D-Day: USS Texas and Omaha Beach

77 years ago on june 6 1944 the allies prepared one of the most ambitious military operations in history landing more than 150 000 troops into nazi nazi-occupied france d-day is still the largest seaborne invasion in world history in addition to those troops that were landed there were more than 190 000 naval personnel on the more than 6 900 naval vessels that participated in the landings and among those vessels was the uss texas commissioned in 1914 texas was one of seven battleships that took part in the landings and played a critical role providing fire support in the difficult landings on omaha beach it is history that deserves to be remembered laid down in 1911 the texas was the largest ship in the world when she launched in 1912. the texas saw her first service in the tempico incident where mexican officials had detained sailors on a u.s gunboat she would serve throughout the great war performing convoy duty and serving with the grand fleet service in that war is the subject of another episode of the history guy in the interwar period the ship was upgraded and overhauled and was designated the flagship of the us fleet after the u.s entered world war ii she participated in the landings in north africa during operation torch in 1942 her first major combat operation of the war throughout 1943 texas ran convoys of the atlantic making repeated transatlantic voyages to casablanca gibraltar and the british isles the voyages ended this is april 22nd 1944 when the crew was called to begin trending for a new mission operation overlord the allies plan to assault fortress europe for 12 days the texas participated in firing exercises in conjunction with the british battleships ramelise and rodney on april 29th the ship's airplane catapult was removed along with the ship's spotter planes the spotter pilots for all the ships in texas's combat group were formed into a new squadron which was trained to fly spotter missions for the fleet in spitfires instead of the usual kingfisher observation planes due to the threat of german air attack the ship was also newly equipped with radio equipment including a device meant to detect and jam radio guided missiles in the final days leading up to d-day general eisenhower came aboard personally to speak to the crew he commented that the ship was named after the state of my birth my god man you do the fighting no general or any other person in high capacity really fires the shots that knocks out the enemy batteries and sinks the ships he told them you are the men who are winning the war on may 31st the ship was sealed meaning no one would be allowed off and the crew was finally briefed on the upcoming invasion the captain told his crew the enemy we are going up against will tax our readiness to the utmost we have got to be good texas was designated the bombardment force flagship for omaha beach and given charge of the firing area for the western half of the landing she would be supporting five corps commanded by general leonard gero the corps was made up of the veteran first division the big red one in the rookie 29th division the second and fifth ranger battalions would also be involved in the landing assigned to assaulting point de hoak point to hulk is a promontory with a hundred foot tall cliffs that juts out from the normandy coast about four kilometers west of the center of omaha beach they've been fortified as part of the german atlantic wall defenses since the fall of france if the defenses had been finished the artillery casemates would have been able to provide devastating defensive fire on the landing troops as it was american intelligence was aware that none of the casemates were finished and that only two were even structurally close still part of the specially formed ranger attack group were assigned to assault the position to prevent its use in resisting the landings the two ranger battalions were meant to begin their assault before the main force landed in addition to the texas the western portion of omaha beach was also covered by hms glasgow the battleship uss arkansas and two french light cruisers covered the eastern portion and both sides were supported by numerous destroyers in the early hours of june 3 texas and the western task force left belfast for normandy they would reverse course briefly when the invasion was delayed by weather the approach was heavily mined but allied minesweepers were actively clearing paths to allow the fleet to sail not a single omaha beach vessel was lost in route as they approached the beaches allied air units bombed their defenses before the invasion general omar bradley had praised the plans for bombardment before the landing telling troops that you men should consider yourself lucky you're going to have ringside seats for the greatest show on earth at 3 a.m texas and glasgow reached their firing lane twelve thousand yards off shore around that time a large column of landing craft fighting against the ebb tide were barely able to clear the ship a later report said finally one crashed heavily into the texas port bow but fortunately was able to proceed with no evident damage the texas began firing at 5 50 shooting at targets on point to hook this initial firing mission lasted 34 minutes and the texas let off 255 14-inch rounds this would be the longest period to sustain firing in texas's career simultaneously texas's five-inch guns were fired on exit d-1 the route that the landing troops would use to move inland at 6 26 her main battery switched to other targets their missions were judged successful at no time did the 155 millimeter guns and point to hook fire the amphibious attack and point to hawk ran into issues quickly one of the 10 troop transports sunk early and drowned all but one of the men inside and another swamped the duck amphibious trucks carrying the 100 foot ladders brought from the london fire brigade struggled too one was sunk by enemy fire these delays meant the first wave of rangers landed 40 minutes late reaching the base of the cliffs at 7 10 well after texas had changed targets the cliffs proved to be higher than the letters could reach and despite fire support from the navy at least 15 men were killed scaling the clips from the raking fire to their left the rest of the rangers were meant to reinforce the minute point to hook if the attack was successful but because of the delay the first landing was unable to fire their signal flare on time and the remaining rangers landed on the beaches instead the rangers were able to reach the top of the cliffs and disabled some nearby guns but were then trapped in the cliffs under persistent assault units from the beach would take two days to relieve them only 20 rangers were able to reach them on the 6th on the 7th the marine detachment from the texas was appearing to be sent ashore to reinforce the rangers most of the 84 man detachment had no combat experience some of them had only been part of the corps for a few months one of them commented this is going to be the biggest slaughter since custer got his at the little bighorn ultimately the marines were called off the army didn't even want them escorting army units to shore likely a part of the general rivalry between the two branches that began years earlier the beach landings didn't go