A Killing Machine
Severloh took 40 years to begin to process what happened to him on Omaha Beach. He had taken up a concealed position on the eastern side of the beach along with 30 other German soldiers, and he recalls watching the horizon turn black with dozens of ships and landing craft racing for the shore. His commanding officer, Lt. Bernhard Frerking, had told him not to open fire until the enemy reached knee-deep level, where he could get a full view.
"What came to mind was, ‘Dear God, why have you abandoned me?’ " he recalled. "I wasn’t afraid. My only thought was, ‘How can I get away from here?’ "
But rather than run, Severloh slipped the first belt of ammunition into his MG-42 machine gun and opened fire. He could see men spinning, bleeding and crashing into the surf, while others ripped off their heavy packs, threw away their carbines and raced for the shore. But there was little shelter there. Severloh said he would occasionally put down the machine gun and use his carbine to pick off individual men huddled on the beach. He is still haunted by a soldier who was loading his rifle when Severloh took aim at his chest. The bullet went high and hit the man in the forehead.
“The helmet fell and rolled over in the sand,” Severloh said. “Every time I close my eyes, I can see it.”
Severloh said he was the last man firing from his position. By mid-afternoon, his right shoulder was swollen and his slender fingers were numb from constant firing. When a U.S. destroyer pinpointed his position and began to shell it, he fled to the nearby village of Colleville-Sur-Mer, where he was captured that evening.
In Severloh’s telling of D-Day, there are few heroes and several surprises. The German occupiers had warm relations with their French farm hosts before the invasion, he contends. Lt. Frerking, who died on D-Day, was an honorable man who spoke fluent French and once gave one of his men 10 days’ punishment for failing to help an elderly French woman with her shopping bags, Severloh said. The U.S. invaders slaughtered farm animals and soldiers, he said, yet that evening he and his ravenous U.S. captors shared a baguette.
Severloh said he first told his tale to an inquisitive correspondent for ABC News during the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984. But the real breakthrough came when an amateur war historian named Helmut Konrad von Keusgen tracked Severloh down. Von Keusgen, a former scuba diver and graphic artist, said he had heard from U.S. veterans about the machine gunner they called the “Beast of Omaha Beach” because he had mowed down hundreds of GIs that day. Severloh confessed he was that gunner. Von Keusgen ghost-wrote Severloh’s memoirs, published in 2000, and still visits him regularly. The two men contend that Severloh might have shot more than 2,000 GIs. That’s an impossible figure, according to German and American historians, who say that although the numbers are far from exact, estimates are that about 2,500 Americans were killed or wounded by the 30 German soldiers on the beach.
“My guess is yes, he helped kill or wound hundreds, but how many hundreds would be hard to say,” Roger Cirillo, a military historian at the Association of the U.S. Army in Arlington, wrote in an e-mail. He added: “Omaha is like Pickett’s Charge. The story has gotten better with age, though no one doubts it was a horror show. Men on both sides were brave beyond reason, and this is the sole truth of the story.”
Hein Severloh said he takes no pride in what he did, but telling his tale has given him a sense of relief.
“I have thought about it every single day that God gave to me,” he said. Now, he said, “the pressure is gone.”
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10191-2004Jul23.html[/quote]
See, that’s what I had in mind. There are actually quite some differences in the opinions on a comparative small level.
Off-topic
That’s true the last party of pows ( about 14 000) have been released only in october-december 1955 after Adenauer visit…
But it was just tiny part of more then 2 mln POWs that have been already returned to the Eastern germany before 1953-54.
And Erich Hartmann’s -who “stayed” till 1955 as well- participation in crimes was shooting down a lot of soviet planes and oh yes, destroying a bread factory (fancy idea).
Not just Hartmann , but also and Zeidliz, Pauls and many other captured generals of Stalingrad, Army Group centre and ets…
And some of them used the privileges- for instance the all of officers ( medium and high) got the additional ration, were free of labour.
That for instance what famouse general Fridrich Pauls (commander of six army) said in 1953 , after his liberation, moving to the Dresden :" i personaly , thankful to Stalin for his magnanimity to us as a prisoners of war"
Nobody pulled him for tongue…it was his real thoughts…
I kinda doubt that he really meant this. Nobody is grateful for an 8-year captivitiy. GFM Paulus was “turned” during his war captivity joinig the “Bund deutscher Offiziere” and “Nationalkommitee”. He was just loaded with self reproaches and felt he was let down by Hitler in Stalingrad (which is totally comprehensible).
