From this spot, where the Seabees had their camp, one could look down and see disaster in the making. This view looked east along the Omaha sector, at the scores of amphibious craft and pontoons, at the causeways and barges gradually being pounded and ground into pieces. The Seabees helplessly watched their work down below being wrecked beyond hope. This was the beach where resistance was so fierce and losses were heaviest on D-Day. A look at the terrain reveals why. The entire beach was commanded from these heights by casemated guns, mortar pits and machine gun nets. The wrecked field gun in the foreground was one of many such used from pillboxes under several feet of concrete and connected by tunnels and other emplacements. Concrete mortar pits were a few yards to the left of this picture, sunk about seven feet into the ground. Each was provided with small painted views around the top of the interior corresponding with the actual view in every direction, marked with the range so that the gunner could lay his shells where he wanted without exposing himself. Directly below was one of the road exits from the beach, muddy and almost impassable. Beyond could be seen the tank ditch running parallel with the shoreline - the ground started to rise in varying degrees of abruptness on the landward or left side of the ditch. Barbed wire was strung all along here and there was practically no cover for the attacking troops who stormed these defenses.