The beach of Colleville-sur-Mer is one of the most popular holiday destinations in France: If you look here, the sea, one can hardly imagine the Horror that occurred exactly 75 years ago. That 6. In June 1944 more than 5,000 ships of the allied forces standing in front of the coasts of Normandy in Position. On Board: around 140 000 soldiers on their way into the Unknown, hardly anyone is older than 25 years.
On the beach of Colleville-sur-Mer, you will be kicking your worst Fears, to rid Europe of a tyrant. But you know that the beach code-named Omaha Beach. And this name you will never forget – it is the beach, the color red of your blood. The German defenders the allies five to one.
But you have a weapon that puts every statistical advantage except force: the MG 42. With 1,500 rounds per Minute, it is at this time the machine gun with the highest fire rate in the world. With more than 800 meters per second the bullets to grass on the transport ships. With a bright Ping, the balls bounce on the steel casing – a hundred-fold, thousand-fold.
300-Meter-wide zone of death
The allies have no choice, the first wave of attackers must get to the beach. The next ships to come. The soldiers let down the ramp. The bullets hit in front of you in the sea, splashing foamy water several meters high in the air, but others hit their target. The landing craft is the case on the death. Of the 1,400 soldiers of the first wave, only two-thirds reach the beach.
you crawl over the Sand, to give the enemy as little opportunity as possible. The Breaking of the waves mixes with the drum fire of the machine Guns and the cries of the Wounded. The Survivors seek shelter behind the tank traps that lie throughout the beach distributed. What should protect the Germans from an Invasion, now serves the allies as a shield. You know: you need to get to the dunes. Only there you can fight the enemy.
in Front of you is a 300-Meter-wide kill zone: barricades, barbed wire and a mine field. After three hours of the beach, with around 3,000 dead bodies is covered, the flood approach is driving more and more Dead. The allies are now on the embankment, crouching under the sparse cover. The soldiers are without a guide, all managers are like that.
one: General Norman “Dutch” Cota. Seemingly fearless, he gathers the remaining men on the slope and calls out to them to the sentence that is to later become legendary: “Gentlemen, here at the beach we will be killed. We go inland, there to be killed.“ Then he storms forward and his men follow him. You climb the last meters up to the resistance Nest, from which they have been fighting the last few hours relentlessly. The German occupiers surrender to the beach is gained. Soon the allies take the fight to the dark heart of the third Reich.
This article was written by world of wonder magazine
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