Great video!! I was just hoping for more!! Did this only play on UK stations??
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Dear Jean LoupOriginally posted by Jean-Loup View Post
Severloh was far more down in a open poistion with his MG42. On the right side of the tree in your picture. I had the pleasure to speak to Serverloh, now he passed away in 2006
juergStrength and Honour
http://standwheretheyfought.jimdo.com/Comment
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Franz Gockel,
Here some footage of Franz Gockel in the Discovery Channel documentary concerning the 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKySxT6i0bw&feature=related , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HCu6Sx7Qxk , if you follow all ten editions you can see the whole documentary you are possibly revering to.Originally posted by tazpants View PostComment
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Good documentary, but thats not the one. The programme i referred to was perhaps just shown in Germany and UK only. It was called something like "Beast of Omaha". It just focussed on Severloh and a US soldier who was wounded by Severloh and in later years became a priest. In the end they are brought together to meet on the beach. Severloh appears to have been traumatised by his time on 6th June.Originally posted by Ostfries View PostComment
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IT was shown in Italy as well cos i seen it but id really love to know if it is possible to buy it or dowload it somewhere!!Comment
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Lelez,
I have only seen the version for sale in German language only. If you can understand German then its available online.Comment
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No german speaking here
i guess i have to wait....
Also if i can download it somewhere for free from somebody that recorded it from history channel would be okComment
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Maybe I got an answer on this question in this thread but is there any German veteran still alive that defended Omaha Beach or Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword ?Comment
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Before I read this thread, I had never even heard of Heinrich Severloh. I was not aware that a very large part of the huge number of causualties that were inflicted on the Americans trying to come ashore on Omaha Beach were caused by this one man, firing around 12,000 rounds from a single MG42 and around 400 with 2 K98s. I can see how he had problems dealing with this later in his life, knowing that he was personally responsible for taking around 2000 lives and being called the "Beast of Omaha Beach".
However, I am puzzled at how long it took us to take out his position. You would think that, knowing that basically this one man was holding up the entire advance in the Easy Red sector, that we would have tried a little harder to eliminate him, even more so knowing how many of our men he had killed. However, I realize that this is easy for me to say, in hindsight and when I possibly don't know the whole situation.
When a US destroyer finally began shelling his position (apparently the only reason he was spotted by the destroyers was because he swiched to using tracer rounds after he ran out of all other MG ammo; this may answer my question above), Severloh fled to the nearby village of Colleville-Sur-Mer, where he was later captured. His American captors even shared their food with him that night. You can bet that if they had known that he was the infamous "Beast of Omaha Beach", or an Omaha Beach MG gunner in general, they probably would have shot him on the spot.
I would also be very interested to read his book "WN62", if a English translation ever did surface. His actions in combat and the amount of casualties that he inflicted kind of make you wish that he was on our side, even if he did inflict them out of extreme fear.
"I did not shoot for the lust of killing but only to stay alive."- Heinrich SeverlohLast edited by MauserKar98k; 03-22-2008, 03:56 AM.Comment
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About 800-900 Americans were apparently killed on Omaha that day. Accurate figures are still unknown and historians disagree on the figures. With all due respect, as some of you already know, I'm skeptical with his claims of injuring/killing 2,000-25000 americans. How could he possibly know how many he struck down from his distance and the confusion of battle? Undoubtedly, many Americans dove for cover and he could have claimed as hit. Don't get me wrong and don't want to start a bitter war here but I find this figure as a gross exageration. I would love to read the book and learn more about his memoirs of that day. Was his claim ever backed-up with official sources...ie, action reports, eyewitness accounts by his comrades, etc?
-EricLast edited by peleliuexplorer; 03-22-2008, 04:49 PM.Comment
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Do other historians use Severloh as a source for their writings? I have read a few books about Omaha Beach and none referrence him
Was his claim beefed-up for propaganda purposes for the German people like the Russians did with the storied sniper Vasili Zeits--blablahblah (sorry can't spell his name)?
