[LibWhacker]

I searched the archive and as far as I can tell, it's never been posted.

[VR-21]

I’m speechless.

[DB]

Why was there no heavy armor landed on the beaches?

[Pajamajan]

Riveting article. Great post.

[taxcontrol]

To Hein Severloh:

Soldiers salute.

You sir, did your soldier’s job. Our boys did theirs. The battle cost both sides and the casualties were the best and the bravest. I carry no ill will towards you and I respect the fact that you stood your post in time off war when lesser men would have run.

Let go of your demons sir, they are but phantom’s of the past.

[TheLooseThread]

12,000 rounds / 3,000 kills = 4 rounds per kill.

4 rounds per kill from a mg? Seems wrong.

[PAR35]

I know you all don’t get to spend as much time here as you used to, but I thougth this might interest you all.

[garbanzo]

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Different war, but seems appropiate here.

[Pajamajan]

Something about this is particularly heartrending. Maybe because it is an account from the German soldier?- it gives extra insight into how terrible that day was.

Laura Ingraham, on one of her radio shows, paid tribute to the military of the D-Day invasion. She talked about how they were young men, they saw those in front of them step out into the ocean, and get blown away- the blood, the screaming of the fallen, gunfire, and she wondered how the men could- one after the other- just keep stepping out into that chaos knowing they would most likely die...she was choking back tears in talking about it.
( IMO -there are few who do a better tribute to the military than Laura I).

The article jogged my memory of that show.

[Tall_Texan]

May God bless all those who died there. These brave men were asked to enter a human cuisinart and only those God chose to spare emerged alive.

As for this man, I do not blame him. I doubt he’s had a good night’s sleep in 60 years.

[southland]

bttt

[jebeier]

The Americans lost 3000 men to dislodge one German soldier from a strategic bunker, and it was a victory for the Americans. This is the nature of war.

It’s not always about the body count.

[wolficatZ]

Path of Forgiveness

A Long Way back to Omaha Beach

Author: Alexander Czogalla

Length: 54'

June 6, 1944 on D-Day: the allies stormed the beaches at Normandy, gaining a tenuous foothold on the shores of France. On a stretch of shoreline the Americans had code-named Omaha Beach, the allied forces were subjected to one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two.

For seven hours German private Heinrich Severloh fired at the oncoming invaders, mercilessly, unceasingly, like a robot. Severloh, then 21 years old, was credited with killing more enemy troops than any other Wehrmacht soldier. The horrifying estimate is anywhere from two thousand to two thousand five hundred men, in a single day. A simple man transformed into a murdering beast. Like a madman, he fired his machine gun killing soldiers that, for him, have no names or faces.

Except for one. David, then 19, a GI from Cleveland, Ohio, survived the massacre with severe injuries. And then a miracle happened. Two men who were bitter enemies, met briefly, then went their separate ways. They exchanged letters, became friends. And now, the former enemies meet again.

year of production: 2004

 

 

 David Silva and Hein Severloh                          Spiegel TV

[SW6906]

WWII Ping!

[BuffaloJack]

Incredible. One single person accounting for so many casualties.

[wtc911]

For a great read on that day from ground level....

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/196011/omaha

[wtc911]

A little reality check, more Americans died on 911 than at Normandy...

From the Brits' D-Day Museum site:

"The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach."

There was a total of @ 2000 casualties on Omaha. This includes wounded. This guy would have had to be responsible for every single US KIA and even that number wouldn't come close to what is claimed in this article.

[RayStacy]

I’ll join with the others who are suspicious. The biggest question I have is.... What the hell were the other Germans doing while this guy was single-handedly holding off all of America and England? If this story is to be believed, then every other kraut on the beach was so poorly positioned/visually impaired/drunk that they were scoring one US casualty per 10,000 Germans.

[rintense]

Wasn’t that one memory of the shot to the forehead captured in the movie, Saving Private Ryan?

[brazzaville]

Good morning.

I looked, but I didn’t see anything on how the Beast survived a battle that ended with the Allies in control of the beachhead and all Axis troops there either dead, captured or on the run to the next line of defense. Did he break contact when he ran out of ammo or did he surrender when his position was overrun?

Also, from what I’ve read the US suffered around 2,400 casualties on Omaha, many from drowning, so claiming that he alone was responsible for 3000 is a stretch to my mind.

Whatever the truth, I’m just glad I wasn’t on that beach that day.

Michael Frazier

[The_Media_never_lie]

Wow!