My Pictures:

Omaha Beach

American Military Cemetery

Point du Hoc

Normandy Farm

Return to the Home Page

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region in northeast France corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. The continental territory covers 11,825 square miles and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. Normandy is a major cider-producing region (very little wine is produced).

During the Second World War continental Normandy was part of the German occupied zone of France. The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June 1940 and 9 May 1945. The Allies, led by the United States, coordinated a massive build-up of troops and supplies to support a large-scale invasion of Normandy in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord.

Omaha Beach

There is too much information about the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach to even summarize here. I suggest you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach

Pointe du Hoc

Pointe du Hoc lies 4 miles west of the center of Omaha Beach. The Germans had built six casemates to house a battery of captured French Canon de 155mm GPF guns. These guns threatened Allied landings on both Omaha and Utah beaches, risking heavy casualties in the landing forces. Although there were several bombardments from the air and by naval guns, intelligence reports assumed that the fortifications were too strong, and would also require attack by ground forces. The U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion was therefore given the task of destroying the strongpoint early on D-Day.

Prior to the attack, the guns were moved approximately 1 mile away, where they were sighted to fire on "Utah" beach. However, the concrete fortifications were intact, and would still present a major threat to the landings if they were occupied by artillery forward observers. The Ranger Battalion commanders and executive officers knew the guns had moved, but the rest of the Rangers were not informed prior to the attack.

Of the 225 that landed at Point du Hoc there were 135 casualties: 54 wounded and 81 killed.