An American Soldier Sleeps      The first rise in terrain off Omaha Beach was studded with foxholes, shell-holes and bomb craters left behind by troops that participated in the initial landings on D-Day. This soldier was typical of thousands who found what comfort and shelter they could after their landing on a hostile beach. Dreams of home, fatigue, and the realization of where he was and what he had been through marked his tired, sleeping face.

Digging the hole was often arduous, sometimes exhausting. A typical position would be in or on the edge of a wood, which meant many roots, as most of the trees in Belgium were planted in rows close together. During the second half of December, when the nighttime thermometer began to go down to near or below zero, the ground was frozen to the depth of a foot or more. Pickaxes were hard to come by on the front an even when available they weren't very much help. Sometimes it took hours to chip away enough frozen earth to get to unfrozen ground. Men used grenades or satchel charges to blow away the frozen earth.

The cover protected the men from shrapnel and broken branches hurtling down from the tree bursts. During an advance, GIs frequently were able to occupy holes abandoned by the retreating Germans. Nearly always they were deeper and better protected than ones made by Americans. Sometimes this was because the Germans were able to utilize slave labor to dif; more often because the Wehrmacht supplied better tools to its men than did the U.S. Army, and because in many cases the German soldiers were more strictly disciplined.

Foxhole on a Normandy Beach
Beach battalion men and shore troops sought refuge in foxholes along the beach. Every night since D-Day, raids by enemy planes on the allied beachhead became an accepted discomfort. The men crouched, laid or sat in foxholes all night and caught whatever few precious hours of sleep they could before dawn. Some Allied casualties in this area were inflicted by friendly low anti-aircraft fire.