Omaha Beach, 1st Infantry Division, 16th RCT

Allied Forces

• 16^th Regimental Combat Team
  • 1^st Battalion, 16^th Infantry Regiment
  • 2^nd Battalion, 16^th Infantry Regiment
  • 3^rd Battalion, 16^th Infantry Regiment

Axis Forces

June 6th, 1944

As the landing craft carrying the 16^th Regimental Combat Team draw near Omaha Beach, the first casualties are already visible in the water. Men in life preservers and on rafts drift near the approach lane. They are survivors from foundered DD tanks. These tanks are launched by Companies B and C of the 741^st Tank Battalion, forty-five minutes before H Hour. The launch point lies over 5,400 metres offshore, opposite the eastern beach sectors.

Within minutes, the tanks encounter severe problems. The rough seas break struts, tear flotation screens, and flood engines. Only two of the thirty-two DD tanks manage to swim ashore. Three others reach the beach directly, remaining aboard an Landing Craft Tank with a damaged ramp. The others sink.

These early losses pale beside the real challenge, navigation. Each assault team has a specific sector and mission: destroy strongpoints, clear gaps in obstacles, or open beach exits. But most landing craft miss their assigned targets.

Mist, smoke, and dust from naval bombardment obscure landmarks. Control vessels drift from position. Tidal current pulls landing craft eastward. The destroyer U.S.S. Satterlee must steer hard up-current to stay on station. Many boats drift hundreds of metres off course.

One company lands almost a kilometre from its assigned beach. Scattered sections land under unfamiliar bluffs. Units cannot orient themselves. They fail to locate known German positions. Assault coordination collapses.

Even small deviations isolate sections. A gap of 200 metres prevents mutual support. Some teams are led by junior ranks after officers are lost at sea or upon landing. With companies split and key leaders missing, the initial assault is disorganised.

Naval gunfire and rockets continue to hammer the coastline. Tanks and artillery fire from Landing Craft Tank. Many soldiers expect that enemy strongpoints have been destroyed. But as the craft close in, machine-gun and artillery fire strikes from the shore. Fire intensifies as troops approach the waterline.

Air bombardment offers little help. At 06:00 hours on D-Day, 480 B-24 bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force strike targets along the coast. Cloud cover over France forces the Eighth Air Force to rely on Pathfinder radar. The bomb release is deliberately delayed to protect the landing forces. As a result, the majority of 13,000 bombs fall inland, up to five kilometres from the beach. The beach itself remains intact. No craters offer cover for the advancing troops. German defensive positions are not seriously damaged.

Despite the confusion, losses among landing craft are surprisingly light. Of nearly 200 craft carrying assault infantry to the shore in the first two hours, only ten are hit by artillery before landing. None are sunk. Casualties are limited.

Landing of the 16th Regimental Combat Team, June 6th, 1944

As said earlier, in the 16^th Regimental Combat Team zone, five of thirty-two DD tanks from the 741^st Tank Battalion reach shore. Two standard tanks from Company A are lost offshore. Three are destroyed shortly after landing. The rest lands between the E-1 and E-3 draws and begins engaging German defences.

The 2^nd Battalion of the 16^th Regimental Combat Team is assigned Easy Red, a sector over 1.6 kilometres wide. Companies E and F lead the assault. Most land far east of their targets. Only a few boat teams land within the correct sector.

One section from Company E, one from Company F, and two from the 116^th Regimental Combat Team reach the shore between E-1 and E-3. Some troops wade ashore through waist-deep water, pulled into deeper channels by strong currents. Heavy gear is lost. Mortars, flamethrowers, and bazookas are dropped. One Company F section loses seventeen of thirty-one men. Around 100 men and four tanks make it ashore on Easy Red in the first half hour.

On Fox Green, conditions are worse. Four companies, some meant for more western beaches, land scattered across 730 metres. Company E, 16^th Regimental Combat Team, suffers heavy losses in the water. Most casualties occur before reaching the shingle. Exhausted survivors crawl forward.

Five sections of Company F, 16^th Regimental Combat Team, land along a one-kilometre stretch. Two arrive in front of strongpoints near the E-3 draw. One-third are killed by machine guns and mortars. One craft sees only seven survivors reach the shingle. Only two officers survive.

