subject: Omaha Beach Here and Now [print this page] Omaha Beach Now Omaha Beach Now
Everyone is familiar, through movie, book or legend, with the famed and tragic D-Day invasion. The storming of Omaha Beach has became a historical moment in time the very second that the first Marine stepped foot off of his boat. The battle, the carnage, the loss of life and the victory that would later ensue is both miraculous and a story that should never be forgotten. As time continues to progress, unstoppably, the soldiers that survived that battle have begun to pass away into their rightful places. All that remains is a beach with a few tourist attractions that commemorate the battle and a bunch of tourists that are trying to imagine what things must have been like.
63 years later Omaha Beach is Once the beachhead had been secured Omaha Beach became the site of one of the two harbors known as Mulberry, synthetic prefabricated harbors shipped over in pieces from the English Channel and put together just off shore. The building of 'Mulberry A' at Omaha Beach was started the day after D-Day with the scuttling of ships to form what is known as a breakwater. By ten days after D-Day the harbor at Omaha Beach became fully functional. By this time the first pier was completed. The functioning docking station at Omaha Beach known as LST 342 was unloading 78 vehicles in 38 minutes. Three days after things began Mother Nature took a turn for the worse. Omaha Beach was hit by the worst storm to hit Normandy in 40 years. The storm at Omaha Beach began fiercely, the rains, winds, and weather continued for three days and did not let up one bit until the night of June 22. The harbor was so completely destroyed that the powers that be made an executive decision. They decided that it was more cost-effective not to repair the damage done there at Omaha Beach.
This decision would ultimately affect the supplies that were being subsequently landed directly on the beach until fixed port facilities were captured. In the very brief, few days that the harbor was fully operational 11,000 troops, 2,000 vehicles and 9,000 hordes of military equipment and much needed supplies were brought ashore to Omaha Beach. Over the next following 100 days after the invasion at Omaha Beach more than one million tons of supplies, one hundred thousand vehicles and six hundred thousand men were landed, and 93,000 casualties were shipped out through Omaha Beach.
Today at Omaha sharp and jagged remains of the harbor can be seen when the ocean is at low tide. The shingle bank, that was once there, is no longer in existence. The facilitating of landing supplies made clearing the shingle bank a necessary decision for the engineers. The beachfront at Omaha Beach is more built up and the beach road extended, villages have grown and merged, but the geography of the beach remains as it was and the remains of the coastal defenses can still be visited. At the top of the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach near Colleville is now the American cemetery but you should visit some time, because Omaha Beach is very much alive and well today. 63 years later.
Omaha Beach Here and Now
By: Toby Wilson
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