Landing on the Edge of Eternity: Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach

by Robert Kershaw

Overview

A visceral and momentous narrative of the first twenty-four hours of D-Day on Omaha Beach: the most dramatic Allied landing of World War II.

Before World War II, Normandy’s Plage d’Or coast was best known for its sleepy villages and holiday destinations. Early in 1944, German commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took one look at the gentle, sloping sands and announced "They will come here!” He was referring to "Omaha Beach”—the prime American D-Day landing site. The beach was subsequently transformed into three miles of lethal, bunker-protected arcs of fire, with seaside chalets converted into concrete strongpoints, fringed by layers of barbed wire and mines. The Germans called it “the Devil's Garden."

When Company A of the US 116th Regiment landed on Omaha Beach in D-Day’s first wave on 6th June 1944, it lost 96% of its effective strength. Sixteen teams of US engineers arriving in the second wave were unable to blow the beach obstacles, as first wave survivors were still sheltering behind them. This was the beginning of the historic day that Landing on the Edge of Eternity narrates hour by hour—rom midnight to midnight—tracking German and American soldiers fighting across the beachhead.

Mustered on their troop transport decks at 2am, the American infantry departed in landing craft at 5am. Skimming across high waves, deafened by immense broadsides from supporting battleships and weak from seasickness, they caught sight of land at 6.15. Eleven minutes later, the assault was floundering under intense German fire. Two and a half hours in, General Bradley, commanding the landings aboard USS Augusta, had to decide if to proceed or evacuate. On June 6th there were well over 2,400 casualties on Omaha Beach – easily D-Day’s highest death toll.

The Wehrmacht thought they had bludgeoned the Americans into bloody submission, yet by mid-afternoon, the American troops were ashore. Why were the casualties so grim, and how could the Germans have failed? Juxtaposing the American experience—pinned down, swamped by a rising tide, facing young Wehrmacht soldiers fighting desperately for their lives, Kershaw draws on eyewitness accounts, memories, letters, and post-combat reports to expose the true horrors of Omaha Beach.

These are stories of humanity, resilience, and dark humor; of comradeship and a gritty patriotism holding beleaguered men together. Landing on the Edge of Eternity is a dramatic historical ride through an amphibious landing that looked as though it might never succeed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643133508
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Pages:	440
Sales rank:	1,095,558
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Robert Kershaw joined the Parachute Regiment in 1973 and went on to command the 10th Parachute Battalion. His active service included several tours in Northern Ireland, the First Gulf War, and Bosnia. After retiring from the British Army as a full Colonel, he became an author of military history and a battlefield tour guide. He has written twelve books published in Great Britain and has participated in numerous National Geographic and History Channel documentaries. Robert lives in England.

Table of Contents

Some of the Voices from Omaha ix

Abbreviations and Glossary xv

Maps xvii

Introduction xxiii

Prologue: 1:00 a.m. June 6, 1944 xxix

1 The Far Shore: 1:00 A.M. TO 4:30 A.M.

The Plage d'Or: 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. 1

Where the German Soldier Stands Nobody Gets In!: 3:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. 21

2 Force "O": Midnight to 3:30 A.M.

The Funnel: Midnight to 3:00 a.m. 40

GIs: Government Issue.: 1:30 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. 53

"Strictly Power." The Plan.: 2:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. 64

3 The Storm Breaks: 2:00 A.M. to 5:00 A.M.

"Whole World Against Us": 2:00 a.m. to 4:55 a.m. 79

"Bacon and Eggs on the Edge of Eternity": 2:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. 88

"A Series of Flashes on the Horizon." The Bombardment: 5:50 a.m. to 6:20 a.m. 103

4 Death Ride: 4:15 A.M. to6:30 A.M.

A Wild Death Ride: 4:15 a.m. to 6:15 a.m. 113

Sie Kommen!: 5:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. 125

France Looked Sordid and Uninviting: 6:15 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. 132

5 First Wave Floundered: 6:30 A.M. to 7:30 A.M.

Vierville Cliff Shoulder, Right: 6:30 a.m. to 7:20 a.m. 140

Colleville Cliff Shoulder, Left: 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. 162

6 Pointe Du Hoc, "The Jib": 6:40 A.M. to 11:10 A.M.

The Cliff: 6:40 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. 183

The Plateau: 7:30 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. 195

7 Win or Lose?: 6:45 A.M. to 8:30 A.M.

The Center. Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer: 6:45 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. 203

