On the morning of June 6th, 1944, preceding the majority of landings of invading infantry, soldiers and sailors of these groups spearheaded the initial assault. Their task was to clear paths or “gaps” through the maze of the deadly obstacles placed at various intervals along the beach. Equipped with explosives and amphibious bulldozers, these men made way for their brothers in arms so they could take the fight beyond the dune line. Collectively, these groups were assigned to what is known as the Special Engineer Brigades and no where else were these men so vital than along the 5 mile width of Omaha Beach. In fact, the crucial timing of the landing itself, June 5th, 6th or 7th, all depended upon tidal conditions being at low tide just before dawn to aid the engineers and demolition personnel in fulfilling their mission.

More than a year before the invasion, extensive training of these units began back and in states. Camp Edwards on Cape Cod served as the home of the Army Amphibious Forces while the training base at Little Creek Virginia became home away from home for the Navy. As training progressed independently, Fort Pierce Florida served as a combined joint branch training base prior to their departure for the European Theater of Operations. Even today at Fort Pierce, on the grounds of what is now the Navy Seal Museum, are some of the beach obstacles fabricated to determine the means of their destruction.

In early 1944, these stateside units then “invaded” our allies in Scotland, Wales and England for more advanced training at what became known as the Assault Training Centers. There they learned how to destroy these obstacles using specialized weapons called Bangalore Torpedoes, for clearing barbed wire at the dune line, sewn bags and even socks stuffed full of TNT called “Hagensen” Packs for destroying tidal obstacles, and Pole Charges tipped with blocks of TNT designed to blow up shoreline fortifications. It was inherently a very dangerous job in training let alone in combat.

On D-Day alone the human losses of these units were horrific. At Omaha Beach especially, Army Engineers lost on average 38% of their men, being either killed or wounded. It was far worse for the Naval Combat Demolition Units which saw more than half their force lost, with some units losing over 65% of their landing personnel. The 6th and 7th Naval Beach Battalions suffered extensive losses as well, sustaining 40% causalities by days end. Under command and control of the Army Special Engineers Task Force, a special bond exists between these men, soldiers and sailors alike with many receiving commendations from either branch of service or both.

To honor those brave men and to remember all those who served on that longest day on both sides, D-Day Conneaut is pleased to present our 9th D-Day series Commemorative Challenge Coin; “Into the Breach”.

The Allied side inset of the 2017 coin features a member of an Army Combat Engineers attaching a Hagensen Pack to what is the iconic symbol of the Normandy Landings, a Czech Hedgehog. Near to him is a mined stake designed to destroy a landing craft at high tide and in the background an amphibious bulldozer of the Naval Beach Battalion pushes aside a pile of destroyed obstacles, all under constant enemy bombardment. These amphibious dozers were one of the most important vehicles on the beach, vital in clearing up remnants of beach obstacles, pushing beached landing craft back into the water and sadly for clearing away sand for a makeshift cemetery following the battle.

Encircling this dramatic scene are the code-names assigned to the landing sectors spread across Omaha Beach; Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog Green, Dog Red, Dog White, Easy Green, Easy Red, Fox Green and Fox Red. To honor those who landed at Omaha, the 48 Star Flag of the United States proudly takes its rightful position above this scene. To “Old Glory’s” west, the Free French Flag, to the east, Canada. The British Flag takes up position on the bottom right and the Norwegian Flag to the lower left. As in all the coins in the series, Liberte’, and the longest day itself, D-Day June 6 1944 commemorate the scene.

Displayed on the inner ring of the Allied face is the shoulder patch worn by members of the Engineers Special Brigades, red, signifying the naval element and blue for the army. On the outer ring, Normandy LXXIII marks the 73rd anniversary of the invasion, and Conneaut XVIII marks the 18th anniversary of the D-Day Conneaut event; the numbers shown in Roman numerals in tribute to what has been called “The Great Crusade”.

Depicted on the Axis side of the coin are some of the many obstacles deployed by the Germans as a means to stop the inevitable invasion at the waters edge. In a layered defense to a seaborne approach, these obstacles presented a formidable challenge to the approaching armada of landing craft of all shapes and sizes as well as their passengers and cargo.

Overlooking this plethora of metal gates, wooden ramps, mines and obstacles of different shapes and sizes, is a small but deadly bunker called a “Tobruk”. These complexes constructed just behind the seawall or even within a seawall itself provided cover and concealment to a crew of defenders. Typically these concrete fortifications were armed with machine-guns, mortars, or armor plate protected small caliber field guns mounted on a swivel base that enabled the soldiers manning them to freely move from target to target. Surrounded by barbed wire these positions were not easily overcome. You can still find many of these bunkers, still in good condition, available for exploration all along the Normandy coastline today.

As dawn approached on the morning of June 6th, allied landing craft too crept towards the coastline at low tide. The first obstacle that might have been encountered is a Belgian Gate or what was described as Element “C” by the pre-invasion planners. Large enough and heavy enough to stop even a very large LST or LCI, these “gates” looked like gates to a farmer’s field rather than a means stop a big ship. Never the less they did the job and Army and Navy Engineers had to figure out a way to disable these things before the larger ships arrived as the tide came in later that day.

Past the Belgian Gates loomed a log structure anchored or driven into the sand into the shape of a ramp. These slopped logs were erected in such a way to flip an approaching landing craft on its side causing everything inside to fall out; men, material, and weapons. Some of these ramps were affixed with mines which upon impact with the underneath skin of a landing craft would explode resulting with horrifying results. Beyond the ramps were even more mines attached by wire to logs driven into the sand which also yielded the same deadly consequences and even more mines placed in the sand or beyond the dune line.

If you were lucky enough to get past the aforementioned, the Czech Hedgehog was there to tear holes into the bottom or sides of lightly skinned landing craft. These welded, riveted or bolted together steel structures were often placed nearer to the shore line as a means to slow up the allied soldiers or armor. The awaiting defenders could then easily see their perfect targets, ladened with gear, helpless within the tide. The hedgehogs were often supplemented by tetrahedrons made of either steel or steel reinforced concrete that came to a point that could easily rip holes into the bottom of a LCVP even on backing away rendering it useless to pick up additional troops awaiting transport from further out at sea.

Encircling the scene coupled with the inner scene phrase is “Kommen Sie Heir Wir Warten – Wir Sind Bereit!” meaning, “Come Here, We Are Waiting | We Are Ready.” The “Eisernes Kreuz” or Iron Cross appears at the bottom of the scene, to the west, the “Erdkampfabzeichen der Luftwaffe” or Ground Assault Badge of the Luftwaffe, and to the east, the “Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen” or General Assault Badge of the Wehrmacht.