The museum is
located on Omaha Beach itself, where the American naval landing took place on
June 6 called “Bloody Omaha”. The Omaha Beach
Memorial Museum was founded in memory of all those young men who died in 1944
and whose memory we are duty-bound to keep, that future generations may never
forget at what cost our freedom came. The
museum showcases an important collection of uniforms, vehicles, personal
objects, arms, and weapons. Many
reconstitutions of American and German service life transport the visitor into
the heart of the D-day story, permitting a peep into the daily lives of all
those who landed to liberate us and to whom we owe our profound respect. Superb
archival photographs and explanatory notes on the landing at Omaha. Thematic
signs depicting all the phases of the period of the occupation until the
landing. At the end of the visit, a film featuring veteran’s testimonies guides
the visitor through the story of the D-day landing on Omaha and Point du Hoc.
The extensive operation on Omaha Beach was decided at the conference in Casablanca on January 24, 1943, when the allies took the decision to put in place the factors needed for the achievement of the 1944 landings on the continent, code-named “Overlord”. The landings were made on 5 beaches OMAHA and UTAH (American sector) GOLD and SWORD (British sector), and JUNO (Canadian sector). The Americans landed at low tide: 06.30 hours. With fortifications in place, German soldiers were always on the alert. The Americans had great difficulty in reaching the top of the hill. At about 10.00 hours they reached the cliff-top under German fire and only advanced 800 meters during the rest of the day. It was at Omaha that the loss of lives was the greatest. A total of 3881 American soldiers were killed, wounded, or reported missing on June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach.
