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Sources are Omaha A Flawed Victory by Adrian Lewis, D-Day by Steven Ambrose and D-Day by Tute, Costello and Hughes

Omaha Beach was the code name for one of the five invasion beaches chosen for the Allied invasion of France. The beach is located on the coast of Normandy, France, facing the English Channel and is some five miles long, from east of Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to west of Vierville-sur-Mer, on the right bank of the Douve River estuary.

Omaha Beach was to be the focus of the main American landing, linking with the British forces at Gold Beach to the east and reaching to the Isigny and the link-up with the VII Corps landing at Utah Beach.

Overlord listed seventeen sectors along the Normandy coastline with codenames from the current Allied phonetic alphabet, thus Able was just west of Omaha and Rodger lay on the eastern flank of the invasion area. Each beach sector was subdivided into three with the colors Green, Red and White, and again subdivided with numbers, hence Item Red 2 for example. On either end of Omaha Beach there were large rocky cliffs, the beach itself was a crescent-shape with a gentle sloping tidal area averaging some 300 yards between the low and high-water marks. Above the high-tide line was a bank of shingles some 8 feet high and up to 15 yards wide in some places. At the western end, the shingles rested against a sea wall for roughly one-third of its length (stone in places and wooden in others). This sea wall ranged from 4 to 12 feet in height. For the remaining two thirds of the invasion beach, the shingles lay against a low sand embankment. Behind this embankment was a level shelf of sand, narrow at either end and perhaps 200 yards wide in the center. Steep escarpments or bluffs then rose to some 100-170 feet, dominating the entire beach and cut into by small wooden draws at five locations, codenamed from west to east as D-1, D-3, E-1, E-3 and F-1.

The German defensive plans did not allow for any defense in depth, depending on their ability to stop the invasion at the beaches. There were four major lines of obstacles constructed in the water. The first was a non-contiguous line with a small gap in the middle of Dog White Beach and a larger gap across all of Easy Red Beach and consisted of 200 Belgian Gates (heavy steel fence roughly 6 feet high and nine feet wide), with mines lashed to the upright posts. Roughly 30 yards behind this was the 2nd line of obstacles, which consisted of logs driven into the sand at a sharp angle, with every third one capped with a anti-tank mine. An additional 30 yards behind was the 3rd line of obstacles, which consisted of a continuous line of 450 wooden ramps, with mines attached, sloping towards shore and designed to force flat-bottomed landing craft to ride up and either flip over or detonate the mine. The 4th line of obstacles was a continuous line of hedgehogs (three pieces of iron welded into a three armed cross and designed to stop a tank). The entire area between the shingle and the bluffs was heavily wired and mined, with additional minefields placed on the bluff slopes.

Troop deployments consisted of five companies of infantry, concentrated at 15 strongpoints (Widerstandsnester or resistance nests), numbered WN-60 in the east to WN-74 near Vierville in the west. These were primarily located to control the approaches to the various draws. Each strongpoint consisted of weapons casemates, interconnected with tunnels and trenches. In addition to each companies normal allotment of rifles and machine guns, over 60 light artillery pieces ranging from 37mm to 88mm were deployed at these strongpoint points. The heaviest pieces were located in eight gun casemates and four open positions, the lighter guns were housed in 35 pillboxes. An additional 18 antitank guns (50mm to 88mm) were emplaced to cover the beach. Areas in between each strongpoint were lightly manned with occasional trenches, rifle pits, and an additional 85 machine gun emplacements. No part of the beach was left uncovered and the disposition of weapons meant that flanking fire could be brought to bear anywhere along the beach.

Allied Intelligence identified the coastal defenses as being manned by a reinforced battalion (800-1,000 men) of the 716th Infantry Division, a static defensive unit estimated to contain up to 50% of non-German troops, mostly Russian volunteers and German Volksdeutsche. The nearest reserve unit was the 352nd Infantry Division concerted around Saint Lo, some 20 miles inland. However, Intelligence missed the movement forward of the 352nd towards the invasion beaches. As part of this movement, the 352 assumed responsibility for the defense of Omaha Beach, reinforcing the 726th Grenadier Regiment (and its attached 439th Ost Battalion) with the 916th Grenadier Regiment, supporting these troops were the 1st and 4th Battalions,, 352nd Artillery Regiment (twelve 105mm and four 150mm howitzers. Covering the eastern part of Omaha was the 3rd Battalion, 352nd Artillery Regiment (twelve 105mm howitzers). A reserve force of two companies of the 916th Grenadiers was held at Formigny, two miles inland. Located south-east of Bayeux was the divisional reserve, the 915th Grenadier Regiment.