THE US FIRST ARMY THE FORGOTTEN HEROES OF WW2; THE BEACH LANDINGS CHAPTER 3

As a result on D-Day, 6^th June 1944, three divisions of the US First Army were responsible for projecting American military power in the Allied invasion of France. While the landings on Utah met with relatively light opposition and made rapid progress, the landings on Omaha beach ran into a heavy curtain of well prepared and pre –positioned defensive fire that tied the attackers down on the beach for several hours during which, at some point the senior officers led by Lt General Omar N Bradley briefly considered abandoning the beach head altogether.

The landings in the words of General Bradley became a nightmare as the officers and men of the 1^st and 29^th infantry division of the First Army were pinned down by heavy fire from the experienced and battle hardened German 352^nd division made up of both veterans of the Russian front and Italian Campaign with a mix of raw recruits and inexperienced conscripts. 

    

The bravery of the American soldiers that day under intense machine gun fire and mortar rounds in breaching the German beach obstacles and assaulting the German positions well entrenched in the cliffs above, through the open gaps created by demolition charges set by the combat engineers under fire would remain a defining moment in the annals of the United States Army in the 20^th century.

Small groups of infantry men led by brave officers exploited the gaps created by the combat engineers and assaulted the German positions above the sea walls with support from pointblank naval gunfire from a group of US destroyers that risked running aground as they moved right up to the beaches to place direct fire on the fortified German positions on the high ground overlooking the beaches below.

The bravery and tenacity of the men of the 1^st and 29^th infantry division as well as the 116^th regiment will go down in history as one of the sacred moments of American military achievements. With 29 out of the 31 D-D amphibious tanks lost to the waves as they disembarked, the beach obstacles, high sea wall and heavy enemy fire threatened to derail the whole operation.

Against overwhelming odds, stemming partially from inadequate planning, and faulty intelligence, the fighting on Omaha beach became a study in heroism, courage and perseverance. In fact the fighting on Omaha Beach became symbolic of the spirit and resilience of the Allied Servicemen as they undertook the arduous task of re- conquering Western Europe from the Nazi overlords that had held the continent hostage for over four years. Even the German defenders were amazed at the tenacity of the Allied soldiers who refused to give up even in the face of withering and debilitating fire.

The heroics of the 29^th infantry division will continue to maintain a hallowed place in the annals of military history where courage, perseverance and tenacity are concerned. Against the overwhelming odds facing the soldiers on Omaha beach that day, nobody gave them a chance of pulling off a coup that day against the well entrenched German defenders and yet their victory was crucial and essential to the overall success of the Allied cause

In the face of heavy mortar and machine gun fire particularly the newly launched MG 42 machine gun, the fastest in the world at that time, the GI’s had every reason to cut loose and make a dash for the beach and the returning landing crafts on their way out of the combat zone, but the fact remained that they chose to endure the withering machine gun fire of the Germans.

 Even senior officers observing the fighting from the warships offshore deemed Omaha beach a lost cause by 08; 00hrs that morning and were actually actively considering withdrawing the soldiers pinned down behind the sea walls. In fact postwar interviews granted by some of the German soldiers involved in the fighting revealed their amazement as to why the American soldiers simply refused to give up even when some of the first assault waves suffered 80-90% casualties.

Even the famous combat photographer Robert Cappa, who landed on D-Day on Omaha beach at 6; 15 am with the first wave of assault troops on Easy Dog sector of the beach, headed back to the invasion ships anchored offshore at a point when the ordeal became unbearable.

Men saw their buddies cut down in a hail of withering fire. The men of the 29^th infantry division were helpless, despondent and trapped, yet they would not give up. With radio contact lost as most of the radios were water logged and damaged, it was difficult to radio messages demanding a halt to further disembarkment.   This led to congestions on the beaches as the men sought cover on the few beach obstacles providing some form of shelter. In fact most of the radios were jettisoned by the signal officers as they leapt off the landing crafts into the water to escape the murderous fire from the beach defenses as soon as the ramps were opened.

With so many wounded and dying and many sheltering behind the seawalls and beach obstacles, it was now a race against time as to the next course of action. With death flying around in the form of bullets and mortar rounds, while the mines and beach obstacles made the 100 yards dash across the beach to the seawall a suicide mission, it became a terrifying spectacle as the stalemate endured for hours while men searched for a strategy to break the deadlock.

It was a terrifying and horrendous experience for the men particularly as most of them had no combat experience, but the soldiers knew that there was not going to be a looking back in this campaign dubbed by the Allied Supreme Commander as the Great Crusade.

 They knew they had no alternative but to seize and hold that beach that day to enable the follow-up supplies and re-enforcements to come through so that the great campaign to liberate Western Europe could go through. They knew that enormous time and resources had been poured into this operation by their nation and that the events of that day were crucial to the success of the whole Allied undertaking.

They were not unmindful of the fact that the hopes of the civilized World lay with them and the cries of the millions of the oppressed people of Western Europe echoed in their ears. The moral weight of responsibility for liberating the World lay heavily on those men as they confronted the stark realities facing them.

