Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †
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The crisis at Omaha beach.
Of the five landing beaches, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword, only at Omaha beach was there ever a question of the Allies successfully getting ashore and establishing a bridgehead. Only at Omaha was there a crisis when the issue was highly in doubt.
Why?
Geography – Of all the beaches Omaha offered the German defenders the best defensive terrain. Only at Omaha were there high bluffs ranging in height from 100 to 150 ft. with limited ways through to the top. The beach had a concave configuration providing a perfect set up for interlocking fields of defensive fire where defensive guns could fire both down the bluffs but across the beach.Stronger defenses – The configuration allowed the Germans to construct artillery and machinegun positions that were protected from direct fire from the sea and fired down the length of the beach. On and in the bluffs the Germans erected thirty antitank and field guns as well as 85 machine guns, four times as many as on any of the other beaches.
Poor preparation – The heavy bombers, fearing hitting their own forces while bombing a cloud covered and smoke hidden target, approached the beach perpendicularly and dropped late. Every single bomb hit inland missing the beach defenses. At the American Beaches the time for Naval gun fire to prep that target between dawn and the first troops arriving at shore was minimal while at the British/Canadian beaches they had an hour more time to bombard the targets after dawn due to the tides delaying the landing.
Lack of Armor support – As per reasons stated in an earlier post there were fewer tanks that landed at Omaha than at any other beach during the initial assualt.Fate and happenstance – It just so happened that a large portion of the German 352nd Division was at and behind Omaha beach for training. Their presence was not known to Allied intelligence prior to the landing.
All of the above added up to a disastrous situation. The few engineer team members tasked with clearing lanes through the beach obstacles that got to the shore were exhausted when they finally arrived. German machine gun bullets churned the sand and waters around them. They took 70% casualties. Then the infantry arrived and started using the obstacles for cover from the withering fire. Thus, of the 16 teams assigned to blow gaps on Omaha, managed to create only 5 gaps in the Obstacles. So when the 2nd and 3rd waves arrived they found few places to get ashore between the obstacles, many of which were mined. And most the gaps that had been created were quickly blocked by damaged and disabled landing craft.
Thus landing craft were running up and down the beach under fire looking for a place they could pick their way through the obstacles, and the bodies dead and live comrades afloat in the water to land. On top of that the prevailing current pushed the landing craft south as they approached the beach and the helmsmen of the landing craft could not see the landmarks they had carefully studied due to the dust and smoke. Under those conditions almost nobody landed at the time or location specified in the plan.
The conditions not only resulted in high casualties among men also the loss of large numbers of landing craft. The USS Thurston lowered a total of 25 Higgins boats that morning. One sank in a collision with a submerged tank, two others broached at the shore, five were smashed up by hard landings or enemy fire and abandoned. The rest made it to the shore and back but of those 9 of them were so badly damaged they had to hoisted back up to have repairs made. Thus only 3 boats were immediately available to get reloaded and take a 2nd load to shore.
And so how was a seemingly disastrous and unretrievable crises over come? Contrary to the movie The Longest Day it was not overcome by Robert Mitchum playing General Cota, the assistant Division commander of the 29th Division rallying his men by yelling at them “Only two kinds of people are gonna stay on this beach: those that are already dead and those that are gonna die. Now get off your butts. You guys are the Fighting 29th.” BTW it wasn’t Cota that said that! This not to say that the commanders on shore did not have an impact. It is to say that the battle would have been won without them.
The initiative of individual soldiers to carry on when their officers were already killed or dead. Despite not being where they were supposed to be and nothing going to plan and all the death and destruction around them, men picked up an carried on. Omaha was won, not by Generals, it was a soldiers fight.
The Navy! Admiral Hall the Naval commander off Omaha, seeing that things were going badly ordered the Destroyers returned from their screening positions to came in so close to shore they were in danger of grounding, under enemy fire and lay direct fire with their 4″ and 5″ guns on the bluffs. In general support Admiral Bryant aboard the battleship USS Texas radioed to the destroyer skippers “Get on them men! They are raising hell with the men on the beach, and we can’t have that! We must stop it!” Though they lacked observers on the beach they picked out places with likely targets. More than a dozen destroyers answered te call. Sweeping in at 20 knots and then paralleling the shore and laying rapid fire with their guns on the bluffs. In one case the destroyer skipper watched one of the few surviving tanks was firing and then directed his fire there. The fired so fast and hard that their crews played fire hoses on their guns to cool the overheating barrels. In about 90 minutes they expended most of their heavy gun ammunition. Without them the tide would not have been turned at Omaha
Steadfastness of Admirals Kirk and Hall. The navy was in charge until the Generals were onshore. Admiral Hall in charge of the forces off Omaha and Admiral Kirk, his immediate superior in charge of naval support for both Utah and Omaha beaches stood steadfast in their resolution it would all work out despite repeated queries and questioning and some suggestions to stop the landing and withdraw by the Army Generals or their staff members on their ships.
Another very good report ..🇺🇸👍… thanks Rah…
🇺🇸💪😀👍
While I don’t know the bomber speed, imagine they were doing 240 mph. That is 4 miles per minute. 15 seconds per mile. Drop four seconds early and the bombs hit over a quarter mile out to sea. Drop five seconds late and the bombs fall a third of a mile in land.
If you approach the target passing over your own forces, of course you will be scared of killing your own and drop late, hence deep in land, leaving the defenses you are supposed to destroy intact.
BTW, later, we bombed to try to help breakout from Normandy and did significant damage to our troops.
