@thing:
As a fit and professional military man in my youth I took part in a landing craft assault. These were the old WWII craft with the crash down doors at the front. All I had was an SLR (an M4 size rifle), a small backpack and webbing belt with water bottle etc. We were dropped for draught considerations up to our neck in water. By the time I got to the shore I was absolutely done in and all I could do was lay there trying to get my breath, as were all of my colleagues.
F**k, that has brought back a really unpleasant memory from almost thirty years to the day (Although, I would say that the SLR is closer to the M14 than the M4).
If I may give a little more colour. The first thing is the ramp goes down and a big splash of water soaks the troops at the front. All thirty of you rush off the end of the ramp and in our case we had full marching order including bergans. You run off the ramp and immediately go completely underwater, less your rifle which is held one handed above your head. By standing on tip-toes and leaning your head back you can just get your mouth above water and gulp air in. But to step forward you need to bend your knee so your head goes under again with each step.
At the same time the rest of the troops are crashing in on top complete with heavy weapons such as 84mm (36lb) and GPMG (24lb). In this total maelstrom you have to force yourself forward against the weight of the water. We didn't have anything really cumbersome like bangalore torpedoes etc. Even so it is really easy to get knocked over. As thing says, by the time you have struggled to shallow water you are completely done in and encrusted with salt water.
I did it once in training and that was once too many. So hats off to those that did it for real in 1944 especially at Omaha. Equally I would not have liked to attempt the Ranger assault up the cliff face at Pointe du Hoc.
As an aside OVERLORD was the last time in the NW Europe campaign where the British and Commonwealth force was larger than the US contingent.
EG