No doubt many, in recounting the events of that day testified that they couldn’t think beyond saving their lives and those of their buddies, but then, even the very simple decision to stay alive and remain dug-in despite the murderous German fire directed at them ultimately swung the pendulum in their favor and that of the Allies, because as they stubbornly held and clung desperately to those few meters of beach they gained, they gave the day an opportunity to close in their favor.

While the Allied planners and officers offshore thought on what could be done to break the stalemate, a few officers had among other things reasoned that bangalore torpedoes could be useful in blasting a gap through the beach obstacles and enable the assault teams get to the German defenders on the bluffs above and begin the assault proper. Meanwhile a few American soldiers who fortunately had landed in less fiercely defended portions of the beach were already assaulting the German positions above the sea walls.

Unfortunately for the GI’S by a combination of intuition and battle field experience, Field Marshall Rommel, commander of the German forces designated for repelling the invasion had a few weeks to the invasion reinforced the defenses on Omaha beach as though he had a premonition as to Allied intentions, and brought in the battle-hardened and experienced German 352^nd division from its rear deployment zone to the beach to counter any Allied landings.

The 352^nd division’s men were veterans of both the Russian and Italian fronts. The information got to the Allied planners just a few days to the planned landing and was consequently downplayed and ignored more because it was felt that the plans could not be safely altered at that late hour. The German Dictator’s intuitions were pointing more closely at Normandy and a steady build up of German forces in Normandy ensued just days before the actual landings.

Outlined is a check list of some of the odds confronting the units of the First Army that day on Omaha beach?

1. Allied bombers had in a moment of extreme caution dropped their bomb loads a bit further inland than necessary thereby leaving the beach defenses unscathed. This was at the request of the Navy top Brass who feared that the invasion fleet might be hit if the bombers dropped their load too close.

2. The amphibious DD tanks that were to give close infantry support had a good number of them swamped as they were disembarked on the high seas and the rough waves had swamped many of them and sent them to the bottom of the channel. In Dog Green sector for instance 29 of the 32 DD tanks assigned to the beach were lost on the inbound transit. The seas turned out much rougher than had been anticipated and the DD tanks simply couldn’t cope as they were not designed to operate in such stormy waters and rapidly went down in the rough seas taking many of their crews with them.

MG 24 Machine gun emplacements rained cross fire on the beach in a fashion predetermined by the German defenders who had mapped the whole beach and pre- arranged the fields of fire, making Omaha beach a planned killing zone. Part of what saved the day obviously was the presence of three companies of Rangers, elite troops who had been redirected to Omaha Beach rather than sent to scale the heights at Pointe du Hoc due to the heavy squalls which prevented their disembarkation.

 Their presence fortunately meant that at this crucial time when most of the disembarked GI’s were greenhorns, some elite units were available to give enhanced leadership and momentum to the assault.

Helping to turn the tide that day was also partially attributable to the laudable effort of the deputy commander of the 29^th infantry division; Brig General Norman D’a Costa who became an extra- ordinary piece of inspiration while viewing the carnage from his ship. He knew that something extra-ordinary needed to be done to save the day. He decided to intervene personally.

He decided to land with the next wave and physically went rallying the men and constituting assault teams to continue the efforts to take the men across the sand dunes to the high ground beyond where the German defenders were entrenched.

All these combined with the heroics of the US Destroyer crews who risked running aground in order to deliver close support fire enabled the GI’s breach the beach defenses and overcome the German defenders in order to secure a beach head that day. By 3pm that day, Omaha beach was secure and vehicles, supplies and follow up waves of soldiers began to land in numbers and exploit the break through.

 By D-Day +3 the original D-Day objectives were finally achieved and one of the Mulberry artificial harbor was mounted on Omaha Beach even though it was in use for only three days before being wrecked by a severe Channel storm that started on June 12^th and lasted till June 23, 1944.

By the close of day over 34,000 soldiers and over 20,000 vehicles had been landed, enabling the operations on Omaha beach to end as a spectacular success. The fighting on Omaha beach has thus become a fitting tribute to the spectacular fighting spirit of the American soldier and his willingness to improvise when the official plan and provision failed to live up to their billings.

The landings even though a success were not an end in themselves in that they only served to give the Allies a toe hold to mobilize the men and materials needed to begin the actual liberation of the continent which was the objective of Operation Overlord.

All the units of the US army that saw action on both Omaha and Utah beach were components of the US First Army under the command of Lieutenant General Omar N Bradley who himself was subordinated to General Bernard Law Montgomery in command of the British and Canadian invasion forces and who was also designated commander of all Allied ground forces on D-Day.

The Allied planners’ objective for D-Day+2 was to expand and consolidate all the bridge heads into one continuous lodgement area, so that the five Allied beaches could yield into one group preparatory to the break out. With the loss of the Artificial harbor on Omaha beach the Allies resorted to bringing in men and supplies across the open beaches and this they did remarkably well, bringing well over one million tons of supplies, over 900,000 men and over 200,000 vehicles through Omaha beach alone by the end of June. 

Photo source:Beach landings