Heinrich Severloh
 |
This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page. (November 2010) |
Heinrich Severloh (23 June 1923 – 14 January 2006) was a soldier in the German 352nd Infantry Division, which was stationed in Normandy in 1944. He has been referred to as the “Beast of Omaha Beach” by the media of English speaking countries. He rose to notoriety as a gunner in a machine gun emplacement known as WN 62 “Widerstandsnest 62”. In his autobiography he claimed that in that position he inflicted 1000-2000 casualties while American soldiers were landing on Omaha Beach as part of Operation Overlord.
Contents |
[edit] Birth
Severloh was born into a farming family [1] in Metzingen (now Eldingen) in the Lüneburg Heath of north Germany, close to the small city of Celle.[2]
[edit] Service in the Wehrmacht
Severloh was conscripted into the Wehrmacht on July 23, 1942, at the age of 19. He was assigned to the 19th Light Artillery Replacement Division in Hanover-Bothfeld. On August 9, he was transferred to France and joined the 3rd Battery of the 321st Artillery Regiment, where he was trained as a dispatch rider. In December 1942, he was sent to the Eastern Front, where he was assigned to the rear of his division as a sleigh driver. In punishment for dissenting remarks, Severloh was forced to perform physical exertions which left him with permanent health problems. The immediate consequence was a six month convalescence in a military hospital, which lasted until June 1943. Upon discharge from the hospital, he was given several weeks leave (partly because of the need for manpower during the harvest). In October 1943, Severloh was sent to junior officer training in Braunschweig, but after his unit, which had suffered heavy casualties, was transferred back to France, he was obliged to break off his training to rejoin it. In December, Severloh did rejoin his unit, which in the meantime had been reclassified as the 352nd Infantry Division [3] and was stationed in Normandy. Severloh’s service in the Wehrmacht ended on June 7, 1944, when he was taken prisoner by the American forces.
[edit] Widerstandsnest 62 controversy
The site of Severloh’s last active mission was part of a medium-sized emplacement known as “Widerstandsnest 62” (English: resistance nest 62).[4] In the absence of a well-developed defensive line, such “resistance nests” had been established along the Atlantic coast and allocated numbers for identification. There were radio and telephone connections between the various emplacements, and many were also within eyesight of one another. The soldiers manning the emplacements in a firing line could therefore coordinate with one another.
According to Severloh, there were only two or three active emplacements with machine guns in his section of the beach at the time of the landing. He and the 19-year-old Franz Gockel positioned next to him were armed with machine guns. Severloh claimed[dubious ] that there were just 30 soldiers defending the beach[dubious ]. However, in WN62 alone, there were 19 men.[5] Holderfield states that the beach defences at Omaha consisted of 8 concrete bunkers containing 75mm or greater artillery, 35 pillboxes with machine guns or artillery, 18 anti-tank guns, six mortar pits, 35 rocket launcher sites and 85 machine gun nests.[6] Such large numbers suggest that Severloh's estimate[dubious ] of thirty men defending the beach is unreliable.
The American GIs had poor tactical positions during the storming of the beach. Between the edge of the water and the dunes, there was a very wide, treacherous strip of sand to cross, which was completely flat and without cover.[7] The advance bombing of the German defensive positions had produced no concrete results.[8] Severloh’s lines of fire almost entirely covered the sections of beach known as Easy Red and Fox Green.[citation needed]
Severloh was assigned to a Lieutenant Friedrich Frerking as his orderly.[9] While Frerking coordinated the artillery fire of his battery from a bunker, Severloh manned an MG42.[10] He fired on the waves of approaching American GIs with the machine gun and two Karabiner 98k rifles, while comrades kept up a continuous flow of ammunition to him. By 3 p.m., Severloh had fired approximately 12,000 rounds with the machine gun and 400 rounds with the two rifles. He alleges in his autobiography that this resulted in an estimated 1000-2000 American deaths[11], however this is likely a gross overestimation, since total American casualties on Omaha Beach were approximately 3000.
