By the way, I post a link to here at my digs, so people there come over here to see what's being said; the more illumination and enlightenment, the better.
And again, I have to express my gratitude to those with the patience to answer kindergarten questions; because some of us need this stuff.
Good question, I look forward to reading the responses you get. My WWII history is just OK, but there are some real experts here on FR. We’ll all learn things as you get your answers, thanks for posting the question.
I might be wrong (and WILL be corrected if I am, LOL) but I believe one of the main importances of taking Omaha was that it was necessary to create a continuous land presence with the british troops to the east, and the other American troops to the west and link them all up, creating a solid Allied toehold on Europe. Otherwise it would have been easy for the Germans to divide the Allied troops and eliminate them piecemeal. Unfortunately, Omaha Beach was much heavier defended than was thought, and a lot of things went wrong to boot.
Gen. Bradley indeed did briefly consider pulling off of Omaha and transferring westward to Utah. The US forces were unaware of the presence of the German 352nd Infantry Division, which had artillery and Panzer components.
Here’s a map in nice detail that helps make things more clear about the scale and spacing:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/D-day_battle_order.jpg
What kept the US on Omaha was the brave actions of a couple of destroyer commanders, who pushed their destroyers very close to shore (much closer than orders allowed) and commenced to putting direct fire from their 5-inch guns onto the German bunkers and gun emplacements.
In addition to the other reasons listed here, one of the biggest fears of the landing operation were that the long range guns of Point Du Hoc would offer devastating fire on the ships at sea and the other landing areas. The guns had been moved further in land and not in the shells that were along the shore line. The cliffs had to be scaled to neutralize the threat.
This is my simplistic take on the situation.
Giving up on Omaha Beach would have split the invasion force into two separate forces (usually not a good idea). Each unit in the invasion had specific tactical and strategic targets they were ordered to capture or destroy in the vicinity of their respective beaches. V Corps, 1st Infantry Division and 29th Infantry Division and later the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions were sent to Omaha. Their mission was to establish a beachhead of about 5 miles inland at Omaha and to link up with the British units landing at Gold beach, and the VII Corps landing at Utah beach.
If Omaha was not held, units in reserve and units from the other beaches would have to been diverted from their mission objectives to link up the armies. You do not want a hole in your defenses that the enemy can pour troops into. A basic tactic in war is to flank your enemy, that is while you engage him head on, you also attack him on one of his sides. Having a enemy that can attack you in more than one direction causes all kinds of problems.
Also, if Omaha was not captured it would have at least delayed the invasion, and Hitler might of had the time to wake up and send in his reserves. Fortunately for us Hitler had taken a sleeping pill right before the invasion and given strict orders not to be woken. Time was important because many more troops would have died. In particular the airborne troops that were dropped behind enemy lines would need to be resupplied asap. Any delay might have been disastrous.
Often you can’t advance without the flanks being cleared. Artillery on or behind Omaha could fire left and right to Utah and Gold/Juno/Sword. Observers at Omaha could have adjusted artillery fire onto ships as the off loaded.
Folks inside bunkers are much less vulnerable to fire than folks outside of bunkers attempting to off load or advance.
There were many mistakes on D-Day. Taking Omaha was not one of them.
How would the invasion have gone without the "Mulberry" harbor and breakwaters? That damned near happened except for an unsung American, Capt. Dayton Clark.
As the Mulberrys and Phoenix caissons were being built, they were shipped up coast to an isolated area and sunk, waiting to be re-floated just before the invasion and towed to the beaches. This guy kept telling anybody who would listen that the approach the British Army was taking wouldn't work - damned near got court-martialed because he kept at it when he was told to shut up.
Ellsberg, who was working on another project, was finally given the task to check it out. He was an old salvage expert and knew the ropes. Good God, Clark was right! The Brits had some Dutch tugs refitted with massive pumps to do the refloating. The only thing was, the pumps were sewage pumps taken from London and were meant to MOVE water along horizontally, not pump it UP from sunken hulls.
Long story short, Ellsberg backed Clark up and suggested the U.S. Navy take over. Churchill came down just days before the invasion, took a look, and yanked the army's Royal Engineers off the project and gave it to the Royal Navy (national pride), who saved the day. It was a near thing.
An interesting sidelight is that they also towed over the stripped down old WWI battleship "Centurion" with 80 guys on board. They brought her in, lined her up and scuttled her under heavy shore fire. The Germans were ecstatic as they thought they had sunk a battleship with a heavy loss of life as "less than 100 were seen abandoning ship".
There was also a grim epitaph for some of the crews of the tugs and "bombardons" (steel floating breakwaters) that were towed over. Many were attacked by E-boats. Ellsberg says they found one floating adrift, blood-spattered, without the tug and with no one aboard.
I doubt many people know what a near disaster that part of the invasion was.
The time it would have taken to do a scissor maneuver (pinch) would have give the German reserves inland, time to advance on the coast and would have exposed the troops on their flank while they took those beaches.
Our 101st Airborne Division was already scattered inland to capture critical bridges and roads, which helped split up the German defenses.
But the biggest help for our side was the German Command’s incompetent system, based on an Oligarchic chain of command. (Everything went through Hitler himself.) This was our greatest advantage and the miracle we had hoped and prayed for.
