Landing At Omaha Beach example essay topic

The Battle of D-Day Introduction I. What were the events that happened before D-Day? A. When would the invasion happen? B. The build up of men, boats, and planes in England. C. The invasion was postponed. II. The invasion begins. A. When and where did the invasion happen? B. What happened at the five landing sites? C. What went wrong? The invasion ends. A. How long did it take? B. How many men were lost? Conclusion Final Thesis: D-Day was a prominent event in history, and there were many events that happened on and before that day. Have you ever been a part of something big?

Maybe a it was a big game or something very important. Well I will be telling you about the D-Day invasion. All of the people that took part in this invasion had that feeling of being part of something big. This battle marked the being of the end of World War II. D-Day was a prominent event in history, and there were many events that happened on and before that day.

The Allied nations had chosen May 1944 for the invasion. There were problems with making the landing crafts, which forced postponement until June. Eisenhower, on May 17, fixed June 5, as the day for the invasion. Eisenhower and his subordinates decided on a 24-hour delay. This required the recall of ships that had already gone to sea. Then on the morning of June 5, the Ok was given for the invasion to start.

There were five beaches that were going to land on, each with its own codename. The first beach on the right was code named "Utah". The second beach from the right was "Omaha."Gold" was the center beach. The second beach from the left was code named "Juno."Sword" Beach was the beach farthest on the left. James Martin Stagg was the chief meteorological adviser to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stagg was the head of the committee of meteorologists, who's job it was to forecast weather conditions in the English Channel during the days and weeks leading up to D-Day.

The landing was to be any day between June 5 and 7. The first day of June saw low-laying rain clouds, high winds, and stormy seas, which would disrupt the crossing of the Channel on the morning of June 4. Eisenhower who postponed the invasion do to weather. That night Stagg told Eisenhower that the weather should be ok on the 6th of June. Eisenhower listened to him and the invasion toke place on June 6, 1944. "As it happened, weather did not seriously disrupt the D-Day landings, though the poor conditions had lulled the German defenders into thinking that an Allied landing was impossible that Day".

(Normandy 1944 p. 1) June 6, 1944, D-Day, signaled the begin of the end of World War II. On this day troops from America, Britain, and Canada would sail across the English Channel from England as they attacked a fifty-mile strip of the coast of Normandy. The Nazis held France and Hitler had tried to protect the coastline with the "Atlantic Wall", which had mines, pillboxes, forts, gun placements, and machine-gun nests. All contented by trenches and protected by barbed wire. The Allied expeditionary force was more than 2,800,000 men. Only a few thousand of these men would be leading the landings.

At about two o'clock in the morning of June 6, 1944, D-Day, they were only ten miles from France's coast. "The question was: could the leading assault troops break open the first holes in Hitler's defensive line? That was what the soldiers themselves, before the end of D-Day, would answer. The success of the invasion depended on them".

(The Story of D-Day p. 7-8) "Within hours, an armada of 3,000 landing crafts, 2,500 other ships, and 500 navel vessels - escorts and battle ships - began to leave English ports. That night 822 aircraft's, carrying parachutists or towing gliders, roared overhead to the Normandy landing zones. They were only a fraction of the air armada of 13,000 aircraft that would support D-Day". (Normandy 1944 p. 1) Not only did troops come from the sea, they also came from the air.

The Airborne troops landings were a very larger success. The Americans 82nd and 101st airborne divisions were dropped at the base of the Colentine Peninsula and although they suffered many casualties due to drowning, they still succeeded in their objective. The British 6th Airborne Division captured its targets at the eastern end easily, and the special task force took the key bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River. "At a few minutes past midnight on D-Day the first wave of Allied assault troops touched down on French soil by parachute and by glider. Hitler's fortress had been penetrated by men who had vaulted, airborne, over the its wall".

(World War II p. 357) "Although the Germans didn't recognize it, the appearance of paratroopers on the Cotentin Peninsula was the clue to the fact that D-Day had begun". (World War II p. 357) 120 American troops were the first to be dropped; they were called pathfinders. They had trained in a very special school, which was set up by Brig. Gen. James. Gavin Assistant Division Commander of the 82nd Airborne. These men's mission was to mark a fifty- square mile drop area bake of Utah Beach.

This was for the full- scale American glider and paratrooper assault, which would, began one hour later. "When you land", Gavin had told them, "you will have only one friend: GOD". (World War II p. 375) The British 6th Airborne paratroopers had land right on target near the Orne River and the Caen Channel bridges and the town of B'. Minutes after they landed they blow up the bridges even though most of the brigade landed in a flooded zone, which German General Romnel had done, which drowned some of them. At 5: 00 AM after heavy fighting the captured the Melville battery and twenty minutes later destroyed the Dives bridges. The Americans did not have as good luck as the British.

Low-lying clouds prevented a good approach of the glider transports, which were carrying the U.S. 101st Airborne Division. Heavy German antiaircraft fire also broke up their formations. The division had 30 present casualties and lost close to three fourths of its equipment in the landing. One third of the 6,600 paratroopers succeeded in capturing and holding in land routs to Utah beach.

