It wasn't my intent to start a thread about Omaha Beach on June 6, but here I am.
Actually, a few weeks ago, I found myself in a real bookstore, something which hardly ever happens these days, and I decided I would read a real book. You know, one with covers, and words and pages and things, made out of paper.
The book I chose was "The Dead and Thos About to Die" subtitled
"D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach"
(John McManus. 2014)
It is about the experience of the US First Infantry Division on D-Day, at the southern half of Omaha Beach. It turned out to be nearly exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for a detailed description of what the fighting was like on the beach. I had heard lots of elderly veterans describe it in youtube videos, but their descriptions were rather personal. They didn't really give a 'big picture' view of things.
In particular, I never really understood just how long the whole affair went on. Like a lot of people, I think my knowledge of D-Day is heavily influenced by movies. "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Longest Day" are especially well known. In those movies, the first wave hits the beach. It's chaos. GI's hide at the sea wall, then slowly go forward until someone gets them some Banagalore Torpedoes. They blow a hold in the barbed wire and streamed off the beach. The whole thing took thirty minutes or less. It had to, because the whole darned movie could only be three hours long, at most, and they had lots of other scenes to do. I always kind of wondered how long it really took.
So, I bought the book, and read it.
It turns out it took a lot longer than it did in the movies. The first wave was so shot up that they weren't going anywhere. The bombers had pretty much missed the entire beach, and the naval targeting was ineffective, so the German defenders were ready and waiting. The invaders really couldn't do much of anything in the face of such strong fire.
One thing I had known for a long time, but this book drove home, was that the battle wasn't supposed to be handfuls of men crawling up hills and assaulting pillboxes. It was supposed to be small groups of men supporting tanks, who were assaulting pillboxes. There were supposed to be nearly 100 American tanks on the beach. Only a handful ever made it to sand. Most of them sank. Almost all the first wave tanks sank. More of the second wave got there. Unfortunately, with so few tanks on shore, they were targets, and so the ones who didn't drown in the heavy surf took huge losses once they hit the beach.
Nevertheless, one of the first big successes was when a tank knocked out an 88 that was overlooking the beach. It happened at 7:10 am, fourty minutes after the initial moments of landing.
Meanwhile, another thing I had heard of, but really hadn't appreciated the significance of, was that two other German strongpoints took direct hits from US Navy destroyers who came in abnormally close to short. With no significant tank support, and no artillery, the destroyers were the only real heavy weapons in the neighborhood. Their normal operational mode would keep them too far from the beach to play a major part in the battle. However, with the landings in deep trouble., they got close to the beach, and opened up with their 5 inch guns, taking out some more of the German artillery. It was probably made easier by the fact that the progress was slow enough that high tide was coming on, so they could get closer and take out some of the artillery.
Had that one tank not been able to knock out the 88, and the destroyers knock out some of the other heavy targets, including some big guns, those pluck bands of Bangalore Torpedo carriers might have been cut down by shrapnel.
More than anything else, what I really leared from reading the book was how much of an absolute disaster that beach was. I sort of had an opinion that Omaha was such a killing ground because the terrain there was the most favorable to the defenders. It's probably true that it was the best terrain of the five landing beaches, but the other reality is that it was just an utter failure. Nothing worked. The sea was too heavy for the tanks. The cloud cover was too heavy for the bombers and the high altitude bombers. The landing craft landed in the wrong place. The engineers trying to clear the obstacles had big problem because the theory was that the machine guns that were killing them would have been knocked out by some combination of naval gunfire, tanks, and bombers. Instead, it killed a lot of engineers, which meant they didn't clear the obstacles as well as planned, which led to lots of boats hitting obstacles.
The day just started bad, and got worse. Nevertheless, the surviving infantry did go up those draws, get near the pillboxes, and kill or capture the enemy, eventually. Hours later.
In all, a good book. Just what I was looking for. By having a narrow focus, not just on one beach, but on half of one beach, I got a much better idea of what really happened on Omaha Beach that day, 78 years ago today. The auther's style manages to give a factual account, but while conveying a bit of the sense of urgency rhat was being experienced. It was factual without being dry, but it was suffienitly factual to remain real history rather than some books which are practically novelizations.
And then it got me curious. What happened at the other beaches, that caused them not to suffer the same fate. Well, I only read one more book, to find out.
"Utah Beach".
Joseph Balkoski
2005
Utah Beach had fairly light casualties, and within 90 minutes was mostly silent. After that, long range artillery continued to shell the beach, but the immediate landings were much easier.
What went right there? A different kind of bomber was used for the pre-invasion bombing. They flew at lower altitudes, and they flew parallel to the beach instead of coming in perpendicular. They could see better, and if they missed, they still probably hit something. The naval fire was a lot more effective. One huge factor was that someone figured out that the sea was too heavy for the DD tanks, so the naval vessels from which they launched came closer to the shore before launching. Almost all of them hit the beach.
So, in contrast to Utah, the German survivors of very effective bombing and naval bombardment were staring at an army of tanks. A lot of them were eager to end the war quickly and surrender.
The terrain also did play a role. The pillboxes did not have the commanding view. Also, the author notes that there were also two divisions of paratroopers behind the Germans, so if they ran away, thew would likely meet some very unfriendly greeting parties on their way out.
As a book, "Utah Beach" was very informative, but it lacked some of the writing style of "The Dead and Those About to Die." It just wasn't as exciting to read. However, it's not a bad book at all. Very informative. Lots of primary source material, soldiers' interviews and such. I learned a lot about D-Day from both of them.
I had intended to start a thread when I finished reading "Utah Beach", which I did tonight, and saw the timestamp on my computer, noting the interesting coincidence.
