Operation overlord was the largest amphibious invasion in history and most of the tanks that were transported to Normandy never made it to shore. The German shot mortar shells at the boats in the canvas bloomers were designed to float the tanks onto the beach there for destroying most of our tanks. Omaha beach had appeared to be the most difficult and hazardous of the five beaches and would later be known as one of the deadliest and most costly invasions of United States history. Mines covered the only exit of the beach that were for ravines which led to heavily mind roads.
Many stories were told about how soldiers would be losing limbs or getting their face shot off trying to storm this beach. The reason why it was so hard and took so long for us to complete our mission was because there was a set of Bluffs right above the beach in the Germans were just firing down on us while we can’t do anything about it. Even though every unit but one had mis landed operation overlord was it success. The allies would end of dominating the sky and last 11,000 out of 156,000 men in the state for 24 hours in truly what felt like the longest day.
The Allies had won the battle and begin the ending of World War II as later they would keep invading Europe and gain back all the land that Germany had took. And us on the Western front and Russia on the Eastern front would end up closing in on Germany and finally ending the whole world war and giving Germany what they deserved.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~kmmurray/The%20Longest%20Day/Landing%20in%20Normandy.html
Christian your document greatly summarized the complexities that the soldiers had to face on the multiple beaches during the war. Because of the mass amounts of horror that these soldiers experienced I was entrigued about how PTSD and shell shock became so prominent during the war. Infact the first experiences of it were during the american civil war and franco-prussian war. Also during the second world war it began to take the name of battle fatigue or combat stress reaction. Infact one in every 20 soldiers were suffering from PTSD like symptoms. This became a real issue during these wars which lowered the amount of glorification for war compared to what it had been in previous wars where it had been an honor to fight and die on the battle field.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/health/article/U-S-wars-and-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-2627010.php
https://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/history-of-ptsd-vets.asp
Hi Chris, I thought you effectively summarized the difficulty for the American soliders. Their suffering during, as well as after goes to show the heavy disadvantage the Americans had invading from the shore to the beach. Even though the beach stretched for about six miles, the Germans were still able to hold off the Americans for a long time. In fact, the assault sectors at Omaha were code named Charlie, Dog, Easy, and Fox. The main weapon for the Germans were their gunners that poured deadly fire into the ranks of the invading Americans. The gunners were so deadly that hundreds of bodies laid dead on the beach or floating in the water.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.britannica.com/place/Omaha-Beach