It was at the insistence of the USAAF officers that the bombers would approach perpendicular to the beach and not parallel it. Further, only a few bombs heavier then 250 lb. were used. The Army commanders were afraid that heavier bombs dropped on the beach would crater it so severely that vehicles would be inhibited in their movements.
I think the bombing your referring to was that used to support Cobra and the breakout. Though heavy bombers had been used earlier my Monty to help an offensive, I can’t recall the claim that friendlies were killed in that bombing.
But the one I think your referring to certainly did kill significant numbers of Americans, including Gen. Leslie McNair.
As a side note, I did not think the loss of McNair was a great one. The doctrine he had instilled was the reason the US did not deploy better armored and better armed tanks until near the end of the war.
McNair envisioned the tank as a strictly Infantry support vehicle and not one intended to take on enemy tanks head to head. Following McNair’s doctrine taking on enemy tanks was the job of tank destroyers. Unfortunately on the battlefield one can’t find tank destroyers when the need them usually, and besides that the tank destroyers, while having a 90 mm gun that could take out the Panther and Tiger tanks, it also had lighter armored and had an open top turret and so they really weren’t designed to take on the heavier German armor head to head either.
Rah, I want you to know that I am enjoying your writing immensely.
I’ve always been a history buff, even as a child. And military history has always utterly fascinated me.
You are writing about details I’ve never read.
Please, keep it up!
Man alive that’s a lot of typing, and I appreciate what you are doing, thank you for doing it.
Thanks. Sherry and I have both been under the weather today and so I have slept most of this day away.
Jay Sekulow Honors the Legacy of Pat Robertson
Pat and Jay were great friends.
The ACLJ is one of the wonderful organizations Pat was involved in starting.
I remember volunteering to work at a pro life group stand at a county fair (talking to people giving out information, literature, etc). The local planned parenthood was too lazy to set up there own stand, but was trying to shut ours down. We called the ACLJ for help. They answered our legal questions and said call us if you need us to come. The legal information helped us. We didn’t need them to come, but it felt good to have the ACLJ on our side.
Pat started the Regent University which has a law school. Jay Sekulow is on the faculty:
https://www.regent.edu/faculty/j-d-ph-d-jay-sekulow/?site=law
Ukraine has taken ‘significant’ losses this week – US
Kiev’s long-promised counteroffensive has met “stiff resistance,” senior American officials told CNN
The Ukrainian military has suffered “significant” casualties in its faltering attempt to mount a counteroffensive against Russian forces, US officials told CNN on Thursday. While Kiev has kept quiet about its losses, Moscow estimates that the offensive has already cost Ukraine almost 5,000 lives.
Ukrainian troops hoping to break through Russia’s defensive lines have met “greater than expected resistance from Russian forces,” the American network reported, citing anonymous “senior US officials.”
President Donald Trump said: “Today, the World lost an incredible and powerful Voice for Faith and Freedom. Pat Roberston showed us that Belief in God produces results that can change the course of History. Pat’s legacy lives on in the many endeavors and lives that he touched. He will be greatly missed. Our hearts and prayers are with his family.”
The summit of Mt. Washington has received 3 1/2″ of snow and it is still snowing up there.
Rob . been right there more than a few times .
super views . they have a small train that takes you up to the top.
Musical Allegory by Rembrandt 162
THE GAEL from The Last of the Mohicans – Breizh Pan Celtic
I’d never seen this painting – Oh! Look at the colors and detail in the fabrics and such… wow!
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinc
Frank Sinatra “Come Dance With Me” 1959
d dance with me
My Pleasure – Let’s Dance !!! 🧚🏻♀️🧚🏻♀️🧚🏻♀️
Waltz by Gino Severini
Andrei and Natasha’s Waltz Scene – War & Peace (2016)
The Waltz by Angelo Zoffoli
Leonard Cohen – Dance Me To The End Of Love
The Skaters Waltz – André Rieu
André Rieu & 150 dancers – Lara’s Theme & Light Cavalry
andre rieu mary poppins & dont cry for me argentina full hd 1080 3d optional
Amira Willighagen “O Sole Mio” (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Thank you Duchess
for all the great music
Love dancing with you
my dear sweet friend
thank you for a lovely day
☘ ☘ ☘
Most welcome, MO – Thanks for being so accommodating – agreeing to dance. – Fun – Fun
You provided some beautiful musical choices accented by artwork – Not easy peasy
You have a warm, caring spirit – and all here can feel it – not just me – So Special
💚 🌼 💚 🌼 💚 – “You Make Me Smile” (and sometimes giggle, too)
Amen and Amen
Amen
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen
Amen.
Amen
Good evening to all. It’s a blessed Cursday for sure.
My daughter’s tiny golden doodle underwent surgery yesterday for persistent right aortic arch. That is a congenital abnormality where the esophagus is wrapped by an aortic band like a rubber band. It constructs the esophagus not allowing solid food like kibble to pass into the stomach. The food is stopped causing a dilation and when full regurgitation occurs.
The puppy was literally starving to death when my daughter adopted her 3 weeks ago, only 2 pounds. We stopped solids and put her on puppy formula then mixed it into a little canned food. All went down and she began rallying and doubled her weight to 4 pounds.
She was diagnosed with the arch and referred to Mississippi State Veterinary School Hospital.
The surgery was a success and she is now doing so well she gets to go home tomorrow. She will be on the watery food for a few more weeks before trying kibble.
God answered our prayers greatly. We are so very thankful and rejoicing.
Amen goes right there, Gram !!! ❤️
You betcha!! Thank you!
Perfect! Saved it.