Omaha Beach landing tables

Yes, I known that site. I believe the original site owner may be deceased, but someone is still paying for the domain.

There are no "manifests" or "bills-of-lading" for D-Day, there are only the Landing Tables, such as Michele posted. They laid out how the vessels were loaded in some detail...but names were not one of them. For that, you need to explore the unit Morning Reports for the Company/Battery/Troop embarked to find out who was where.

Yes, there were diagrams in the Landing Tables of how units were loaded.

 

Thank you,
do you have a link (or copy) of the diagram?
Intend to find scale models (finished or assembled) for visual reference.
BTW, recommended best links for finding Morning Reports?
Again,
many thanks,
John

 

Hi John,

Yes, there are diagrams but I do not have one for the arrangement of a Field Artillery Battery on an LCT in the Assault. I only have them for those in Force B, which were not laid out the same.

The problem is that most of the FA Battalions on OMAHA were deployed by DUKW. The Beach Drenching fire was from the attached Armored FA Battalions. On UTAH, the same was done by two 4th Infantry Division FA Battalions, but they had been re-equipped with M7A1 SP 105mm Howitzers as well. So I am not sure an American one was laid out that way?

No links for Morning Reports. Those are held on microfilm at the National Archives National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Although as microfilm they are easily digitized they have not been, because, well, its the U.S. Government. You would have to go through a professional researcher for that. Geoff at Golden Arrow is very good. I've worked with him for a number of years and am always satisfied. Contact Us ⋆ Golden Arrow Research

 

Thank you, sent e-mail to NPRC(II)...
Perhaps a donation to WW2lct.org will get a response; so far, everything kicks back...
One might think that, among the collections specializing in LCTs, somebody would have an image w/ artillery battery.
Ducks... would the Landing Tables differentiate between "21/2 T Trk" and Ducks?
thanks,
john

 

Southern France, August 1944. Not sure if the DUKW swam to shore with the 105mm howitzer loaded, or rolled onto the beach from a landing craft.



DUKW towing a 105mm howitzer off the LCT, about one week after the initial landings at Salerno in September 1943.


For landings in Normandy, the 111th Field Artillery Battalion (29th Division) had twelve 105mm howitzers loaded as cargo on DUKWs. Using Beyond The Beachhead for reference, each 'duck' would carry a 105 on its back along with fifty shells, sandbags and fourteen artillerymen. The ducks were launched to swim via LST, not beached directly from a smaller LCT. It was planned to set up guns on shore just two hours after the initial assault.

The cannoneers complained about these stipulations before D-Day. Training exercises showed the DUKW had poor seakeeping qualities with heavy loads and it was over-optimistic to hope they might find a secure place to offload and site towed guns on a beach under fire.

As expected, the overloaded condition caused the DUKW to ride low in heavy swells. Eight were swamped and three sunk by gunfire. The remaining DUKW tried to land twice, in both the 29th and 1st Division sectors, but was warned off each time by the control boats. After nine hours of bobbing around in the last DUKW in distress, the battery commander aboard ordered the coxswain to dock with a Rhino barge equipped with a crane. The only surviving howitzer was hoisted out of the DUKW and later delivered to the wrong division. The CO Lt. Colonel Thornton Mullins was killed by a sniper, thus capping a bad day for 111th FAB.

 

Yep. As I said, at OMAHA the divisional direct support 105mm FA Battalions of the 16th Infantry - 7th FA - and the 116th Infantry - 111th FA - were delivered by DUKW. The beach drenching fire support from LCT on the run-in on OMAHA was not done by M2A1 105mm FA batteries firing from LCT. That was not done on either OMAHA or UTAH. Instead, they were M7A1 105mm SP Armored Field Artillery Batteries - the 58th (116th) and 62d (16th Inf) on OMAHA and two battalions of the 4th Infantry Division (29th FA with the 8th Inf and 42d FA under division control) that had been "temporarily" converted from towed to SP for the invasion (both in fact kept their M7A1 for a long time, one still had them in December).
Curiously, the 4th Infantry Division also had an Armored Field Artillery Battalion attached - the 65th - so its assault combat team had two such battalions. I have never found an explanation for why that was so on UTAH and not on OMAHA. There does not seem to be any record of why the decision was made to use DUKW for the assault FA battalion on OMAHA but not on UTAH. I suspect it was simply due to lack of LCT and a different priority for their use by V Corps than by VII Corps.

