The objective at Utah was to secure a beachhead on the Cotentin Peninsula, the location of important port facilities at Cherbourg. The amphibious assault, primarily by the US 4th Infantry Division and 70th Tank Battalion, was supported by airborne landings of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division.
Pano of the area just behind the beach, which is just over the ridge (sand dune) in the distance.
The Musée du Débarquement (Utah beach Museum) in just right of centre with the various memorials on the left.
Close up of the museum buildings
Looking toward the memorials, the things in the foreground are hedgehogs designed to stop tanks
Jo in one of the fortifications just inland from the beach. This would have a machine gun in a steel turret like those shown in the museum pictures below
A view of the fortifications on the dunes above the beach
And the beach itself looking west
Utah Beach American Memorial
1st Engineer Special Brigade Memorial
US Navy Memorial.
Higgins Boat memorial. This was the most common type of landing craft used on D Day, and throughout World War II.
Many of the roads in the area are now named after American Soldiers.
Gun Emplacement on the ridge overlooking the beach
There is an excellent museum on the beach (although the tank is wrong for 1944)
German Mauser and weapons
Fortification like the one Jo was standing in outside.
PAK 40 German Anti Tank gun
DUKW amphibious transport.
Trench system
German MG 42 Machine Gun. The best Machine gun of the war and variants of it are still in service today.
The pride of the museum is a B-26G Marauder. Whilst this one didn't fly over D Day it is depicted as an aircraft that did, from the 386th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force USAAF.
It is one of only three surviving B-26's in the world today.
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