The difficult terrain at Omaha makes you seriously wonder what the heck the Allied planners thinking when they picked it as a landing beach. Great video as usual.
Rommel reinforced Omaha Beach because he thought during an inspection that it looked like the sort of beach the Allies would choose, because its concave shape was similar to a beach the Allies invaded in Italy. Ironically, Rommel was wrong, which turned out to be right. The Allies initially rejected Omaha Beach, largely because of the bluffs. They were only going to land on Sword, Juno and Gold. But General Montgomery reasonably argued that this was too narrow an invasion, it needed to be wider. They could not expand to the east because the Seine river would split the invasion beaches. So they expanded to the west and added Utah Beach. But Utah Beach was too far away, too isolated from Sword, Juno and Gold so they had to, reluctantly, add Omaha Beach to the invasion beaches.
From everything I’ve read about Omaha was they didn’t bomb the hell out of the beach or the bunkers. Didn’t get tanks on the beach before the storming with men. It was a cluster Fk from the beginning.
This wasn't the worst day in American military history. During the American Civil War, Union forces took more than 7,000 casualties in the first 30 minutes of their attack on Confederate entrechments at Cold Harbor, VA on June 3, 1864.
Unfortunately riddled with errors, English no, British and Commonwealth. The 352nd Division were neither the only division at Omaha, the 716th also defended Omaha, the 352nd also were deployed on Gold Beach. The reinforcements sent to the beaches on D Day were 40% of troops sent to Omaha, 60% and all the 10 Stug, artillery vehicles, being sent to Gold. Omaha, by a very wide margin, was not as fortified as Sword Beach. The US Army’s own website estimates there were between 2400 - 3000 casualties, not 3000 dead. The allies expected higher than achieved casualties on all beaches. The majority of the 352nd division were not German veterans from the eastern front, there were more young recruits and press ganged Russians etc. The allies did know some weeks before D Day that elements of the 352nd division had been moved to Omaha and Gold beaches, they did not inform the invasion commanders until 4th June, as they did not consider this intelligence to materially effect the landings, and it was too late to change plans. Much of the footage is from Saving Private Ryan (a Movie not Omaha Beach) and in cases not accurate, no such bunker as the one shown being attacked existed on Omaha Beach, it is in fact modelled in configuration and disposition on one located on Sword Beach.
Forrest C Pogue an official United States Army historian during World War II V Corp gave figures for Omaha Beach - 1,190 for the 1st Division,743 for the 29th Division and 441 for corps troops. The total number of American dead on Omaha for the 1st 24 hrs was 1465 Battle Casualties for the Normandy Campaign USA - 29,000 KIA ,106,000 wounded & missing UK- 11,000 KIA , 54,000 wounded & missing Canada- 5,000 KIA , 13,000 wounded & missing France - 12,200 Killed & missing Omaha was bloody
Ive always believed the US should have brought a Marine Division over from the Pacific for D-Day. Not that the Army wasnt capable, but mainly for the gear & experience assaulting heavily defended beaches.
Please crack a book open. They did not have the amphibious track vehicles in 44 to use at operation overlord. Do you understand that the operations in the Pacific theater were 1/4 the size of what was going on in the ETO. Please crack a book open. Do the homework.
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about Omaha beach and 5 reasons which created hugest difficulties for US assault troops within highly casualties...thank you 🙏 ( war academy) channel for sharing
Can you please do a video on The Raid at Cabanatuan, also known as the Great Raid in which army rangers and Alamo scouts and Filipino guerrillas saved 500 POWs from Japanese captivity in early 1945
The US 29th Infantry Division ran into a well-defended beach position. It cost the lives of many, and took extraordinary measures, including DDs steaming in to the point where they scraped the bottom, to lend fire support to the hapless men on Omaha Beach. Sheer weight of firepower saved the day for the US Army. THE END. P.S. A Marine Amphibious force probably would have done better, but the jarheads were all committed to the Pacific, period, that was a joint Army-Navy decision.
This is really poorly researched video. Don't underestimate the other beaches. ALL the beaches had obstacles that they had to overcome. The two British beaches were backed by a solid defense-in-depth and closest to German reinforcements. The Canadian beach was relatively narrow but immediately turned into house-to-house fighting. Finally, the other American Beach was separated by flooded fields leaving only limited exits off of the beach. The fact is that Omaha was NOT a defense in depth. They had a finite supply of ammunition which quickly ran out. Yes, the carnage that you see in Saving Private Ryan really happened but only for a relatively short period of time. By lunchtime, it was relatively easy to get ashore. Canadians were still working through the houses along the shore and the British faced constant heavy resistance and frequent counterattacks until the end of the Normandy campaign in early August. To imply that ANYBODY had an easy time of it is a disservice to the Americans, Canadians, British, Free French, Poles...who fought and died there.