 

Stills from a U.S. Navy training film showing how the 105mm howitzer was hoisted by one DUKW and placed in another; using the vehicle winch, A-frame, securing cables and guide lines.

 

Yep, note how high the center of gravity was.

 

Many thanks, Michel,

As listed below, What is the reference you have that correlates Neptune Assault serial numbers with USN Hull Numbers?

Craft or Ship Serial = Hull Number
LCT(6) 123 = US LCT(6) 641
LCT(6) 124 = US LCT(6) 640
LCT(6) 125 = US LCT(6) 639
LCT(6) 126 = US LCT(6) 657
LCT(6) 127 = US LCT(6) 653
LCT(6) 128 = US LCT(6) 652
LCT(5) 51 = US LCT(5) 460
APA 2 = APA 45 USS HENRICO
APA 1 = APA 26 USS SAMUEL CHASE

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It's from the Final Ship Assignments Force "O" dated 16 May 1944.

 

You can make your own stowage diagram in 3 dimensions: build a model of the craft (or just its tank deck) and of all the vehicles it carried, ensuring they are at the same scale, and then try to fit them all inside the craft. There are probably not many ways the vehicles coud be embarked, because almost every craft was packed to its full capacity, often leaving only inches between vehicles.

See for example the only loading diagram for LCT(6) that I know of:


Michel

 

Where did you track down your copy Michel? I have looked for it a couple of times in the past.

Also, of course, "final" was a relative term.

Cheers!

 

It's in 1 US Inf Div FO 35 which I thought I sent you around end May 2019, but perhaps did not .

Email sent to you.

Michel

 

I think I got it:

Thank you,
I think I have found what I am looking for (have yet to actaully draw a scale picture, but I have it in my head ;-)
The first document is my edit of my subject Landing Tables of interest;
(p.s. thanks for the hot tip leading to First Division Museum!)

The second is an extract from the book: "Proud Americans Of WWII: Men of the 32nd Field Artillery Battlion In Action, World War II, As part of the 18th Regimental Combat team 1st Infantry Division"; Compiled and edited by Malcom Marshall.
The LCT load layout is described, as well as Battery A, 32nd FAB, firing 105s from LCTs.
I have also received a paperback of; "The U.S. Navy at Normandy, Fleet organization and Operations in the D-Day Invasion": Greg H. Williams.
Between website archives of CMH, CARL, FDMuseum, NAVSource, Hyperwar, ibilio, Nierhorster...as well as WW2Talk, (still no word from WW2lct)
There is a lifetime of research material readily available (once you figure out their systems)
Again, many thanks for your help... and patience.
Regards,
john
p.s. To put most of this in real, tangible perspective, looking forward to visiting LCT 7074 at Royal Navy Museum display, Portsmouth, U.K.

 

This may not be the proper place for this request (or, please recommend an alternative):
Can anyone recommend a particularly useful photograph that shows the differences of APAs (AKAs?)
with LCVPs/DUKWs on "DAVITS"(?)
as well as the other method of transporting/transferring the above ("hoists"?, "yard-arms"?, "cranes"?)
AFAIK, Some could be pre-loaded "over the rails" and lowered, fully loaded. (i.e. "Davits")
Others required climbing down netting (yikes!!)
Other than "fire teams" that crossed on LCTs loaded in the U.K.
The balance of the Artillery battalion will be landed via LCVPs, or DUKWS (launched from LSTs?)
Crossing the Channel in LCVPs, even DUKWS, must have been a particularly unpleasant experience.
My focus is, obviously, "O-3", CT18.
jus' wonderin'
john (fwiw, my tactical moves were via C-130s, C-5s... even CH-53s!... affectionately referred to as "garbage scows")
p.s. is it true that DDs were launched 9 miles out?? Even overloaded DUKWs? (that's kinda... nuts!)

