The Atlantic Wall :
The Atlantic wall,was supposed to defend the European coastline against any allied invasion were ever it would take place,he was supposed to be an impregnable defence line,composed out of hundreds of al type pillboxes and bunkers.The Germans called the al enterprise Fortress Europe.The Atlantic wall in German eyes would protect Hitlers 1000 years empire and it was meant to protect Germany forever,at least if Goebbels propaganda told the truth about it.The construction of the Atlantic wall was started in 1942 by the TODT organisation,with as only objectif in Hitlers mind :preventing an invasion of Europe and the formation of a second war front,The wall would go from out Danemark till the coast of French Britanny .The Todt organisation that already had build the German Reichsbahnen (highway),worked with convicted workmen to build out the Atlantic wall,Hitler couldn't spare one German,has he needed them for his war against Russia.The out build of the Atlantic wall would go slowly, not only by the sabotages of the infiltrated resistance but also by the war industry who received,because of the war against Russia, al the priority above the construction of the wall.The unsuccesfull attempt of invasion by the Canadians at Dieppe,would reenforce the tought that the wall was impregnable and cultivate the mythe to the German people of the impregnable Fortress Europe,the German propaganda would exploit the defeat of Dieppe to keep this illusion alive.Other commando raids on the wall defenses like Operation Aquatint would tell an other story to the German soldiers present on the wall,the one of staying vigilant at every time,because the Allies were on the move and they wouldn't stop coming.
Operation Aquatint :
Operation Aquatint was an attack on the German positions with the purpose to take prisoners and disrupt the coast defenses,the attack under the command of Major March Phillips,that normaly had to take place at Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes,took place at Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer,were now the war monument stands,the nightly darkness and the stream of the sea,had diverted the 11 men strong commando towards the beach of Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer.
Picture: The AQUATINT commemoration plaque at Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer .
Picture: The tombstone ofMajor March Phillips at the Saint-Laurent- Sur-Mer, church graveyard.
The commando,found itself exposed on an open beach and was soon taken under heavy machinegun fire by the Germans,they found themselves surrounded in a one hand move.Major March Phillips knew that their situation was to be conscidered as lost and decided to evacuate from the beach using the dingy in wich they reached it and head back towards the destroyer who brought them there.They wouldn't succeed.Three men were killed on the beach:Major March Phillips, 32 years old,letting his two months pregnant wive behind,Sergeant Alan Williams 22 years old and private Richard Lehniger,a 42 years old Jewish volunteer in the British Army that was enlisted under the name Richard Leonard,al three were burried at the church graveyard at Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer.Two were heavily wounded and made prisoner with two other mates on the beach,four of them escaped but three of these men were captured, so that only one succeeded in getting back to England.
Picture: The tombstones of the three men that lost there lives September 12th 1942.
Inspector General , General Fieldmarchal Rommel and time :
The Atlantic wall wasn't as strong has he seemed to be .When inspector General Rommel arrived in Normandy,he saw during his many inspection visits what was missing on the wall and saw his weaknesses.The troops located at what later would become Omaha beach would have known this,when Rommel showed up at their location.Rommel wasn't really happy with what he saw at Omaha, he critisised the lack of obstacles on the beach and the lack of pillboxes in the dunes,when one of the commanders told Rommel that he couldn't blame the men, because they had already worked hard and were tired and if they had to do more they would be exhausted,Rommel would have answered the following : " What do you prefere ? That your men are exhausted or that they are dead?On the other side of the canal is an al killing monster , the Allies,they are just waiting to invade us and when this invasion arrives I need these menand installations to throw them back into the sea.The day this invasion will take place, will be our and their Longest day . Under Rommels command ,the beach obstacles at Omaha Beach would be doubled and more blockhouses would be build,many of them weren't finished on D-Day.Rommel had an other big ennemy,Time,and he was running out of it and the allied bombings on the railways and the lack of men would heavily slow down his projects .
Picture:The beach obstacles atOmaha Beach ( fro the book Omaha Beach )
Picture of a Tchech hedgehog.
The defences at Omaha Beach :
Picture: Omaha beach from out WN60
Under the influence of Field Marshal Rommel,the Atlantic wall at Omaha beach was strongly emproved,the beach was imfested with obstacles,Tchech hedgehogs,Rommels aspergus and others,the duneline was imfested with landmines an anti tank wall would block the tanks coming from the beach on the beach.Omaha had a defensif line composed by 15 strongholds called WN's or Wiederstandsnesten, numbered from WN 60 to WN 74 and were composed as follows.
WN 60 : Located up on the cliffs of La Revolution,this site was composed out of two 75 mm cannons ,one 20mm Flack gun,three mortars on tobrouk(*),one tankturret on tobrouk and multiple flame-throwers.
(*) Tobrouk : a one man pillbox with a round platform for machineguns or tankturrets.
Picture : a Mortar tobrouk WN 60.
WN 61 : Located at the cliff edge of La Revolution. This site was composed out of one blockhouse with 88 mm canon alligned to the west,one 50 mm canon on a concrete platform,two machinegun tobrouks,one tankturret tobrouk and several flame-throwers.
Picture: WN 61 :88mm blockhouse.
WN 62 : Located under the spot were actually the US Cemetery is located,this site was composed out of one blockhouse with 75 mm canon,three 50mm canons,one observation post and several machinegun nests ,one of these machinegun nests was located in a blockhouse (Franz Gockel and Hein Severloh) and two 50 mm mortars.
