I been a bit of reading about omaha beach and I have being looking at the WNs along the coast line and I wonder which strongpoint caused most of the casualties to the American forces who landed there, the WNs are WN-60 up to WN-74, they are all well armed, WN-62 was a strong position with alot of fire power, WN-67 was a 320mm neblewerfer position only and WN-63 was a Company HQ.
It is here somewhere, in one of the other threads. Seems like it was WN-73. Edit Or maybe not: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Aww2f.com+%22WN%22&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
Good stuff JW. I have found some info on the WN-62 position, Severloh must have fired his MG-42 from one of the three MG positions. 1 x HQ & artillery observation post (maybe for 81mm M.34 or 105mm leFH battery inland) 1 x MG tobruk (MG-42?) 3 x MG positions (MG-42s?) 1 x twin AA-MG concrete position (maybe MG-34s?) 2 x mortar tobruk (50mm M.36?) 2 x 50mm positions (50mm Pak 38s) 2 x 75mm bunkers (75mm M.1897?) Flamethrowers (don’t know how many or if they were fired automatically) There must have also been trenches dug for inafantry with rifles etc, and I guess a position of this size must have been garrisoned by a platoon at least.
Exellent site Richie, I will change the 75mm M.1897 to 75mm FK235(b), from the info I have got from that link.
I think this is one you are asking about. The National Guard troops the website author mentions were probably from A Co/116th IR/29th ID, which lost around 95% of it's personnel trying to cross the beach. If you want to read more about these men, the book The Bedford Boys is an excellent accounting of what happened, both overseas and at home. The US D-Day Memorial is in Bedford VA, where the company was stationed prewar.
Thanks JW, 95% was a terrible loss, I dont know how men could go through such hell but still take the objective, like the American boys did.
WD 62 seemed to be the one with the stories. That Franz Goeckel that is always in the documentaries as he was a machine gunner and also the 'Beast Of Omaha' Heinrich Severloh who claimed to have wounded or killed 2500 americans and that only 30 defenders were in his area............. I think it was between 64 and 62 that Spaldings group finally breached. Great pictures. Anyone know of a good map with the Nests and movements/breakthroughs of omaha?
Heinrich Severloh may have made this claim but it is highly unlikely that it is true. First of all in the heat of combat it is highly doubtful that he could give any accurate estimate of the number of people he hit. Secondly, the National D-Day Museum gives the total American casualties at Omaha on D-Day K/W/Missing as 2,200. The official Army History .mil site lists 2,500 as total US casualties on Omaha. Then again maybe the rest of the Germans had run away or were sleeping.
There was a program on the box last night about D Day and it said that if the American Paratroopers had the same harness as used by the British Paratroopers there casualties from drowning in the flooded fields would have been reduced, the American type harness had various buckles (maybe up to four) and the British harness had only one which with a turn and a crack on the hand opened quick.