![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Today, you can still see the gun battery installed at Longues sur Mer by the Germans in early 1944. The battery was finally knocked out in the evening of D-Day by Allied Naval gunfire and it's demoralised garrison surrendered to the advancing British forces the next day. Fortunately for the Allies the Germans had more than enough of their own problems that day and even with the guns firing for a total of over four hours on D-Day, the German gunners did not succeeded in hitting a single Allied ship. Even this hit did not knock the gun out though and on the morning of D-Day this was the very first German coastal battery to engage the Allied Landing fleet, opening fire at about 5:30am. Despite 1,200 tons of bombs dropped on this position by the Allies in the run up to D-Day, they had succeeded in hitting only one of the four massive bunkers. Situated about 6 miles (10 km) east of Omaha Beach and 4 miles (6 km) west of Gold Beach, this gun battery was perfectly positioned to fire on the landing fleets of both of these landing beaches. The following morning, instead of the German Panzer counterattack that they had expected to find coming towards them, these retreating Germans discovered American Forces had already infiltrated past the German beach defenses and were forced to surrender. You will see where these German soldiers hid as they made their way inland, trying to link up with the German reinforcements they expected to be coming up to their rescue. However, these Germans had not withdrawn because they had been beaten but because they had by and large simply run out of ammunition. Finally by 2:30 pm most of the Germans had withdrawn from the position and the beach had become free of direct German fire. ![]() These First Division Troops were unlucky indeed, having landed opposite the strongest German resistance point on the whole length of the Omaha landing sector. In amongst the numerous and well preserved bunkers and pillboxes that made up this German defensive position known to the defenders as WN 62, you can see how the American Assault Forces were pinned down on the beach below the Axis forces, caught in a virtual shooting gallery for the German machine guns positioned on the heights above. On this sector of Omaha Beach, Easy Red Sector, you can see where the battle hardened First Infantry Division suffered some 700 casualties on the beach on D-Day. The cost of this four and a half mile stretch of sand was over three thousand casualties, of whom more than eight hundred paid the ultimate price. Along the whole length of the Omaha invasion beach the Americans had only pushed inland between one and two miles (1.5 to 3km) from the coast. This isolated German fire on the beach was not finally fully cleared until June 8th, however, and at nightfall on June 6th the Omaha Beach Head was by no means secure. The beach remained a dangerous place until late afternoon when finally all of the heights overlooking the beach were cleared of German defenders and except for the occasional shots from isolated German soldiers missed in the clearing of the German positions, direct fire could no longer be called onto the US Ships and reinforcements landing on the beach. By moving off the beach like this and helped by the direct fire of Navy Destroyers and Cruisers brought in to as close as 1000 yards off-shore, these impromptu patrols made their way inland and by midday several inland penetrations had been made. While the US High Command was considering a halt to further landings on the Omaha Beach altogether, the troops already on the beach, having suffered appalling casualties and their assault plan already in tatters, improvised themselves into ad hoc Combat Groups. ![]()
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