On Sands Stained Red

on sands stained red Ordinary Men and Extraordinary Courage on Omaha Beach Tyler Abt n June 6, 1944, at to expect minimal resistance. approximately 7:15 A.M., The massive thirty-minute naval only 45 minutes after the bombardment, accompanied, as Oinitial allied landing craft hit the historian Stephen E. Ambrose beaches of Normandy, France, to explained, by “480 B-24s carrying breach Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, 1st 1,285 tons of bombs,”3 was Lt. Bob Edlin and the men of 1st intended to annihilate German Platoon, A Company, 2nd Ranger resistance on Omaha Beach and Battalion approached the smoke- create shell holes to provide the shrouded Dog Green Sector advancing Americans cover. of Omaha Beach in their LCA The bombardment, however, (Landing Craft Assault).1 Both A accomplished very little. and B Companies’ landing craft “When we came in, there had spent the early hours of the was a deep silence,” Lt. Edlin morning trolling in a circling recollected. “The only thing that pattern a few miles off the coast I could hear was the motor of of France awaiting orders to land. the boat that we were on. It was Those orders had now arrived. dawn; the sun was just coming The time aboard the small over the French coast. I saw a LCA in rough seas took its seagull fly across the front of the toll on the Rangers. Lt. Edlin boat, just like life was going on recalled: “There were many sick as normal. All the gunfire had people. They were vomiting on lifted for a very short time…. I each other’s feet and on their didn’t hear anybody pray. I didn’t clothing.”2 They had been told hear anybody say anything. We knew that the time was here.” 1. Joseph Balkoski, Omaha Beach: D-Day June Suddenly, machinegun fire 6, 1944 (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004), 158. pinged off the front of the LCA. 2. Marcia Moen and Margo Heinen, The Fool Lieutenant: A Personal Account of D-Day and 3. Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944, World War II (Elk River, MN: Meadowlark The Climactic Battle of World War II (New Publishing, 2000), 27. York: Touchstone, 1994), 120. 9 German artillery fire began be entering, or the introduction landing all around the Rangers’ of inappropriate men and landing craft. “We crouched in machinery, none of the expected the bottom of the boat in the advantages actually materialized vomit, urine, and seawater.”4 on the French beaches. In spite An LCA beside Lt. Edlin’s of all of these failures from the carrying men of B Company top, the men on Omaha Beach exploded from a direct hit, likely accomplished their objective. killing everyone aboard before As the dawn broke then next they could even hit the beach. day, although casualties covered Edlin’s LCA struck a sandbar the beach, the sunrise shone and ground to a halt 75 yards off brightly on American flags the beach, but the ramp did not as well. The victory was won drop because the British seaman not through brilliant military tasked with operating it had been strategy from the top, but on the decapitated by the intense hail battlefield — through bravery of incoming German fire.5 Edlin and poise exhibited by men at screamed at the British coxswain the bottom. It was the ability of to get the boat in further so his officers on the ground, officers men would not have to cross such like Colonel Schneider, Lt. Edlin, a vast expanse of beach, 75 yards Lt. Spaulding, and Capt. Dawson, of at least shoulder deep water to adjust to the disadvantages followed by roughly 200 more they found on the battlefield and yards of sand,6 under withering to persevere through the endless fire, but the coxswain refused to challenges they faced on June 6, go any further. Exasperated, Edlin and through their perseverance moved the decapitated sailor they encouraged others who aside to operate the ramp on the witnessed their resolve. It was front of the craft.7 Lt. Edlin and their ability, bravery, resolve his fellow Rangers prepared to and self-control that found surge forward into the maelstrom triumph in the face of defeat. of death and destruction Though failures made that was Omaha Beach. from the top prior to June 6th A reported 4,720 Americans resulted in a great loss of life died on Omaha Beach.8 A great on Omaha Beach, the valor many of these casualties can be and composure of those on the attributed to failures from those ground proved great enough at the top entrusted with the to persevere and win the day, planning of the attack. Be it the beginning their road to Berlin. failure of pre-invasion tactics, an improper understanding of the conditions the men would Setting the Stage 4. Moen and Heinen, The Fool Lieutenant, 27. In 1943, the German war 5. Ibid., 98. machine of the Third Reich 6. Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 158. ground to a halt on all fronts 7. Moen and Heinen, The Fool Lieutenant, 28. after their seemingly invincible 8. Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 352. onslaughts in the first four years 10 of World War II. General Omar of northwest Europe. 