Reflections: World War Two Memorial, Baltimore

The words on this memorial in Baltimore come from a soldier who survived Omaha Beach and never stopped seeing it. Dedicated in nineteen eighty-four, the plaque opens with a personal reckoning: Omaha Beach, however, was a nightmare. Even now it brings pain to recall what happened there on June sixth, nineteen forty-four.

I have returned many times to honor the valiant men who died on that beach. They should never be forgotten, nor should those who lived to carry the memory forward. June sixth, nineteen forty-four was D-Day, the Allied amphibious assault on Normandy, France.

Omaha was the most costly of the five landing zones, where American forces faced steep bluffs, concentrated German fire, and heavy casualties in the first hours. American forces suffered about twenty-four hundred casualties at Omaha on that day, by the lowest estimates. This memorial uses a survivor's witness to hold that weight, making it less a monument to victory than a record of what it cost.