 

UTAH Landing List wanted for July 1944
I am researching US 452 Quartermaster (laundry) Company that was stationed at Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire in 1944 and left for Normandy about 10th July in two LCI's (501+another) from Weymouth. Can anyone confirm this?
The Unit had 16 mobile laundry vehicles (Artic drawing a trailer) plus 6x6 trucks how were these transported and to & from which ports?

 

Hi John,

If in fact Battery A did that it was extemporaneous inasmuch as they were not part of the initial assault waves and there was no plan to use them in a "beach drenching" as was done on the British beaches with their 25-pdr field guns.

There was a "beach drenching" plan for OMAHA and UTAH, but it was not done by the M2A1 towed 105mm batteries on the LCT, it was done by M7A1 self-propelled 105mm batteries. I have never found an explanation as to why that was so or why the rather harebrained idea of loading M2A1 105mm howitzers on DUKW came about.

I suspect it was because of the general U.S. Army resistance to extemporaneous changes in equipment not sanctioned by the T/O&E. That the 4th Infantry Division was able to exchange 24 of its M2A1 for the same number of M7A1 is unique and may have been simply a matter of availability and that the VII Corps CG and G-4 authorized it and got ETOUSA Service of Supply to agree to it. Why the V Corps did not do the same I do not know. It is possible that the whole madness WRT the DUKW was because there were only so many LCT to go around and the V Corps planners had other loads scheduled for them.

In the end, on OMAHA the layout was:

Assault Echelon
16th CT with the 7th FA (105mm towed) on DUKW and the 62d Armored FA (105mm SP) on LCT
116th CT with the 111th FA (105mm towed) on DUKW and the 58th Armored FA (105mm SP) on LCT
Follow-up Echelon
18th CT with the 32d FA (105mm towed) on LCT
Force B
115th CT with the 110th FA (105mm towed) on LCT
175th CT with the 224th FA (105mm towed) on LCT
26th CT with the 33d FA (105mm towed) on LCT

On UTAH the layout was:

8th CT with the 29th FA (105mm SP) and the 65th Armored FA (105mm SP) on LCT
22d CT with the 42d FA (105mm SP) on LCT
12th CT with the 44th FA (105mm towed) on LCT

Note that the "Bristol Channel Preload" follow on forces for UTAH, the 90th Infantry Division, had all its artillery loaded on Motor Transport Vessels, which were modified Liberty ships designed to unload vehicles, guns, and crews onto LCT of the shuttle service. The same was true for the preload 2d Infantry Division on OMAHA.

 

IIRC, few to none of the DUKW were carried on APA or AKA, they were preloaded and carried on LST for launching.

LCVP and LCM, along with LCS(S) were the normal craft carried by the APA and the AKA.

There was no attempt to do a Channel crossing in the LCVP or DUKW. All landing craft smaller than LCT were carried on larger ships or were towed by larger ships or craft with their crew and passengers carried on the larger vessel.

The best reference for the different assault landing ships and craft of the USN is US Ships and Craft, an Illustrated History, by Norman Friedman. Copies are ridiculously expensive so interlibrary loan is your best friend. Less detailed is ONI 226 Allied Ships and Craft, which is generally available as a PDF download.

 

Ah, thanks for the clarification... and the ONI tip, got it, downloaded.
As for launching DDs, DUKWS and LCVPs, is it true that they were launched at 9 miles out?? (or, what was the average distance?)

 

DD Tanks were to be launched from LCT at 6,000 yards from the beach, based upon a decision made by the LCT flotilla commander and the tank commander on sea conditions.

The anchorage, where the APA would load out the LCVP and LCM was roughly 9,000 to 11,000 yards from shore - further from Pointe du Hoc, closer to the beaches at Vierville-Colleville.