1On June 6th, 944, the Anglo-American allied forces landed in Normandy, France, which opened up the second battlefield and the Second World War entered a new stage. In this largest amphibious landing operation in history, Omaha beach is the one with the biggest casualties and the heaviest losses among the five allied landing beaches. The first 20 minutes of the classic war film "Saving Private Ryan" shot by Spielberg, a famous Hollywood director, shocked the war scene, which reflected the tragic battle at the beachhead of Omaha. So why is Omaha beach so bloody? Figure 1: Omaha Beach is the beachhead with the greatest loss during the Allied Normandy landings. Why did you choose to land here? Omaha Beach is located between the Weir River Estuary and Basing Port at the southern tip of Cotantan Peninsula. It is a beach about 6.4 kilometers long. The coast is a steep cliff with a height of more than 30 meters. There are four deep valleys formed by seawater all the year round, which become the natural export of the beach to the inland. The gap between the high tide and the low tide of this beach is about 270 meters. The beach is hard sand with towering cobblestone banks, followed by large sand dunes, grasslands and forests. There are three small villages along the only road leading inland. The cottages are all made of thick stones, and the villages are surrounded by fields. The ridge is covered with young trees. This is a unique hedgerow terrain in Normandy, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. The Germans made full use of the favorable natural terrain to build fortifications, set up three obstacles between the low tide line and the * * * line, and mixed a large number of mines. A concrete fortress was built on the pebble bank, in front of which there were concertina-shaped barbed wire and mines. Four deep valley exits were completely blocked by mines and reinforced concrete obstacles. There are 16 strong support points on the coast, equipped with machine guns and anti-tank guns, and The Dark Castle built on the cliff, equipped with powerful 88mm guns, which can cover the whole beach. There are also six 155mm coastal guns on the cliff at Cape Hawke, which pose a great threat to the activities of naval vessels at sea. The reason why the Allies chose to land here is because the area from the Weir River mouth to Lomonqi is in the middle of the beach where the American troops landed in Utah and the British troops landed, and the position is very important. Only this 32-kilometer-long coast can barely land, and the rest are cliffs, so it is impossible to land at all. As long as the allied forces successfully landed on Omaha beach, they could connect the landing beaches of American and British troops. Otherwise, it will only be two isolated landings on the beach. Therefore, Omaha beach can be called the key place among the five landing beaches in Normandy. There is something wrong with the fire preparation. In the fire preparation before landing, the allies deliberately did not bomb this area in order to achieve tactical suddenness at first. The plan is only to prepare for the direct aviation firepower and naval gun firepower on the landing day. Allied forces believe that the fire preparation on D-Day is enough to take away the fortifications on the beach and cause great damage to the defenders. However, the plan is full and the reality is very skinny. At 5: 50 on June 6th, the naval gun fire support fleet consisting of 2 battleships, 4 cruisers and 12 destroyer made 40 minutes of naval gun fire preparation on the beach as planned. Because of the fear of German shore gun shooting at Cape Hawke, warships can only shoot from a long distance with low accuracy. It seems that the naval gun is earth-shattering, and the actual effect is minimal. At 0600 hours, 480 B-26 bombers prepared for direct air fire attack on German beach defense positions, dropping 1.285 tons of bombs. But at that time, the clouds were low and thick, and the pilots deliberately delayed dropping bombs for 30 seconds, for fear of accidentally injuring their landing troops near the beach. Results 1 ton bombs all landed 5 kilometers away from the beach, and none of them landed on the beach! Therefore, most of the German fortifications and bunkers were intact, and as soon as the allied fire preparations were over, the German artillery fire began to shoot. Landing in Omaha is a regiment of the 5th Army 1 Division and 29th Division of the US Army. Responsible for transporting O formation under the command of Major General Hall. At 3 o'clock on June 6, we arrived at the transit area. At that time, the offshore wind force reached level 5, and the wave height was12m. One 10 landing craft sank due to too much wind and waves, and 300 soldiers on board struggled on the sea. Most of the soldiers on the landing craft that didn't capsize also fainted in the big wind and waves. Besides, the sea kept pounding the boat, and the soldiers were cold and wet. When they arrived at the beach, the soldiers were exhausted. Allied soldiers were exhausted in the landing craft because of the storm, and the beach was in chaos. It is planned to accompany the landing soldiers to land amphibious tanks to provide timely fire support. Of the 32 left-wing vehicles, 27 sank within minutes after launch due to the storm. Of the remaining five cars, two were driven to the beach by skilled drivers, and the other three were due to the initiative of a tank landing captain. He saw the first tank sink in the storm as soon as it was launched. The commander on the right saw that the storm was too strong for the amphibious tank to start, so he ordered the tank to be sent directly to the beach, but the time to arrive at the beach was advanced. In order to wait for armored vehicles to cooperate with the battle, the tank landing craft had to wander along the coast. The Germans seized the opportunity to bombard and sank two tank landing craft. It was not until 6: 45 that amphibious tanks and armored vehicles sailed to the beach, but just after arriving at the beach, several of them were destroyed by German artillery fire. Then the first wave 1500 soldiers began to land, because there was an eastward tide in the sea and smoke billowed on the shore, so it was difficult for the soldiers to identify the direction and the formation became chaotic. When landing, the soldiers had to wade over a shallow water area with a depth of more than one meter and a width of 50-90 meters, and then cross the uncovered beach with a width of 180-270 meters to get close to the levee, all under the threat of intensive and fierce German artillery fire. So in the first half hour, this 1500 soldier couldn't fight at all, just struggled to survive in shallow water and on the beach. Only two of the first eight companies landed in Lian Deng to book beaches, but they were also