Companies I and L arrive late. Company I nearly reaches Port-en-Bessin before correcting course. It loses ninety minutes. Company L lands thirty minutes late, east of Fox Green. One Landing Craft, Assault founders 3 kilometres out. Eight are killed. Enemy fire causes further losses. One well-spaced section avoids casualties.

Company L suffers thirty-four casualties but manages to land under a steep cliff. Using this cover, the remaining 125 men organise and prepare to move west. It is the only company from the first wave to remain capable of offensive action.

Multimedia

Second Wave, 16th Regimental Combat Team, June 6th, 1944

By 07:00 hours, the first wave of the 16^th Regimental Combat Team has landed so consistently to the east that Easy Red, the widest of the beach sectors, contains only a handful of assault infantry. This situation is largely corrected over the next forty-five minutes. A concentration of landings now occurs between the E-1 and E-3 draws. Here, most of the surviving tanks from the 741^st Tank Battalion are available to support the infantry.

Company G lands on its assigned sector at 07:00 hours. All of its landing craft arrive together, except one delayed by taking on water. Artillery shells land nearby during the approach, but there are no casualties before debarkation. The coxswains manage the craft skilfully. One craft strikes a sandbar several hundred metres out but works its way through to shallow water. Engineers are still working on beach obstacles as the infantry pass through. Three duplex-drive tanks already lie disabled on the sand, knocked out by enemy fire.

The short distance from the landing craft ramps to the shingle proves deadly. Most of the company’s sixty-three casualties on D-Day occur during this exposed crossing. The men are cramped from the journey, weighed down with equipment, and must advance at walking speed under mortar and small-arms fire. Nevertheless, they reach the shingle without falling into disarray. Within fifteen minutes, the company sets up supporting weapons and begins engaging visible enemy positions, targeting those revealed by their fire on the following landing waves. Company G lands almost on top of three isolated sections left behind from the first wave: one from Company E, and two from Company E of the 116^th Regimental Combat Team.

Company H, scheduled to land on the same beach at 07:10, is delayed while trying to make contact with the naval control boat. It comes ashore twenty minutes late, a few hundred metres to the left of Company G. In the process, it loses a large amount of equipment, including all radios. The company lands in front of E-3 draw, where few troops have arrived and enemy fire remains intense. As a result, the unit becomes immobilised and remains pinned down for several hours.

Third Wave, 16th Regimental Combat Team, June 6th, 1944

The 1^st Battalion, 16^th Regimental Combat Team, lands as scheduled between 07:40 and 08:00 hours. It comes ashore between the E-1 and E-3 draws to reinforce earlier assault units. Companies A and B land on the right. Company D is deployed so that its machine-gun sections are embedded with the rifle units, while its heavy mortars arrive with battalion headquarters. Available records suggest that casualties during this landing are lighter than in the earlier waves.

Fox Green Beach already contains elements of five companies. These units are widely dispersed due to the disordered first-wave landings. Only Company L remains relatively cohesive. Company K lands at 07:00, further crowding the area. Its sections land in two main groups which remain out of contact with each other for several hours. The company suffers most of its fifty-three D-Day casualties on the beach, including the loss of four officers.

Company M’s craft land between 07:30 and 08:00 hours. The landings are scattered. One craft capsizes offshore. The remaining craft unload under fire in deep water. Despite the conditions, the company manages to get sufficient equipment ashore to begin supporting the rifle units effectively.

Company I, originally scheduled for the first wave, lands off-target. After two boats are swamped, the rest make it to Fox Green by about 08:00. All four remaining craft are heavily damaged as they approach the shore. One carrying the command party hits a mine and is set ablaze by machine-gun fire. Two others are either hit by artillery or mines. The fourth is caught on a beach obstacle and raked by machine guns. Casualties are high.

Captain Richmond, landing safely, finds himself the senior officer present on Fox Green. He assumes command of the intermingled units of the 3^rd Battalion, 16^th Regimental Combat Team. The battalion’s proper command party has landed too far west and is unable to rejoin the main force for several hours.

