Beast of Omaha

Wow, i'll poke around some on this too, 1000 even seems kinda high. But D-Day was a long day, and The Beast of Omaha fired 12,400 rounds. Very likely that he hit 1500 (guess) and killed 1000. It was so hectic on that day that he may even be credited for hitting Americans that other GErmans hit first. Spraying fire everywhere. Still, makes you think. I know for a fact that in Iraq, ,there was a sniper in Baghdad who killed nearly 50 Iraqi, American and British soldiers on one day. They didn't know where he was shooting from, sniped a bunch of people and finnally was killed in an airstrike. When the US troops entered the building they found nearly 100 spent shells and nearly 100 more at the ready. If he hadn't been killed by an airstrike, then he could have killed nearly 150 people (max) in one day. Sniper, SVD, not a machine gun!!!

Anyway, possible. Intresting....

 

http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/20154-beast-omaha.html

 

This topic has been covered in a previous thread, click on the link below.

http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/20154-beast-omaha.html

 

You beat me to it, FramerT...

 

LOL. I knew I'd seen it somewhere, just had to find it.

But to the numbers. Even if it were 'just' 1,000 dead in front of his MG, how, under constant fire, do you count that many. There was never any lull in the battle so you could actually walk out there and count.

 

searched for it but coulded find it on you're search. strange but Looking at the quantity of topics around here ... I would still be searching.

thanks guys.

 

I opened a thread about this but now I do see that there is already one.

Indeed pretty strong story.

I would say 1000 is more likely. but then saying 1000 men hit NOT killed. If me neightbour shots one and I hit him to and I credit him as a "hit" you'll be hitting 3000 soon.

just my 2 cents.

 

'Beast of Omaha' weeps as he recalls slaughter of thousands on beach

Severloh was safe in an almost impregnable concrete bunker overlooking the beach. He had an unimpeded view of the oncoming Allied forces. He was the last German soldier firing, and may have accounted for about 3,000 American casualties, almost three-quarters of all the US losses at Omaha. The Americans came to know him as the Beast of Omaha.
A leading German historical expert of the Second World War, Helmut Konrad Freiherr von Keusgen, believes Severloh may have accounted for 3,000 of the 4,200 American casualties on the day.

Severloh is less sure about the number, but said: "It was definitely at least 1,000 men, most likely more than 2,000. But I do not know how many men I shot. It was awful. Thinking about it makes me want to throw up. I almost emptied an entire infantry landing craft. The sea was red around it and I could hear an American officer shouting hysterically in a loudspeaker."

Lt-col Stuart Crawford, formerly of the Royal Tank Regiment, and a defence consultant, said it was entirely possible that a single German soldier had killed so many GIs.

He said: "I have fired that machine-gun. I did it as part of my training, and it has an extremely high rate of fire. He was in a position which was almost impervious to the weapons which the Americans could bring to bear on him. The Americans made the mistake of not landing tanks with the first wave of troops, so they had no support or protection."

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=643752004

Another source in english:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10191-2004Jul23_2.html

 

This from another poster on another discussion site,

"Agree about burning out several barrels. The least amount of ammunition he would have to fire is about 20,000 rounds with 70,000 being more likely. Aside from the changing about ten barrels, even with the quick "flip", he would have to store everything around the bunker, the huge amount of ammunition could not all be within reach of him or his assistant. Wasn't there 300 rounds in a box? As you said the Americans wouldn't take a time out to give the guy time to straighten himself out. Even the thousands of empty cartridge cases would be a problem."

 

Actually, he likely got less than 200 and probably killed less than 50. Somewhere on this very board I put up a very detailed breakdown of his position, arcs of fire, potential targets up through his post being overrun, US casualties in these areas etc as this is not the first time this guy has come up as a subject.

 

I didn't know Franz Gockel was next to him at the time. If I'm not mistaken, Gockel has been seen on several documentaries about the German defenders on D-Day. I sometimes wonder if people have mistakenly indentified him as the "Beast" because of his close proximity to him.




Somewhat OT, but...

I've been there twice, and I have to say that is (or was) one really crappy museum. LOTS of inaccuracies, I hope it's become a bit better since then. S. Ambrose certainly had a lot of influence in it, way too much IMO. I heard the bottom floor was damaged by the flooding during Hurricane Katrina, but that they found the replica landing craft floating.

 

Severloh's story came to prominence in the early '60s ; he was one of the 'stars' of Paul Carell's book, 'Invasion - They're Coming !'. Given Carell's background, allowance has to be made for some bias in his books.

 

It may have been covered before, but I was still glad to read the story, thanks for posting this

 

Here ya go. its in the "General Discussion" Forum .

http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/20154-beast-omaha.html

 

Maybe I'll need to buy that book

 

I actually, ahem, 'acquired' that book from my school library a while back. A good read IMHO.

Well, it was only sitting in a box under a table in the corner! It's not like it's going to be missed or anything!

 

'Carells' books are very good, and the access he had to German veterans was almost unique.

You just have to bear in mind that he was an Obersturmbahnfuhrer in the SS.....

 

shame on you P_grenate1:

 

If you've ever read On Killing by LtCol. Dave Grossman, you'll see that it's just not that simple.

 

I looked WN 62 up. It is on the Coleville draw on Omaha. Two companies came ashore more or less in front of this position with the first wave. In addition, portions of two engineering companies also came in at this position. Total casualties, killed, wounded, missing between the four units came to less than 400 men. There were less than 100 deaths in the four.
This accounts for everything on Ohama beach for over 500 yards in either direction from WN 62. I doubt given the weather, smoke, and other reductions in visibility that he was able to see 500 yards in either direction. The casualties in this sector are not particularly high for Ohama on D-day either. They fit about average overall.