NORMANDY INVASION AND THE TRAGEDY OF OMAHA
Abstract
The very identity of the twentieth century is based on the case that it saw two of the most gruesome battles mankind has ever witnessed- World War I and II. These wars divided the countries into Allied and Axis powers which later went on to decide the power dynamic in the world for the rest of the century. All the years of these wars are lined up with a myriad of incidents which have questioned human beings of what they are capable of doing in the name of jingoism and fascism. One such incident which is more often than not forgotten is the dreadful day of the Normandy Invasions of World War II in June 1944. These invasions of the Allied powers against the Axis powers played a decisive role in determining the fate of the war and ensuring victory to the Allies in the long run. But it was also the day when everything went wrong with the lives of more than 20,000 soldiers and how it changed the very perception of what it aimed to achieve. The author of this paper tries to bring to light these incidents through primary and secondary sources. This work aims to bring back the memory of this episode through books, research articles, poems and orders from the archives of the war.
Normandy Invasion also called infamously as Operation Overlord or D-Day occurred during World War II. It was the invasion of the Western Europe by the Allied Powers launched on 6 June 1944. It is the most celebrated D-Day of the War and there is no mistake in recognising it as one. It was the day when the American, British and Canadian forces simultaneously landed on five different beaches in Normandy, France. The purpose of this invasion was to establish a safe entry point into Europe for the Allied soldiers and help liberate Germany-occupied France. This would force Nazi Germany to fight on two fronts (East Europe and West Europe) and weaken their power by crumbling their forces. The decision to make a plan for this event was finalised during the Tehran Conference in 1943. It was to be executed by May of 1944 but it got postponed to June of the same year.
This plan was grounded in deceiving the Axis forces to believe this aggression would not be of a scale that was actually intended to be. The Allies convinced the Germans that they were assembling an army in Scotland to attack in Norway, another army in central England to attack at Pas de Calais in France, and a third army in southern England that would attack at Normandy, France. Only the third army, aimed straight at Normandy across a wide stretch of the English Channel, was real (Beevor 2009). And to make this possible George C. Marshall appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower in incharge to the US Army’s war plans division as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in December 1941 and commissioned him to design an operational scheme for Allied victory. He was accompanied by Lieutenant General Friedrick Morgan who was the chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander, the original planner of Operation Overlord. The operation was to deliver five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. The beaches were given the code names UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO, and SWORD. The invasion force included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries. Nearly 7,000 naval vessels, including battleships, destroyers, minesweepers, escorts and assault craft took part in Operation 'Neptune', the naval component of 'Overlord'. Naval forces were responsible for escorting and landing over 132,000 ground troops on the beaches. They also carried out bombardments on German coastal defences before and during the landings and provided artillery support for the invading troops.
D-day: Airborne Assault and Amphibious Landings
The invasion included airborne assault and amphibious landings. The invasion would be supported by more than 13,000 fighter, bomber, and transport aircraft. By June 06, the British and American strategic air forces deployed 11,000 aircraft, flew 200,000 sorties, and dropped 195,000 tons of bombs on French rail centres and road networks as well as German airfields, radar installations, military bases, and coastal artillery batteries (McBride, Picard 2011). The air campaign succeeded in breaking all the bridges across the Seine and Loire rivers and thus isolating the invasion area from the rest of France. The air campaign was aimed at disrupting German anti-invasion preparedness. Several bombs were dropped outside the invasion area in an effort to ensure the enemy believed the landings would be made in the Pas-de-Calais area which was in England, rather than in Normandy. In addition to this, the Allied were able to decrypt German transmissions and using bogus radio transmissions, the Allies created a phantom army. During the midnight of 06 June, the Allies even managed to present a “phantom” picture of an invasion fleet crossing the Channel narrows throughout the time a radar blackout disguised the real transit to Normandy.