He wasn’t “turned” , althouth NKVD trued as much as can, after Stalingrad.
The keepd silence about year, nobody can’t bend him, but after 20 jule 1944, and next executions of officers , some of whom were his friend, he absolutly voluntary has decided start to fight agains Hitler, it was famouse “letter of 50 germans generals” that he signed , joining to the “Nationalkommitee”.
Later he absolutly voluntary also was a very importaint Soviet prosecutor in Nurenberg.
Stalin personaly has appreciated his aid , later Paulus even went to Crimea’s resorts for three month with some other germans high officers.
Paulus 'captivity" was probably the best that he might even dream.When in 1953 he was going to move at Eastern Germany, the soviets suggested him the very hight post ( seems in ministry of defence or national police) but he refused it . He dreams only about his family,that tragically perished after beeing prisoned into the concentration camp, right after his “betrayal” in Stalingrad.
Yes, Paulus was given a mansion in Dresden , a western german car and even some servants. The problem was all this servants were informers of the intelligence service and even his mail was controlled. The post he was offered and which he filled was the responsible post of a “head of the war historic council of science” at the academy of the barracked peoples’ police corps of the GDR…Basically he spent the rest of his life trying to justify his actions regarding Stalingrad.
He absolutely was a good soldier that did an excellent job and he was no more a “murderer” than the Americans who were certainly trying to kill him with naval gunfire and infantry envelopment. And`certainly if the Americans had known that he was a machine-gunner, he probably would not have survived that day…
But I do believe that I’ve read part of the GI bitterness regarding Omaha Beach was that they perceived that the Germans were specifically targeting their medics and doctors treating wounded. Also, there were many US soldiers that were pinned against the seawall that were unarmed after having lost their weapons in the surf or in a panicked endeavor to get to the wall. The defenders realized this and began dropping mortar rounds to specifically kill them. It was then that many of the men realized that they faced a stark choice of either certain death or a slim hope they could “close with the enemy” and kill them – or at least inflict casualties before dying. One of the ironies is that the Heer’s 352d and 116th were trained specifically in static defense and lacked the training or planning to counterattack the beachhead. If they had, they might have rounded up numerous US POWs either prolonging the American’s agony in taking the beachhead, or possibly forcing a withdrawal…
(recalled from Stephen Ambrose’s “D-Day”)
Is there any evidence to support that perception?
I would have thought that there wouldn’t be any point to targeting wounded and medics while the landings were proceeding as the wounded were already out of the battle. The aim is to create more wounded and distract more men by tending to them, not to dispatch those already wounded. Doesn’t mean the wounded and the medics weren’t fired at and hit, but I’d expect it was more by accident than design in the general mayhem of the moment.
Their training was seriously deficient if that happened in large numbers.
Every recruit has it drummed into them that they hang onto their weapon regardless.
I doubt it had anything to do with the men being unarmed. If the Germans could see they were unarmed behind the seawall it’s likely they could have brought machine gun fire to bear on them. More likely the Germans just realised that the invaders were concentrated behind the seawall.
Mortar crews invariably target concentrations of stationary troops. It’s where mortars are most effective.
I can well understand how the landing troops might have drawn the inferences you’ve outlined, but for the reasons I’ve given I doubt that they were accurate inferences.
To all accounts Severloh acted in accordance with the Laws & Customs of War. That means whatever else he may be he isn’t a war criminal/mass murderer.
I don’t know. I’m just recounting the perceptions of the average soldiers, not verifiable facts. But the facts are that US medics suffered horrendously on Omaha Beach. Unfortunately I have no statistics to share. But I think Saving Private Ryan touches on this when the medic, Irwin Wade, yells out to the Germans shooting at him after they kill one of his patients he has just controlled the bleed from…
Their training was seriously deficient if that happened in large numbers.
Every recruit has it drummed into them that they hang onto their weapon regardless.
I think you seriously underestimate their difficulties…
Many of the men were dropped much farther from shore than anticipated and nearly drowned because the Higgins’ Boat operators simply wanted to dump them and get out of there. It is understandable that many ran ashore with little of their arms or equipment…
But not too worry, there were plenty of rifles and ammunition no longer in use available laying on the beach…
I doubt it had anything to do with the men being unarmed. If the Germans could see they were unarmed behind the seawall it’s likely they could have brought machine gun fire to bear on them. More likely the Germans just realised that the invaders were concentrated behind the seawall.