Support Units, 16th Regimental Combat Team, June 6th, 1944

Between 07:00 and 08:00 hours, infantry are not the only forces to come ashore. Elements of the 81^st Chemical Weapons Battalion, combat engineers, advance parties of the Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group, naval shore fire control teams, medical detachments, antiaircraft units, and the leading components of artillery formations begin landing. Artillery units are scheduled to come ashore during the next hour. However, mislandings continue to disrupt the operation. Like the infantry, support and specialist troops are scattered, often landing far from their intended sectors. Engineers assigned to mark beaches or clear exits are frequently dropped hundreds or even thousands of metres away, sometimes without their equipment or forced to abandon it in the surf.

One engineer unit tasked with marking Dog Red Beach lands over 1.6 kilometres away on Easy Red. They erect their panels regardless.

Further east, Landing Craft Infantry 85 attempts to land Company A, 1^st Medical Battalion, on Fox Green. The craft glides over Element C pilings but is hit by artillery fire as it grounds. The crew judges the water too deep and reverses while flames burn in one hold. On its second attempt, only a few men manage to disembark before the ramps are destroyed. Fire spreads through the forward section. The damaged craft is converted into an improvised hospital ship, extinguishes the blaze, and withdraws to transfer casualties to another vessel.

Conditions for vehicle landings are now catastrophic. Surviving half-tracks, jeeps, and trucks face immense difficulty unloading under fire. Once ashore, they find no usable exits through the shingle embankment. Many become trapped on the narrowing sand strip. Vehicles landing in groups are particularly vulnerable to mechanical failure or concentrated enemy fire. Mortar and artillery rounds destroy many before they can move inland.

Losses in equipment are severe. Engineer stores essential for clearing beach obstacles are heavily reduced. The 397^th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion loses twenty-eight of its thirty-six machine guns during landing. Infantry units struggle to recover heavy weapons. Sand and seawater disable many rifles. On reaching cover, soldiers immediately strip and clean their weapons. Demolition charges, bangalore torpedoes, and ammunition are lost when troops debark in deep water. Others carry their loads ashore under fire, suffering additional casualties. Radios are worst affected. Many are dropped or rendered useless by water.

From 07:30 onwards, regimental and battalion command parties begin arriving. They find scenes of confusion and destruction. Along nearly 5,500 metres of shoreline, behind the shingle bank or sea wall, assault elements are immobilised. Most companies are scattered due to mislandings and cannot function as coherent units. Officer and Non-Commsioned Officer casualties are particularly high near German strongpoints, leaving many groups without leadership. Men from different companies are bunched together, especially on Dog White, Easy Green, and Fox Green. Infantry, engineers, naval personnel, and shore fire control parties are intermixed. In some areas, there is no shelter behind the embankment, and new arrivals are forced to lie exposed on open sand.

Disorganisation becomes inevitable. With radios lost and command groups scattered, restoring control proves difficult. Even when a headquarters element lands in the correct place, its influence is limited to a narrow sector. As a result, isolated groups, sometimes only fragments of boat sections, must take initiative themselves, reorganising, rallying, and pushing forward.

Morale is now a critical concern. Most troops are experiencing combat for the first time. Many have witnessed heavy losses among their own ranks. The effect is demoralising. Behind them, the tide rises over the wounded. Bodies drift to shore. Fires burn on the water. Chaos continues as the next waves arrive under fire. Men lie motionless behind the shingle bank. Though it offers little protection from artillery, it shields them from direct fire. Ahead are mines, wire, and open sand under constant observation. Beyond that, steep bluffs still in German hands. From the beach, there is no visible sign of weakening resistance. The men know only what they have endured and what lies before them. They cannot yet see that enemy defences are beginning to give way.

Support is limited. Naval gunfire has largely ceased. With no direct communication from shore observers, destroyers are ordered to hold fire for fear of hitting friendly troops obscured by smoke. The tanks fire where possible, but infantry must rely on their own weapons, many of them still clogged with sand and seawater.