drowned by German artillery fire. The underwater blasting group composed of engineers and navy divers suffered heavy casualties and serious equipment loss and damage. But still overcome difficulties, braved German artillery fire to clear obstacles, and opened two passages on the right and four passages on the left. Unfortunately, it was too late to mark the passage before the high tide, and the subsequent landing craft could not find the passage, so they were stuck on the beach and let the Germans shell. The landing troops were stopped on the beach. The second wave arrived at the beach at 7 o'clock, which coincided with the high tide. The German artillery fire was so precise and fierce that it completely blocked the landing troops on the narrow beach. For two hours, no one on the left rushed to the beach, only a 9-meter-wide beach on the right was occupied. The sea is crowded with landing craft, and the order is very chaotic. The director of beach service had to order that only people were allowed to land, and vehicles and materials were not allowed to land temporarily. At this time, Bradley, commander of the US Army 1 Army, knew that landing was extremely difficult and victory was almost impossible based on several sporadic communications and reports from warship observation posts. He plans to give up landing in Omaha and let the follow-up troops of the Fifth Army of the US Army land on Utah Beach or British beaches. Thank God for creating the United States Navy for us. At this critical moment, a turning point appeared. When the US Navy, as the naval gun fire support, saw the casualties of officers and men on land, there was no news from the onshore fire control group and the naval liaison group. Realizing that the beachhead situation was very difficult, the destroyer 17 gave full play to its initiative and sailed to the beachhead for close fire support, regardless of the dangers of stranding, lightning strikes and shelling by the Germans. On the beach, 150 commandos climbed up Cape Hawke with difficulty and found that the so-called 155 mm coastal gun was actually disguised as a telephone pole, thus eliminating the threat of coastal guns. American destroyers fired at the German bunkers on the beach one by one with great power. The powerful firepower made the Germans helpless and had to hang a white flag to beg for surrender. Then the destroyer fired at each newly discovered target, and whenever the army fired with tracer bullets, it was regarded as an indicator target and bombed immediately. It was the active assistance of destroyers that gradually suppressed the German firepower and created conditions for the US military to attack the beach. American destroyers played an important role, and American commanders on the beach tried to motivate their subordinates. For example, General Brigadier General Kota, deputy commander of the 29th Division, said loudly on the beach where shrapnel was flying: "There are only two kinds of people left on the beach, one is the dead and the other is the dying. Come on! Come with me. Colonel Taylor, head of the 1 division 16 regiment, also encouraged the soldiers: "You will die if you stay here, or you will run out of the beach!" "Under their leadership, although the American troops at the beachhead suffered heavy casualties, they were, after all, the ace teachers who fought many battles, especially 1 division. Since World War I, they have made outstanding achievements, and they have the reputation of" Red First Division "in the American army. They organized down soldiers to blast the blocked beachhead exit one after another, and finally forced them to cross the levee. After hearing the news, Bradley said with emotion: "Fortunately, 1 teacher is here!" Despite heavy casualties, the landing troops continued to advance wave after wave. At noon, the fresh troops of the second echelon and three regiments landed ahead of time, and with the support of naval guns and tanks, the landing site was gradually expanded. Then, under the guidance of the fire-breathing aircraft, the heavy guns on American battleships and cruisers also joined the shooting on the other side, which made the Germans even more frightened. When it was dark, the 1 division and the 29th division finally fought their way out and occupied the landing field with a frontal area of 6.4 kilometers and a depth of 2.4 kilometers. By the end of the night, the front area of the landing site was further expanded to 8 kilometers, with a total of 35,000 landing personnel. On the whole day of D-Day, the U.S. Fifth Army also paid a heavy price, with only 2,500 people killed, which was the heaviest loss in all five beach landings of the Allies, so it was called "bloody Omaha". That night, the 5th Army went ashore and set up a forward command post. Army Commander Major General Roger sent Bradley the first telegram: "Thank God for creating the US Navy for us." What is the garrison? The allies originally thought that the defenders on Omaha beach belonged to the 1 regiment of the German 7 16 coastal defense division. The coastal defense division has neither armored troops nor motor vehicles, and the soldiers are mostly in reserve, so their combat effectiveness is very poor. In fact, Rommel transferred the 352nd Infantry Division from San Ro in mid-March to strengthen the defense force in Normandy, and a main regiment of the division was deployed in Omaha. Allied intelligence agencies did not discover the whereabouts of the 352nd Division until the landing troops set off, and it was too late. In a large amount of data, the US military described the 352nd Infantry Division as an elite unit of the German army. However, anyone who knows something about the Germans in World War II knows that apart from the SS, only the armored division and a few relatively small infantry divisions in the national defense army can be called elite troops, up to 352 infantry divisions, all of which are new troops formed in the late war. Where can they be regarded as champion troops? The reason why the 352nd Infantry Division was blown up to the sky was mainly because the losses of the Allied forces in Omaha Beach were too heavy. If the opponent is a weak and inferior brand force, where is the face of the US military? Blowing your opponent higher is tantamount to finding a step for yourself. Omaha Beach, the cemetery of American soldiers killed in battle, suffered heavy losses, which fully showed how fragile the landing troops just landed were. The Germans could simply drive the landing troops into the sea like "sweeping the flies off the cake with a fly swatter". In order to ensure the success of landing, naval and air fire support is the key. If the allied air fire preparation and naval gun fire preparation can play a role before landing, then the troops landing on Omaha beach will certainly not suffer such great losses.