NORMANDY - France 2014 - page 441

the beach, WWII junkies should stop at the Omaha Beach Museum (Musée Memorial
d'Omaha Beach) parking lot. Outside the museum, you'll see a rusted metal object with
several legs, called a “Czech hedgehog”—thousands of these were placed on the beaches
by the Germans to foil the Allies' advance. Find the American 155 mm gun nearby, and
keep this image in mind for your stop at Pointe du Hoc (this artillery piece is similar in
sizetotheGermangunsthatweretargetedbyUSArmyRangersatthatsite).TheSherman
tank is one of very few remaining along the D-Day beaches. The museum itself is skip-
pable(€6,dailymid-May-mid-Sept9:30-19:00,shorterhoursoff-season,closedmid-Nov-
mid-Feb, tel. [phone], www.musee-memorial-omaha.com , good 20-minute film).
A right turn along the water leads to Le Ruquet (where the road ends), a good place
to appreciate the challenges that American soldiers faced on D-Day. The small German
bunker and embedded gun protected this point, which offered the easiest access inland
from Omaha Beach. It was here that the Americans would establish their first road inland.
Find yourway out to the beach and stroll to the right, below the American Cemetery,
to better understand the assignment that American forces were handed on June 6: You're
wasted from a lack of sleep and nervous anticipation. Now you get seasick too, as you're
about to land in a small, flat-bottomed boat, cheek-to-jowl with 35 other soldiers. Your
water-soaked pack feels like a boulder, and your gun feels heavier. The boat's front ramp
drops open, and you run for your life for 500 yards through water and sand onto this open
beach, dodging bullets from above (the landings had to occur at low tide so that mines
would be visible).
Omaha Beach witnessed by far the most intense battles of any along the D-Day
beaches—although the war planners thought Utah Beach would be more deadly. The hills
above were heavily fortified (and both the aerial bombers and the naval artillery failed to
put them out of commission), and a single German machine gun could fire 1,200 rounds a
minute. That's right—1,200. It's amazing that anyone survived. The highest casualty rates
in Normandy occurred at Omaha Beach, nicknamed “Bloody Omaha.” Though there are
no accurate figures for D-Day, it is estimated that on the first day of the campaign, the
Allies suffered 10,500 casualties (killed, wounded, and missing)—6,000 of whom were
Americans. Estimates for Omaha Beach casualties range from 2,500 to 4,800 killed and
woundedonthatday,manyofwhomdrownedafterbeingwounded.Butthankstoanover-
whelmingeffortandhugesupportfromtheUSandRoyalnavies,34,000Americanswould
land on the beach by day's end.
If the tide's out, you'll notice some remains of rusted metal objects. Omaha Beach
was littered with obstacles to disrupt the landings. Thousands of metal poles and Czech
hedgehogs, miles of barbed wire, and more than four million mines were scattered along
thesebeaches.Atleast150,000tonsofmetalweretakenfromthebeachesafterWorldWar
II, and they still didn't get it all. They never will.