Even before the men hit the beach Omaha was in trouble. At 3am the first of 34,000 men began to board the landing craft from ships anchored 12 miles offshore. Buffeted by a strong south-westerly, ten craft floundered at once and 300 men were thrashing about in life-jackets. Amphibious tanks like stones; a third of the 96 tanks detailed to go in with the first 1,450 men were lost. Of 16 armoured bulldozes sent in to clear obstacles, six arrived and three of these were lost.
The men who reached the beach were met by a storm of mortar, shell and machine-gun fire. Bombardments by warships and Liberators had left enemy strongpoints undamaged. Some men sought safety in the sea, some crawled towards the shelter of the sea wall, others lay paralysed on the sand amid the screams of the wounded and the wreckage of equipment.
For hours on end confusion prevailed. Yet many acts of heroism shone through the fog of war. A lieutenant attacked a strongpoint armed only with a few grenades. An engineer probed for mines with a bowie knife. US Rangers clambered up precipitous cliffs to assault the German stronghold at Pointe du Hoc, only to find that much-feared gun batteries were not in place. Colonel George A. Taylor came ashore and, after picking himself up after being blown off his feet, told the men slumped all around him that soon the only men left on the beach would be the dead and those who were going to die. Hesitantly, and then with real effort, the men began to obey him.
The Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery given by the United States was won by Private Carlton W. Barrett of the 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division.
Aboard the cruiser USS AUGUSTA, Lt-Gen Omar Bradley had considered halting the operation. But the tide has turned: the Germans inflicted heavy losses but have no reserves, while Allied men and machines are pouring ashore.