GIs finally found a thinly manned gap between resistance nests 62 and 64 (directly below the site of the U.S. War Cemetery) and were thus able to attack Widerstandsnest 62 from behind. Lieutenant Frerking’s artillery observation bunker and Widerstandsnest 62 still exist and can be visited at the beach below Colleville. The foxhole can only be vaguely discerned.
[edit] GI David Silva
GI David Silva, gravely wounded, possibly by Severloh, on Omaha Beach was contacted by Severloh.[12] In the 1960s, Severloh found David Silva’s name in a book about the invasion. Wishing to find this man that he possibly shot at, Severloh wrote him a letter. Several months later, Severloh discovered that Silva was once more active in the U.S. Army as a military chaplain and was stationed in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was there that they met for the second time. Severloh asked him how he had come to be a chaplain. Silva's answer was: “In the moment when I had to get out of that landing boat and run up into the fire of your machine gun, I cried out to God to help me to get out of this hell alive. I pledged to become a chaplain and as such to help other soldiers.” After living through the war, he was ordained a priest. The erstwhile enemies became good friends and at the 2005 reunion of Allied Forces in Normandy, Severloh and Silva met once more. According to eyewitnesses, the two seemed to be “the best of friends”.[citation needed] Between the time they first met after the war, until Severloh's death, the two wrote to each other often. Silva is now living in Cleveland, Ohio as a priest and has visited Severloh's gravesite more than once.[citation needed]
[edit] Captivity
Severloh was slightly injured in the face at Omaha Beach.[13] He retreated with one Wehrmacht soldier to the nearby village of Colleville.[14] He was taken captive by American soldiers while escorting American prisoners from a dugout to a prisoner collection point.
Severloh was released from captivity in 1947. He had first been sent as a prisoner of war to Boston, USA, where he was held until May 1946. That December, he arrived in Bedfordshire in England, where he helped with the construction of roads. Severloh regained his freedom as the result of a request made by his father to the British military authorities, as Severloh was needed to work in the fields of his parents’ farm.
[edit] Beast of Omaha Beach
Severloh was called the Beast of Omaha Beach because of the number of casualties he is alleged to have caused.
[edit] Death
Severloh died in Lachendorf near his hometown of Metzingen. [15]
[edit] References
- ^ The Second Front, Time-Life Books, 1979, p137
- ^ Invasion--they're coming!: The German account of the Allied landings and the 80 days' battle for France, Paul Carell, Dutton, 1963, p77 [1]
- ^ Nothing Less than Victory, Russell Miller, HarperCollins, 1995, p436 [2]
- ^ The German Soldier in World War II Hart et al, Zenith Publications, 2000 p166 [3]
- ^ The German Soldier in World War II Hart et al, Zenith Publications, 2000 p166 [4]
- ^ D-Day: The Invasion of Normand, June 6, 1944 Randy Holderfield and Michael Varhola, De Capo Press, 2001, p186 [5]
- ^ The Fighting First: The Untold Story of the Big Red One on D-Day, Flint Whitlock, Basic Books, 2005, p144 [6]
- ^ The German Soldier in World War II Hart et al, Zenith Publications, 2000 p166 [7]
- ^ US News and World Report vol 116, No 17-25, 1994
- ^ The Fighting First: The Untold Story of the Big Red One on D-Day, Flint Whitlock, Basic Books, 2005, p144 [8]
- ^ http://forumarchiv.balsi.de/personen/78484.html
- ^ Still searching for peace: the German who felled more than 2,000 Allied soldiers, The Independent, Tony Paterson, 5 June 2004 [9]
- ^ D-Day Landing Beaches: The Guide, George Bernage, Heimdal, 2001
- ^ D-Day: Piercing the Atlantic Wall, Robert Kershaw, Naval Institute Press, 1994, p163 [10]
- ^ http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61811
[edit] Sources
Severloh, Heinrich (2004). WN 62 - Erinnerungen an Omaha Beach Normandie, 6. Juni 1944. Hek Creativ Verlag. ISBN 9783932922114. OCLC 56831668.