according to plan either of course the first units sustained heavy casualties only a few the amphibious donald duck shermans reached the beach although some were landed closer to shore more successfully by noon on the 6th the unexpectedly rigid resistance and disorganization of the landing was serious enough to threaten the success of the operation at omaha some of the destroyers moved closer to the beach provide better fire support getting close enough that they nearly grounded themselves the texas closed from twelve thousand yards to a mere three thousand firing her guns from almost no elevation focusing on the d1 exit during this time the texas fired on snipers and machine gun nests she acquired and set two landing craft with supplies to assist the rangers and point to hoke and took on 35 wounded and 27 prisoners on their return she did take enemy fire but most shots landed well away three bombs fell in the vicinity of the vessel during night raids and they were judged to possibly be jammed glider bombs using the new radar tech aboard the ship only once during the night raids that the ship fired a plane which veered away on june 9th the texas withdrew to replenish ammo and fuel over the three days she supported the initial landings she'd fired 450 14-inch and inch rounds nearly all the 14 inch rounds were directed by the spotters in spitfires the texas reported that the spotting by the spitfire pilots was generally excellent and their often amusing comments were much enjoyed reports indicated that their strikes were successful at reaching their targets and accomplished their objectives the spitfire pilots also showed great keenness and efficiency in locating targets of opportunity although one took an opportunity to strafe an enemy command car and got his plane hit by shrapnel which necessitated his quick return to his own base the texas received no hits during the bombardment although she did sustain damage from shaking caused by her own guns during the bombardment when sailors said it's hard to do anything now besides sweat breathing the paint chips and dust and listen to our guns fire the ship returned to normandy on june 11th providing more fire support on targets further and further inland as the beach head was expanded the ship's final firing mission on normandy was on june 15th was so far from shore that the texas had to flood her starboard torpedo blister to physically give the ship a two degree list to get the range necessary to complete the mission the effectiveness of the shore bombardment of the beaches at omaha has been questioned since 1944. the overall naval support was called a never surpassed masterpiece of planning by historian corelli barnet prior to the naval bombardment the air force had bombed coastal targets but the bombing was particularly ineffective over omaha because of low cloud cover omaha saw about 40 minutes of embarrassment before troops began waiting ashore british admiral sir bertram ramsey was in overall command of naval operations he'd been flag officer at the dunkirk withdrawal and planned the naval operations for operation torch as well as one of the fleets involved in the sicily landing rear admiral john hall thought the pre-landing bombardment was insufficient and said it's a crime to send me on the biggest amphibious attack in history with such inadequate naval gunfire support certainly much of the short offenses on omaha were intact even after landing the first division chief of staff however insisted that the infantry couldn't have made it off the beach without effective naval fire the texas's after-action reports indicated that the troubled communication efforts hindered the mission saying that the late arrival of the rangers at duhok gave the enemy time to recover from the bombing had the vessel or the insurer destroyers known to apply to the rangers at h hour the report goes on fire could have been continued giving the rangers the time they needed to secure the promontory one of the primary goals of the american landings at utah and omaha was to secure the port of cherbourg itself on a peninsula airborne units successfully secured routes leading to the city on june 6th and american units from utah beach were able to reach the peninsula and begin an assault on the city proper hitler's orders prevented the defenders from withdrawing to stronger positions after texas's last mission supporting omaha her task group was ordered to support the assault on cherbourg with the arkansas the group was first ordered to attack a batteries to the city on june 25th around noon texas began firing and that 116 was hit by the battery returning fire the shot took off the top of the fire control periscope which fell backwards and wounded for sailors the round then hit the main support column of the navigation bridge and exploded the pilot house was blown upward four feet and seven more men were injured one man would die of his wounds the on-duty helmsman christian christensen the captain escaped unharm and the ship never faltered in its firing twenty minutes later the ship destroyed one of the german gun emplacements one unexploded round penetrated the ship as well launching in the state room of warrant officer m.a clark the bomb disposal officer who retrieved and disarmed the bomb was given a bronze star for the action 65 rounds from german shore batteries landed near the ship the skill and power of the short bombardment by texas was undoubtedly critical to the ultimate success of the landings on omaha beach critics of the bombardment argued that more ships and more fire could have saved lives on omaha beach which was by far the most difficult of the landings of the five beaches on d-day the landing was at times very much at risk of failing entirely and in the face of unexpected resistance the sailors of the texas and supporting destroyers was heroic to save lives and salvage the overall attack ultimately the attack was an incredibly ambitious and complex operation that involved months of preparation deception and planning all of which could do little to alter the initial landings when parts of it landed off course and behind schedule staying at their stations for three straight days it is certain that the skill and sacrifice of the crew of the texas saved many lives and was an essential part of successfully achieving the objectives of the largest seabourn invasion in world history today the uss texas is the last remaining of the world war one era dreadnoughts she was the first american battleship to be made a permanent museum and the first to be designated a u.s national historic landmark but her long years at the dock at the san jacinto battleground's historic site have taken a toll on her the battleship texas foundation has embarked on a campaign to restore the ship and if you're interested in helping to preserve this piece of american history the foundation encourages you to shout come on texas and donate at battleshiptexas.org i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise at teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 396,518

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, uss Texas, D-Day, Omaha Beach, wwii, world war ii, us history, military history

Id: J9IabP_W3SM

Length: 13min 17sec (797 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021