13 Bradley recalled: “Expelled United Kingdom prime from Africa, hard pressed in minister Sir Winston Churchill Italy, hunted in the Atlantic, expressed in his memoirs his and now demoralized in Russia, skepticism of the brash American everywhere the German had lost plans: “While I was always the initiative. To some it looked willing to join with the United as though he had lost the war.”9 States in a direct assault across Allied forces were establishing the Channel on the German air superiority as the air offensive sea front in France, I was not into the heart of Germany kicked convinced that this was the only into full gear, and as Bradley later way to win the war, and I knew recounted, some air commanders that it would be a very heavy “believed that it was only a matter and hazardous adventure.”14 The of months until Germany’s horrible casualties associated with back would be broken by the the frontal assaults of World War Allied bombing campaign.”10 I remained fresh in the minds Despite the growing success of Englishmen like Churchill. of the Allies throughout the Two landing areas were European Theater, many high- considered by COSSAC as ranking American general sites for the Allied invasion of officers, including U.S. First northwest France. The first was Army commander General Omar the Pas de Calais, the narrowest Bradley, Army Chief of Staff point in the channel and the most George C. Marshall, and Supreme obvious tactical and logistical Allied Commander Dwight D. place to attack German-occupied Eisenhower, believed that the France. But the Pas de Calais, only way to win the war was to because of its position as the totally defeat Germany.11 And prime invasion location, was the only way to do this would be “the most strongly defended area to invade Germany itself. The on the whole French coast,”15 British supported a less aggressive according to General Morgan approach with a focus on the and COSSAC. Because of the Mediterranean.12 Despite this tremendous defenses put in disagreement, a new position of place at the Pas de Calais by “Chief of Staff to the Supreme Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Allied Commander” (COSSAC) commander of the German was established on March 12, Army Group B, and by the 1943, with British Lieutenant German Commander in Chief General Fredrick Morgan as the of Western Operations, Field chief planner for the invasion Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt,16 9. Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story (Scran- COSSAC suggested that the ton, PA: The Haddon Craftsmen, 1951), 197. second invasion site be used. 10. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 198. This site was Normandy. 11. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 201; Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 6; Forrest C. Pogue, George C. 13. Balkoski, Omaha Beach, 6. Marshall: Organizer of Victory (New York: The 14. Ibid., 7. Viking Press, 1973), 329. 15. Ibid., 10. 12. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 196. 16. Ambrose, D-Day, 63. 11 Normandy was less heavily The United States was defended than the Pas de Calais assigned two beaches on the for a reason. The English western end of the invasion site Channel was much wider at where American forces would, it Normandy. Normandy was also was anticipated, quickly secure further southwest, placing it the vital port of Cherbourg. One further from Germany. A third of them, initially codenamed problem with Normandy was Beach 313, was not ideal. It was that it had only one port, located a roughly four-mile, crescent- at Cherbourg, large enough to shaped beach. The high water support Allied logistical needs.17 mark could vary by as much as Nevertheless, Normandy was 600 yards from low to high tide. chosen by COSSAC on the The beach proved to be belief that, despite geographical a fantastic natural defensive and logistical issues, it held a position for the Germans. much higher chance of success German troops fortified the than the Pas de Calais. This beach, as historian Cornelius decision gained approval by the Ryan detailed, by installing Allied Supreme Command, and “eight concrete bunkers with British backing was achieved guns of 75 millimeters or larger from Field Marshal Bernard caliber; 35 pillboxes with artillery Montgomery, the “operational pieces of various sizes and/or command of [Allied] ground automatic weapons; 4 batteries forces for the invasion of of artillery; 18 antitank guns; 6 Europe,” after Montgomery made mortar pits; 35 rocket-launching some significant changes to the sites, each with four 38-millimeter invasion plan.18 He proposed a rocket tubes; and no less than larger invasion front with more 85 machine-gun nests.”20 Filling landing zones, the abandonment the beach were countless mines of the invasion of southern and beach obstacles designed France (codenamed Operation to stop landing craft, vehicles, Anvil), and the use of Airborne and infantry.

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