Hi, for you KM guys....I'm trying to find out the location of KM ground troops (coastal artillery etc) in Normandy on June 6 1944. Specifically, which units, if any, faced U.S.troops at Utah and Omaha beaches. This would include the beach defenses themselves, and the immediate vicinity.
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Hi Andy,
This is a very good French book (collection of all the pillbox networks, bunkers and units on the beach) and avalaible in the States :
http://www.rzm.com/books/eh/omaha.cfm
More precise from Germany :
Normandie 6.Juni 1944
im Spiedel der deutschen Kriegstagebücher
Der Grossangriff auf den Atlantikwall
Hans Sakkers, Biblio Verlag 1998 (ISBN : 3764824700)
Jean-Yves -
Jean-Yves, thanks...I have ordered the book. This research has been consuming me for the last few weeks, and has been very fascinating. Last year I got, from another collector, a KM M40 helmet. The helmet was originally acquired from a US veteran of the First Infantry Division who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and this helmet was one of his souveniers. The strange thing to me was that it was a KM helmet. The First Division landed at Omaha Beach, where they met fierce resistance from Heer troops in smaller bunker and trench complexes. KM troops were located in large coastal fortresses in and around major ports etc...or so I thought. Most histories of D-Day discuss the landings, then skip to the hedge row fighting and the various operations to break out of the beach head. The veteran who brought this helmet back from Normandy was wounded and evacuated on D+2, so he did not participate in his Division's fighting in the hedge rows or the drive to St Lo. As I found, the actions of the assault units in the 2-3 days immediately following the landings is obscure. The initial mission of the 1st ID at Omaha was to seize the beach head, then move to link up with the British in the vicinity of Port en Bessin. The first ID conducted a number of skirmishes and captured a number of POWs in their drive down the coast to link Omaha w/ the British beach. Near Port en Bessin was a large coastal battery...Longues-sur-mer. The battery is well known, primarily because it exists in good preservation, and is a tourist spot. It had a commanding view of both Gold and Omaha beaches, and caused much havoc during the landing. It was eventually targeted by allied ships and neutralized. The Brits eventually seized the complex. The interesting thing? The was a KM fortress of approximately 300 Naval artillery personnel. I think it is likely that personnel from the fort, caught between two advancing allied divisions, eventually fell under the guns of 1st ID soldiers, either as KIA or POWs, and this would have happened between D and D+2. The helmet is named...Lutz, and I would love to find the rolls of Longues-sur -mer on June 6 1944Comment
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