D-Day 75th Anniversary: Toughest Fighting on Omaha Beach

12.  THE TOUGHEST FIGHTING WAS ON OMAHA BEACH.

At Omaha Beach, bombing runs had failed to take out heavily fortified German positions.  The first waves of Americans going ashore were cut down in droves by German machine guns as they crossed the mine-riddled beach.

But, U.S. forces persisted in the day-long slog, pushing forward to a fortified seawall and then up steep bluffs to take out the German artillery posts by nightfall.  All told, about 2,400 American troops were killed, wounded or unaccounted for after the fighting on Omaha Beach