-EricComment
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Severlohs claims were not beefed up for propaganda: him and all those around him were either killed or captured in the mayhem that followed. Only he knew about what he did.
The number of 2000 is of course widely exagerated though. Maybe he killed 200... In combat, you dont always know if you kill a guy, wound him, or if he is just playing dead. Then, your memmory plays tricks on you. If you shoot 200 men, your brain must have a very difficult time dealing with that...
I found 14 MIA germans in a mass grave in France. Period US documents claimed that they had killed about 100 germans in that place.... Numbers of KIA, airial victories, ect, are often exagerated.
JLComment
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Thank you. Please keep us posted if you ever find out if this book is ever published in English. I would love to read it. I just finished a German officer's account of the war in Russia called "In Deadly Combat". Very, very good!Originally posted by Jean-Loup View Post
-EricComment
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Yes, "In Deadly Combat" is another great memoir by Gottlob Bidermann.Originally posted by peleliuexplorer View Post
About Severloh's self-claimed kill numbers. His number of kills probably is a little inflated, but if he was in action from 6 to as much as 9 hours like he says he was, his number probably isn't that far off. Reminiscent of a seen often seen in "Saving Private Ryan", Severloh claimed he "emptied" an entire landing craft by shooting his MG42 directly into it when the ramp dropped. When he was shooting his K98s (he fired one so often that the bolt seized and he had to find another) it was easy to tell when he had killed a man, especially when he shot one man in the head and knocked his helmet off into the sand. It was then, according to him, that he finally realized exactly what he had been doing for all that time.
You have to remember, he repressed these memories and didn't tell anyone except his wife what he had done and how many people he had killed. We can't expect veterans to remember exactly what they did all those years ago with a ton of clarity since the years and, in some cases, probably guilt pushed these memories out of men's minds until interested individuals like us come along and ask about their experiences.
The fact that Severloh and the 30 or so other landsers in WN62 stood their ground and inflicted massive casualties on the Americans struggling to come ashore on Easy Red Beach is undisputed, but Severloh's number of kills, as well as the other landser's kills are in dispute. In the end, the number of casualties they inflicted is not relevant. However, the very high proportion of casualties WN62 inflicted in relation to the other defenders of the beach (some say as high as 90%), is. They defended their position like they were supposed to. Unfortunately for us, they did a very good job of it.Comment
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I've got a few questions about some of the figures that have been presented here. I'm not sure if we are analyzing the numbers properly. Below was taken from a different thread...
FOR Hein Severloh the ‘Longest Day’ meant nine hours constantly machine-gunning American soldiers as they attempted to land on Omaha Beach.
One image still brings tears to his eyes. A young American had run from his landing craft and sought cover behind a concrete block. Severloh, then a young lance-corporal in the German army in Normandy, aimed his rifle at the GI. He fired and hit the enemy square in the forehead. The American’s helmet flew away and rolled into the sea, his chin sank to his chest and he collapsed dead on the beach.
Tormented by the memory, Severloh now weeps at the thought of the unknown soldier’s death.
Severloh was safe in an almost impregnable concrete bunker overlooking the beach. He had an unimpeded view of the oncoming Allied forces. He was the last German soldier firing, and may have accounted for about 3,000 American casualties, almost three-quarters of all the US losses at Omaha. The Americans came to know him as the Beast of Omaha.
He had been saved from the waves of Allied bombing by the poor weather. The US aircrews were worried that if they allowed their bombs to fall too soon they might destroy their own landing ships. As they flew over they lingered before releasing their weapons, meaning the bombs often landed far behind the Nazi bunkers.
The Germans joked that the ‘Amis’ - their slang for the US forces - had merely bombed French cows and farmers rather than the German installations.
