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.
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Hello Folks,
I’m new here and very much enjoy your informative views.
Regarding this post I’ve quoted I was very surprised to see that there were only 30 German defenders on the beach. If i have read that correctly and if true, then wouldn’t that lend credibility to the “killing machine’s” efficiency? Could he in fact have stuck it out for that long stretch of time and produced such incredible numbers of dead Allies?
Was he in a bunker? At about what range would he have been from his targets? Sorry for the elementary questions. I would love to see a diagram of the beach and approximately where the German defenders were dug in.
Thanks, JimB
I’ve walked Omaha beach and it is NOT small. There is no way on earth that a mere 30 defenders could have even held up a determined assault for any length of time, let alone almost stop it dead.
Edit: Reading the article carefully, and allowing for the usual journalistic stupidity, what it actually says is that there were 30 German soldiers in the same position as him. That is nothing like the same as 30 defenders on the beach.
Thanks, pdf27, for your comment. Like you I find something fishy with the journalism but the following quote from the article surely says that the beach was defended by 30 Germans:
“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”.
Are you guessing that it meant to say there were 30 Germans defenders in the same position as him, meaning something like the same bunker as him? Or in the same position as him to do the same damage? Do we know how many German defenders there actually were in that sector?
The article is indeed quite confusing, in Severloh’s sector of Omaha Beach, which was “Widerstandsnest 62” (resistance nest 62) only 30 soldiers were left after the naval shelling and the bombing raid. I include a graphic of the german positions on Omaha Beach and marked Severloh’s position in red.
