Archive photos, full-color mapping, and easy-to-follow battlefield
tours enrich this account of the hardest fight of D-Day Infantry
Divisions led the assault on Omaha Beach, the most strongly defended of
the all invasion beaches, and the entire fight is narrated in this book.
Supporting Allied bombers had mostly missed their targets, the offshore
naval bombardment was hampered by poor visibility, and many elements of
the first assault waves were swamped or sank, including amphibious
tanks. The first waves of infantry waded ashore into a storm of German
fire. In these first harrowing hours of Overlord, Lieutenant General
Omar Bradley, commanding First U.S. Army, seriously considered aborting
the Omaha landing altogether. Yet despite appalling difficulties and
heavy casualties, the U.S. troops prevailed and a vulnerable bridgehead
inland was established by the evening of June 6.