By 08:00 hours, German observers on the bluff may well believe the assault has failed. From their vantage point, the landing appears shattered at the shoreline. But the situation is not as it seems. At three or four points along the beach, American infantry have already begun to penetrate the German defences. The gains are fragile, the losses heavy, but the beachhead is forming. Despite the bloodshed, disarray, and chaos, the tide is beginning to turn.

Multimedia (Fox Area)

Assault up the Bluff, 16th Regimental Combat Team, June 6th, 1944

Between the E-1 and E-3 draws, three companies from the 16^th Regimental Combat Team move up the bluff from Easy Red. This sector features a wide beach shelf, swampy areas, and a steep slope 40 metres high. A ruined house stands near a small draw that provides a natural corridor. The 1st Section of Company E, led by Lieutenant Spalding, breaches the wire and moves inland, only to be halted by minefields. Despite fire from the E-3 strongpoint, they find defilade and push up the draw.

Company G lands in good order at 07:00. Its machine guns go into action only when follow-on landing craft draw German fire. Bangalores and engineers help cut the wire. The company pushes forward through heavy brush and over mined ground. Captain Joseph Dawson leads the way, advancing alone and destroying a machine gun with a grenade. The company reaches the top with minimal casualties by 08:30. Spalding’s section joins from the right, having overcome a trench system with the help of naval gunfire and taken twenty-one prisoners. They effectively neutralise the strongpoint east of E-1.

The gap created by Company G becomes a funnel for troops moving inland. Colonel George Taylor arrives at 08:15 and finds the beach still disorganised. He famously declares, “Two kinds of people are staying on this beach: the dead and those who are going to die, now let’s get the hell out of here.” He rallies small groups under any Non-Commsioned Officer available and sends them forward. Engineers expand gaps through wire and minefields. Some groups mistake their late arrival for being part of the lead assault. Others cluster in the draw, causing congestion. Taylor sets up a command post below the crest and coordinates the inland movement.

The 1^st Battalion, 16^th Regimental Combat Team, lands between 07:30 and 08:00. Company A suffers forty-eight casualties moving across the flat and detours east to avoid minefields. Other companies reach the crest by 09:30, using the same routes as Company G.

On Fox Green, Company L leads the assault. Four sections regroup under cover of the cliff. Lieutenant Robert Cutler takes command after the company commander is killed. Company L moves west and assaults the F-1 strongpoint from the draw. With tank and destroyer fire in support, they reach the top and outflank the position. Lieutenant Klenk and remnants from several companies join the assault. Naval fire briefly halts their progress, but once lifted, the troops storm the position with grenades and rifle fire. Thirty-one prisoners are taken.

By 09:00, the strongpoint at F-1 is in American hands. The 3^rd Battalion, 16^th Regimental Combat Team, begins advancing south. The beachhead has been broken open. The long, bloody morning at Omaha Beach has turned the tide. The first units are now fighting inland.

Move Inland, 116th Regimental Combat Team, June 6th, 1944

The assault moves forward, but not according to plan. Penetrations occur where enemy defences are weak, on open stretches of bluff between the draws. The F-1 strongpoint is knocked out early. But the ground here is so steep that no exit is prepared. No engineer units are available to make it usable.

At the main draws, only at E-1 is one strongpoint being reduced. A platoon flanks it from the bluff top. Elsewhere, scattered infantry fight their way inland toward assembly points. Most enemy strongpoints at key draws, especially E-3 and D-3, remain active.

Heavy fire continues along the beach. It halts all movement near the main draws. Engineers, mislanded and under-equipped, cannot open exits. At 08:00, no gaps exist in the shingle embankment for vehicles or personnel.

Penetrations made between 06:30 and 08:30 cannot be exploited. Vehicles now land but find no room to move or take cover. Artillery fire and flooded obstacles push more craft to land on Easy Green and Easy Red. These sectors now face overcrowding and renewed enemy shelling.

By 08:30, the commander of the 7^th Naval Beach Battalion radios an order halting all vehicle landings. Dozens of craft, including DUKW’s and rhino-ferries, circle offshore, waiting. DUKW’s struggle in the rough sea. They must run at half-throttle to maintain steerage, exhausting fuel within 10 to 12 hours. Some risk foundering.

