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Omaha Beach : a Tragedy of Errors

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Omaha Beach : a Tragedy of Errors Copyright Warning & Restrictions The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a, user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use” that user may be liable for copyright infringement, This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. Please Note: The author retains the copyright while the New Jersey Institute of Technology reserves the right to distribute this thesis or dissertation Printing note: If you do not wish to print this page, then select “Pages from: first page # to: last page #” on the print dialog screen The Van Houten library has removed some of the personal information and all signatures from the approval page and biographical sketches of theses and dissertations in order to protect the identity of NJIT graduates and faculty. ASAC OMAA EAC: A AGEY O EOS b vd . Stnl h Arn lt n th ll trp f nd d-nd Oh h h b n f th t lntndn xpl f Arn ltr trph Yt t th t t n vnt nn th dth nd dtrtn hr n th rl rnn hr f n 19 vr 3 Arn ldr thr lt thr lv r r ndd n n ttpt t vr nl nrntbl dd nd n n fr tht rd fr thr rrvl h lt n Oh nt n tht hd bn brfl r npltl plnnd In ft t vr r n th n nd th h r rpnbl fr th nvn flt tht th hd rtd f th bt nd t pr pln t nr rpd nvlpnt f th bhfrnt nd Grn dfnv ptn Mn ftr hd bn nldd n thr plnnn th t f d th tdl ndtn th Grn trp prnt t th t f th nvn th nd fr dnn n th r th nd fr rrd fr tht r bl t hr ndr thr n pr nd th nd fr th lrt nvl rd tht th Wrld hd vr n vr vn th ll f th ftr tn nt ndrtn h f ht plnnd nt rn n th rl rnn hr f n I9 h t hd bn pnt fn n ht ld rht nd nt nh t pnt fn n ht ld rn th th lt OMAHA BEACH: A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS by David P. Stanley A Masters Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, Newark In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in History Federated History Department August 2002 APPROVAL PAGE OMAHA BEACH: A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS David P. Stanley Dr. Karl Schweizer, Ph.D. Professor and Chair of the History and Social Science Department, NJIT ohn Fousek Da l e02N fessor of American Foreign Policy, Rutgers Newark 0 2. or. NormaInvfobia.-'s tAssociate Professor of History, NJIT Date BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Author: David Stanley Degree: Masters Degree Date: August 2002 Date of Birth: Place of Birth: Undergraduate and Graduate Education: • Masters of Arts Degree in History New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey and Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, 2002 • Bachelor of Arts Degree in History York College, York, Pennsylvania, 2000 Major: American History To those who fought and died on both sides of the beach. May their struggle be not soon forgotten. v ACKOWEGEME I would like to express my deepest and most heartfelt thanks to Dr. Karl Schweizer, who served to inspire and promote my enthusiasm for military history. Dr. Schweizer not only acted as a mentor, but he also served to provide valuable insights and strategies to help my writing. I owe a great debt of gratitude not only to Dr. Schweizer, but also to Dr. John Fousek and Dr. Norman Tobias for their efforts on my behalf. I would also like to thank Bob Stanley, my father and my primary editor. Without his support in providing a second perspective on my writing, the paper itself may have proceeded along a different path. Finally, I would like to thank the archivists at the United States Army War College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Without their assistance, most of the research for this paper would not have been possible. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 THE BEACH, THE RAID AND THE PLANS 6 3 BATTLESHIPS AND BOMBERS 30 4 SWIMMING TANKS AND ENGINEERS 56 5 THE FIRST WAVE OF INFANTRY 78 6 CONCLUSION 96 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY 105 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION As the many landing craft carrying the men of Company A, from the 116 th Infantry Regiment, slogged their way toward their objective on Omaha Beach on the early morning of June 6, 1944, the well-laid plans of the military command were already unraveling in the face of an assault that had hardly even begun. The men of Company A, like all of the other men who were to come ashore on Omaha Beach that day, had been told that the German defenses on the beach would be eliminated by both a heavy aerial as well as a precise and effective naval bombardment. In fact, to say that the aerial bombardment had been inaccurate in that it had no impact on the invasion would be more than an understatement, and the supposedly precise naval fire had not done its job in the time that it had been allocated.' As a result, the men of Company A came ashore under some of the most withering enemy fire of the entire D-Day operation. Within moments, the Company had suffered 66% casualties. 2 While the decimation of Company A was extreme even for the horror of Omaha Beach, it reflected the situation that befell many of the men who waded ashore that day. Why had the men come ashore under the false pretext that they would be facing little to no enemy resistance on the beaches? What had gone wrong to produce such high casualties amongst the assaulting infantry? This thesis seeks to explain what it was that took place on the morning of June 6, 1944, during the initial assault on a small strip of sand, code-named Omaha Beach, along 1 2 the Normandy coastline. Many current authors have described the tragedy of the assault on Omaha Beach, yet few have attempted to explain why it was that the Americans suffered such grievous casualties, not at the hands of elite German troop resistance, but, in fact, at the hands of assault plans that were too rigid and too unbending in the face of challenges made by the weather and by the fact that the assault itself did not proceed as had been planned. The assault on Omaha Beach was a seemingly endless stream of mishaps and errors that were due to the rigidity of the schedule and also to conditions that had changed completely since the assault was planned. It is not the intent of this author to explain the events that unfolded throughout the entire D-Day assault, but, rather, to explain what happened to the initial assault forces that landed on Omaha Beach. In order to do this, the thesis has been broken down into individual chapters that seek to explain particular phases of the initial assault, and what consequences these would have on the subsequent troops landings. Chapter Two will explain, in brief, what the German military had done to prepare the French coast for the inevitable Cross-Channel invasion. This chapter will also discuss the failed raid on the French port of Dieppe in 1942 and the implications that it had on the planning of the invasion of Normandy. Finally, the chapter will explain the decision to invade at Normandy, and what the plans for the disastrous assault on Omaha Beach exactly were. Chapter Three will delve into the role that the Allied Naval and Air Forces were to play at Omaha. Both services had particular objectives that needed to be completed by the time that the infantry waded ashore. What were these objectives, and were they carried out? 3 Chapter Four will explain the role and performance of the armored forces at Omaha, while also explaining in smaller detail the role of the engineers who were given the task of clearing the beach for the subsequent infantry assaults. Both the engineers and the armored forces suffered heavily at Omaha. The question that is raised in this chapter is why did they suffer so heavily, and what implications did their suffering have on the infantry? Chapter Five will discuss the assaulting infantry and the performances of the men who were brought ashore under the false pretense of a safe landing. These men suffered heavily due to the performances of the branches of the armed services that were discussed in the previous chapters. It was the infantry that bore the brunt of the German fire, and it was the heroism of the infantrymen that is remembered today. The final chapter will be the Conclusion. This chapter will attempt to tie all of the previously outlined material together so that it has some semblance of logic. While there is no simple answer to why the assault on Omaha Beach went the way that it did, this thesis will hopefully dispel a certain amount of the myths and nationalist rhetoric that have come to surround this dreadful day.
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