Actually, a few weeks ago, I found myself in a real bookstore, something which hardly ever happens these days, and I decided I would read a real book. You know, one with covers, and words and pages and things, made out of paper.
The book I chose was "The Dead and Thos About to Die" subtitled
"D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach"
(John McManus. 2014)
It is about the experience of the US First Infantry Division on D-Day, at the southern half of Omaha Beach. It turned out to be nearly exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for a detailed description of what the fighting was like on the beach. I had heard lots of elderly veterans describe it in youtube videos, but their descriptions were rather personal. They didn't really give a 'big picture' view of things.
In particular, I never really understood just how long the whole affair went on. Like a lot of people, I think my knowledge of D-Day is heavily influenced by movies. "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Longest Day" are especially well known. In those movies, the first wave hits the beach. It's chaos. GI's hide at the sea wall, then slowly go forward until someone gets them some Banagalore Torpedoes. They blow a hold in the barbed wire and streamed off the beach. The whole thing took thirty minutes or less. It had to, because the whole darned movie could only be three hours long, at most, and they had lots of other scenes to do. I always kind of wondered how long it really took.
So, I bought the book, and read it.
It turns out it took a lot longer than it did in the movies. The first wave was so shot up that they weren't going anywhere. The bombers had pretty much missed the entire beach, and the naval targeting was ineffective, so the German defenders were ready and waiting. The invaders really couldn't do much of anything in the face of such strong fire.
One thing I had known for a long time, but this book drove home, was that the battle wasn't supposed to be handfuls of men crawling up hills and assaulting pillboxes. It was supposed to be small groups of men supporting tanks, who were assaulting pillboxes. There were supposed to be nearly 100 American tanks on the beach. Only a handful ever made it to sand. Most of them sank. Almost all the first wave tanks sank. More of the second wave got there. Unfortunately, with so few tanks on shore, they were targets, and so the ones who didn't drown in the heavy surf took huge losses once they hit the beach.
Nevertheless, one of the first big successes was when a tank knocked out an 88 that was overlooking the beach. It happened at 7:10 am, fourty minutes after the initial moments of landing.
Meanwhile, another thing I had heard of, but really hadn't appreciated the significance of, was that two other German strongpoints took direct hits from US Navy destroyers who came in abnormally close to short. With no significant tank support, and no artillery, the destroyers were the only real heavy weapons in the neighborhood. Their normal operational mode would keep them too far from the beach to play a major part in the battle. However, with the landings in deep trouble., they got close to the beach, and opened up with their 5 inch guns, taking out some more of the German artillery. It was probably made easier by the fact that the progress was slow enough that high tide was coming on, so they could get closer and take out some of the artillery.
Had that one tank not been able to knock out the 88, and the destroyers knock out some of the other heavy targets, including some big guns, those pluck bands of Bangalore Torpedo carriers might have been cut down by shrapnel.
More than anything else, what I really leared from reading the book was how much of an absolute disaster that beach was. I sort of had an opinion that Omaha was such a killing ground because the terrain there was the most favorable to the defenders. It's probably true that it was the best terrain of the five landing beaches, but the other reality is that it was just an utter failure. Nothing worked. The sea was too heavy for the tanks. The cloud cover was too heavy for the bombers and the high altitude bombers. The landing craft landed in the wrong place. The engineers trying to clear the obstacles had big problem because the theory was that the machine guns that were killing them would have been knocked out by some combination of naval gunfire, tanks, and bombers. Instead, it killed a lot of engineers, which meant they didn't clear the obstacles as well as planned, which led to lots of boats hitting obstacles.
The day just started bad, and got worse. Nevertheless, the surviving infantry did go up those draws, get near the pillboxes, and kill or capture the enemy, eventually. Hours later.
In all, a good book. Just what I was looking for. By having a narrow focus, not just on one beach, but on half of one beach, I got a much better idea of what really happened on Omaha Beach that day, 78 years ago today. The auther's style manages to give a factual account, but while conveying a bit of the sense of urgency rhat was being experienced. It was factual without being dry, but it was suffienitly factual to remain real history rather than some books which are practically novelizations.
And then it got me curious. What happened at the other beaches, that caused them not to suffer the same fate. Well, I only read one more book, to find out.
"Utah Beach".
Joseph Balkoski
2005
Utah Beach had fairly light casualties, and within 90 minutes was mostly silent. After that, long range artillery continued to shell the beach, but the immediate landings were much easier.
What went right there? A different kind of bomber was used for the pre-invasion bombing. They flew at lower altitudes, and they flew parallel to the beach instead of coming in perpendicular. They could see better, and if they missed, they still probably hit something. The naval fire was a lot more effective. One huge factor was that someone figured out that the sea was too heavy for the DD tanks, so the naval vessels from which they launched came closer to the shore before launching. Almost all of them hit the beach.
So, in contrast to Utah, the German survivors of very effective bombing and naval bombardment were staring at an army of tanks. A lot of them were eager to end the war quickly and surrender.
The terrain also did play a role. The pillboxes did not have the commanding view. Also, the author notes that there were also two divisions of paratroopers behind the Germans, so if they ran away, thew would likely meet some very unfriendly greeting parties on their way out.
As a book, "Utah Beach" was very informative, but it lacked some of the writing style of "The Dead and Those About to Die." It just wasn't as exciting to read. However, it's not a bad book at all. Very informative. Lots of primary source material, soldiers' interviews and such. I learned a lot about D-Day from both of them.
I had intended to start a thread when I finished reading "Utah Beach", which I did tonight, and saw the timestamp on my computer, noting the interesting coincidence.
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