D-Day 1944 (1) by Steven Zaloga

Author:Steven Zaloga
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: D-Day 1944 (1): Omaha Beach
ISBN: 9781782001461
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Company L, 16th Infantry drifted far east of their intended landing and ended up on the eastern end of Omaha Beach below the cliffs near Fox Green. The company commander was killed, but other officers rallied the unit to attack the WN60 strongpoint on the cliffs above. (NARA)

The first infiltrations through the German defenses were made here around 0720hrs. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to act in spite of fear. In the face of intense small arms, mortar and artillery fire, a handful of young soldiers began to act. Many young squad and platoon leaders tried to rally their men, but most were cut down by intense small arms fire. After engineers breached some wire obstructions, Sergeant Philip Streczyk from Co. E, 16th RCT ran through a gap at the base of the bluff west of the E-3 Colleville draw. Under covering fire from Co. G, Lieutenant John Spalding rallied a platoon-sized force and followed. Spalding’s small force began to attack strongpoint WN62 from behind. In the meantime, the battered Co. F, 16th RCT had begun to attack the WN62 pillboxes from the front, putting one out of action with a bazooka. There were also penetrations into the F-1 draw by scattered groups of GIs who attacked the WN61 strongpoint from both front and rear. At 0720hrs a M4A1 tank of the battered 741st Tank Battalion managed to knock out the 88mm gun casemate at WN61. Around 0745hrs another M4A1 knocked out the top casemate at WN62 on the west side of the E-3 Colleville draw. The commander of GR.726 in this sector radioed back to 352nd Infantry Division headquarters that his telephone lines had been disrupted by the attack and asked for a counter-attack to throw back the American penetration. The divisional commander, General Kraiss, radioed to the 84th Corps HQ since his GR.915 was in corps reserve as Kampfgruppe Meyer. At 0735hrs the request for a counter-attack was granted and at 0750 Kampfgruppe Meyer began dispatching a battalion towards Colleville that was scheduled to arrive around 0930. It was so far west chasing paratroopers that it didn’t arrive until the afternoon. While it was not apparent at the time, the German defenses had already begun to crumble.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.