Perhaps. But the defilade of the seawall also made the US troops temporarily combat ineffective and I think the Germans may well have realized this…
We could also say if the Germans had been more actively aggressive in counterattacking the beachhead, they might have scored a coup…
Mortar crews invariably target concentrations of stationary troops. It’s where mortars are most effective.
I can well understand how the landing troops might have drawn the inferences you’ve outlined, but for the reasons I’ve given I doubt that they were accurate inferences.
Agreed on both counts. But I have little doubt that the Germans were aware that they were inflicting a fearsome toll on the first few waves, and perhaps had little pity for them and perhaps a disdain for the niceties of warfare such as medical treatment of the wounded…
How much of the fire going into the beachead was from aimed, direct fire weapons (i.e. rifles)? And how much of this was hitting medics? I suspect the answer is very little indeed.
Artillery, Mortars and Machine Guns all work on the principle of killing everything in a particular zone - so unless the US had set up a field hospital on the beach by this stage then their use was legitimate.
Fair comment.
FWIW, I was responding more to the statement about troops panicking rather than losing their weapons in an effort to survive in the water. I understood the panicking reference to mean that some troops landed well enough but simply panicked and dropped their weapons to aid their rush to the seawall.
Fair questions. We know is was a mix of MG42s and K98s and certainly there was a good deal of semi-aimed panic fire by the Germans on the bluffs…
But I’ll try to find the figures of medics hit in the first waves, I think it’s the majority of them. The general consensus was that the machine-guns were trained on the waterline to nail troops running from the landing craft. But that there were snipers that were raking the beach of anything moving.
You of all should know that soldiers are sensitive regarding their medics…
Artillery, Mortars and Machine Guns all work on the principle of killing everything in a particular zone - so unless the US had set up a field hospital on the beach by this stage then their use was legitimate.
No argument there.
Shooting at medics on purpose would be abhorrent. I never heard/read about incidents like this, not even on the eastern front…
Yeah, if I’m taking cover, I’m taking it WITH a weapon of some sort. I doubt anyone with any sense would drop their personal weapons thinking it would make them faster…
A lot of the Higgins crews panicked themselves. I recall seeing the interview testimony of one US soldier who made it through and helped take the bluffs ultimately. His D-Day experience began with his boat approaching shore, the next one over was hit by what probably was an 88mm round and disintegrated. The men on his boat were then showered with blood, limbs, internal organs, equipment, and personal effects of the destroyed boat…
At that point, with the volume of fire being taken, the Higgins crews were so unnerved that they were stopping incrementally farther and farther from the beach. There are anecdotes of officers and NCOs putting pistols to their heads and demanding that they drive in to the prescribed drop-off distances under threat of summary execution…
There’s plenty of incidents to recount in the Pacific Theater actually. US Navy Corpsmen (basically US Marine medics) stopped wearing a red cross I believe – because they drew so much fire…
Definitely. As long as I was capable of hanging onto it, my rifle would be in my hands.
I feel a little bit uncomfortable citing a movie as a source but I remember one scene in “Saving Private Ryan” where the G.I. got rid of his BAR because it “already drowned him”. I could imagine these situations weren’t uncommon.
But as i know at that time almost every official East germans was under controll.
Never heard the Paulus too worried about this, moreover as i know himself provided the Soviets with some of “information” about others former germans commanders.
Basically he spent the rest of his life trying to justify his actions regarding Stalingrad.
He probably felt the germans look at him as at traitor, besides he deeply endured their own guilt in failur of 6 army.
Back to topic…
I do understand Nick’s point.
I don’t know about Omacha in 1944 ( and not sure you guys can use the film Saving PR as a “realible” source), but in the East front there a lot of cases when germans mashinganners specially killed the wounded and medics , even unless they were a woman.
This is actualy wasn’t considered as a “serious” crime in the East ( regarding the what there was going on with civil population) .
In red army the mass of field medics were the womans, they died very offen. Armed with pistol, hardly they can pose a any threat for Germans troops. Their primary task was to withdrew the wounded out of battle zone.