http://www.916gr.co.uk/severloh.shtml http://www.nationalgeographic.de/php/ma ... tory1a.htm http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid ... =643752004
From the first link: "In December 1946 Severloh was sent with 500 other POW’s to Bedfordshire in England to build roads. " That's my county!
afaik there are no accurate estimates. Who, do you expect, counted Severloh´s exploits? Poor boy. Poor boys. Imagine being there: shooting and shooting and shooting. Dead, dead, dead........ What was he really thinking? What would you have been thinking?
I hope they don't get up here & catch me. And I hope they don't figure out a way to kill me. Is my best guess. But I've never been in such a situation, and hopefully never will be.
What he says himself in the second source is that in the event all he thought was what Ricky said: if I don't shoot them they will shoot me, and I must follow my orders. I believe that at least 1200 of the kills were confirmed by American sources as to have fallen to one MG gunner, but 3000 I think is overestimated since total American casualties on Omaha beach on D-Day were under 3500. This would mean that one man not only got the majority share of this terrible count, but basically did it all by himself. I don't think this is likely.
It sounds more like the journalist´s licentia. It´s not his actual words. But it sounds true. Maybe only later he realized that iy was himself who was the Wunderwaffe, hitler talked about. Has anybody a link to the pilot of Enola ?
Last year, during the 60th Anniversary commemorations for the Normandy landings, I read a newspaper story which included Severloh's account of his experience defending Omaha Beach, and which stated that was the first time his story had been told. Well, that didn't sound right because his name sounded familiar to me. So, I looked in Paul Carell's "Invasion - They're Coming," and between pp. 78 and 88 (in the edition published by E. P. Dutton in 1963) was Severloh's story. There was no mention of how troops he may have felled, but it said about 12,000 rounds passed through his MG42. So, as always, don't believe everything you read in the press.
He is also briefly quoted in Stephen Ambrose's opus magnum, "D-Day". Ambrose does not include his story but he fits him into the narrative as one of the first German soldiers to spot the invasion, after which he isn't mentioned again.
It was HEIN Severloh , he lives a few km away from me . He wrote a book bout his experiences , call WN 62 . An HE did not count anything at this particular day , he simply did not have the time for it ... Jan-Hendrik
Do you have any kind of contact with him? Could be very interesting. Welcome to the forum by the way, Jan-Hendrik.
Well , I don´t have any contact to him personally . Since his wife died last year his health gets worse and worst . I don´t think , he will do it for long ... And he is really no one who likes to live in "public" ! Jan-Hendrik
Total American casualties in Omaha beach were right around 2,000 dead , wounded, and missing. I have a hard time believing that Severloh inflicted almost all the casualties on that day. He was no doubt a very good soldier, but the most experienced of soldiers often exaggerate in the heat of combat. Saruman
I've seen an interview with the guy on a tv program about omaha and I think it is highly hypacritical and wrong to discuss his actions like people do. I have heard him refered to as the butcher of omaha He was a soldier who did his duty. His actions were neither wrong nor unjustified. Had a UK soldier been in his position defending Dover from thousands of landing germans I hope that they would have done the same. From the interview I got the impression that the guy was clearly haunted by that day especially as he was one a very few germans to survive from the beach, being taken away as walking wounded before the defences fell. FNG
Yes , the memories of this particular day are haunting him until today in his nightmares as you can read in his book "WN 62" which I can highly recommend ! Jan-Hendrik
That's not something I would have wanted to live with, 1200 thousand lives taken.That's a whole regiment taken out by a single man.
