I can barely speak. First, thanks for the ping and for educating on the realities of that day.
Second. You had to kill or be killed basically, that’s war.
Third, I am biting my tongue regarding the comments in favor of Monty. I just can’t take it and not expect to get banned. :-)
How long was it before he broke out of his responsible area.....?
Nope, not gonna do it.
Thanks Par for the story. I guess it’s our bad luck that he got tonsilitis and had to leave the eastern front.
"I was aware that some of my comrades had made off, but I had this terrible vision of being confronted in the eye by my officer and so I stayed at my post."
"In the early afternoon, I realised I was the last person still firing. I could see tanks manouvering on the beach and knew that I couldn't hold them alone."
"I heard an order to shouted by Lieutenant Ferking-a fine fellow and, at 32, a veteran-that we should retreat."
"I ran from bomb crater to bomb crater behind our bunker complex. I waited but he never came."
"I visited his grave in Normandy ten years after the war. He took a head shot from one of the Americans as he tried to follow me. I was taken prisoner that night. I don't think I would have survived had I been captured at my post."
"They knew what I had done to their friends. I don't think those first-wave troops would have shown me any mercy."
Some 2,300 Americans died on 'Bloody Omaha' before overwhelming the German defenders.
Mr Severloh was sent as a PoW to America and put to work picking cotton and potatoes before returning to Germany in 1947 to resume his pre-war life in farming.