The 82nd U.S. Airborne had it the worse. The pathfinders had poorly marked the landing zones, and the pilots of the planes had to dodge the German flank. Sobe cause of all this the paratroopers landed way off of their targets and were spread over miles. S 0 ome men died by drowning in the flooded fields. Many of the other men came down in the midst of the German 91st Air Landing Division and killed them all. One of the units captured Sainte- Mere- Eglise, which was very important, then effectively shielding Utah Beach from a German counterattack.

Most of the men were now moving from the large transports, in which they had crossed the channel in, to small landing crafts for the battle. The night air was cold. These landing crafts were called LCVP'S- Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel. The men used huge rope cargo nets as ladders to get into the LCVP'S. The LCVP'S had no seats so the men took shifts sitting, but the water was to rough for comfort.

As the LCVP'S pulled away from the large transports the large waves slapped them sending a cold spray flying though the air soaking everyone to the skin. "This is it, men, pick it up and put it on, you " ve only got a one- way ticket and this is the end of the line. Twenty- nine, lets go!" And then the two messages that most men still remember", Away all bouts", and "Our Father which art in Heaven, hollowed be thy name... ".

(The longest Day p. 190) "In no time, the men started to puke. But this was a polite as well as a carefully prepared invasion, and little paper bags had been provided for this purpose... ". -Robert Cape (Picture History of World War II p. 503) The Allied air forces were at work during the predawn hours of D-Day. They were destroying German airfields, supply deports, and bridges. This bombing gave a heavy blow to the German telephone communications, which had already been disrupted by French Resistance.

Dozens of railroad and highway bridges between the coast and frame were knocked out by British and American fighter- bombers. At sun up they dropped 12,000 tons of bombs on the Germans coastal fortifications in the invasion zone. The German 716th and 352nd Infantry Divisions stared out at sea as the dawn broke. They had been on alert since 2: 00 AM. The 352nd Infantry Division was six months previously and was a very tough group. Though they were moved from Saint-Lo to the invasion center several months earlier, Allied intelligence agents did not know.

The German high commander began to respond. Hitler was not willing to send the armored division. Then at midday parts of the 21st Panzer Division drove into the gap between the British 3rd and the Canadian 3rd division at Juno Beach and Sword Beach and they almost reached the Beach. Had this happened the invasion would have failed. At Peri ens- sur- le- Dan British antitank gunners gave a fierce resistance late in the evening.

Then at 0630 hours on June 6 the sea borne troops began to land. The British and Canadians on Gold, Juno, And Sword beaches had very light problem. So did Americans at Utah Beach, but the Americans at Omaha Beach had the hardest job. Here was the best of the German divisions, the 352nd. At first it looked like this landing would fail. As the first wave hit the beach at 0630 hours on June 6, the invasion had been completely planed, But in the confusion of the fighting, even the best plans fall apart.

Lots of men had become sick. Some died because they left there landing crafts to early others fell into under water shell craters and drowned. Some of the tanks that had flotation devices had not worked. The bombing was to knock out the German beach defense had not been accurate, especially at Omaha Beach, here the bombing was to far inland. The gunfire that was met by American Troops was more murderous than what they had prepared for. At Utah Beach the defenders were second-rate troops who soon surrendered, but behind Omaha was a crack German Infantry Division.

They had been moved up weeks ago without allied intelligence detecting it. The landing area of Utah beach was 3 miles long. It was to the right of Omaha Beach. Behind the beach were flooded low- lands, the Germans controlled the flooding with locks, because of the flooding the beach defense was light compared to Omaha. There were only four causeways to exit the beach. Two miles inland were the coastal and field artillery batteries.

The beaches defiance was made up of parts of the German 709th, 243rd and 91st Infantry Divisions. "Utah Beach was located on the Eastern Shore of the Cotentin Peninsula, it was late addition to the areas scheduled for the invasion. The original Overlord plan did not call for a landing on the Cotentin, but General Eisenhower added it to ensure an early capture of the port of Cherbourg at the northern tip of the peninsula". (Normandy 1944 p. 1) The plan was that at 0630 hours the American 4th Division was to hit the beach. They to cross the beach and take control of the roads to and from the beach. Then they were to hook up with the airborne troops who had been drooped five hours earlier and to take Cherbourg.

The landing started out bad. A Strong current cared the landing crafts off coarse and the area was obscured by smoke from the bombardment, but that was not all that went wrong. They lost there of there four disunited crafts to mines. The last one had to be led in by a bullhorn.

The landing force was 2,000 yards to the east of their planned landing zone. The landed in the less defended Victor. Three hours after the advance on Utah Beach exists 1, 2, 3 had been succored, and contact had been made with the 101st Airborne Division paratroopers by 1200 hours 4th division had pushed in land and was a mile away from the 82nd Airborne perimeter by the end of the day. Even with the confusion the landing at Utah had been a success. 20,000 troops and 1,700 motorized vehicles had landed at Utah.

