Widerstand Nest System "Atlantic Wall"

What do you think of D-day as in bunkers? Bunkers of all kinds side by side? All in one equal Row? Or bunkers everywhere in the open on hills, as depicted in Saving Private Ryan? Remember this, the German's weren't stupid. Erwin Rommel and his Gernerals made up a complex system of bunker bases. Otherwise known as Widerstand Nest. " Resistance Nest" It's pronounced Vida-stine-nest. Other wise you'd think "Wide Nest" The most popular Widerstand Nest is "Widerstand nest 62". On Omaha Beach, that one I will use to explain since I've been there."All Widerstand nest are the same as this one."

The strongpoint consisted of a 62 ca 332x 334-meter area, which is about 50-100 meteres away from the coastline. It was located about one Kilometer north of Colle-sur-Mer on one-about 20 degrees towards the hinterland rising- survery of limestone. The different positions and structures of this based were located 10 to 50 feet above sea level and allowed a relatively good overview of the previously mentioned beach area. The base was küstenseitig limited by a four-meter wide and 1.7 meters deep, water-filled anti-tank ditch, which had a total length of 300 meters. The entire base area was protected by barbed wire barriers. On defense weapons were deployed: " not all weapons of the Widerstand nest were the same, location and such" The guns were faced towards the right or left, NOT STRAIGHT. The other Widerstand nest would face the other way, so you have shells going left and right, not straight at the enemy.

two 76.5 mm guns captured Czech
two 50 mm anti-tank guns
two light grenade launcher (caliber 50 mm)
water-cooled machine guns captured two Polish Model 1917 (one of them in an earthen bunker)
a twin-MG 34 (two runs side by side) to low-level air defense
an ordinary (single run) MG 34
MG 42 in an open field position
Furthermore, there were an artillery observation post and two fixed fortress flamethrower. The apron of the base was, as in many other parts of the Normandy coast also provided with obstacles. Some of these barriers had been installed so that they were at high tide below the water line. Thus we wanted to achieve that ran aground enemy landing craft and taken to have been able to capsize (Rommel asparagus). The area of resistance before the 62 was moved by landmines extra protection.
The Widerstand nest only usually had 60+ soldiers. There were 14 Widerstand nest in the Area.

The Widerstand nest fired on a cross fire. For example they didn't shoot straight, exp Machine Guns and such. The large Guns were aimed out at see or at other beachs.

Widerstand Nest 62.
Now remember on omaha beach, the soldiers didn't get off the beach in 20 minutes as depicted in Saving Private ryan. It took them Hours! Here is the story:
The strongpoint was 62, like the other 14 pockets of resistance in the country section of Omaha, in the early morning of 6 June 1944 by American B-24 bombers attacked. These were (especially in the southern, landward part of the position) damage caused. Then fired at Anglo American warships future landing sites. Around 6:30 clock in the first eleven waves of American troops landing approached the beach before the 62nd of resistance By the base of guided artillery fire, and especially by the machine-gun fire, Corporal Henry Severloh, the 12,000 rounds fired machine-gun ammunition, the landing troops inflicted enormous losses. Severloh and Gockel shot in addition to machine-gun fire each individual targeted for 400 shots with their rifles from the landing troops. About 15:30 clock left the last survivors of the base and were forced back into the back of resistance to 63, which is contrary to the official naming only one bunkered command post - was without loopholes and installed weapons -. These survivors reached the dugout at 16:30 clock.

This man here was depicted as the Butcher of Omaha.

BIRTH
Severloh was born into a farming family in Metzingen (now Eldingen) in the Lüneburg Heath of north Germany, close to the small city of Celle.
Service in the Wehrmacht

At the time of his conscription, Severloh had never had any intention of joining the war. He was conscripted into the Wehrmacht on July 23, 1942, at the age of 19. He was assigned to the 19th Light Artillery Replacement Division in Hanover-Bothfeld. On August 9, he was transferred to France and joined the 3rd Battery of the 321st Artillery Regiment, where he was trained as a dispatch rider, among other things. In December 1942, he was sent to the Eastern Front, where he was assigned to the rear of his division as a sleigh driver. In punishment for dissenting remarks, Severloh was forced to perform physical exertions which left him with permanent health problems. The immediate consequence was a six month convalescence in a military hospital, which lasted until June 1943. Upon discharge from the hospital, he was given several weeks leave (partly because of the need for manpower during the harvest). In October 1943, Severloh was sent to junior officer training in Braunschweig, but after his unit, which had suffered heavy casualties, was transferred back to France, he was obliged to break off his training to rejoin it. In December, Severloh did rejoin his unit, which in the meantime had been reclassified as the 352nd Infantry Division and was stationed in Normandy. Severloh’s service in the Wehrmacht ended on June 7, 1944, when he was taken prisoner by the American forces.
Widerstandsnest 62

