1st US infantry division Monument in Colleville-sur-Mer (Normandy, France)
N 49° 21.552 W 000° 50.891
30U E 656249 N 5469614
Directly over the infamous Omaha beach, close to Colleville/Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, you will find obelisk honors the "Big red one", the 1st American Infantry division...
Waymark Code: WM69X7
Location: Normandie, France
Date Posted: 04/29/2009
Views: 34
"No mission too difficult; no sacrifice too great-duty first"
A monument dedicated to the "Big Red One", the 1st US Infantry Division, is located on the sea front, within walking distance (ca 500 m) from the famous American cemetery. The place is absolutely stunning and really very paeaceful today - you are staying in the grassland on the small reef over long Omaha beach, observing whole sea horizon on the west. The monument itself is simple but impressive - 10 m tall obelisk from polished granite with engraved symbol of the 1st Division, short text and names of all fallen heroes here... Obelisk is in the center of small stone paved circle, from one half of its perimeter surrounded by two circular granite benches.
Inscription on the obelisk:
Colleville-Sur-Mer (6 June 1944 - 24 July 1944)
Engagements: Colleville-Sur-Mer, Tour-En-Bessin, Ste. Anne, Entreham, Caumont
The officers and men of the 1st United States Infantry Division who were killed in this period while fighting for the world. Followed by names of all KIA here.
Other monuments in the area include the 5th Engineer Special Brigade Memorial, and plaques commemorating the American armoured vehicles that passed through here.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the "Big Red On"e stormed ashore at Omaha Beach. Soon after H-Hour, the Division's 16th Infantry Regiment was fighting for its life on a strip of beach near Coleville-sur-Mer that had been marked the "Easy Red" on battle maps. As the assault progressed, the beach became so congested with destroyed equipment, the dead and the wounded, that there was little room to land reinforcements. Col. George Taylor, commander of the 16th Infantry Regt., told his men, "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach! The dead and those who are going to die! Now, let's get the hell out of here!" Slowly, spurred by the individual heroism of many individuals, the move inland got underway.