European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 18, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Smote fills the air As american soldiers of the 1st and 291/1 infantry divisions assault the Baili code named Omaha on the Gray morning of Lune 6, 1944. Battleships Texas and Arkansas Dis Pau Hing huge shells milling liki1 express trains running wild through the Low Cut ii is impacting against on Shore like train rocks. Then1 had been massive bombing runs ton a roaring shaking symphony of destruction. Bill because of Llu Cloud cover most of in was Blind. Illi1 bombs bursting behind their targets. As the morning wore on tin1 Waves of troops slacked up on each other. Thousands were pinned Low n unable to gel Forward As the tide tame swiftly rising an ill fool difference Between High and Low tideland vehicles and Lanks were burning and blowing up Black smoke along the Beach. Supporting fire also came from several destroyers which swept in closer and closer Loward Shore to relentlessly Pound with their five anthers both the machine gun pillboxes on the ridges and the deadly German Khz positions on either Side of five heavily protected Little valleys opening Between the Bluffs. Omaha Beach ran in a Crescent shape close to four Miles Long with almost  Cliffs it Csc h end and for a Long while in was that Many Miles of near hell. So bad that it least 010 Soldier went along with his Bayonet prodding uie backs of the real dead and those who were merely petrified urging them to i ome Back to life and got moving. So  that Al one desperate Point 11.gen. Ornar Bradley commander of the 1st army considered pulling the battered troops off Omaha and trying to insert them on one of the British beaches instead. All boats came under criss Cross  Bine gun fire Bradley wrote about one unit. As the i isl men jumped they crumpled and flopped into the water "1 Hen order was loss. Some drowned then and there. But some moved safely through the Bullet fire to the Sand and then finding they could not hold there went Back into the Waler and used it As Over Only their Heads clicking Oul. A company had become almost incapable of action. I very officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded. Within 20 minutes. A company had eased to be in assault company and had become a forlorn Little Rescue parly Bent upon survival and the saving of  in was rougher at Omaha because of those dominating Bluffs say historians. At the other Bea bes there were mostly Only Low dunes for a Lac King lore is to overcome. Another reason in was rougher was because of the arrival in the Omaha sector of the Battle hardened i5_ and German inf div that had is aped selection by Allied intelligence for three months. Another reason it was rougher was because most of those first Waves of american Lanks and artillery thai were supposed to give supporting fire for the infantry were either sunk or swamped before they got to the Beach or were destroyed on in. Some military historians credit the pinpoint destroyer fire during the critical moments of the Battle As vital to the saving of Omaha Beach. In the end however in was t machines or great strategy thai lid in at Omaha. Ii was whal it has always been the heroism and improvisation of individual soldiers who in All the Smoky confusion and death and terror w Hen in seemed the whole Landing would die on the Beach or be thrown Back into the sea Rose up and courageously went Forward pulling one Boot after another through the firestorm hammering around them on f any red and dog Green and i of red find the others and Kepi on going. By Midnight of june 0, despite the fact thai some 2,500 of their comrades had fallen another 34,001 americans had crossed the bloody Sand climbed and conquered the ghastly Bluffs and moved from one to two Miles into the hedgerows of Normandy into villages Wilh names like Wierville and Coleville and Les Moulins and St. Lauren. They would keep on moving and there would be1 Many hard fought Miles ahead but Horn like thai terrible first almost last mile on Omaha Beach. Day 45 May 18, 1989 stripes