A visceral and momentous narrative of the first twenty-four hours of
D-Day on Omaha Beach: the most dramatic Allied landing of World War
II.
Before World War II, Normandy's Plage d'Or coast was best known for its
sleepy villages and holiday destinations. Early in 1944, German
commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took one look at the gentle,
sloping sands and announced "They will come here!" He was referring to
"Omaha Beach"--the prime American D-Day landing site. The beach was
subsequently transformed into three miles of lethal, bunker-protected
arcs of fire, with seaside chalets converted into concrete strongpoints,
fringed by layers of barbed wire and mines. The Germans called it "the
Devil's Garden."
When Company A of the US 116th Regiment landed on Omaha Beach in D-Day's
first wave on 6th June 1944, it lost 96% of its effective strength.
Sixteen teams of US engineers arriving in the second wave were unable to
blow the beach obstacles, as first wave survivors were still sheltering
behind them. This was the beginning of the historic day that Landing on
the Edge of Eternity narrates hour by hour--rom midnight to
midnight--tracking German and American soldiers fighting across the
beachhead.
Mustered on their troop transport decks at 2am, the American infantry
departed in landing craft at 5am. Skimming across high waves, deafened
by immense broadsides from supporting battleships and weak from
seasickness, they caught sight of land at 6.15. Eleven minutes later,
the assault was floundering under intense German fire. Two and a half
hours in, General Bradley, commanding the landings aboard USS Augusta,
had to decide if to proceed or evacuate. On June 6th there were well
over 2,400 casualties on Omaha Beach - easily D-Day's highest death
toll.
The Wehrmacht thought they had bludgeoned the Americans into bloody
submission, yet by mid-afternoon, the American troops were ashore. Why
were the casualties so grim, and how could the Germans have failed?
Juxtaposing the American experience--pinned down, swamped by a rising
tide, facing young Wehrmacht soldiers fighting desperately for their
lives, Kershaw draws on eyewitness accounts, memories, letters, and
post-combat reports to expose the true horrors of Omaha Beach.
These are stories of humanity, resilience, and dark humor; of
comradeship and a gritty patriotism holding beleaguered men together.
Landing on the Edge of Eternity is a dramatic historical ride through
an amphibious landing that looked as though it might never succeed.
