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Memorian Museum & Landing Beaches

There is a section in the museum which deals exclusively with the Invasion of Normandy, a key episode in the liberation of Europe. For the first time ever, the museum covers every detail of the Invasion of Normandy. Indeed, few people really know how much Normandy suffered following 6 June 1944. 20,000 inhabitants of Normandy were killed, that is a third of all French civilians killed during the Second World War. Towns were razed to the ground in mass bomb attacks, battles as fierce as those on the Eastern front raged, civilians were subjected to terrible suffering and many were evacuated, the German army fled and was pursued.

Operations started on the night 5/6 June, with airborne troops being parachuted down while heavy bombers pounded the coastal artillery batteries deemed to present the greatest danger. Meanwhile, an armada of 5000 ships (including a thousand battleships) crossed the English Channel and took up position off the beaches without being spotted by the Germans who were battered by the storm that still raged and weakened by the loss of their radar stations, which had been destroyed over the previous few weeks. The surprise was therefore total.

At 5:45 am, the battleships opened fire on the Atlantic Wall defenses, while the landing craft carrying the first assault waves drew nearer their targets.
Omaha Beach forms a 7km indentation between Vierville and Colleville-sur-Mer, with cliffs on either side. It was overlooked by a sheer embankment bristling with field guns, mortars and machine guns.

The Allies were well aware of the dangers of an assault on a spot that seemed like an inevitable trap, but it was the only possibility. Inaccurate bombing had left German defenses almost intact - and these were further reinforced by the unspotted arrival of the 352nd Infantry Division.
In the morning of 6 June, the men of the 1st and 29th American Division, under the command of General Huebner and Gerhardt, suffered full-scale carnage. Pinned down on the beach in the midst of dead bodies and burned out equipment, it took them almost 6 hours to extricate themselves, climb the embankment and reach the plateau that overlooked it. By the evening, they had only managed to penetrate a mere 2km inland.