With surpassingly few casualties-fewer tan 300 men. The landing at Omaha Beach was the worse. The invasion started at 0630 hours. The American ships unloaded 32 Sherman tanks some of the tanks sank to the bottom.

German antitank guns destroyed the ones that did make it. Behind the Sherman tanks were the landing crafts of the first wave. Two if the six landing crafts were destroyed by antitank guns. The four remaining crafts had machine-gun rounds clinking off of them. When they hit first sand bar they dropped their ramps to let the soldiers of the 1st U.S. Infantry Division. As they go toff they stepped into water chest high.

Most of these men were cut down by German fire. The survivors lay and hugged the beach. Most of their officers were dead or wounded. The slaughter on Omaha had begun. The lopsided battle had been going on for about three hours and the Germans had hit the Americans artillery units hard, sinking or destroying most of their guns and crews.

American Landing craft commander defied his orders and ran his landing craft, with 16 more Sherman tanks, to the shore and unloaded them. German antitank fire destroyed or crippled half of the tanks leaving eight tanks on Omaha Beach. In the mid morning, more that 1,000 Americans lay dead or wounded in the sand. A General Bradley realized that the Allies could lose this battle. He ordered the naval guns on top fire on the bunkers above the beach. Just as this was happening the Germans defending the beach ran out of ammunition.

Now the Americans were faced with a chose stay behind the cover of Romnel's offshore obstacles or advance in land. By late morning small groups were coming ashore. Strong point N-62 was the first to fall. By the end of the day the Americans had captured the beach. Gold beach was 5 miles long.

Part of the German 716th Division and the 1 stBaltron were the German defense. Most of the Germans were set up in houses that were along the coast, with the main concentration at LE Hamel and La Riviere. The Germans fighting positions were easy targets to naval gunfire and and could easily be set on fire. The Germans were counting on a counter attack by the 352nd Division who were in the town of Bayeux.

The British 2nd Army was in charge of this beach. The British 50th Infantry Division was to carry out the assault. Gold Beach was wide enough for two brigades to landed side by side. The British 231st Brigade was assigned to Le Hamel and the 69th Brigade was assigned to the La Riviere.

"The objectives of the 50th Division were to cut the Caen - Bayeux highway, take the small port of Arromanches, link up with the Americans from Omaha Beach to the west at Port-en-Bessin, and like up with the Canadians from Juno Beach on the east. The 50th Division was also to take the Long ues battery from the rear". (Normandy 1944 p. 2) The landing was to take place at 0725 hours. Many landing crafts were damaged or destroyed buy under water obstacles. The demolition personal came under fire from the beach and they could not clear the obstacles. Many LCT'S carrying armored vehicles; 20 of them struck mines and were damaged.

"By the evening of June 6, the 50th Division had landed 25,000 men, penetrated six miles inland, hooked up with the Canadians from Juno Beach on the left, and reached the heights above Port-en-Bessin. It had not cut the Caen- Bayeux highway or linked up with the Americans from Omaha Beach, but it had made an impressive start. The British suffered 400 casualties while securing their beach head". (Normandy 1944 p. 3) Juno beach was about 6 miles long. The time of the invasion was 0745 hours. The German defenders were the 736th Regiment, sea front houses offered them excellent observation and firing positions.

Juno Beach was assigned to the Canadians. The beach was to be assaulted by the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, the 7th Brigade landing at Couseulles and 5th Brigade landing at Bernier es. The first wave landed on the beach at 0755 hours. The beach obstacles were not removed, and the engineers did not clear a path to the beach. The landing crafts were forced to feel their way around the mines, but mines took their toll.

About 30 percent of the landing crafts were destroyed or damaged. "By evening the 3rd Division had linked up with the British 50th Division from gold beach to the west, but to the east the Canadians were unable to make contact with the British 3rd Division from Sword beach-leaving a gap of 2 miles into which elements of the German 21st Panzer Division counter attacked. The Canadian suffered 1,200 casualties of 21,400 troops who landed at Juno that day-a carnality ratio of 1 out of 18". (Normandy 1944 p. 3) Sword Beach was 5 miles long. The German defense was light and consisted of beach obstacles and fortified emplacements in the sand dunes. Parts of the German 716th Infantry Division, but mostly the 736th and 125th Regiments also the 21st Panzer Division.

Across the Dives River was the 711th Division. The British 3rd Division assaulted the beach at 0725 hours, with French and British commandos attached. Their objective was to push across the beach and pass Ouistxcham to capture Caen and the important Carpiquet air fields nearby. "At the end of the day, the British had landed 29,000 men ad had taken 630 casualties.

German casualties were much higher; many Germans had been taken prisoner. The commandos had linked up with the airborne forces at the bridges, though the optimistic objectives of Caen and the Carpiquet aerodrome were still a 3 miles away". (Normandy 1944 p. 3) I hope you have learn something about D-Day. 1. B liven, Bruce Jr.

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