Battle Beach Hack
Roseanne Devon
The OOB Ballpark started as a Minor League Stadium back in the 1980's and now serves as a great place to enjoy top notch baseball within a stone's throw of the beach! Old Orchard Beach has long been a destination for tourists during the summer months with their rich food and sandy beaches! Come enjoy some competitive baseball AND spend some time touring around one of the best places to visit in Maine!
QUESTIONS? NEED MORE INFORMATION? For the Tournament Director, please email bti...@battleonthebeachff.com. For questions regarding Morey's Piers, email beach....@moreyspiers.com.
A Flag Football tournament like no other! We play on the enormous beaches of Wildwood, NJ. This tournament is for youth(5-17) and adults(18+). As part of the registration fee, each team receive a Weekend Wristbands to Morey's Piers 3 HUGE amusement piers and 2 beach front water parks to use the weekend of the tournament. New this year, two bonus days are included instead of one. So the weekend wristbands are valid Friday before the tournament until end of day Monday, the day after tournament.
Residents of similar beach cities that pepper the US East Coast know tourists will come each summer, bringing an enthusiasm for coastal indulgences. But the allure of East Coast beaches is in jeopardy, some residents say, as a new industry gets set to spring up along the shore.
The primary objective at Omaha was to secure a beachhead 8 kilometers (5 miles) deep, between Port-en-Bessin and the Vire river, linking with the British landings at Gold to the east, and reaching the area of Isigny to the west to link up with VII Corps landing at Utah. The untested American 29th Infantry Division, along with nine companies of U.S. Army Rangers redirected from Pointe du Hoc, assaulted the western half of the beach. The battle-hardened 1st Infantry Division was given the eastern half.
The German defensive preparations and the lack of any defense in depth indicated that their plan was to stop the invasion at the beaches.[5] Four lines of obstacles were constructed in the intertidal zone. The first, a non-contiguous line with a small gap in the middle of Dog White and a larger gap across the whole of Easy Red, was 250 m (270 yd) out from the highwater line and consisted of 200 Belgian Gates with mines lashed to the uprights. 30 meters (33 yd) behind these was a continuous line of logs driven into the sand pointing seaward, every third one capped with an anti-tank mine. Another 30 meters (33 yd) shoreward of this line was a continuous line of 450 ramps sloping towards the shore, also with mines attached and designed to force flat-bottomed landing craft to ride up and either flip or detonate the mine. The final line of obstacles was a continuous line of hedgehogs 150 meters (160 yd) from the shoreline. The area between the shingle bank and the bluffs was both wired and mined, and mines were also scattered on the bluff slopes.[6][7]
Coastal troop deployments, comprising five companies of infantry, were concentrated mostly at 15 strongpoints called Widerstandsnester ("resistance nests"), numbered WN-60 in the east to WN-74 near Vierville in the west, located primarily around the entrances to the draws and protected by minefields and wire.[8] Positions within each strongpoint were interconnected by trenches and tunnels. As well as the basic weaponry of rifles and machine guns, more than 60 light artillery pieces were deployed at these strongpoints. The heaviest pieces were located in eight gun casemates and four open positions while the lighter guns were housed in 35 pillboxes. Obsolete VK 30.01 (H) tank turrets (from a panzer development program) armed with 75mm L/24 gun were re-used in permanent fortified bunkers.[9] A further 18 anti-tank guns completed the disposition of artillery targeting the beach. Areas between the strongpoints were lightly manned with occasional trenches, rifle pits, and 85 machine-gun emplacements. No area of the beach was left uncovered, and the disposition of weapons meant that flanking fire could be brought to bear anywhere along the beach.[10][11]
When General Omar Bradley expressed concern about Omaha Beach in January, a Royal Engineers team of Captain Logan Scott-Bowden and Sergeant Bruce Ogden-Smith showed him a sample of sand from the beach. They had swum ashore in Normandy from midget submarines over thirty times, to obtain sand samples to see whether the beaches would support tanks. Scott-Bowden said to him "Sir, I hope you don't mind me saying it, but this beach is a very formidable proposition indeed and there are bound to be tremendous casualties." Bradley put his hand on Scott-Bowden's shoulder and replied, "I know, my boy. I know."[18]
