The transfer from transport ships into assault craft was carried out 11 miles offshore (twice the distance the British would use) and necessitating undertaking this in the dark. Rough weather and darkness caused many craft to get out of position, notably the engineers required for clearing the beach obstacles.
Six thousand yards from the beaches the DD tanks were launched. Only two made the beaches, the rest sunk in the heavy swell and were lost together with their crews. The conditions also caused the loss of 10 LCVP’s carrying infantry and artillery loaded into Amphibious DUKW’s made them top heavy causing them to capsize losing more than 20 guns.
The infantry approaching OMAHA BEACH were therefore without specialist beech clearing engineers, no armoured support, and short on artillery. The 3 hour journey left many sea sick, and as they arrived at the beaches, difficulties in navigation due to smoke and mist obscuring landmarks, meant the majority of landing craft missed their intended locations. In most cases the landing craft found themselves on sandbars 50 to 100 yards short of the beach, and consequently had to wade through water, often up to neck height, before they could reach the beach. Defences on OMAHA were stronger than expected, the air and naval bombardment were ineffective, and therefore the Germans were able to bring the full weight of machine gun fire from interlocking positions on to the beaches as well as artillery and mortar fire.
Only five out of the sixteen intended engineer teams reached the beaches. Under heavy fire they struggled to clear obstacles, their task made more difficult by the infantry using them as cover from the intense fire. Only a few channels were cleared. The weakened assault troops could not clear the exits from the beach. The consequences being the second wave landing at 07:00 were without covering fire and relatively few channels had been cleared through the objectives. They therefore bunched up in the few channels cleared and congested the beach area as they were unable to exit.
At 08:30 landings were suspended, those troops in landing craft now being required to circle off shore in the difficult sea conditions which caused more casualties as craft were swamped in the swell. Landings were later resumed and tanks were brought ashore. Naval gun fire was being targeted on the defensive positions and at 09:50 the destroyers were ordered to get as close to the beaches as possible to reduce the risk of hitting their own troops.
Eventually small penetrations were made by impromptu assaults of groups scratched together from different units, aided by tank fire and naval gun fire support. This allowed two exits from the beaches to be formed. These were exploited to create a small bridgehead; however none of the original objectives were achieved.
At Omaha beach the American War Cemetery contains 9,387 graves and memorial walls record a further 1,577 names, for those lost throughout the Normandy campaign.
.JPG)
.JPG)