Picture : WN 62 observation post flank by a machinegun nest.
WN 63 : Fortified underground shelter located near the church of Colleville-Sur-Mer,its a transmission post (radio-room),the shelter also housed the commandpost of the first company of the 726 th infantry regiment (1/726) and from the 716 th Wehrmacht infantry division ( 716 D.I.),the armament was limited to several light mortars and machineguns.
Picture: Entrance door of the WN 63 along the road leading towards the beach.
WN 64 : Located at the left flanc of WN 62 and right flanc of WN 65, this site has become invisible nowadays.It was composed out of one 76,2mm canon,one flack gun and two mortars on tobrouk.
Picture: spot were WN 64 was located.
WN 65 : Located in the Ruquet Valley (Vallée du Ruquet ), the blockhouse of this defensif site is still located were she was 60 years ago at the end of the 2nd infantry division street,she still has her deadly 50 mm canon.With this blockhouse,the site also had a 50mm canon on platform ,one mortar tobrouk and a camouflaged canon on a wooden platform.
Picture: The Ruquet site(WN 65) with canon.
WN 66 : This defensif site has completly disappeared in the surrounding nature,it defended the the entrance of the valley surrounding Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer,the site wasn't finished in June 1944,but even with her unfinished blockhouses,this site resisted quite well on D-Day.The site was a deadly trap,with machingun nests on both levels of the hill that overlooks the valley.She was composed out of one anti-tank canon,two tankturrets on tobrouks,one 50 mm canon on concrete platform ,two heavy mortars on concrete platform and one blockhouse with double artillery portholes.
WN 67 : Located in the hill part of the valley called Les Moulins,were also the cottage Les Moulins is located,this defence site had a quite good view on the middle of the Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer beach part.The site has disappered nowadays.He was composed out of several rocket launchers better known has Nebelwerfers in German,these rockets were a type of incendiary bombs, the rocketlaunchers were mounted on wooden platforms,there wer probably 40of thes weapons installed here.
WN 68 : Located at the edge of the Les Moulins valley and installed on two levels up hill and down hill near the beach, this site has also disappeared.The site was composed out of one PAK-canon on a concrete platform,two tank turrets on tobrouks,one 50 mm canon,two machinegun tobrouks on the beach side and one up hill and one blockhouse with double artillery portholes that blocked the acces to the beach to all movements coming from the land.At the spot were actually the restaurant Omaha is located standed a cottage that camouflaged the tunnel acces to the underground shelters of this defensif site.
WN 69 : Located at the entrance of the village of Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer,this nowadays disappeared defensif site only consisted out a network of several trenches with machinegun nests and one Flack gun,this site never had concrete structures.
WN 70 : Located up the hills surrounding Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer and Vierville-Sur-Mer.The site nowadays is hardly perceptible in the landscape were now cottages are located.The site was composed out of one 75 mm canon,one 20 mm Flack canon and two mortars.The German defenders here also had a good view on the beach area,nowadays in the middle of the site on the hedge of the hills a markerstone reminding the first US war cemetery is established.
Picture: Markerstone reminding the first US war cemetery.
WN 71 : Located on the plateau of the valley dominating the valley of Vierville-Sur-Mer at an height of 50 m above sealevel,on a part of the hill that literaly dives into the valley,this site also had a good view on the beach area and at the same time on the entrance of the village.It was composed out of 2 concrete shelters ( one small one and one big one),one 20 mm canon,one machinegun tobrouk,one mortar tobrouk,four machinegun nests and one blockhouse with two heavy machinegun portholes,that guarded the acces to the village.
Picture : blockhouse with two heavy machinegun portholes at Vierville-Sur-Mer.
WN 72 : Located in the up hill flancs and near the beach,this site took a great part of Omaha Beach under her deadly fire .Nowadays her blockhouse with 88 mm canon is still visible,her canon is still present and on her roof a monument was erected remembering the engineers vailliant actions in the DOG sector of Omaha Beach.The site was composed out of one blockhouse with an 88 mm canon pointed towards Colleville-Sur-Mer, the canon could reach the middle of the beach,one blockhouse with two artillery portholes and a 50 mm canon with on the roof a machinegun tobrouk,one machinegun tobrouk near l'hotel du Casino,one machinegun nest near the beach and one at the edge of the hill and one blockhouse with double heavy machinegun portholes overlooking the village entrance just like the one on WN 71.
Picture : Vierville , small blockhouse with double artillery portholes for 50 mm canon and her MG tobrouk.
WN 73 : Also known as the fortified house,located in the hill flanc behind WN 72,her blockhouse for 75 mm canon is still visible nowadays,from this place the canon had a range of 7 kms.It was composed out of one blockhouse with 75 mm canon,one observationpost,three mortars and eight machinegun nests.On her location you'll find a camping nowadays.
Picture: View token from WN 73 and her amazing view on Omaha Beach.
WN 74 : This defesif site had no blockhouses and had not any concrete structure,it was composed out of two 75 mm canons who took the beach under fire from out the Pointe de la Percee,the site has disappeared.
Conclusion: When you look at the Omaha beach defences , you can only understand , why the US soldiers had such an hard time on this beach, landing on Omaha Beach was like playing the Russian roulette, if you wer lucky you would stay alive and fight on another day.
Picture : The evening falls on the past (here the Pointe du Hoc).
Sgt Eagle January 2005.
