WN 62, Omaha beach viewd from the German side

[whscharfschütze]

ggg

[whscharfschütze]

hhhhhhhhhhh

[whscharfschütze]

i have more picturs made on wn62, if interested, i will post them.

best wishes

[Jean-Loup]

"I may have missed something in the thread, but I thought it had only been published in German. "

Indeed Larry, you missed post 3 :

"I read my copy in French. I did a quick google search and am very suprised to see that there doesnt seem to be an english version . Very very surprising!"


I am curious to know if Mr Meyer is the grandfather of that women who contacted me or not. I guess there is something like a 1 in 10 chance. The thing is that it might be impossible to verify either way... but now at least she can have picture to look at; and hope.

[Daniele C]

My contribution on WN62.Pics taken on 19 June 2007

[Daniele C]

1

[Daniele C]

2

[Daniele C]

4

[Daniele C]

last toward Colleville sur mere where severloh ran after the massacre

[Larry deZeng]

I spent a day there on 6 June 21 years after the invasion. That WN 62 sign wasn't there, or at least I don't remember it. It's interesting to note that WN 62 had 4 machine guns plus 4 weapons of larger calibre. That fact somewhat diminishes Severloh's account unless all of the other weapons in WN 62 were quickly silenced except for his. But if they were all firing from the same bunker, then any knockout blow from a direct hit by a bomb or large-calibre naval shell would most likely have taken out Severloh, too.

[Jean-Loup]

By the way guys, I just reread the book yesterday.
I dont remember what all the critisism in this thread was; but concerning his "claim" to have killed 2000 US troops, here is the context he was in:
At the end of an interview, a journalist asked him, by surprise: who gave you the order too shoot, could you have ran away, and finaly, how many men did you kill.
Obviously the journalist was trying to provoque something.
Severloh said he didnt know, so the journalist insisted "was it 1000?", and Severloh then replied "No, it was more like 2000".
It is unclear wether he said that out of spite, because he was distabilised or what.

It seems that many of Severlohs words have been distorted out of context and proportion by journalists. To me the whole story rings 100% true (and there were several other German witnesses of the events), and is one of the best war stories I ever read. Particularly the part at the end of the book when he meets up with other US and German vets.

JL

[Larry deZeng]

Good point. Also, when he replied, "2,000", was he speaking in terms of just himself, his entire WN 62 emplacement, the wide sector of the beach in front of him as far as he could see to the left and right, all of Omaha Beach, or what? He may have been confused by the question. It would be helpful to see this passage in the original German.

[peleliuexplorer]

By the way guys, I just reread the book yesterday.
I dont remember what all the critisism in this thread was; but concerning his "claim" to have killed 2000 US troops, here is the context he was in:
At the end of an interview, a journalist asked him, by surprise: who gave you the order too shoot, could you have ran away, and finaly, how many men did you kill.
Obviously the journalist was trying to provoque something.
Severloh said he didnt know, so the journalist insisted "was it 1000?", and Severloh then replied "No, it was more like 2000".
It is unclear wether he said that out of spite, because he was distabilised or what.

It seems that many of Severlohs words have been distorted out of context and proportion by journalists.

JL

Yes, good point. Sounds like he was refering to the total US casualties of the entire Omaha Beach head.

-Eric

[Jean-Loup]

I am not sure what he meant; but what is sure is that 2000 is not a number he had calculated and considered and was convinced was correct. It was just something he said off the top of his head.

I still can not conceive why this book ha not been published in english. It is obvious it would be a block buster.

JL

[Nicholas Link]

Gentlemen, I am adding something that I am hoping will be of interest to all of you. One of my uncles took part in the invasion of Omaha Beach on D-Day. He was a member of the 35th. Combat Engineer Battalion, and one of the first people onto the beach. The map that I'm including is a bringback. When he died in 1962, I was the only one in the family who did n't want to toss it into the trash. It is, essentially, the beginning of my militaria collection. I never knew how he acquired the map, although I can imagine. He never did talk about his experiences - at least not to me. The map is, as you can see, hand-drawn on a piece of typing paper, and quite the worse for age and wear. There once was an inkstamp in the upper left hand corner that said eighth grenider regiment, battlaion 915. But it is almost invisable at this point. The first photo of the map is as it appears today; the second has been tweeked by picture wizzard. Hope you enjoy my map.

Best Regards

Nick Link
Grafton, ND