D-day was also the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. Nearly 7,000 naval vessels, including battleships, destroyers, minesweepers, escorts and assault craft took part in Operation 'Neptune', the naval component of 'Overlord'. Naval forces were responsible for escorting and landing over 132,000 ground troops on the beaches. They also carried out bombardments on German coastal defences before and during the landings and provided artillery support for the invading troops.
And early on 6 June, airborne forces of the Allied powers parachuted into drop zones as designated near Normandy (North France) while ground troops through amphibious landings reached the five assault beaches. The campaign turned out to be successful and secured a foothold in Normandy that would allow their viable presence in Northern Europe for the first time since the Allied evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940. But despite the accomplishment, that is not what is remembered by the war veterans, scholars, historians and people in general. It is remembered to be one of the most gruesome bloodbaths the world has seen. The anecdotes for this are provided in the books written by historians, research articles of scholars, poems written by veterans and movies made in honour of the departed soldiers.
The Tragedy of Omaha
Omaha was the code name given to the second assault beach among the five landing areas during the invasion. It was assaulted by units of the 29th and 1st infantry divisions of the US. Pointe du Hoc was the promontory (highland) where the soldiers were supposed to reach from the shore by scaling its cliffs with the aim of silencing artillery pieces placed there. Although this assault remains as one of the most longstanding examples of American military triumph, at the same time its memory resounds with death and destruction.
All the careful planning, specially designed vehicles, and months of training couldn't save the thousands of men who lost their lives that morning. Planes dropped 13,000 bombs before the landing: they completely missed their targets; intense naval bombardment still failed to destroy German emplacements. The result was, Omaha Beach became a horrific killing zone, with the wounded left to drown in the rising tide. Although Western front was not Hitler’s priority the Germans under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had built formidable defences to protect this enclosed battlefield. The waters and beach were heavily mined, and there were 13 strongpoints called Widerstandsnester (resistance nests). Rommel ensured the placement of mines and obstacles on the beach in a manner that they would be effective regardless of the tidal conditions. Numerous other fighting positions dotted the area, supported by an extensive trench system. The defending forces consisted of three battalions of the veteran 352nd Infantry Division (Stanley 2002). Their weapons were fixed to cover the beach with grazing enfilade fire as well as plunging fire from the cliffs.
One of the major reasons for this massive misstep was a lot of time was spent in engrossing about things that would go right but “not enough time was spent focusing on what could go wrong with the assault” (Stanley P 2002). And to counter the Allies, one method of defence that the Germans employed was to utilise captured French tank turrets mounted on top of concrete emplacements. These turrets could rotate and provide fire on the beaches while remaining relatively impervious to small arms fire. Running along the waterline, and in the water, were mines mounted on wooden poles that were designed to destroy advancing landing craft. There were metal railroad ties that had been cut on angles and welded together to form asterisk shaped obstacles known as "hedgehogs". They were popularly called “Atlantic Walls” and their defence forces were formidable.
The men of the 352nd Division who were responsible for the assault at Omaha had been trained not in stationary coastal defence, but in counterattack. All this turned out disastrous to the Allies which led to the killing of more than 6,000 soldiers.
Memoirs of the D-day through sources
For the Normandy invasions by 1944, over two million troops from over twelve countries were in preparation for the invasion. On D-day along with American, British and Canadian troops, also were troops belonging to French, Australian, Czech, Dutch, Belgian, Greek, Norwegian, New Zealand, Rhodesian and Polish naval, air or ground support, These soldiers were deported to the war zone and away from home for almost five long years and continuous postponement on the invasion through 1943 and for a good part of 1944 had weakened their spirits. The reasons given by the veterans corroborate with the following facts- hardly anything happened according to the plan of Allies because of the unsuitable weather, rain before D-day had left the companies to remain uncertain about the attack. On the morning of the attack clouds shrouded the assault zones, most of the landing craft missed their target or never reached the waterfront. And to add to the confusion, the defences of the opponent's power were unexpectedly strong. According to the plan only 40 minutes were allotted for air and naval bombardment and the pre-landing naval onslaught turned out to be inefficient for the campaign ( McBride, Picard 2011). Engineers struggled to remove obstacles. The waters offshore and the beaches were heavily mined. For many hours Allied troops could not get off the beach, many drowned, and the assault nearly failed. It was the most tenuous of all Normandy landings. It was said that on the first day “approximately 2,500 Americans died on Omaha Beach.” (Murray, Millett 2000).
