Omaha Beach - Tuesday 6 June 1944

An incredible forest of masts and ship hulls soon appears through the lifting mist. It is indeed in Normandy that the Allies have decided to land and begin the liberation of Western Europe. Of the five beaches chosen, the one the Allies designate by the code name Omaha is the best defended and the least suited to an amphibious assault.
The German defences, miraculously spared by the naval and aerial bombardment, open fire on the first landing craft that run aground 400 metres from the beach at around 6:30 a.m. The infantrymen and sappers of the first assault waves are pinned down by heavy fire. To make matters worse, some of the amphibious tanks have sunk offshore. The GIs endure a living hell for several hours. General Bradley even considers calling off the operation. Yet, through sheer courage and tenacity, the GIs manage to leave the beach and neutralise the German positions one by one. By the evening of D-Day, the operation ends in success, but the toll — both human and material — is appalling.
Christophe Prime rigorously reconstructs the course of the Battle of Omaha and its preparations in this richly illustrated book. Photographs, testimonies and artefacts draw the reader into the heart of the event and allow them to grasp what the combatants experienced during those tragic hours.