Disney Magic 12nt. British Isles Cruise
Day 2 – Le Havre, France (Mon. July 22, 2017)
weather: Normandy partly cloudy high 67 °F / 19 °C
DCL excursion D-Day landing beaches (LH12) continues…
I’d like to take a moment on this Memorial Day in honor and tribute to all those who have fallen in the service of our country.
(and in particular remembrance of our WWII soldiers here)
Tour stop #4: Omaha Beach (4:00 to 4:15 pm) Saint Laurent-sur-Mer
“The opposite of fear is not bravery. It’s faith”
Quote from JQ’s father (WWII Vet. Staff Sergeant Patton’s Third U.S. Army)
JQ immediately felt a connection to Omaha Beach.
While the Third US Army wasn’t moved into France until July 1944, this was the closest he had ever been to where his father served during WWII.
Where do I even begin with this segment?
It would be impossible to write in detail about the D-Day battle scenes at Omaha Beach. It’s far too graphic to imagine and very difficult to discuss.
(except to link a few sites for reference)
“From films such as The Longest Day to Saving Private Ryan, from books by Cornelius Ryan to Stephen Ambrose, the story of the horror and heroism of Omaha Beach has been told and retold.”
This is a great minute by minute timeline of our allied forces during D-Day to help determine what was happening when - on this critical day in history.
http://www.dday-overlord.com/en/d-day/timeline
The invasion began as the paratroopers dropped the minute the clock struck 0001 on June 6th with the first wave of the amphibious assault hitting the landing beaches at 0630.
Omaha Beach - The First Wave……………….
“The Corps would arrive at the beachhead in four stages.
The initial assault force (Force "O") consisted of the 1st Division, (Big Red One) reinforced to include four infantry regiments with strong attachments of artillery, armor, and engineers, as well as attachments of engineer and service units for movement to the beach.
Chief components of the 1st Division were its own 16th and 18th Regimental Combat Teams, the 116th Regimental Combat Team and the 115th Infantry attached from the 29th Division (the Blue and the Gray), and the Provisional Ranger Force of two battalions (2d and 5th).
Force "O" numbered 34,142 men and 3,306 vehicles”
And for the next 6 ½ hrs (from 0630 to 1300) it truly was “bloody Omaha” – with the US engaged in fierce battle before the heavily manned German defenses aimed at Omaha Beach had finally begun to run silent.
- “Very little went as planned during the landing at Omaha Beach.
- Difficulties in navigation caused the majority of landing craft to miss their targets throughout the day.
- The defenses were unexpectedly strong, and inflicted heavy casualties on landing US troops.
- Weakened by the casualties taken just in landing, the surviving assault troops could not clear the heavily defended exits off the beach.
- Small penetrations were eventually achieved by groups of survivors making improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily defended points”
Probably the best place to start is right where we left off - stepping onto the beach.
Which immediately takes you back to 1944.
(stock photo)
This is a sobering place to visit.
Surrounded by history, grave sadness, and unimaginable loss.
You can’t help but look out to where our troops came in
and turn around to gauge how far it was just to get off this beach.
then look down wondering about the exact spot you happen to be standing.
Trying to picture what it must have been like on D-Day.
(photographs by Robert Capa, courtesy of the National Archives)
Capa was the only photographer embedded among the US troops during the first wave on D-Day at Omaha Beach. (these were 2 among just 11 photographs able to be salvaged out of 4 rolls of film he took that morning)
Amazingly the soldier in this photograph survived the war. Listen as decades later, he recalls that critical moment captured in time. (it’s a German interview but it’s all I managed to find)
Now here we are 73 years later. Standing on the beach at around 4:00 pm – right about the time the heaviest of our troops were arriving and continuing to advance inland
- visiting one of the most important places in history
- dropped off at this one small point along a 3 mile stretch of the US landing area
- given all of 15 minutes dedicated to the entirety of Omaha Beach
- not knowing our exact location in relation to the whole of the US D-Day invasion.
I emphasize this because to know the location of these Sectors and Draws in proximity to which troops actually landed where on D-Day is incredibly important.
Especially as it relates to what area of Omaha beach the tour will actually drop you off at.
JQ and I had no idea which of our troops’ footsteps we were given the honor to walk among on this particular section of beach.
So where exactly were we on Omaha Beach?
at Draw D-3
As you can see from this map
We travelled in at Les Moulins Draw D-3
and were dropped off between Dog Red & Easy Green
If you look carefully at this map, you'll the see the planned landing points designated by sector at the top of the chart vs the actual places these companies landed on the beach.
“In the original plan a company from the second Rangers was to land on Charlie l
The four companies of the 29th US Infantry Division, 116th Regimental Combat Team were to land on Dog Green, Dog White, Dog Red and Easy Green
and the four companies of the 1st Infantry Division, 16th Regimental Combat Team were to land in pairs on Easy Red and Fox Green."
However, this was not where the troops actually came in – as the rough seas and landing conditions caused many patrols to drift far off course.
"Strong currents and poor visiblity took the men of Companies G, F, and E of the 116th far from their intended landing areas. Instead of landing with Co. A near Vierville Draw, Company E would fight a mile away with the 1st Division. Companies G and F in twelve LCVPs would land near Les Moulins Draw."
And now we know. We walked where Companies G and F of the 116th landed …..
It pains me to say we really dropped the ball here. Hopefully others will benefit from our mistakes.
We then re-boarded the bus, drove along the coast and
departed at
Vierville Draw D-1, (a/k/a D1 or Exit D-1)
between
Charlie & Dog Green
(where the monument to the National Guard sits)
which leads to Vierville-sur-Mer and onward to our final stop at Pointe du Hoc.