The site of Severloh’s last active mission was a simple foxhole in the section of Omaha Beach known to the Americans as “Easy Red”, close to the present site of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial near Colleville-sur-Mer. Severloh’s superiors had ordered him to use all means to drive back the landing American soldiers. His foxhole was part of a medium-sized emplacement known as “Widerstandsnest 62” (English: resistance nest 62). In the absence of a well-developed defensive line, such “resistance nests” had been established along the Atlantic coast and allocated numbers for identification. There were radio and telephone connections between the various emplacements, and many were also within eyesight of one another. The soldiers manning the emplacements in a firing line could therefore coordinate with one another.
Severloh was assigned to a Lieutenant Frerking. While Frerking coordinated the artillery fire of his battery from a bunker, the young Severloh manned an MG42. He fired on the waves of approaching American GIs with the machine gun and two Karabiner 98k rifles, while comrades kept up a continuous flow of ammunition to him. By 3 p.m., Severloh had fired approximately 12,000 rounds with the machine gun and 400 rounds with the two rifles. Some have asserted that this resulted in an estimated 2000-2500 American deaths and injuries[citation needed], however this is likely a gross overestimation, since total American casualties on Omaha Beach were approximately 3000. GIs finally found a thinly manned gap between resistance nests 62 and 64 (directly below the site of the U.S. War Cemetery) and were thus able to attack Widerstandsnest 62 from behind and take it out (resistance nest 63 was a command centre in Colleville and not an emplacement).
Lieutenant Frerking’s artillery observation bunker and Widerstandsnest 62 still exist and can be visited at the beach below Colleville. The foxhole can only be vaguely discerned.
GI David Silva

One of the few survivors of Severloh’s MG salvos was the 19-year-old GI David Silva, who was, however, gravely wounded. In the 1960s, Severloh found David Silva’s name in a book about the invasion. Wishing to find this man that he had once shot at, Severloh wrote him a letter. Several months later, Severloh discovered that Silva was once more active in the U.S. Army as a military chaplain and was stationed in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was there that they met for the second time. Severloh asked him how he had come to be a chaplain. Silva's answer was: “In the moment when I had to get out of that landing boat and run up into the fire of your machine gun, I cried out to God to help me to get out of this hell alive. I pledged to become a chaplain and as such to help other soldiers.” After living through the war, he was ordained a priest. The erstwhile enemies became good friends and at the 2005 reunion of Allied Forces in Normandy, Severloh and Silva met once more. According to eyewitnesses, the two seemed to be “the best of friends”.[citation needed] Between the time they first met after the war, until Severloh's death, the two wrote to each other often. Silva is now living in Cleveland, Ohio as a priest and has visited Severloh's gravesite more than once. Captivity
Severloh was injured at Omaha Beach. He retreated with one comrade to the nearby village of Colleville. He was taken captive by American soldiers while escorting American prisoners from a dugout to a prisoner collection point.
Severloh was released from captivity in 1947. He had first been sent as a prisoner of war to Boston, USA, where he was held until May 1946. That December, he arrived in Bedfordshire in England, where he helped with the construction of roads. Severloh regained his freedom as the result of a request made by his father to the British military authorities, as Severloh was needed to work in the fields of his parents’ farm.


PICTURES:
#1-See how long and out the beach really is? The 5 beachs whent 150+ miles! On the far corner in the back is point du hoc.

#3-Look at the grass and the blast wall. Also see how it is pointed not straight. If looking at the #1 picture we see Widerstand nest 62, but it's hard to see bunkers right? Whats the point of making a bunker if you can see it? The Germans Weren't stupid.

 

i'm guessing the only reason Severloh survived the war was because he happened to be escorting captured Americans at the time he was captured. The GI's must have recognized the American uniforms and didn't want to kill Americans by mistake by opening fire on him.

 

Correcto