The D Day Series. Remembering the Heroes at Colleville-sur-Mer American Military Cemetery and asking the question, "what went wrong at Omaha Beach?"

The American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville is the most visited cemetery maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission with over 1 million visitors per year. Most of the servicemen here were either killed in the Normandy Invasion or in the ensuing action that took place afterwards.

Just 10 seconds standing in the middle of this cemetery brings home to the visitor the carnage of World War Two. Reading the statistics is shocking but being surrounded by crosses as far as the eye can see with each cross equalling one dead soldier, gives the visitor a greater understanding of the cost in human suffering. Having taken numerous school trips to this place, the reaction of my students is always one of amazement.

Every way you look in this cemetery, you will see crosses immaculately set out in straight lines. The straight rows are impressive but the perfect diagonals illustrate how much care was taken when setting out this important home for the dead heroes. The cemetery covers an area of 172.5 acres which contains 9,388 burials.

All the headstones are carved out of marble with 9238, crosses representing Christians and 151 Stars of David representing Jews. Note, these were the only two religions recognised by the American armed force at the time of burial.

Above; a star of David amongst loads of crosses.Below; a close of a Star of David with the name Joseph Mendelsohn. and the date Jan 14 1944, nearly 6 months before D Day. As the word “Bomb” is on the stone, I assume he was part of a bombing mission that got shot down.

Below; the grave of an unknown soldier with the inscription, “A comrade in arms, known but to God”.

Some graves to look out for.

If you watch the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, you will notice a man searching for a grave in this very cemetery. The film’s story is all about the Tom Hank’s character, Captain John Miller, going behind German lines to find private James Ryan. James, is the last survivor of a family of four brothers, three of whom died in the war. The boys’ mother, has already received three telegrams informing her of the death of hers sons and the head of the army does not want her to receive a fourth. This story, inspired screenwriter Robert Rodat to develop the script the film after reading about Sergeant Frederick “Fritz” Niland. All three of his brothers Preston, Robert and Edward were also fighting for American forces until news came that Edward had been shot down over Burma and was presumed dead. In June both Preston and Robert were killed, leaving just Fritz. Fortunately, although Frederick had had been dropped behind enemy lines, he was found and sent back to his parents in the USA. Good news also came when Edward was discovered and was rescued from a Burmese prisoner of war camp.

Above; Preston Niland’s headstone which is to be found at Plot F, Row 15, Grave 12

Below; Robert Niland’s headstone which is to be found at Plot F, Row 15, Grave 11

An easy way to find them is to go to Plot F and look for a small crowd of people standing at your desired location.

Above; The gravestone ofTheodore Roosevelt Jnr, the oldest son of the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt. Among other heroic deeds, he was recognised for repeatedly rallying groups, directing them and leading men from the beach, over the seawall, and establishing them inland. He was at the frontline of the invasion of Utah Beach and despite heavy fire, he kept returning to do it all over again. This bravery was at the age of 56, when he was suffering from arthritis, having to walk with a cane and had heart problems! He was given the “Medal of Honor” for his bravery but died of a heart attack a month later aged 56. His character was played by Henry Fonda in the film, “The Longest Day”. His grave can be found at Plot D, Row 28 Grave 45.

Above; Quentin Roosevelt was Theodore Roosevelt Jnr’s brother. Although he died in July 1914 during WW1, his body was exhumed from his original grave at Chamery and re-interred next to Theodore after WW2. He can be found at Plot D, Row 28 Grave 46.

Above; taken on an earlier visit, this photo shows where the first scenes at Colleville in Saving Private Ryan were shot. Beyond the trees, you can view Omaha Beach itself.

Below; as you wander through those trees and back towards one of the entrances, you can see this map showing the landing beaches as well as having a good view of part of Omaha beach. Further down this post you will see another section of the beach that you can visit.

Above; the memorial to the American troops.On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed 1,557 names.

Above and below; on the memorial walls are several large maps showing the D Day assault and later events.

At the centre of the memorial is a large statue representing “The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves”.

What went wrong at Omaha Beach?

Planned to begin at 6.30 am, two U.S. infantry divisions, the 1st and the 29th, were given the task of capturing Omaha Beach. At the end of the day, a small “toehold “ had been won, nothing like the objective of being 6 miles inland. Out of the 34 000 troops involved, over 2000 were killed and 3000 wounded. Added to these statistics, a staggering 75% of their equipment was lost!

At 8.30 am, things seemed to be going so badly that General Bradley actually suspended the landings and actually considered re-routing the remaining troops along the coast onto Sword Beach! He wrote later that, at one point, his forces had “suffered an irreversible catastrophe!” Despite this initial setback, his men went on to capture the entire area and eventually broke out to go all the way to Berlin and victory.

