Hein Severloh " The beast of Omaha "

[Dieter Zinke]

.... He probably did kill thousands of Americans as ....

:roll: :roll: :roll:
Are you serious ? You live in the world of innocence and unbounded fantasy !

Dieter Z.

[BKG]

Still waiting for an english translation of this book ...

[hein]

Thanks for your reply..

It is a short story and i tried to show us all what llives in a human being.
The story of Hein Severloh is a story that could happen to any of us

If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.

The beauty of the story is the courage and the reconciliation!

Thank u

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

but the Fact is, he Killed (about) 2000 people at Omaha Beach.

He probably did kill thousands of Americans

American casualties at Omaha beach amounted to some 2,000 dead / wounded / missing, of which around 1/3 (so around 650 - 700) were fatalities (http://warchronicle.com/numbers/WWII/dd ... ltyest.htm). Around 1,200 German soldiers defended the beach. If you want to estimate how many casualties were inflicted by this single soldier (who fired 12 - 12,5 k rounds from his MG), you should find out how many rounds were fired by all 1,200 defenders. :roll:

I seriously doubt his MG killed more than 100 enemy soldiers - in fact he might have killed "just" several dozens.

And it wouldn't be anything strange at all that he fired 12,500 bullets and killed some 100 soldiers. If you compare statistics on ammo expenditure / losses you see that this is a very "normal" efficiency, even in Omaha conditions.

[hein]

You are right..
War brings only tears!

But the purpose of the story is to show how people no matter what happens can forgive eachother
That makes the human being so unique!

War:

imagine you were on duty and imagine the panic !?
And that counts for every soldier of any nation during in war.

Thank you

[RichTO90]

American casualties at Omaha beach amounted to some 2,000 dead / wounded / missing, of which around 1/3 (so around 650 - 700) were fatalities (http://warchronicle.com/numbers/WWII/dd ... ltyest.htm). Around 1,200 German soldiers defended the beach. If you want to estimate how many casualties were inflicted by this single soldier (who fired 12 - 12,5 k rounds from his MG), you should find out how many rounds were fired by all 1,200 defenders. :roll:

I seriously doubt his MG killed more than 100 enemy soldiers - in fact he might have killed "just" several dozens.

And it wouldn't be anything strange at all that he fired 12,500 bullets and killed some 100 soldiers. If you compare statistics on ammo expenditure / losses you see that this is a very "normal" efficiency, even in Omaha conditions.

Although I agree in general with your post I do have some issues about the details. Stacy's figures as found at War Chronicles ar badly underestimated for all the beaches. US losses on OMAHA were probably closer to 3,600 and most of the casualties given for the other beaches are about half of what they actually were. I've discussed the problems and history of these figures at some length in other threads here at AHF and in my new book.

Cheers!

[hein]

There probably were more victims as you said!
I understand that the losses will never be forgotten.
It is said that history starts there, when all survivors are gone.
From then history begins and memories slowly fading away and erasing the thoughs of the terrible reality of war!
It remains in any case a very cruel act that can never be forgotten...
And unfortuanally as Voltaire said:" history always repeats"...
Thanks for your interest.:"

[hein]

As some people ask me if i am "The Hein" himlself. No.

He died in 2006..

Resumée:

Heinrich Severloh (23 June 1923 – 14 January 2006) was a soldier in the German 352nd Infantry Division, which was stationed in Normandy in 1944. He has been referred to as the “Beast of Omaha Beach” by the media of English speaking countries[citation needed]. He rose to notoriety as a gunner in a machine gun emplacement known as “Widerstandsnest 62”, whose position enabled him to inflict 1500-2000 casualties while American soldiers were landing on Omaha Beach as part of Operation Overlord

[BERLINVOSS]

Just to let you know Hein Severloh's book

WN62 is now out in English

A German Soldier’s Memories of the Defence of Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6, 1944

http://www.amazon.co.uk/WN-62-Soldier%C ... 338&sr=1-2

Robert

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

whose position enabled him to inflict 1500-2000 casualties

Maybe rather something closer to 300 - 500 (see above) casualties (dead and wounded).

A German Soldier’s Memories of the Defence of Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6, 1944

Must be pretty similar to memories of Australian soldiers from this war:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War#The_second_attempt

The only differences being:

1) Emus attacked crops not Omaha Beach
2) Emus didn't know how to hide and were larger targets
3) Thus less rounds were needed to kill one emu than one American

On the other hand:

After the withdrawal, Major Meredith compared the emus to Zulus, and commented on the striking maneuverability of the emus, even while badly wounded: “ If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world... They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop.[15] “