D-Day wehrpass Omaha Beach Maisy Battery

[Floris]

Good presentation Aram

[mtdr]

Thanks for all the reactions! Glad you like it! Try to do my best and "complete" the story, in april I visited Maisy again to take more pictures of battery Brasilia.

@ Eric-Jan

Thanks for the information. You're right that the Wehpass shows Deutsche Reich and not Deutsche Reich(Poland).

@Stormfighter and Antony S. Serzysko that's the name, thanks for it.

Can somebody give me more information about W.N.84 or the 8./1716? I also search the name of the battery commander. I hope somebody can help me with it..



Thanks in advance,

Aram

[Stormfighter]

Aram, the signature is that of the stellvertretender Batterie-Chef (Deputy Battery Commander), not the Batterie-Chef (Battery Commander).

[Paul E]

Contact Gary Sterne who now owns the Maisy Battery and the Museum there , he has loads of information on the Battery and the units stationed there !!

cheers

Paul

[mtdr]

To "complete" the story:

WN. 84 is not the battery who was found by Gary Sterne, that was WN. 83 what I can understand on the internet. But they were at the "same complex". WN. 83 was also manned by a other kompanie of the 1716 artillerie regiment.

In 1942 the battery was built. The distance between WN. 84 and WN. 83 was 500 meters. W.N. 84 was manned by a little garnison of 47 men of the 8./1716 artillerie regiment. 1 officer, 10 unteroffizieren and 36 soldiers, Karl Julius was one of them. Maisy la Martiniere had 4 100mm. 14/19(t) haubitzes, 3 in casemates(H612) and 1 in the open field, the 4th casemate was planned but never build because of the allied invasion. WN 84 had also a couple of MG's, shelters and a network of trenches. The whole complex(wn 84 and wn 83) was defended with a large minefield(95 mf). Some sources said that on 3 june 1944 12 88mm Flak guns arrived of Kistowski's unit. He told his D-Day experiences to Cornelius Ryan(writer of the Longest Day) how the Allied airplanes flying over the battery and how they shoot them down, also 19 US paratroopers were captured on the Maisy battery.

The guns of the battery could reach Utah Beach and Omaha Beach but there are doubts about the role on D-Day. On 6 june the battery was bombed with 600 tonnes of bombs by the allied airplanes but most of the bombs missed the battery. Also for the battleships it was difficult to fire directly on the battery because of it's location. In the early morning the battery opened fire on the HMS Hawkins, this reported after a couple of hours it silenced the battery but seems not true. The battery was firing on Utah Beach, around Varreville. It also fired on Omaha Beach, but I'm not sure how important the battery was on this beach. Some people said the battery was responsible for the murdering on the beach, others said the role of the Maisy battery was minimal. It supported the counter attacks on Point du Hoc and was still firing on 8/9 june 1944 on the allied troops. On the evening of 8 june the Germans had to defeat the not mobile weapons. On 9 june the battery was attacked by the 2nd and 5th rangers and after a heavily battle of 5 hours the Germans surrendered. Around the 100 Germans were taking prisoner. The Americans found large amounts of food and over the 180 tons of ammunition, the battery could have continued firing for days.

The last elements of the III./1716 Artillerie Regiment fought with the 352 Infanterie Division to defend the Vire. In July 1944 the 716 Infanterie Division was send to Southern France and leave the battlefields in Normandy.

If something is not true, please let me know!

Aram

[Panzer Rob]

As someone who has been studying the allied invasion of Europe and operation Overlord, and as a collector of D-Day related IDs I have really enjoyed reading through this thread. Please keep us updated if you find any more info on your guy and his unit.

Best,
Rob

[mtdr]

As someone who has been studying the allied invasion of Europe and operation Overlord, and as a collector of D-Day related IDs I have really enjoyed reading through this thread. Please keep us updated if you find any more info on your guy and his unit.

Best,
Rob

Rob, I can give more information now.

I had contact with the archive of Kattowitz and Karl Julius Serzysko survived the war and died on 21.03.1972 at the age of 63 in Kattowitz were he also was born.

[dando1944]

HI Aram

If you want to email me I would love to speak to you about the Wehrpass... perhaps I know more about Maisy than you have already.

Regards

Gary

[dando1944]

Aram... as I said I am always looking for items relating to Maisy Battery. If you or anyone else comes across anything I would love to see it.

Thanks

Gary