Omaha Beach. Landing Tables.

I am trying to compare the planning and organisation of Omaha Beach with that of the British Beaches. I have a lot of material but the Landing Tables for Omaha would greatly help to tie everything together and help in making comparisons.

Who knows where I can find copies of the Landing Tables for Omaha?

Mike

 

Otto,
Thanks for your greetings and advice.

I am just getting used to the differences between US Army and British Army organisation and terminology. Fun so far,

Mike

 

You could start with Cracking Hitler's Atlantic Wall, by Richard C. Anderson Jr. I covered the similarities and differences between the landings pretty thoroughly. The 29th ID's landing tables are pretty well known and reproduced in a number of works, but the 1st ID's tables are harder to find.

 

Thanks Rich

I have Cracking Hitlers Atlantic Wall, in fact it is now well used and will soon fall apart. I do like to get down to the fine detail and have the full landing tables for the British beaches, plus original orders, instructions and reports for both army and navy formations. There is no substiture for the original document.

Unfortunately my ignorance of US Army organisation is considerable. I would really hope to find the detail of the operation of the beach until the closing of Operation Neptune at the end of June.

If I can find what I am looking for I would hope to post it on the sister WW2Talk Forum where I have already posted similar efforts for the British beaches. Much of that has come about through collaborative efforts with other members contributing their knowledge and resources.

Long way to go yet.

Mike

 

A small question. I will have plenty more I am sure.

A quick look through the landing tables for Omaha show that most equipment in the early waves must have been man packed. British beaches made a considerable amount of use of handcarts. These carried wireless, weapons and engineer supplies etc. The only handcarts I see in use on Omaha are those used by 81 Chemical Weapons Battalion.

Were there others in use?
What kind of handcart? Were they like the British ones.
Did troops really carry heavy machine guns and large wireless sets ashore?

Yes I know that makes four questions but!

Mike

 

Try "THEY WERE ON OMAHA BEACH, 213 EYEWITNESSES" by Laurent Lefebvre.

This has an exhaustive appendix that says which units landed at what time. It must be based on the Landing Table. He is a fairly prolific writer on Normandy and may help.

 

Thanks Sheldrake.

I know some of Lefebvre's work but not this one. I am slowly putting bits and pieces together. I really need someone with knowledge of and access to the NARA documents. The US equivalent of Drew et al.

The mortar handcart was most likely the M6. A sturdy little cart, hardly more than a platform with two wheels.

Mike