A History Lesson...

Omaha Beach, Normandy, France

December 14, 2007
N49°21.551
W000°51.197

It was another cold winter morning; our breath made large clouds of smoke in front of our faces and frost covered everything in site. Inside the car we were nice and warm, but the temperature outside oscillated between -2 and 1 Celsius. We knew it would be really cold at our destination, Omaha Beach, since the winds would be ripping off of the channel.

We pulled into the nearly empty parking lot of the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, bundled up in tights under our pants, gloves, scarves, hats and several layers of clothing. We got out slowly, bracing ourselves for the cold and, at the same time, knowing what we were about to see changed the history of the world as we know it today. The soldiers who rest in peace in the cemetery fought for freedom and paid the ultimate price in one of the most infamous battles in history.

As we walked out toward the cemetery, I looked down upon Omaha Beach. There was a steady breeze coming up the bluff making my eyes water, but the waves were calm and the surrounding area beautiful. I tried to imagine the scene in the water on 6 June, 1944, D-Day, and the largest amphibious attack in history of war. The water was full of ships, and Higgins Boats, designed by Andrew Higgins of New Orleans, for this exact moment in history—the day the Allied forces would bring wave after wave of men, in mass force onto the French Coast, reclaiming France from the Germans and, ultimately, defeating Germany.

The boats were designed to unload equipment quickly by dropping a large ramp in the front of the boat. The plan was to get close enough to shore to unload hundreds of thousands of men, tanks and equipment, circle back, and get more of everything to quickly unload. However, the tide was rough that day; the captains of the Higgins Boats couldn’t get close enough as Germans were shooting at them from above, from the exact area where I am standing today. From my vantage point it was clear that anyone on the beach that day would have been an easy target.

For Operation Overlord (code name for D-Day) to be successful, there had to be an element of surprise. The Germans felt the beaches of Normandy were an unlikely location for the Allied forces to attack. The Allied Commanders did their best to confuse the Germans by building false air strips, military bases and leaking false-intelligence to support the German’s belief that the attack would surely happen to the north, in the channel closer to London.

As the men (really young boys, most 18-23 years) were in the waters, headed to their designated beaches, a speech was simultaneously read to all men. In the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower:

“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”

In the morning of 6 June, 1944, when the Germans looked down onto the water, they were surprised. Literally thousands of ships were off the shore of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno beaches and steady streams of boats were coming ashore. It must have looked overwhelming. The Americans were responsible for Utah and Omaha, unarguably the two toughest beaches.

The rough waters prevented several of the boats from getting close enough to shore for the ramps to work properly. The ramps were lowered, men jumped out, only to find themselves underwater with 90 pounds of equipment on their backs. They had two choices at this point—cut off the pack or drown. Unfortunately, for some, they couldn’t think fast enough and they simply perished before they reached the beach.

The boats that did make it closer had to avoid booby traps created by the Germans. Most of the traps were underwater mines; exploding and killing entire ships of men. The greatly important Sherman tanks drove off the end of the ramp and simply sank into the water. Only two of the tanks actually made it onto the beach that first day. The men who did make it to the beach had very few supplies; some had no guns, no ammunition, no first aid supplies and no food. However, those brave men found a way to survive and persevere.

At Omaha, the Americans lost thousands of men, and as Marc and I turned away from the water and looked at the Crosses in the perfectly manicured lawn. There are over 9,000 American soldiers buried in the cemetery; Crosses and Jewish stars, in perfectly lined rows stretched as far as we could see.

We walked across the lawn, reading several of the names, ranks, home states; many perishing in June and July of 1944. I read the names aloud, no one else around to hear, I wondered when the last time anyone uttered their names. Robert Scott, Ruel Sanford, Jimmie Monteith. When was the last time someone thought about these men? Who were their families, who were their friends, what did they imagine they would grow up to be? Most importantly… will they be remembered in another 60 years?

With our faces frozen, our noses running and hands numb, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center. The center shows short movies commemorating some of the men who fought that infamous day. One of the men turned down a promotion to stay in the front line with his comrades; another, a surgeon, asked for a transfer from a safe hospital to care for the injured on the front line, never telling his wife who was home with two kids; and one more, a pilot from Ceres, CA who thought he was invincible after fighting in North Africa and Sicily.

As we walked through the cemetery, we saw a group of French students on a field trip. The teenagers, acting like teenagers, ran through the cemetery, snapped pictures and somewhat listened to their teacher. We wondered if these kids really understand the significance of what the Americans and Allied Forces did for their country 63 years ago, or do they only know the America of today—the one in Iraq under false pretenses. We can only hope future generations continue to understand the importance of 6 June, 1944, D-Day.

“To those we owe the high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live.”