Essay 24-B: D-Day: The American Soldiers And John Trippon
D Day: June 6, 1944. H Hour, Omaha Beach: 0630. The Allies began to execute history’s most detailed and complex military invasion. Infantry officers in the front of their landing craft yell two words they internalized during their military training–follow me! A military axiom, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” began to unfold.
The 116th Regiment of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division was assigned to assault four of the five right-flank sectors of Omaha Beach. Each sector was about a quarter mile wide. Dog Green sector, on the 116th far-right flank, was assigned to A Company, the first wave to hit the beach. A Company included 31 soldiers from Bedford Virginia, called the Bedford Boys. Dog White sector, to the immediate left of Dog Green, was assigned to G Company of the 116th Regiment. C Company of the 2nd Rangers, with only 68 soldiers, was assigned to Charlie sector, to the immediate right of Dog Green.
Low tide had just ended, and the tide was beginning to move in at 0630. Many of the landing craft drifted with the tide to the left of their assigned sectors. G Company landed about half a mile to the left of its assigned Dog White sector. A Company and C Company of the Rangers landed exactly on their assigned sectors, leaving more than 270 soldiers in seven landing craft alone facing bullets from hundreds of German machine guns and rifles firing from high ground above the beach. One of the six A Company landing craft, containing 5 Bedford Boys, was swamped and sunk. Those Bedford Boys survived and rejoined their Regiment several days later. When the ramps of the landing craft dropped, German gunners killed or wounded many soldiers before they even exited. Within minutes of landing, only one-third of A Company’s soldiers were still able to fight. Many of their officers were dead; 19 of the 31 soldiers from Bedford, VA also were dead.
