D-Day Soldbuch Omaha Beach - St. Laurent sur Mer, GR. 916 - 352 Inf. Div.

[mtdr]

Hello,

The next Soldbuch I want to show is this nice Soldbuch from an Omaha Beach veteran. His unit was send to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer in the early hours of D-Day.

I was able to make a detailed story, I made a "short" summary of it.

Hermann Hinze was born on 3 November 1919 in Neuwerk; Harz, grown up in a catholic family. He wasn’t married or had a girlfriend. He was living in the same house as his parents; Hermann and Wilhelmine Hinze-Schmidt on the Mühlenweg 2 in Neuwerk. On 05.09.1939 Hermann Hinze was called up for active duty in the Wehrmacht. He received his first training in Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 194 in Quedlinburg, later renamed to Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 487. In this unit he was promoted for the first time from Schützen to Gefreiter. In the last months from 1940 he was send to the Infanterie-Regiment 590 of the new formed 321 Infanterie-Division. In Mai 1941 the division was send to Boulogne; France but in April 1942 Hermann get sick and went to the Lazarett in Magdeburg. After recovery he was send to the Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 590 in Hameln. He was promoted to Unteroffizier on 22.12.1942. He never get back to his old unit as the 321 Infanterie-Division was destroyed in September 1943 around Brjansk, Russia. The survivors of the 321 Inf. Div. were send to France, they formed the cadre of the new 352 Infanterie-Division. Also Hermann Hinze was send to this new created division.

[mtdr]

The 352 Infanterie-Division was formed on 05.11.1943 in Saint-Lô. The 916 Grenadier Regiment was formed on 14.11.1943 in Le-Mesnil-Rouxelin. Hermann Hinze was attached to the Stab./ Grenadier-Regiment 916 under Oberst Ernst Goth. 1/3 of the Regiment existed of Eastern Front veterans, the other 2/3 existed of 17 and 18 years old recruits. The complete 352 Infanterie Division had 12734 soldiers. In Mai 1944 the Grenadier-Regiment 916 was send to Omaha Beach. Every battalion of the GR. 916 had 60 machineguns, 3 heavy machineguns and 12 x 8cm mortars. The Stab under Oberst Ernst Goth and with Unteroffizier Hermann Hinze was based in Trévières, 7 kilometers behind Omaha Beach. The Regiment had 10 kompanies , 1-4 in the first bataillon and 5-8 in the second bataillon. The 13th and the 14th kompanie were under directly command of the Stab.
Stab./Grenadier-Regiment 916
Trévières; Oberst Ernst Goth
I./ 916 – Ryes
1./916 – St. Côme-de-Fresné
2./916 – St. Côme-de-Fresné
3./916 – West of Meuvaines
4./916 – West of Meuvaines
II./ 916 – Formigny ; Hauptmann Grimme
5./916 – St. Laurent-sur-Mer(WN 69) ; Oberleutnant Hahn
6./916 – Le Buissonet(Trévières) ; Leutnant Heller
7./916 – Surrain
8./916 – Colleville-sur-Mer; Leutnant Backhaus

As you can see the Stab./ 916 and the II./ 916 were in the area of Omaha Beach, the I./ 916 was in the area of Gold Beach. The Grenadier-Regiment 916 had also the command of the I./ 726 Grenadier Regiment.
I./ 726 – Maisons
1./ 726 – Port-en-Bessin
2./ 726 – Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes
3./726 – Colleville-sur-Mer; Leutnant Bauch

The new power base of Omaha Beach was based at Trévières. In Mai 1944 Generalfeldmaarschalk Erwin Rommel visited his friend Oberst Ernst Goth at the headquarter of Grenadier-Regiment 916 in Trévières. He told Goth if the Allied landed, they would landed on the Omaha Beach as it seems like the beach of Salerno where the Allied landed in 1943.

The second photo is Oberst Ernst Goth.

[mtdr]

The structure in Grenadier-Regiment 916; Most of the time an Unteroffizier acted as Gruppenführer who commanded a group of 9 soldiers. Probably Hermann Hinze was also used as Gruppenführer. The Gruppenführer carried most of the time a MP. In his squad he had a assistant-Gruppenführer(an Obergefreiter), a MG-team of 2 soldiers, 1 soldier with a grenade launcher rifle and 4 soldiers with a karabiner.

This are some photo's of the Stabskompanie./ Grenadier Regiment 916(not from my own collection)!

