Crumpled map solves mystery of German gun behind 'Private Ryan' D-Day massacre

Daily Mail ^ | 5th January 2008 | Daily Mail

[the scotsman]

'As their landing craft touched down on the shoreline at 6.30am, they stumbled forward into Hell.

Some 1,500 soldiers died in the bloody battle by the Americans to take Omaha Beach on D-Day - under fire from a well-disguised German gun emplacement.

The onslaught memorably featured in the memorable opening scenes of the film Saving Private Ryan. But military experts remain divided over exactly where the battery that laid down such a murderous bombardment was sited.

But now, a chance discovery by an amateur historian appears to have finally revealed the answer more than 63 years after the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Collector Gary Sterne was browsing through memorabilia at a miltaria fair when a tattered, annotated map fell out of a pair of trousers which had belonged to a U.S. serviceman.

It featured a spot marked "area of high resistance," and Mr Sterne decided to visit Normandy and examine the point overlooking the beach.

"It sparked my curiosity, because that area was previously thought to be just fields," he said. "To my amazement, I found I was standing on concrete.

Amateur historian Garry Sterne tracked down the 'lost' gun emplacements after finding a tattered map

"I followed the concrete to the edge of the treeline and discovered a bunker entrance, then a tunnel, an office, store rooms, headquarters buildings, radio rooms, bunkers."

After years of studying the battle and the remains of the gun emplacement, Mr Sterne believes it holds the key to the terrible barrage which - along with devastating machine gun fire - claimed so many lives on Omaha Beach.

He thinks the main German stronghold being targeted by gunners in Allied warships was in fact a decoy, constructed with telegraph poles for gun barrels.'

[Neu Pragmatist]

Very interesting read . Thanks for posting it .

[andyandval]

Thanks for finding and posting.

The pics at source link are incredible!

[Anti-Bubba182]

That ought to make for an interesting TV program. It takes diagrams and video to explain how the battery worked so well and remained hidden.

[andyandval]

From the article...

The story of the battery's rediscovery and its role in the battle for Omaha Beach features in a BBC Timewatch documentary, Bloody Omaha, presented by Richard Hammond on BBC2 tomorrow at 9pm.

[ConservativeMind]

Ping.

[GAB-1955]

My uncle Richard was in that unit as a medic, but was ordered to stay behind in England to take care of a sick Ranger. Otherwise, he would have had a really busy day at Pointe de Hoc.

[Dick Vomer]

Man, I can't even imagine having to climb up to get in the fight.

Every one of those men has brass balls.

I think that there was a ship that nearly grounded itself to provide heavy weapon fire that might have turned the tide. I'm not familiar with the exact battle other than thinking every that a movie shows what those men did, I cringe.

I bust balls with Army guys all the time but holy cow, those men were meat eating warriors.

I wonder if there is a diagram somewhere online that shows the field of fire and point of view of the hidden guns. I'm thinking that they were angled and provided 45 degree overlapping fields of fire. That way you couldn't hide behind anything with a flat front to the cliffs, cause your flank would still be exposed from the sides.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks CM.

[SouthTexas]

Thank you, good find!