My stepdad was on Omaha Beach 63years ago today, LCTA2339 he landed that craft twice on the
beach and the second time saved a LT's life.
He is still with us today.
He will always be a hero of mine.
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"As the first men jumped, they crumpled and flopped into the water. Then order was lost. It seemed to the men that the only way to get ashore was to dive head first in and swim clear of the fire that was striking the boats. But, as they hit the water, their heavy equipment dragged them down and soon they were struggling to keep afloat. Some were hit in the water and wounded. Some drowned then and there... But some moved safely through the bullet fire to the sand and the, finding they could not hold there, went back in to the water and used it as cover, only their heads sticking out. Those who survived kept moving with the tide, sheltering at times behind underwater obstacles and in this way they finally made their landings.
Within ten minutes of the ramps being lowered, Company A had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and Sergeant had been killed or wounded... It had become a struggle for survival and rescue. The men in the water pushed wounded men ashore, and those who had reached the sands crawled back into the water pulling others to land to save them from drowning, in many cases only to see the rescued men wounded again or to be hit themselves. Within twenty minutes of striking the beach Company A had ceased to be an assault company and had become a forlorn little rescue party bent upon survival and the saving of lives."
Official Unit Report, Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division.
What happened at Omaha Beach on 6th June 1944 has been immortalised in recent films and books, most notably the epic opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. That Omaha was a bloodbath is certain; that it could have been avoided is a matter of debate, and one that we shall not enter into here.
Unlike most of the Allied landing beaches on D Day, Omaha differed in that it was dominated by a series of high bluffs that looked down onto the beach. This gave the defenders high ground to dominate the battlefield, and the Germans placed a large number of concrete bunkers on these bluffs, containing machine guns and artillery pieces. Again unlike some of the other D Day beaches, this sector was defended by an experienced, albeit under strength, division, the 352nd. This had been formed from a cadre of Russian front veterans, some of whom had years of combat experience. They had begun anti-invasion maneuvers on the eve of D Day, and so were in a state of high alert when the invasion started.
The two American assault units selected to land here on D Day were the 1st Division ('Big Red One') and 29th Division. The former was a veteran formation, that had been in action since 1943. The latter was a National Guard unit, with little or no combat experience. In addition there would be support from the 2nd Ranger Battalion, as well as tank units utilising the special Duplex Drive Shermans capable of wading ashore. However, other specialist armour developed by the British (the so-called 'Funnies') had been shunned by the Americans and were not available for this beach.
The main beach was subdivided into sections, with the 1st Division landing in the east, and 29th in the west. The American forces lacked landing craft for D Day, and much of the transport was supplied by the Royal Navy. AB John Marketis, serving on one of them, later recalled,
" As we went in the Yanks said to me, 'Don't worry Limey, the war's over now - we're here.' But as we got nearer shells were exploding in the water, and as the ramp came down just short of the shoreline, machine gun fire cut them to pieces. Most never got more than a few yards from the ramp. Our landing craft was hit, and I was thrown into the water."
Meanwhile, the DD tanks had been launched two to three miles out from the shore. Poor weather in the channel accounted for most of them, and of the thirty-two attached to 1st Division, twenty-seven were sunk. This meant that few reached the beach, and as a consequence there was little fire support available to the infantry.
101st Airborne Easy Company..............."Curahee"
To Dick Winters and the other soldiers of Easy Company, you are also my hero's