There have been a lot of good films and books about it. I'd be glad to see more, if you could recommend me some. However, do you think it was the biggest horror a soldier could experience in the cold water while having sand in their boots and bullets next to their helms?
It wasn't pleasant that is for sure. All war is terrifying and yet men...and women continue to be forced into them. Dying young - the thought of dying young has to be terrifying.
Omaha beach was for sure hard on the soldiers there, but it was certainly not the biggest horror of the war. There were plenty of other battles where way more casualty took place in shorter amount of time. If I remember correctly, the casualty on American side on Omaha beach was in the 3,000s. In American films, of course the battles fought by the Americans get the most attention. Russian and Chinese films also make it so their battles are shown as the hardest to be fought. Remember, both USSR and China lost tens millions of lives (each) during WWII. The cruelest battles took place there.
The fiercest among all WW1 and 2 battles was The Battle of the Tennis Court at the Garrison Hill ('44 ~ Kohima), where a garrison of 3500 men not only faced 15000 well equipped men of formidable Japs' 31st Division .. bound them to retreat, my God .. for 16 days and nights, without food-ammo-medicine .. The Thermopilae of the East !
Battle of Stalingrad caused total over 2 million soldiers killed (combined figure from both sides) in just 5 months. It means over 13000 dead per day. That's not even including the injured and missing ones. Battle of Shanghai caused 300,000 totally killed from both sides in just 2 months. That's over 5,000 killed per day. It's also not including the injured and missing soldiers. The U.S. always had air and naval superiority over its opponents in the battles, while China for example was totally under-equipped compare to the Japanese. Their infantry soldiers in Shanghai had to fight under constant bombardment from both Japanese bombers and the pin point shooting by Japanese naval guns... Sorry, the hardest battles during WWII were always on the east front and in Asia bought by Russia and China.
According to the intensity and other variable factors telling that, Kohima, oftenly called as the Stalingrad of the East for the Battle of the Kohima-Imphal (siege), which was one of the most fierce battles of WW2 too. Mutaguchi and the INA/AHF observed that out of 80 000 of the combined force, 60 000 had fallen against the Allies of some 18 000 casualties. This was the combat zone of WW2, where there was no way to send garrison after garrison to replace/relief etc. Dr Robert Lyman, historian/Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, observed that the intensity of fighting was higher in this region, than the D Days', as per the pole conducted by the National Army Museum, museum of Chelsea, west London. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/...clashes-named-as-Greatest-British-Battle.html The Kohima Epitaph reads .. " When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War. Not to anyway disrespect your take on the matter, Freezing your butt off while facing constant danger that you can rarely see from dark forests is quite a challenge to anyone.
Has anyone hear of a small battle called "the Somme"? It was a Great War meat grinder. The British lost 60,000+ casualties just on the first day, and the battle lasted months. For horror, consider mustardgas without protection or warning.
On the US side the last day of WW1, i.e. 11th November 1918 the Americans I believe lost more men in the few hours up until 11am ceasefire than they lost on the 6th June 1944 for the entire day and that with invading a continent. There was a ruckus about it after the Armistice with the US Government looking into the matter, however they never published their results as the Generalship of the US took rather a hammering.
As far as AMPHIBIOUS operation is concerned, there are only Two foremost and incomparable battles that I've noted (hell with the movies...........for civilians), the Somme and the Okinawa. Since there tons of data are available regarding these, it's not req to re-tell here!
