Omaha Beach is a name we learned in history books as one of the decisive D-Day landings
of World War II. This was the largest amphibious invasion in history. The navy had
bombarded the entrenched German soldiers with bombs from aircraft and rockets from the
ships, but the fire power had been too brief and had fallen too short to make the enemy give
up. As a result, when the first Allied soldier planted his foot on the beach on June 6, 1944,
the Germans emerged from their bunkers and manned the 85 machine-gun positions.
The months of planning and preparation were going up in the smoke of the merciless
enemy fire. The Allied soldiers were pinned down hugging the rocks of the beach with
bullets flying inches from their heads. At the same time, the tide was coming in, reducing
the narrow strip of land by the minute. Then a general message was sounded from the USS
Texas to the rest of the fleet as Rear Admiral Carleton Bryant commanded, “Get on them,
men! Get on them! They are raising hell with the men on the beach, and we can’t have any
more of that! We must stop it!”
The captains of the destroyers responded enthusiastically. The problem was that the water
depth along the beach was about 12 to 18 feet and the destroyers’ drew more than 13 feet.
If they grounded in the shallows, they would be sitting ducks for the enemy fire power. Even
so, more than a dozen Allied destroyers responded to the call and took up positions within
800 to 1,000 yards off the beach. One sailor recalled his shock and awe to see a destroyer
heading straight to the beach at full speed with heavy smoke pouring from its stack. At the
last possible moment, the ship made a sudden hard left and turned parallel with the beach
with every gun blazing point blank at the defensive positions. Mounds of dirt was flying,
smoke was billowing and bullets were flying for the next 90 minutes. But those destroyers
turned the tide of the battle on Omaha Beach.
Many times as we go into battle, we spend time in worship knowing that God is our Victor
and He has promised us the victory. But in the midst of the battle, when we’re pinned down
and the flaming darts are swirling around us and the flood waters are rising, we feel
helpless and beaten. It is in those times, that our worship turns the tide of the battle, just
as the warships turned the tide at Omaha Beach.
Omaha means “to go against the current.” Our worship turns the circumstances into our
favor. Our worship turns our defeat into our victory. Our worship is our cry to our
Commander and Savior to swoop in as our Warship. “Get on them!”