However, the 16^th Regimental Combat Team’s Cannon Company lands half-tracks at 08:30 after two failed attempts. They move only 50 metres through the wreckage. Its six howitzers are aboard DUKW’s, but all are lost in heavy seas. Twenty men are killed. Artillery units scheduled to land between 08:00 and 09:00 struggle to reach shore. Only two antiaircraft guns from the 16^th Regimental Combat Team get ashore. The rest are lost during unloading. The 7^th Field Artillery Battalion loses six howitzers to swamping; the rest cannot land.

Lieutenant Colonel Banks of the 741^st Tank Battalion comes ashore at 08:20. His 509 radio fails due to salt water. His group must move up and down the beach to relay orders, losing three of five men.

Still, the tanks keep firing. Some remain in action while repairs are made under fire. Others fire until waves drown their weapons. Unit records across the beach refer to bunkers knocked out by tank fire. The destroyer U.S.S. Carmick aids tanks at Dog Green. These tanks reach the promenade road and fire towards the Vierville draw. The U.S.S. Carmick adjusts fire using tank bursts as aiming points. The naval gunners support tank action in silence.

At 11:00, two landing craft charge through obstacles toward E-3 draw. LCT 30 drives in at speed, all guns firing. It continues to engage a bunker after beaching. LCI(L) 544 smashes through beach obstacles, firing on a fortified house. These actions show larger craft can breach obstacles, many had hesitated earlier.

Gunfire Support Craft Group reports at 09:15 that they struggle to find targets. Friendly troops are too close. General Cota tells observers at 08:00 it is “unwise to designate a target.” But by 10:00, naval guns come into their own. Two destroyers move within 900 metres and hit strongpoints from les Moulins eastward. Infantry pinned at the sea wall and engineers at the draws welcome the support. Encouraged, Colonel Taylor orders all available tanks to move on E-3 draw.

Several tanks head there. Only three arrive. Two are knocked out as they try to climb the draw. Captain W. M. King is tasked with rounding up the tanks. He runs west along the beach, reaching each tank. He finds one commander wounded and takes over. As he drives east, he weaves through wreckage and wounded. A Teller mine disables the tank. King and the crew continue on foot.

E-1 draw sees the first breakthrough. The strongpoint on the east side is neutralised by a flanking force from Company E, 16^th Regimental Combat Team. Engineers of the 37^th Engineer Combat Battalion bulldoze a gap through the dunes by 10:00.

Between 08:00 and 09:00, penetration of the beach defences achieves definite success through determined action despite severe difficulties. However, this success remains limited, creating challenges for exploiting the breakthroughs and reaching planned D-Day objectives. Only fractions of the assault Battalion Landing Teams scale the bluffs during the morning. These initial groups rarely exceed company strength, often comprising just one or two boat sections. They lack heavy weapons, tanks, and artillery support. Establishing effective communication to coordinate naval gunfire beyond the bluffs proves slow and difficult. Equipment losses further restrict communication within and between units throughout the day.

Units frequently become intermingled as they reach higher ground. This issue is worsened by officer casualties, scattered headquarters groups, and communication problems, all consuming valuable time. Blocked exits and persistent enemy fire on the beaches prevent early reinforcement of units that have advanced inland. Many assault troops remain behind the seawall, psychologically pinned down by enemy fire. Motivating these troops forward requires considerable time and effort, often involving lateral movement towards breakthrough points. Reserve regiments, delayed by the confusion of intermingled landings in congested sectors, play a minimal role until mid-afternoon. Even then, their full potential remains underutilised.

German resistance benefits from these weaknesses and favourable terrain, ideal for defensive and delaying actions. Advancing Allied groups repeatedly encounter small, well-prepared enemy positions. These strongpoints typically centre around machine guns positioned along hedgerows with clear fields of fire. Sniper activity further complicates locating enemy defences, making each position slow to neutralise with available weapons. Attempts to bypass resistance result in fragmented assault groups and decreased control as units push inland. Fighting through hedgerow terrain presents significant difficulties, especially for troops experiencing it for the first time. Although German forces reach company strength at only a few locations, notably around Colleville, their actions successfully halt the V Corps advance well short of the intended D-Day objectives.

Sources