The German Luftwaffe was decimated by then, and they kept the heavy armor back further inland to not get bogged down in one area. They didn't want their Tanks exposed to allied attack bombers. I am assuming you were talking about the Germans, right? Plus, the Allied para-trooper drops behind the lines caused the Germans some confusion.
All of the points you make were not unique to Omaha. The planners knew about the tides, the geography, and the defences. The difference was execution on the day. These were brave men, but they were very young and few had battle experience. The ferocity of the German defenders surprised them. They were shocked by the casualties, the failure of the pre-landing bombardment, and the loss of their armour support. Their plan did not survive contact with the enemy, and they did not know what to do next. Their confidence and bravado evaporated. That was the big difference. Eventually the defences were overcome but it was a close thing. The US Army learned some hard lessons, and to their credit they learned them fast. Bloody Omaha was a stern teacher.
"I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!" - General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ike sacrificed those brave men. 2 hours notice was given to the Nazi's for them to pull men to Omaha and Utah. The bad intelligence about the large guns on Utah was a very, very big mistake. The fear of those imaginary guns meant the naval bombardment had to stay out of range of them and Utah was a waste. Those brave men were dead when they left the ship's and they faced it like men.
large guns were in land like greycourt manner. And Allied Bombers missed their marks being actually counter produtive.I have no idea what "I will in 10-15 years when I meet them." is
as opposed to the twirps that had previously been "evacuated" from: Norway,Netherlands, Belgium and France,Dunkirk in 1940 -Greece, Crete,Hong Kong and Libya in 1941 -Tobruk and Dieppe,Singapore in 1942 Sad but expected
@bigwoody4704 Twerps I assume you mean. Your examples are both disengenuous and ridiculous as they involve evacuations, not invasions. Excepting Dieppe, a raid which would obviously invove an orderly evacuation. Also, guess what? that was mostly during the time woefully under staffed British plus Empire forces fought on their own, with a small (at that time) contribution from America. At what point was Singapore evacuated? After the surrender to the Japanese? I am reasonably sure Hong Kong was not successfully evacuated either (I could be wrong). I so enjoy American revisionist history surrounding the 41-45 war by which I really mean the 42-45 war as opposed to the 39-45 war for Europeans and even earlier than that for the Chinese.
Poor triggered brit - those are called facts and you seem to ignore them. Americans weren't driven out of those places. You can use the search bar at the top of the page and quit bothering others
@bigwoody4704 The British were driven out of these places due amongst other reasons, underestimating the military prowess of both the Gremans and the Japanese along with massive underinvestment in equipment. You are funny and predictable that when your supposed facts are debunked, you immediately revert to insults to cover the fact that your thesis is not one that an informed or intelligent person would put forward. While we are at it, let's pretend the Americans were not driven out of the Philippines, were not destroyed at Kaserine Pass by understrength German forces. I repeat invasions are not evacations, and Americans mightly screwed up Omaha beach.
Nothing but respect for all those brave souls who fought courageously and gave up their lives for something greater than themselves.
The difficult terrain at Omaha makes you seriously wonder what the heck the Allied planners thinking when they picked it as a landing beach. Great video as usual.
Diversion.
Nothing compared to the decision to go into the Hurtgen Forest in autumn 1944.
Rommel reinforced Omaha Beach because he thought during an inspection that it looked like the sort of beach the Allies would choose, because its concave shape was similar to a beach the Allies invaded in Italy. Ironically, Rommel was wrong, which turned out to be right. The Allies initially rejected Omaha Beach, largely because of the bluffs. They were only going to land on Sword, Juno and Gold. But General Montgomery reasonably argued that this was too narrow an invasion, it needed to be wider. They could not expand to the east because the Seine river would split the invasion beaches. So they expanded to the west and added Utah Beach. But Utah Beach was too far away, too isolated from Sword, Juno and Gold so they had to, reluctantly, add Omaha Beach to the invasion beaches.
That crossed my mind also
@@lyndoncmp5751I read that about 35,000 US Army soldiers were killed in action inside that forest.
From everything I’ve read about Omaha was they didn’t bomb the hell out of the beach or the bunkers. Didn’t get tanks on the beach before the storming with men. It was a cluster Fk from the beginning.
This wasn't the worst day in American military history.
During the American Civil War, Union forces took more than 7,000 casualties in the first 30 minutes of their attack on Confederate entrechments at Cold Harbor, VA on June 3, 1864.
