Omaha Beach, WWII landing beach in Normandy, France

Omaha Beach is an 8-kilometre stretch of Normandy coast running from west of Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to east of Vierville-sur-Mer, divided by Allied planners into sectors from Charlie to Fox Red. A gently sloping tidal flat about 300 m wide lies below a shingle bank 2.5 m high, backed by a sea wall and bluffs 30–50 m tall cut by five wooded draws.

Omaha was the longest of the five Allied landing sectors, an 8 km stretch from Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to Vierville-sur-Mer. On 6 June 1944 the untested US 29th Infantry Division and Rangers took the western half, the 1st Infantry Division the eastern half, against the German 352nd Infantry Division. American forces suffered 2,400 casualties but landed 34,000 troops; the 352nd lost 1,200 men.

The beach is a place of remembrance, with monuments along the shore to the soldiers who fell on 6 June 1944. The German 352nd Infantry Division, defending the sector under Generalleutnant Dietrich Kraiss, lost about 1,200 men, a tenth of its strength, and received no reserves.

The beach is freely accessible year-round, and information panels along the shore help visitors understand what happened in different parts of the area. Comfortable shoes are a good idea, as moving between the shore, the memorials, and the nearby cemetery takes time on foot.

The names Omaha and Utah were probably suggested by Omar Bradley, as two privates fitting out his London headquarters came from Omaha, Nebraska (Gayle Eyler) and Provo, Utah. The sector was first designated X-Ray in the phonetic alphabet of the day and renamed on 3 March 1944.