Omaha: The 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions were assigned to capture the five-mile long beachhead along the Normandy coast called Omaha Beach. ‘Easy Red’ and ‘Fox Green’ were two sectors on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courage: Capt. Joe Dawson receives the Distinguished Service Cross from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, July 2, 1944. Dawson rallied troops to move
off Omaha Beach and forward up the bluffs, taking out German emplacements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leadership: On D-Day at Omaha Beach, Brig. Gen. George Taylor, then a colonel
in command of the 16th Infantry Regiment, said: ‘There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach – those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Officers: Senior Army leaders Maj. Gen. Hugh Keen, left, Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower observe activity of the Normandy coast from the USS Augusta June 8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Battle for Easy Red, Fox Green

By Flint Whitlock

It seemed almost too much to ask of mortal men.

A pitiful, ragged line of tiny landing craft, each crammed to the gunwales with some thirty to forty seasick, shivering, soaking wet soldiers, were heading toward one of the most heavily defended coastlines on earth.

In addition to his weapon, ammunition, grenades, rations, and fifty pounds of equipment, each man carried a small flyer signed by the Supreme Commander reiterating the importance of their mission: "You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of world are upon you. The hopes and prayers ofliberty-loving people everywhere march with you."

They were riding into hell, their mission that of cracking Hitler's vaunted "Atlantic Wall," reputed to be impenetrable, along the northern coast of France.

Nazi Germany had held a tight grip on the Continent ever since France fell in June 1940, and the British Expeditionary Force subsequently was pushed into the English Channel at the French port of Dunkirk.

It was 6 June, 1944, and it was payback time.

Operation Overlord

The troops in this first wave, known as Force O, were the 16th Infantry Regimental Combat Team of Major General Clarence R. Huebner's 1st Infantry Division ­ the Big Red One ­ which had already seen plenty of combat in North Africa and on Sicily.

Attached to the 1st for most of the first day of this operation, known as "Overlord," was the 116th Infantry Regimental Combat Team of Major General Charles Gerhardt's 29th Infantry Division ­ a well-trained division which had not yet experienced combat.

The 16th, commanded by Colonel George A. Taylor, was scheduled to land on "Easy Red" and "Fox Green" beaches ­ two sections of a five-mile-long beachhead code-named "Omaha;" the 116th's assigned sectors, just to the west of the 16th¹s, were designated Dog Green, Dog White, and Dog Red.

Four attack transports had carried the 1st Infantry Division to a rendezvous point (dubbed "Piccadilly Circus") in the middle of the English Channel.

From there the assault troops transferred into smaller landing craft for the long run in to shore.

Red Beach, Green Beach

Companies E and F of the 16th Regiment's 2nd Battalion were scheduled to hit Easy Red Beach a minute after the 32 amphibious Sherman tanks from A Company, 741st Tank Battalion, reached shore at H-Hour ­ 0630 hours.

At the same moment, on Fox Green beach, the easternmost sector of Omaha Beach, Companies I and L would swarm ashore.

The troops on Easy Red would be reinforced a half hour later by the arrival of Companies G and H, while Fox Green would be backed up by Companies K and M.

About an hour later, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert C. Hicks, Jr.’s 2nd Battalion would hit the shore, followed by the four companies of Lieutenant Colonel Edmund F. Driscoll's 1st Battalion and the guns of Lieutenant Colonel George W. Gibbs’ 7th Field Artillery Battalion.

Next would come Force B ­ Colonel George A. Smith, Jr.'s 18th Infantry Regiment and the attached 115th RCT from the 29th. In the early afternoon, Colonel John F. R. Seitz's 26th Infantry Regiment would come ashore at Easy Red and Fox Green.

Pvt. Steve Kellman

In the pre-dawn darkness aboard the HMS Empire Anvil, 21-year-old Private Steve Kellman, a rifleman in L Company, 16th Infantry, felt the crushing weight of the moment: "In the hours before the invasion, while we were below decks, a buddy of mine, Bill Lanaghan said to me, ‘Steve, I’m scared.’ And I said, ‘I’m scared, too.’"

Then, about three or three-thirty that morning, an officer gave the order and Kellman and Lanaghan and the nearly 200 men in L Company began to climb awkwardly over the gunwales of their transport and descend the unsteady "scramble nets," just as they had done in training so many times before.

"The nets were flapping against the side of the vessel, and the little landing craft were bouncing up and down," said Kellman.

"It was critical that you tried to get into the landing craft when it was on the rise because there was a gap ­ the nets didn't quite reach and you had to jump down. That was something we hadn¹t practiced before.

We had practiced going down the nets, but the sea was calm. This was a whole new experience."

"We circled in our landing craft for what seemed like an eternity," recalled Steve Kellman. "The battleships opened up and the bombers were going over.

Every once in a while, I looked over the side and I could see the smoke and the fire, and I thought to myself, ‘we're pounding the hell out of them and there isn¹t going to be much opposition.’

As we got in closer, we passed some yellow life rafts and I had the impression that they must have been from a plane that went down, or maybe they were from the
amphibious tanks that might have sunk; I don’t know.

These guys were floating in these rafts and, as we went by, they gave us the ‘thumbs up’ sign. We thought, ‘they don't seem very worried ­ what the hell do we have to be worried about?’

But, as we got in closer, we could hear the machine-gun bullets hitting the sides of the vessel and the ramp in front."

"While in training, we were told of all the things that would be done in order," recalled Harley Reynolds. "But to see it all come together was mind-boggling."

What Reynolds saw was a heavily fortified, enemy-held beachhead that had barely been touched by Allied bombs and shells.

The tremendous air and naval bombardment that the troops had been assured in their briefings and rehearsals would blow gaps in the minefields and beach obstacles; turn the pillboxes and casemates into dust; and annihilate the defenders who were thought to be only low-grade troops unfit for duty on more active fronts, had not materialized.

The bombers, flying above low overcast, had released their bombs too far inland, causing casualties only among Norman cows. The Navy, fearful of hitting the disembarking infantry, also overshot the target.

Underwater demolition experts had gone in early to blow gaps in the obstacles and mark safe paths to the beach, but most of them were either dead, wounded or had lost all their specialized equipment in the rough surf.

All but five of the 32 amphibious Sherman tanks had sunk, carrying their crewmen to their deaths.

There was not so much as a single bomb crater on the beach in which to hide, and the German gunners were all alert and zeroed in on the narrow strip of beach, five miles long, code-named "Omaha."

Near disaster

The largest and most carefully planned and rehearsed invasion in the history of warfare was on the verge of disaster ­ and the troops had not even reached land. Next >>