Omaha Beach itself was a defensive tactician’s dream. It was the largest of the beaches to be assaulted, about five miles long, enclosed by 100 – 170 ft. bluffs in a concave shape. It completely enveloping the beach and anchored at each end by 100 ft.  sheer cliffs. There was a gently sloping tidal area averaging about 300 yards between low and high tides, above which was a bank of shingle (small round stones). On the western half, a seawall about 4-12 ft. high, beyond which was about 200 yards of level sand and some marshy area, ended at the face of the bluffs. There were only five exits off the entire beach, with only one paved well enough to handle heavy vehicles. The others were basically narrow dirt roads barely 6 ft. wide. The Desert Fox had seen to it that they were heavily fortified.

The seawall was topped by two rows of barbed wire and the area between the shingle and the bluffs was practically paved with mines. A communications and trench system along the bluffs connected a series of 15 fortified strongpoints (Widerstandsnests, the number of which vary among sources) which triangulated every square foot of the beach with overlapping machine gun fire. There was no cover anywhere.

The GIs of the Big Red One and the 29ers didn’t know it, but they were going head-to-head with eight concrete bunkers with 75mm or larger caliber guns, 35 pillboxes stocked with artillery, 20-24 defensive flamethrowers, 18 anti-tank guns, 6 mortar pits, 35 rocket launching sites, each with four 38mm rocket tubes and about 85 machine gun nests, all firing the dreaded MG-42 or MG-34 machine gun. The German gunners on the bluffs overlooked an amphitheatre. An amphitheatre of death.

From Prologue of A Day In Normandy.

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