A paper published by SLA Marshall got published in ‘The Atlantic’. He was the youngest shavetail in the US Army during World War I. He rejoined the army in 1942, became a Combat Historian with the rank of a Colonel. He made notes during the landings which were a source to remember that day. According to him, it was an “epic human tragedy” where the worst-fated companies and wretched personal experiences were long-forgotten while superfluous glory was presented to the success of the Allies as a whole (Marshall 1960). Several soldiers were wounded by bullets the moment they reached the shore and as they could not help themselves, they were drowned by the high-rise tides. And the wounded men who managed to reach the shore , they died of exhaustion and were later succumbed to the water. Based on his memory, almost every sergeant in the Able Company was either wounded or dead within the first ten minutes. And similarly, every landing company was full of its own assault mishaps and by the end of the day “Thousands of Americans were spilled onto Omaha Beach” (Marshall 1960).
One of the famous works with regard to this event is the book “The Longest Day '' by Cornelius Ryan published in 1959. The book stands as a classic narrative of that amphibious assault. Writing in the vivid prose of an experienced journalist, Ryan also conducted research like a seasoned historian. He interviewed combatants of every nation and rank belonging to the US, Canadian, British, French and German troops and sent questionnaires to many others including civilians. Ryan’s work stands out because throughout his narrative, he strikes a balance on both the good and bad decisions made by either side. This classic work of his was later made into a movie in 1962. The very beginning of the book presents a picture of how the war left no option to the soldiers apart from keeping themselves as the last priority during the invasion. The lines, “over the ships’ public-address systems came a steady flow of messages and exhortations: “Fight to get your troops ashore, fight to save your ships, and if you’ve got any strength left, fight to save yourselves..”” (Ryan 1959). His book even presents information regarding the veterans of D-Day. Although several soldiers were martyred that day, the remaining went back to become common men in fields of agriculture, teaching, accounting, etc. They were forgotten and so was their trauma never memorialised. His work beautifully presents the futility of war where most of the members who were a part of the war might never even know if they were successful in their endeavour while the leaders who never stepped into the war-zone claim victory. The movie based on this book also exquisitely captures the dreadful apprehensions of the soldiers before D-day. There are scenes from the movie where senior officials took decisions without considering the obstacles the troops had to face and left everything to fate to decide for them. And the following line in the book emphasises on the above statement; “When you get to Normandy, you’ll have only one friend:God and this (weapons)” (Ryan 1959).
Another work which presents practical details of the day is “D-Day: The Battle For Normandy” by Antony Beevor published in 2009. And his work aimed at providing the practical data and figures of D-day along with presenting a detailed view of the scenes of the battle. The difficulties of air expedition ended up with several men dropping in wrong drop zones or the men getting stuck while landing using parachutes. The stuck men were helpless and unattended for a long period which led them to be killed while the Germans shot at them because “Those with heavy equipment, such as radios and flame-throwers which weighed 100 pounds, had great difficulty descending the scramble nets into the landing craft” (Beevor 2009).
There is another hauntingly fascinating movie made on the incident titled “Overlord” which was released in 1975. This movie is infamous for using actual footage of aerial views of World War II and syncing them with the shots of the film. This movie presented the abhorrent reality of thousands of youngsters who were hardly eighteen years of age being killed. The story goes about with a young boy of 21 being deported for rigorous training for the invasion and being left with no belongings except the Bible who gets shot even before he lands on the shore of Omaha. This way several movies were made that depict the horrors of D-day and make sure it is not forgotten in this vast segment of the history of World War. These movies include ‘The Big Red One’ (1980), ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998), ‘Ike:Countdown to D-Day’ (2004), etc. All these movies were based on real incidents or were inspired by them.
