‘The first wave went through hell’ – how the 16th Infantry Regiment’s heroism helped bring victory on D-Day

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Among the many Allied military units storming the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944, was the 16th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division. Its members faced a particularly daunting task: As part of the first wave of the largest amphibious assault in history, the regiment was assigned to clear the Omaha Beach landing sectors code-named “Easy Red” and “Fox Green.”

This was no ordinary assault. Omaha would become the most deadly of the five D-Day landing beaches, as the U.S., U.K. and allied nations attacked Nazi-occupied France in World War II. The liberation of Europe hung in the balance.