"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.
Thanks Paul Harvey.
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 (ignoring the drownings, artillery/mortars, other German soldiers and Friendly Fire) and even that number wouldn't come close to what is claimed in this article.