Unfortunately riddled with errors, English no, British and Commonwealth. The 352nd Division were neither the only division at Omaha, the 716th also defended Omaha, the 352nd also were deployed on Gold Beach. The reinforcements sent to the beaches on D Day were 40% of troops sent to Omaha, 60% and all the 10 Stug, artillery vehicles, being sent to Gold. Omaha, by a very wide margin, was not as fortified as Sword Beach.
The US Army’s own website estimates there were between 2400 - 3000 casualties, not 3000 dead.
The allies expected higher than achieved casualties on all beaches.
The majority of the 352nd division were not German veterans from the eastern front, there were more young recruits and press ganged Russians etc.
The allies did know some weeks before D Day that elements of the 352nd division had been moved to Omaha and Gold beaches, they did not inform the invasion commanders until 4th June, as they did not consider this intelligence to materially effect the landings, and it was too late to change plans.
Much of the footage is from Saving Private Ryan (a Movie not Omaha Beach) and in cases not accurate, no such bunker as the one shown being attacked existed on Omaha Beach, it is in fact modelled in configuration and disposition on one located on Sword Beach.
Agree, lots of errors.
he uses AI can't you see he's lip syncing
All the experts 80 years later. What a joke. Couch quarterback. Mindboggling
Forrest C Pogue an official United States Army historian during World War II
V Corp gave figures for Omaha Beach - 1,190 for the 1st Division,743 for the 29th Division and 441 for corps troops. The total number of American dead on Omaha for the 1st 24 hrs was 1465
Battle Casualties for the Normandy Campaign
USA - 29,000 KIA ,106,000 wounded & missing
UK- 11,000 KIA , 54,000 wounded & missing
Canada- 5,000 KIA , 13,000 wounded & missing
France - 12,200 Killed & missing
Omaha was bloody
The tragedy and scandal of the D-Day landings is that none of the tracked amphibious vehicles used in the Pacific were used at Normandy.
General Omar Bradly didnt want to use Hobarts funnies like flail tanks carpet layers and Churchill mortar tanks too. It was pride that cost lives .
what about all the tanks that the men drowned in because the boats didn't go in far enough
@@ronmailloux8655we used the DD tanks but they foundered in the rough waves.
Ive always believed the US should have brought a Marine Division over from the Pacific for D-Day. Not that the Army wasnt capable, but mainly for the gear & experience assaulting heavily defended beaches.
Please crack a book open. They did not have the amphibious track vehicles in 44 to use at operation overlord.
Do you understand that the operations in the Pacific theater were 1/4 the size of what was going on in the ETO. Please crack a book open. Do the homework.
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about Omaha beach and 5 reasons which created hugest difficulties for US assault troops within highly casualties...thank you 🙏 ( war academy) channel for sharing
some good d-day footga ein here that i have never seen. good work WA!
In my military history class my teacher said there were 31 tanks. 30 sunk, only 1 made it on land.
there were a few I have Beevor's D-Day very well sourced
Can you please do a video on The Raid at Cabanatuan, also known as the Great Raid in which army rangers and Alamo scouts and Filipino guerrillas saved 500 POWs from Japanese captivity in early 1945
Good history Channel
How should Allied command know about tides and wave heights when planning an amphibious landing? /sarc
Thank You😊
Most historians now agree that there are 6 landing beaches not 5.
🙋🏼♂️, Hello From Long Beach Ca. 🆒🎞️🎥 . 😊
The US 29th Infantry Division ran into a well-defended beach position. It cost the lives of many, and took extraordinary measures, including DDs steaming in to the point where they scraped the bottom, to lend fire support to the hapless men on Omaha Beach. Sheer weight of firepower saved the day for the US Army. THE END.
P.S. A Marine Amphibious force probably would have done better, but the jarheads were all committed to the Pacific, period, that was a joint Army-Navy decision.
This is really poorly researched video. Don't underestimate the other beaches. ALL the beaches had obstacles that they had to overcome. The two British beaches were backed by a solid defense-in-depth and closest to German reinforcements. The Canadian beach was relatively narrow but immediately turned into house-to-house fighting. Finally, the other American Beach was separated by flooded fields leaving only limited exits off of the beach. The fact is that Omaha was NOT a defense in depth. They had a finite supply of ammunition which quickly ran out. Yes, the carnage that you see in Saving Private Ryan really happened but only for a relatively short period of time. By lunchtime, it was relatively easy to get ashore. Canadians were still working through the houses along the shore and the British faced constant heavy resistance and frequent counterattacks until the end of the Normandy campaign in early August. To imply that ANYBODY had an easy time of it is a disservice to the Americans, Canadians, British, Free French, Poles...who fought and died there.
good post
Should have sent the free french in first with degaulle leading ...after all its
Their country!
