortable to lie on and easy to shoot from. |
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| This is a German foxhole. It's just
large enough for 3 men. It is invisible from below.
To look out from the foxhole, roll your mouse over. |
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Another sweeping
view of the beach. Sweeping views are the best
kind if you happen to
be shooting a machine gun. In the picture at left
you can see the same foxhole as is pictured above. |
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| Omaha beach was the deadliest
of the Allied landing beaches. Not only were the German
positions very
strong, but the water was (and is) very shallow. Which
means that the soldiers had to wade in in waist deep
water while trying to dodge machine gun fire. Whereas
on other beaches many soldiers stepped out of
the boats and into ankle deep water or even on to land. |
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| Visit battle site Pointe
du Hoc by clicking HERE!!! |
| Visit the American Cemetery
in Normandy by clicking HERE!!! |
| See inside German coastal
fortifications HERE!!! |
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