The First Wave at Omaha Beach

S.L.A. Marshall describes the chaos at the beach as most of the men are delivered to the wrong places.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/

 

I've seen this picture many times but never noticed the one guy wearing his garrison hat.
Makes one wonder why he would even have it with him during the invasion and why put it on with his head in bandages.
Ernie pyle's described the beach littered with all sorts of things like tennis rackets and banjos --very moving.

 

I hope you read the link. It's a pretty sobering story.

 

I did, and it's a shame these young men had to go through that slaughter.

I find it interesting how a few, like Lt. Taylor and Gen. Cota at Omaha, seem to be impervious to the intense fire. My wife's father and six other Marines were huddled in a shell hole at Guadalcanal under intense fire and a tough Gunny walked through it all and said " you guys can't get a Purple Heart sitting in that hole"
I did a quick google search on that Gunny and learned he made it through several invasions, and through the Korean mess at the Chosen Resovoir and died of natural causes in old age.

 

You're right Lou, every battle was terrible.

 

Cota and Taylor weren't in the first wave. No general officers were. Nor were any war correspondents. That's why I think Marshall's account taken directly after the fighting is important.

 

Dog Green at H-hour was tragic. That was where my Grandfather (58th AFA Bn FO foot patrol) was supposed to land with the 5th Rangers. Thanks to the battlefield improvisation of Lt. Col. Schneider, they actually landed on Dog White/Red. If they had followed Baker company in, I likely would not be here to write this post. He made it to D+1 with the 5th Rangers before being evacuated out due to being wounded.

A salute to the men who stormed Omaha Beach.

I noted that the article mentioned that every Omaha battalion was covered in Marshal's notebook. Anyone know where I could get a copy or TOC of it?

Shane

 

I did run across this book while looking for the above:
https://books.google.com/books?id=gDhlAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT34&lpg=PT34&dq=%22marshall%22+omaha+beach&source=bl&ots=O1OzVk_B8x&sig=1PF4qW42j53O1hSHJZTWRtuFEyg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Yw92VeK-EIGINu_BgNgH&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=%22marshall%22%20omaha%20beach&f=false
and
http://search.usa.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=cmh&query=omaha+beach&commit=Search