Where was the air support? Heavy armor.?
The German Luftwaffe was decimated by then, and they kept the heavy armor back further inland to not get bogged down in one area. They didn't want their Tanks exposed to allied attack bombers. I am assuming you were talking about the Germans, right? Plus, the Allied para-trooper drops behind the lines caused the Germans some confusion.
MY WAY is a good movie
The Rosary had been banned in Madrid city.
All of the points you make were not unique to Omaha. The planners knew about the tides, the geography, and the defences. The difference was execution on the day. These were brave men, but they were very young and few had battle experience. The ferocity of the German defenders surprised them. They were shocked by the casualties, the failure of the pre-landing bombardment, and the loss of their armour support. Their plan did not survive contact with the enemy, and they did not know what to do next. Their confidence and bravado evaporated. That was the big difference. Eventually the defences were overcome but it was a close thing. The US Army learned some hard lessons, and to their credit they learned them fast. Bloody Omaha was a stern teacher.
"I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!" - General Dwight D. Eisenhower
British not English.
Lots of English there.
dog green
9:30 u-Tube: The Untold Past - The German Gunner That Slaughtered 1000 Americans on Omaha Bch
No time to listen to a machine. Bye.
Poor fools fought the good guys. Ask Patton.
Funny why Patton said that after massacring tons of Germans
I agree. Finally people are waking up to the truth.
What is history than a fable the victors agreed upon. Napoleon
It always confused me as to why Western powers would ally themselves with international Communism.
@@Iron_Wyvern who nose 👃
@@Iron_Wyvern"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Ike sacrificed those brave men. 2 hours notice was given to the Nazi's for them to pull men to Omaha and Utah. The bad intelligence about the large guns on Utah was a very, very big mistake. The fear of those imaginary guns meant the naval bombardment had to stay out of range of them and Utah was a waste.
Those brave men were dead when they left the ship's and they faced it like men.
war means fighting and fighting means killing keyboard commando talk to the planners
@@bigwoody4704 I will in 10-15 years when I meet them.
large guns were in land like greycourt manner. And Allied Bombers missed their marks being actually counter produtive.I have no idea what "I will in 10-15 years when I meet them." is
"were raided..." Really,RAIDED?😆😆 You need a dictionary dude.
Hitlers astrologer said it would be at pas de calais.
Maybe the yanks just weren’t up to the task.
@@katr8756 unlike all the other beaches that were captured much easier.
@@Skipper.17 Because they were much less well defended! That's the reason there were so many fewer casualties!
@@katr8756 excuses excuses
@@Skipper.17 Excuses for what??? They persevered and achieved victory!! Facts, aren't excuses!! They're just the truth!!
@@katr8756 that they weren’t up to the task like they were on the other beaches.
The AI voice on this channel is so distracting. Impossible.
What went wrong? It was assigned to American troops.
as opposed to the twirps that had previously been "evacuated" from:
Norway,Netherlands, Belgium and France,Dunkirk in 1940
-Greece, Crete,Hong Kong and Libya in 1941
-Tobruk and Dieppe,Singapore in 1942
Sad but expected
@bigwoody4704 Twerps I assume you mean.
Your examples are both disengenuous and ridiculous as they involve evacuations, not invasions. Excepting Dieppe, a raid which would obviously invove an orderly evacuation. Also, guess what? that was mostly during the time woefully under staffed British plus Empire forces fought on their own, with a small (at that time) contribution from America. At what point was Singapore evacuated? After the surrender to the Japanese? I am reasonably sure Hong Kong was not successfully evacuated either (I could be wrong). I so enjoy American revisionist history surrounding the 41-45 war by which I really mean the 42-45 war as opposed to the 39-45 war for Europeans and even earlier than that for the Chinese.
Poor triggered brit - those are called facts and you seem to ignore them. Americans weren't driven out of those places. You can use the search bar at the top of the page and quit bothering others
@bigwoody4704 The British were driven out of these places due amongst other reasons, underestimating the military prowess of both the Gremans and the Japanese along with massive underinvestment in equipment. You are funny and predictable that when your supposed facts are debunked, you immediately revert to insults to cover the fact that your thesis is not one that an informed or intelligent person would put forward. While we are at it, let's pretend the Americans were not driven out of the Philippines, were not destroyed at Kaserine Pass by understrength German forces. I repeat invasions are not evacations, and Americans mightly screwed up Omaha beach.
@bigwoody4704 Also, I note that evacuations has been converted to " driven out off" after your original list was shown to be mostly erroneous.