Alerted by the bombers, Severloh and the 29 others in his bunker rushed to their firing holes and prepared for the onslaught. Severloh, then just 20, gasped when he saw the ocean. He was confronted by what seemed to be a wall of Allied ships. He said: "My God. How am I going to get out of this mess?"
The veteran explained: "What could I do? I just thought that I was never going to make it to the rear. I thought that I was going to shoot for my very life. It was them or me - that is what I thought."
As the landing ships neared the beach, Severloh listened to the final orders from his commander, Lieutenant Berhard Frerking. They wanted to stop the Americans while they were still in the water and could not move easily. But if he fired too soon - while the soldiers were still some way out in the water - he risked missing them.
Frerking explained: "You must open fire when the enemy is knee-deep in the water and is still unable to run quickly."
Severloh had seen little action before. His previous stint on the Eastern Front had been cut short by tonsillitis. But he was anything but enthusiastic. Severloh said: "I never wanted to be in the war. I never wanted to be in France. I never wanted to be in that bunker firing a machine gun.
"I saw how the water sprayed up where my machine gun bursts landed, and when the small fountains came closer to the GIs, they threw themselves down. Very soon the first bodies were drifting in the waves of the rising tide. In a short time, all the Americans down there were shot."
He fired for nine hours, using up all the 12,000 machine-gun rounds. The sea turned red with the blood from the bodies. When he had no more bullets for the machine-gun, he started firing on the US soldiers with his rifle, firing off another 400 rifle rounds at the terrified GIs.
A leading German historical expert of the Second World War, Helmut Konrad Freiherr von Keusgen, believes Severloh may have accounted for 3,000 of the 4,200 American casualties on the day.
Severloh is less sure about the number, but said: "It was definitely at least 1,000 men, most likely more than 2,000. But I do not know how many men I shot. It was awful. Thinking about it makes me want to throw up. I almost emptied an entire infantry landing craft. The sea was red around it and I could hear an American officer shouting hysterically in a loudspeaker."
Lt-col Stuart Crawford, formerly of the Royal Tank Regiment, and a defence consultant, said it was entirely possible that a single German soldier had killed so many GIs. He said: "I have fired that machine-gun. I did it as part of my training, and it has an extremely high rate of fire. He was in a position which was almost impervious to the weapons which the Americans could bring to bear on him. The Americans made the mistake of not landing tanks with the first wave of troops, so they had no support or protection."
One, did he fire his MG42 into a full LCVP first? Or did he fire at a single G.I. as he unloaded with his K98? I suppose in the morning he could've done both. But this is a little confusing, and leads me to my next observation...
Two, has anybody ever actually fired a K98 at over 300 meters? At the Colleville Draw, the beach crossing was AT LEAST 300 meters, maybe a tad more. WN62 was situated on the bluff another 100 yards or so. I can't imagine anybody seeing a helmet fall of and roll into the ocean at over 400 meters??? Sorry. My gun club has a 300 meter range, and you'd be hard pressed to see a half-silhouette of a man at 400 meters, let alone a helmet.
The claim by the "leading German historical expert of the Second World War, Helmut Konrad Freiherr von Keusgen" that Severloh inflicted as many as 3,000 of the roughly 4,000 casualties on Omaha beach is ridiculous. The beach was 5 miles long, he was only responsible for one small part. When the 2nd and 3rd waves of LCVP's saw what was happening in the sectors with devasting casualties, they landed elsewhere. Additionally, by 7:30 when the first LCI's arrived, they comleted avoided the Colleville draw.
MauserKar98K, when you wrote...
"However, the very high proportion of casualties WN62 inflicted in relation to the other defenders of the beach (some say as high as 90%)"
...does this mean that they killed 9 out of every 10 G.I.'s landing in their sector? This I would buy. Or does it mean that they killed 90% of all G.I.'s on Omaha Beach? That I wouldn't, for the reasons mentioned above.
Jean-Loup, you read the book. Can you help with some of these questions.
Best,
BlairComment
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