On this two-division front landing, only six rifle companies were relatively effective as units. But to follow that rule slights the story of Omaha as an epic human tragedy which in the early hours bordered on total disaster. Normandy was an American victory it was their duty to trace the twists and turns of fortune by which success was won. So saying does not imply that their judgment was wrong. This happened because the Army historians who wrote the first official book about Omaha Beach, basing it on the field notes, did a calculated job of sifting and weighting the material. As published today, the map data showing where the troops came ashore check exactly with the work done in the field but the accompanying narrative describing their ordeal is a sanitized version of the original field notes. How they fought and what they suffered were also determined in detail during the field research. Owing to the fact that every unit save one had been mislanded, it took this work to show the troops where they had fought. It was this research by the field historians which first determined where each company had hit the beach and by what route it had moved inland. While the troops were still fighting in Normandy, what had happened to each unit in the landing had become known through the eyewitness testimony of all survivors. This fluke of history is doubly ironic since no other decisive battle has ever been so thoroughly reported for the official record.

Unlike what happens to other great battles, the passing of the years and the retelling of the story have softened the horror of Omaha Beach on D Day.

World war 1 beach landings