The 116th RCT of the 29th Infantry Division was to land two battalions in the western four beaches, to be followed 30 minutes later by the third battalion. Their landings were to be supported by the tanks of the 743rd Tank Battalion; two companies swimming ashore in amphibious DD tanks and the remaining company landing directly onto the beach from assault craft. To the left of the 116th RCT the 16th RCT of the 1st Infantry Division was also to land two battalions with the third following 30 minutes after, on Easy Red and Fox Green at the eastern end of Omaha. Their tank support was to be provided by the 741st Tank Battalion, again two companies swimming ashore and the third landed conventionally. Three companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion were to take a fortified battery at Pointe du Hoc, five kilometers (3.1 miles) to the west of Omaha. Meanwhile, C Company 2nd Rangers was to land on the right of the 116th RCT and take the positions at Pointe de la Percée. The remaining companies of 2nd Rangers and the 5th Ranger Battalion were to follow up at Pointe du Hoc if that action proved to be successful, otherwise they were to follow the 116th into Dog Green and proceed to Pointe du Hoc overland.[20]
The landings were scheduled to start at 06:30, "H-Hour", on a flooding tide, preceded by a 40-minute naval and 30-minute aerial bombardment of the beach defenses, with the DD tanks arriving five minutes before H-Hour. The infantry were organized into specially equipped assault sections, 32 men strong, one section to a landing craft, with each section assigned specific objectives in reducing the beach defenses. Immediately behind the first landings the Special Engineer Task Force was to land with the mission of clearing and marking lanes through the beach obstacles. This would allow the larger ships of the follow-up landings to get through safely at high tide. The landing of artillery support was scheduled to start at H+90 minutes while the main buildup of vehicles was to start at H+180 minutes. At H+195 minutes two further Regimental Combat Teams, the 115th RCT of the 29th Infantry Division and the 18th RCT of the 1st Infantry Division were to land, with the 26th RCT of the 1st Infantry Division to be landed on the orders of the V Corps commander.[21]
The objective was for the beach defenses to be cleared by H+2 hours, whereupon the assault sections were to reorganize, continuing the battle in battalion formations. The draws were to be opened to allow traffic to exit the beach by H+3 hours. By the end of the day, the forces at Omaha were to have established a bridgehead 8 kilometers (5.0 miles) deep, linked up with the British 50th Division landed at Gold to the east, and be in position to move on Isigny the next day, linking up with the American VII Corps at Utah to the west.[22]
Task Force O, commanded by Rear Admiral John L. Hall Jr., was the naval component responsible for transporting the troops across the channel and landing them on the beaches. The task force comprised four assault groups, a support group, a bombarding force, a minesweeper group, eight patrol craft, and three anti-submarine trawlers, numbering in total 1,028 vessels.[23]
The Support Group operated a mixture of gun, rocket, flak, tank, and smoke landing craft, totaling 67 vessels. The Minesweeper Group comprised four flotillas, the 4th comprising nine Royal Navy minesweepers; the 31st comprising nine minesweepers of the Royal Canadian Navy; the 104th comprising ten Royal Navy inshore minesweepers; and the 167th comprising ten Royal Navy coastal minesweepers.[23][25] Bombarding Force C comprised two battleships, three cruisers (two Free French and one Royal Navy), and 13 destroyers (three of which were provided by the Royal Navy).[26]
While reviewing Allied troops in England training for D-Day, General Omar Bradley promised that the Germans on the beach would be blasted with naval gunfire before the landing. "You men should consider yourself lucky. You are going to have ringside seats for the greatest show on earth," he said, referring to the naval bombardment.[27] However, Rear Admiral John L. Hall strongly disapproved of what he considered to be the small amount of air and naval bombardment used, saying "It's a crime to send me on the biggest amphibious attack in history with such inadequate naval gunfire support."[28]
Just after 05:00 the Germans at Port-en-Bessin reported ships off the coast, and at 05:30 opened artillery fire on the destroyer USS Emmons. The destroyer was joined in returning fire by the Free French cruiser Georges Leygues, and later by the battleship USS Arkansas. At 05:50 the planned naval bombardment began. Pointe-du-Hoc was targeted by the battleship USS Texas, and the destroyers USS Satterlee and HMS Talybont, the latter having first destroyed the radar station at Pointe et Raz de la Percée.[29]
The focus of the main naval bombardment was then switched to the beach defenses, and at 06:00, 36 M7 Priest howitzers and 34 tanks that were approaching the beach on LCTs began to supplement the naval guns. They were joined by fire from ten landing craft-mounted 4.7-inch guns and the rockets of nine Landing Craft Tank (Rocket), the latter planned to hit as the assault craft were just 300 meters (330 yd) from the beach.[30]
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