Machine guns chattered, mortar shells exploded and shrapnel whirled across Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6 1944. D-Day, the most ambitious Allied military operation of the Second World War, was underway as American infantrymen assaulted the 4.5-mile (7km) ribbon of otherwise nondescript sands that the German defenders had turned into a killing ground.
Intended to pierce Hitler’s vaunted Atlantic Wall defences and open a second Allied front in Western Europe, the operation was a tremendous undertaking as 150,000 troops hit the five invasion beaches of Normandy. The combat was fierce in several areas, but nowhere more so than windswept Omaha Beach, where the issue was in doubt for hours. The heroism of officers like 1st Lieutenant Jimmie Monteith tipped the scales that terrible day – from possible defeat to hard-won victory.
Company L, 3rd Battalion, 116th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, was fully immersed in the maelstrom on Omaha as its soldiers slogged through the surf under fire, sought temporary cover, then made the move against their assigned objective: the opening of the Cabourg Draw.
Five of the six landing craft intended to bring Company L ashore reached the beach, but heavy currents had dragged some of them off course. Nevertheless, Monteith managed to bring his platoon ashore amid the chaos. Omaha is remembered today as the most fiercely contested of the landing sectors, where approximately 2,500 American soldiers of the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions were killed or wounded.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 133 من History of War.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 133 من History of War.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
THE OTHER OPERATION OVERLORD D-DAY'S GHOST ARMY
Historian Taylor Downing discusses the cunning use of intrigue and deception during Operation Fortitude
D-DAY LANDING CRAFT
Over 4,000 Allied landing craft took part in the Normandy Landings with a huge range of designs created for specific roles and capabilities
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
Spearheading the invasion of occupied France in 1944 were a small number of Special Forces soldiers dropped deep into enemy territory. Among them was a young Londoner, fresh from training here he reveals how he survived guerrilla warfare in France and beyond as part of the fledgling Special Air Service
JIMMIE MONTEITH
In the crucible of battle at Omaha Beach on D-Day, this officer of the famed 1st Infantry Division earned his nation’s highest honour at the cost of his life
KLEINKAMPFVERBÄNDE - GERMANY'S COUNTER-ATTACKS
As Allied forces crossed the Channel and stormed into Normandy, Hitler's navy fought back using a deadly new breed of maritime weaponry
STORMING GOLD BEACH
War veteran Ron Peet helped assault Gold Beach on D-Day Here he shares his experiences
UNDERGROUND WREN
Deep in the bowels of Fort Southwick, radio operator Marie Scott was one of the first to hear reports as Operation Overlord got underway, passing critical communications between the men on the beaches and high command
MINESWEEPER OFF NORMANDY
After helping clear the path to France, Royal Navy veteran Claude Sealey and his crewmates experienced a deadly encounter with their own countrymen
THE RECCE RIDER OF RANVILLE
After fencing behind enemy lines in Normandy, William Bill’ Gladden conducted us reconnaissance on his motorcycle
SWORD BEACH
The easternmost sector of the 6 June Normandy Landings was a mostly British affair, and Saw some of the biggest territorial gains of the first day of the Allied invasion
