Omaha Beach and the Spirit of American Youth: June 6, 1944

The American invasion at Utah Beach (see earlier post) was relatively successful compared to the outright  failure at Omaha Beach where the US forces met intense fire from high and strongly defended cliffs above the beach.  First, though, they mistakenly commenced the landing run too far offshore (12 miles out).  The seas overwhelmed many of the landing craft.  Of 32 D-D tanks that started 6000 yards off the each, 27 sank.

Inside a German bunker above Omaha Beach.

German bunkers faced the length of the beach and the heavy guns pounded the Americans struggling ashore in the waves.  By noon most of the 1st and 29th Infantry were still pinned down on the beach and the American 1st Army commander, Lt. General Omar Bradley seriously considered evacuating them.  “Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero,” Bradley would say later.

The American Cemetery lies quiet above Omaha Beach.

The “Spirit of American Youth” statue stands guard overt the vast American cemetery above Omaha Beach.  The remains of 9 387 American dead lie here, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy.  Theodore Roosevelt Jnr, son of the President, is buried here.

American D Day Dead in Normandy.