Leaders: 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. 217

Stop the Boats: 8:30 a.m. 231

8 The Crisis: 8:30 A.M. to Midday

Dilemmas: 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. 241

More Infantry: 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 258

9 Village Fighting: 11:30 A.M. to Dusk

Colleville, East: 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. 269

Vierville, West: 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 284

Saint-Laurent, Center: 11:30 a.m. to Dusk 294

10 Tenuous Foothold: 4:00 P.M. to Midnight

Kampfgruppe Meyer: 4:00 p.m. to 11:55 p.m. 301

Pointe du Hoc. The Angle: Midday to Midnight 308

Dusk to Darkness: 5:00 p.m. to Beyond Midnight 316

Beyond 24 Hours 331

Bibliography 349

Endnotes 353

Index 366

Acknowledgments 376

Editorial Reviews

"Extraordinary and excruciating, Landing on the Edge of Eternity might be the hardcover version of Saving Private Ryan’s torturous opening minutes. Hard to put down. Should be required reading for every civilian official and military officer who has a voice in ordering soldiers to go fight."

Washington Times

"Kershaw shares stories of humanity, resilience, and dark humor; of comradeship and a gritty patriotism holding beleaguered men together in an extremely hazardous military engagement. A dramatic historical ride through an amphibious landing that looked as though it might never succeed."

Midwest Book Reviews

"A thrilling narrative of the longest day’s most trying hours. Kershaw switches deftly between command and unit level on both sides, with glimpses of the destruction wrought on French civilians. A visceral account of apparent defeat, ultimate victory and how the United States Army sustained more than 2,400 casualties on a single beach in one day."

Shelf Awareness

★ 09/24/2018
Kershaw (24 Hours at the Somme), a military historian and former British soldier, gives a meticulously researched, gripping account of what is now praised as a great Allied victory, but at the time seemed like a crude slaughter: the Allies’ near-defeat at Omaha Beach. The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, began the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation, and its success hinged on the landing by American troops at Omaha Beach. This minute-by-minute account starts with Gen. Dwight Eisenhower worrying the landing would fail. His fears were rapidly confirmed; nearly 4,700 American were killed or wounded there. Allied command and planning decisions come in for fair criticism, and the shortcomings of the pre-landing bombardment by Allied air and naval forces are explored both through tactical analysis and the accounts of infantrymen who left their landing craft and saw their fellow soldiers butchered at the water’s edge. Kershaw’s research into the crack German troops stationed at Omaha is exceptionally detailed. Kershaw brings home the significance of the battle with suspense and uncertainty that has been glossed over in other recent accounts. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Kershaw shares stories of humanity, resilience, and dark humor; of comradeship and a gritty patriotism holding beleaguered men together in an extremely hazardous military engagement. A dramatic historical ride through an amphibious landing that looked as though it might never succeed."

Midwest Book Review

2018-09-02

The Normandy invasion was a critical victory for the Allies. According to military historian Kershaw (24 Hours at the Somme: 1 July 1916, 2017, etc.), it could have been a crushing defeat.

If the other Normandy beaches that Allied troops stormed on June 6, 1944, had been as bloody as Omaha Beach, argues the author, a veteran of later wars, then Dwight Eisenhower might have had to send out the memo of defeat that he instead pocketed, the one that famously said, "if any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone." As it was, the Allies squeaked by. Studying the operation from a military point of view, without the stagy but effective set pieces of Cornelius Ryan and the political interests of Anthony Beevor, Kershaw describes an awful day of battle. Commendably, his account includes plenty of testimonials from the German side, which had all the advantages of the well-entrenched defender but a few odd weaknesses as well. For instance, unbeknownst to Allied intelligence, a heavily battle-tested German infantry division, with plenty of survivors of Stalingrad and other flashpoints, was well dug in near Omaha, which explains all the carnage Steven Spielberg so vividly depicted in Saving Private Ryan. At the same time, some of the German defenses, such as an anti-tank barrier, were just this side of Potemkin villages. The Germans knew invasion was coming; they just didn't know quite where. But they were ready, with one grizzled commander ordering, "if possible, do not take prisoners under ten men." That the American landing force survived Omaha at all—as it is, the day posted one of the greatest casualty counts of any battle Americans fought in—seems little short of a miracle and is evidence of how badly good intelligence is needed in any fight. That said, Kershaw singles out for praise numerous fighting elements, such as the U.S. Army Rangers, who helped break the German lines.

A revisionist look that won't cheer America-firsters but that helps broaden our understanding of a crucial battle.

Kirkus Reviews