Above; Omaha Beach monument.

Below; “The Brave”. The sculptrice, Anilore Banon, has written;

“I wanted this sculpture to honour the courage of these men sons, husbands and fathers who endangered and often sacrificed their life in the hope of restoring their freedom to the French people.”

She also wrote; “ These men were more than soldiers, they were our brothers”.

The initial problems began even before the troops reached shore. Unlike the British who used four man submarines named X craft to guide in the landing craft, the Americans took the view that they could be discovered and compromise the mission. Unfortunately, of the first wave deploying onto the beach, only one company got to the right spot! As a consequence, landing craft got muddled up and disorganisation in front of heavy German fire caused numerous casualties and a lack of penetration. An 18 knot wind and strong currents helped to drive the landing craft away from their designated objectives. There was a “make do” belief with troops landing in areas that they hadn’t been briefed about and not being able to carry out the original, coherent, plan. Each soldier was given a designated exit from the beach but now each soldier had to work out his own plan. To make matters worse, 80% of the radios sent ashore were lost or damaged, serving only to add to all the confusion.

Below; a diorama from the nearby Overlord museum of the situation on Omaha Beach.

Choppy seas resulted in 10 landing craft sinking alongside their ships and added to this, most of the modified Sherman tanks with bulldozer fronts for clearing beach obstacles fell off a boat into the water. Sherman tanks, modified to float in water, had a disaster with 27 out of 32 sinking. Apparently, they had been heading in the wrong direction and when their course was altered, water came in over the flotation collars so the extra weight took them to the bottom of the sea!

Above; a Sherman tank with its flotation collar raised.

Below; a Sherman tank with its flotation collar down. Both images copyright the Imperial War Museum.

At the planning stage, it was known that Omaha beach was going to be one of the hardest and therefore, bloodiest landings The beach was crescent shaped with steep cliffs on both flanks that would have soldiers firing down and across the beach, on all the troops attempting to land. The back of the crescent consisted of 40-50 metre “bluffs”, ie land sticking out onto the beach, again, ideal for soldiers in concrete fortifications to be able to fire down onto the Americans trying to get across and then off the beach. There were also some trenches safeguarding artillery observers who accurately could direct fire onto the beach. For good measure, between the bluffs, mines had been laid making the obvious beach exits highly dangerous. There were to be no hiding places for the invading troops.

A bombing raid of 500 B17s was supposed to neutralise the defences around the crescent and on the beach but heavy cloud resulted in missing the targets by over 1.5 miles (3km). However, the firing positions on the Port Du Hoc cliffs looking down on the beach were successfully bombed by 18 medium bombers of the 9th Air Force. Furthermore, shells from the battleships and cruisers anchored offshore put an end to the heavy guns at Longue Sur Mer.

Below; one of the destroyed artillery guns at Longue Sur Mer.

Below; the remains of the gun barrel!

 In the sea, Rommel had created a forest of traps for the incoming landing craft.

Above; a scene from the Overlord Museum, Omaha Beach.The blue arrow is pointing at a “Czech Hedgehog”’ ie welded girders that can rip through the bottom of a landing craft. The red arrow is pointing at a wooden stake that has been driven into the beach at an angle with a mine strapped to the top. Rommel believed that the enemy would approach at high tide and the traps were therefore placed just under the water so that they would not be seen at high tide until it was too late!

Added to these difficulties created by Rommel, there were some natural problems to overcome in the form of hidden sandbars and one metre deep channels which could catch out a soldier as he tried to make his way to shore.

It was believed at the time of launching the landing craft that the German 352nd Division was at St Lo, 28 miles away from Omaha and that it would take 17 hours for it to get to the battle area. In reality, they were a lot closer with the extra men having a significant effect on the fighting. There is some debate whether or not intelligence reported the 352nd’s advance or whether the intelligence did not get through or was even misinterpreted.

With all of these things against them, it is amazing that the landing eventually was successful, albeit at a heavy human cost.

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Essential information

Getting there;

 

Travel via Car
Travel via highway A-13 towards Caen. Continue on N-13 to Bayeux and Formigny. Continue on D-517 towards St. Laurent-sur-Mer and D-514 to Colleville-sur-Mer. Signs mark the entrance to the cemetery. (note this is from the cemetery’s official website.) There are plenty of signs and we even found it easy before Sat Nav.

There is plenty of parking although if there is a ceremony taking place parking spaces can be limited.

Opening times.

Click here for current opening times as reported on the cemetery’s website.

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