| Original caption, LIFE Magazine, June 26, 1944: “A week after 1st landings, the Normandy beachhead had changed from a battlefield to a gigantic port area. Allies had captured small fishing ports like Ouistreham and Isigny, but the beach was still the best place to land reinforcements, equipment and supplies. A great fleet of heavyweight landing craft, forced to remain offshore on 1st day, came in close to unload. LSTs [Landing Ship, Tanks], however, still could not get right up to the beach. Gentle slope of the continental shelf off the Norman shore usually grounded them about 50 yards out. 2 LSTs which appear under big barrage balloon in the foreground are in this predicament. This busy scene was photographed by LIFE’s Frank Scherschel [(March 24, 1907 – May 23, 1981)]. Barrage balloons which fill sky over supply fleet are moored too low for protection against high-level bombers or dive bombers, but would cause trouble for planes making low-level strafing runs. Balloon in foreground is tethered to windlass on slope. Along the beach are a few landing craft sunk in the 1st landings. Water, now at high tide, covers obstacles which barred path to the shore on June 6. At left center an amphibious truck [DUKW] winds up road from the beach. In left foreground is casemate which commanded this stretch during landings. The impressive variety of this scene, repeated for 60 miles, was described for United Features last week by Scripps-Howard Correspondent Ernie Pyle: “I walked for a mile and a half along the water’s edge of our many-miled invasion beach…You could see trucks tipped half over and swamped. You could see partly sunken barges, and the angled-up corners of jeeps, and small landing craft half submerged. And at low tide you could still see those vicious six-pronged iron snares that helped snag and wreck them…There were boats stacked on top of each other, their sides caved in, their suspension doors knocked off. In this shore-line museum of carnage there were abandoned rolls of barbed wire and smashed bulldozers and big stacks of thrown-away lifebelts and piles of shells still waiting to be moved. In the water floated empty life rafts and soldiers’ packs and ration boxes, and mysterious oranges. On the beach lay, expended, sufficient men and mechanism for a small war…And yet we could afford it.” A barrage balloon, probably deployed by the segregated African American 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, he only unit comprised entirely of African American soldiers to storm the beach that day, is raised over the E-1 Draw at Easy Red Sector of Omaha Beach. In the left center foreground is the German bunker, Widerstandsnest (“Resistance Nest”) 65 (WN 65), that defended the route up the Ruquet Valley to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. The casemate type H667 WN 65 bunker, located northeast of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, defended the entrance of the valleuse of the Ruquet from the counter-slope to the west. It consists of several shelters and “tobruks” or small pillboxes. A long anti-tank ditch (middle center of this view) ran between the defensive positions and minefields and barbed wire surrounded the emplacement. These valleys at right angles off the coast are natural routes for an invading army. The defenders also saw these valleys as places in need of defending. Widerstandsnest 64 (WN 64) was on the east of the draw, and WN 65 on the west. In this casemate type H667, a 50 mm (1.96 inch) KwK 39 L/60 taken from a Panzer III could fire on landing craft approaching the beach. 1,300 50mm KwK guns were sent to France for installation on the Atlantic Wall. They were installed in Behelfssockellafette (“Makeshift Base”) pedestal mounts if there was time, and wheeled dugouts if there wasn’t enough time. WN 65 had 1 of each mount; the concrete bunker housed the Behelfssockellafette mount. Sergeant Hyman Haas (August 14, 1915 – June 21, 2000), commanding a pair of half-tracks from A Battery of the 467th Antiaircraft Battalion, was stalking it from amid the cluttered wreckage at the waterline. It was hit by a combination of flat trajectory 50 caliber (12.7 millimeter) and 37 millimeter (1.46 inch) cannon. 47 millimeter rounds went directly through the porthole of the pillbox, Haas recalled, “we fired one full clip and part of a second clip directly into the pillbox.” A 5-inch (127 millimeter) shell from USS Frankford (DD-497) smashed open a substantial hole through the gunner’s protective metal shield on the right and took out a chunk of concrete at the back of the bunker shelter wall, spraying viscera throughout the interior as it howled through. It was important to have the barrage balloons airborne before night, when it was expected that most enemy aerial attacks would come. Despite the overwhelming odds against them, the 320th had 1 balloon aloft over the eastern end of Omaha beach by 2315 Hours on the night of June 6, and would have 12 balloons aloft by dawn the next morning. These balloons were quickly destroyed by enemy fire, but more balloons were brought ashore, and by the night of June 7, 20 balloons were aloft over Omaha beach, and 13 balloons were aloft over Utah beach. Balloons would continue to be shot down and replaced over the early days of the invasion, and the expected German aerial attacks would continue through June and July. Throughout those opening weeks of the invasion, the 320th continued its mission to ensure that balloons were raised over the landing beaches, especially at night, to continue to protect ships bringing the critical soldiers, materials, and supplies needed for Allied success. During the day, the balloons were lowered as Allied aircraft patrolled the skies, and the men of the 320th assisted in off-loading supplies from the never-ending stream of ships arriving at the beachhead each day. During this time, the 320th was credited with taking down at least 1 German aircraft when it was caught in 1 of the cables of a balloon and crashed into the English Channel. The 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion served for almost 150 days in France following the invasion. They continued flying their balloons over the beaches and eventually a portion flew over the port of Cherbourg before the worsening weather in October prevented ships from landing any more supplies. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1771.jpg |
| Image Size | 455.35 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1920 x 1315 |
| Photographer | Frank Scherschel |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 7, 1944 |
| Location | Easy Red |
| City | Omaha Beach |
| State or Province | Normandy |
| Country | France |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database