Omaha Beach

Sherman: "I tell you, war is hell." He knew and meant it literally. War is Hell come to Earth.
 
Those were some brave men to charge at machine guns. I wouldn't have done it unless I had a sheet of 1/8 inch steel in a V shape to carry. It was stupid in my opinion. Over 4000 men died charging machine guns. They could at least landed a tank first from each landing craft and then the men could walk behind the tank. What do officers learn in training? How to be stupid and get thousands killed?
It was the same in Vietnam. Stupid Officers.
 
Like the rhyme a General made up about the Marines at Guadalcanal:

"When they get to heaven, St. Peter they can tell,
Another Marine reporting, Sir, I've done my time in hell".
 
Tanks for the invasion were fitted with flotation curtains and propellers. This didn't make them "sea worthy" vessels but it was considered good enough to get them on shore. The problem with Omaha beach was its LSTs stopped over a half mile off shore and ordered the tanks off. Due to the distance, waves and currents, not one tank, or tank crew, assigned to Omaha beach in the first wave made it. Decks of ships were specially rigged with rocket launchers - totaling hundreds of rockets - meant to bombard Omaha and make craters for the invasion's soldiers to hide in. All the rocket ships for Omaha stopped too far out and every rocket slated for the beach landed in the Channel. The soldiers who hit Omaha had no armor to advance behind nor a crater to use for shelter.
 
The casualties at Omaha were a result of a combination of errors. The bombers which were supposed to blast the beach missed their targets and bombed too far inland. The naval bombardment was too brief to destroy the fortifications, many of the the amphibious tanks were launched too far out at sea so that many of them were swamped and some landing craft discharged their troops in water that was to far away and/or too deep. Many mistakes were made by planners, pilots and landing craft. There were mistakes all around and many of them were made due to inexperience, and some stupidity. None of it was done out of malice. The other beaches fared better because this combination of errors did not occur and the cliff obstacles were not as great. It turned out to be and old fashioned infantry assault similar to WW1 and our numbers and brave won the day.
 

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