I'll make this as quick as possible, and from memory so forgive me some details.
Captain is a very high rank in the Navy, especially a captain of a destroyer, which was the most bad ass ship in the Atlantic that day. The navy sent in radio operators to act as "spotters" telling the destroyers where to shoot. Every single one either died, or had their radio destroyed as they tried to get onto Omaha beach that morning. The destroyers were rendered blind. They were under orders NOT to shoot without targeting information from the beach. They sat their, silent, watching the army get shot to hell on the beach.
Finally, after watching helplessly for hours, without orders, a Captian of one of the destroyers had enough. He ordered his ship to approach the shore. He turned sideways, exposing his broadside to the heavy guns of the German shore batteries, and gave orders to fire at targets of opportunity. Gunners on board the ship started watching where our tanks on shore were shooting at, and then shooting 5 inch shells at the same spot, not really knowing what the tanks were shooting at. The first one hit dead on. The tank operator opened his hatch, realized what had just happened, raised his arms in a victory sign. He closed the hatch, and started firing at new targets, but only once, then he would wait for the navy to blow that spot to hell.
The destroyer also expanded their targets to any spot that had alot of tracer bullets going to it from multiple directions. Other destroyers started doing something similar. They sailed up and down the coast line, shooting at whatever they could figure was a good target. They were so close into shore that the bottom of the destroyers scraped the sea bottom occasionally. A captain can lose his command for running aground. And in battle, it can mean the loss of the ship because it can become a sitting duck and the navy will probably destroy it to prevent its loss to the enemy. But the captains kept firing. And some of them fired so many rounds, they basically ran out of ammunition. Running out of ammo means not being able to defend yourself if the German navy shows up.
It was a huge help to the soldiers on shore. It allowed them to turn the tide on the beach. And it allowed the navy to accomplish what they were sent there to do in the first place, take out strong German positions. I've never seen this story in the movies, I didn't learn this in my history courses. But the story of D-Day isn't all airborne and soldiers wading ashore. It is also a story of Navy Captains who risked it all to join the fight. It is probably the one day that any good West Pointer could have gotten away with shouting "Go Navy!"
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