Along with books and movies, another major source to understand the seriousness of D-day is through the journals and poems of the veterans. Several of them have been long lost or forgotten but the following two poems that have been found in the archives of the incident bring out the depth of their melancholic memories of the battle. ‘A Beach in June’ was a poem by Bill Woods who was a former military serviceman in the war who was moved to walk the grounds where he found so many soldiers sacrificed. The impact of the bloodshed impacted him to run to the beach and write this poem;
“It wasn't your land
But it was part of the plan
From ship to shore,
O' the courage you bore
200 yards of low tide sand
Soaked in blood, many a man
6603 American lives lost, 3 hours, frantic
6603 families permanently shattered across the Atlantic
Lives sacrificed for liberation, oppression lifted
Proving forever that freedom is earned not gifted
A once un-famous beach stained in maroon
Never forget Normandy Beach 1944 June!”
‘D-Day, A Soldier Remembers’ is another such poem composed by Roland R. Ruiz in 2006 which poetically presents the confusion of a young soldier in the battlefield:
“As I walk into this field of valour, in the early morning hours
I think of the many fine and brave soldiers, who lie beneath the ground
With multitudes of painted crosses, to mark their sacred graves
Thoughts slowly fill my mind, June 6, 1944, I remember only so well
The scare and terror of that day remains etched within my heart
I try to forget the screams of death, that passed before my eves
But the scenes remain so vivid and clear, even after all these years
D-Day resides so deep in me, there's nothing I can do
To nd me of the dreams, which haunts me, n the twilight of my years
The sand, the water, the blood, mixed with the sounds of death
Caused me to pray to God, to forgive my mortal sins
I remember following my Sarge, into the water, on that earth misty morn
Just as we reached Utah Beach a bullet struck his hemet, spinning him around
Showing me a bloody stump, that used to be his head
To this young innocent country bow, who just turned 19 two days before
Within seconds, leaving me no other choice, I suddenly became a man
As I raced past his lifeless shel, knowing at any moment
My life could end as well somehow I survived thru this violent hell
And went on to fight in other battles, until the bitter end
Every so often I make this trip, to see my fallen comrades
And each time as I return, I leave a piece of me, between the blood soaked sands
As I approach my eighty first year, I know this will be my last trip
To see my fallen friends, so I'll walk slowly thru this hallowed field
And say a final goodbye to all these gallant soldiers
Who gave their lives for God and country, as only heroes can”
Both these poems among a thousand others help in providing us with a very subjective interpretation of the incident which is often buried under the objective conclusion that is presented to us as history. In this way art and literature have played a compelling role for us to reminisce about D-day of 1944.
Conclusion
Thus, the Normandy Landings show to us that history is more than just dates and figures. It is the past which was once lived in all glory and might. It could be an endeavour which was a success to the world but which failed to keep up with the lives of every individual who was a part of making it one. D-Day among several other days should always be remembered for what catastrophe a war is capable of. And art and literature as sources remain decisive in keeping them in remembrance.
References
Beevor, A. (2009, January 1). D-Day: The Battle For Normandy, Penguin Classics.
McBride F, Picard M (2011, August). Shrapnel in Omaha Beach Sand, The Sedimentary Record.
Stanley P (2002). Omaha Beach: A tragedy of Errors, Electronic Thesis and Dissertations, New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Murray, W and Millett, A. R., 2000. A War to be Won—Fighting the Second World War, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Marshall SLA, 1960. First Wave at Omaha Beach, The Atlantic available at :https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/ [accessed on 15 October 2023].
Ryan, C. (1959). The Longest Day. Simon and Schuster (latest version 2010).
D Day Poems, Poetry largely about the Normandy Landings - D-Day. (n.d.). https://www.combinedops.com/Poetry.htm
The Longest Day. (1962). [Online]. 20th Century Studios.
Overlord. (1975). [Online]. James Quinn.
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