[mtdr]

On 01.00, 6 June 1944 Rommel get it right. With the first British and American PARA’s D-Day started. On 02.07 the Grenadier-Regiment 916 reported there wasn’t contact with the enemy. From that moment many reports were received or send by the Grenadier-Regiment 916. The headquarter was now based in a bunker in the garden of Laheudrie in Trévières, on this place they made the decisions which killed and wounded thousands of Americans on that day. Around 02.30 the Stabskompanie of Hermann Hinze was send to St. Laurent-sur-Mer, directly at Omaha Beach. At Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer WN 66, WN 67, WN 68 and WN 69 were situated, WN 64 and WN 65 in the hamlet of Le Ruquet. From 03.30 the first heavy bombings on the German strongpoint’s were noticed by the Grenadier-Regiment 916 and on 05.32 the Grenadier-Regiment 916 noticed the first sights of the Allied ships.

In these landing crafts were the men of the 16th Infantry Regiment(1st Infantry Division), 116th Infantry Regiment(29th Infantry Division) and engineers supported by DD-Tanks. On 06.30 the first Americans stormed the beach…awaited by dozens of machine guns, artillery, mortars and other types of heavy and light weapons. The landing on Omaha Beach was a disaster; many DD-Tanks sunk before arrived on the beach, the engineers couldn’t destroy the obstacles and more than 50% of the first wave was taken out of action. Hundreds of Americans were killed in a few minutes. Entire company’s were destroyed or the executives were taken out of action. The survivors of the first wave lying helpless on the beach. Around 07.00 the second wave landed but they also met heavy resistance . The second wave received high losses. The first Americans broke through the German defensive line in Dog White between WN 68 and WN 70 at 07.30. Now Hermann Hinze get in combat, as they were placed in St. Laurent-sur-Mer to counterattack the Americans who climbing over the cliffs. Around 09.00 the first panzers broke through the coastal defense at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and took WN 66 and WN 68 out of action. Also WN 64 in the hamlet of Le Ruquet was taken out of action at 10.00 and half an hour later at 10.30 WN 65 was destroyed. At that time the 916 Grenadier Regiment send a message to the HQ at Trévières that the Americans broke through the German lines north of St. Laurent and pulled southwards to the village.

In the afternoon the different units of the GR. 916 get the command to counterattack and pushed the Americans back into the sea. The 5./ 916 and the Stabskp./ 916 under command of Oberleutnant Hahn had to counterattack in the area between WN 62, WN 62b an WN 64(the area of the American cemetery). The 6./ 916 get the message to counterattack in the valley of Le Ruquet(WN 64 – WN 65), the battalion troops of the II./ 916 counterattacked towards Les Moulins(WN 66 – WN 68) and the 7./ 916 counterattacked in the area between WN 68 and WN 70. Despite all the effort the counterattacks failed, the American superiority in the air, sea, supplies, soldiers and heavy weapons were to heavy for the German defenders. At 16.00 the Americans took WN 67 and the village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. In the last hours of D-Day the fights concentrate around WN 69 and the south of the village of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. At the end of D-Day St. Laurent-sur-Mer and Vierville-sur-Mer were taken by the Americans. Only Colleville-sur-Mer with WN 63 was in German hands. More than 4000 Americans were killed, wounded or missed and dozens of ships, tanks and other vehicles were destroyed but a (small) bridgehead was created.

[mtdr]

A large counterattack of different German units led by Oberst Ernst Goth towards Vierville-sur-Mer was stopped in the night from 6 June 1944 to 7 June 1944. In the night between 7 June 1944 and 8 June 1944 Oberst Ernst Goth asked divisional commander Dietrich Kraiss to pull the German troops back from the Omaha Beach area. On 8 June 1944 Formigny, the headquarter of the II./ 916, was taken by the Americans after heavy fights. In the evening of 9 June 1944 the Americans also take Trévières, the former headquarter of the Omaha Beach zone was taken by the Americans.
Some days later Hermann Hinze was wounded in the area of Saint-Lô and on 06.07.1944 he received the VWA im Schwarz. After his recovery he was send to the Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 398. He stayed till the end of the war in this unit, he was taken POW in the end of March 1945.

He received Frontzulage for his period in Normandy.

[mtdr]

On 20.04.1944 he received the K.V.K. in the 352 Inf. Div.
On 06.07.1944 he received the VWA im Schwarz

[mtdr]

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[Floris]

Nice story Aram

[christof]

Thanks for sharing this great Soldbuch.

[gerri_l_siemens]

VERY impressive!! How did you find out so much information about this soldier? Did it take a long time to research him?

[Eric JB]

Hi Aram,

Thank you for a job well done !

Nice Soldbuch with a fine presentation, and an interesting read.

Best regards

Eric-Jan

[Oberst Von Luck]

Nice SB

This view this WN62 on Omaha...

[Ross Lee]

Great story many thanks for showing in such detail.

[Erwin L]

Hello Aram

Thank you for sharing this soldbuch accompanied with an outstanding presentation. It was a pleasure to read and very informative.

Regards
Erwin

[JUNGCO]

Aram,
You really brought this Soldbuch to life.
Jeff