The Battle of Normandy (codenamed Operation Overlord) was the largest seaborne invasion in history, beginning on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), when over 156,000 Allied troops landed on five beaches in France.

It successfully established a critical second front against Nazi Germany, facilitating the liberation of Western Europe and marking a turning point in WWII that forced the German army into a retreat.

On that fateful morning, Omaha Beach lay like a giant steel trap waiting for the Americans to step into it.

German gun positions were built into the sides of bluffs. Overlooking the beaches, they had an enormous field of fire and to reach them, the infantry had to cross not only the beach itself but a stone bank topped with barbed wire and a flat strip of mined ground behind it. Then they still had to climb the formidable slope. In addition to these manned defenses, the Germans had gone to great lengths to build elaborate underwater obstacles off-shore.

In a 1982 interview, Harwood Howard of Lexington provided an eyewitness account of Omaha Beach on that terrible and historic day.

Howard was plucked from what he regarded as training for fighting in the Pacific and shipped across the ocean through England to Normandy virtually without stopping.

Of his trip across the channel, Howard recalled from his vantage point on a troop-ship that it was an awesome sight.

“Ships as far as the eye could see in all directions, you wouldn’t have believed there were that many ships in the world.”

Howard, who was with the 329th Infantry, 83rd Division, spent time in both the 1st and 3rd Armies in the drive across Europe. As he drew nearer the beach, Howard recalled, “The water was filled with floating bodies and live men swimming for their lives, equipment was floating everywhere and the beach was jammed with sunken landing craft, small beached ships, sunken amphibious tanks, and underwater obstacles… God, it was a mess, we had to cross over sunken ships just to get to the beach. The beach was covered with thousands of our dead and what sand you could see was red. It was a tough place to stay alive in…I lost most of my outfit out there…”

Of his trip up the slope, Howard remembered simply, “It was the longest hill I ever climbed.” He recalled, “When we finally got over that hill, everybody started to dig in, but I didn’t get the chance, I was called out on patrol right away.”

Howard was an expert rifleman and was used to cover bazookas and spot snipers.

Howard recalled being “scared as hell” and credited his survival to luck and “being a sharpeyed squirrel hunter from Missouri.”

Asked if he would like to go back and see Normandy now under more peaceful conditions, he replied, “To me, it is a place of death and bad memories and I have no desire to see it again.”

Howard went on from Normandy to fight at St. Lo., St. Sevan, Luxemburg, and elsewhere before being wounded and sent home.