Hard to believe the beach could be taken with defenses like this in place

Omaha Beach

After visiting the American Cemetery, we drove up and down the Omaha Beach area.

One of our first stops was at this old German blockhouse. It's hard to believe that anything could route its defenders, so thick are its walls.

The cannons face sideways with the idea being that two blockhouses could pretty well control anything that got between them but couldn't be destroyed by an artillery shell from a battleship that would land in its front.

THe National Guard Memorial

A little further down the beach, the guardhouse that had given the allies the toughest time was preserved with this memorial to the American National Guard on top of it:

As we drove down the beach, these cliffs reminded us of those in Saving Private Ryan:

Memorial to the Débarquement

About the middle of the area of Omaha beach, this memorial to the Débarquement stands…

…With the following description:

The beach is sparsely populated and was nearly empty when we visited. These windsurfers traveled up and down the beach in the brisk wind:

More pictures of bunkers, memorials, etc. are available by clicking here

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