By the way, I believe that the 352nd had spent plenty of time in Normandy to have developed unit cohesion and familiarity with the local area. Put bluntly, each man was fighting for his friends on June 6
@@abrahamcalderon1843if it was irrelevant, Germany wouldn't have fought to 1945 April. Air was strong, but 2days air superiority woul mean a different world see Iraq 2003 "Highway of death". (yes territory etc. But still). But even today it's possible to keep ur strength, see Serbia 1999. I'm Croat BTW. and my Great Uncle said "NATO & even Croat generals said it was nothing short of amazing. They were actualiy euphoric how good the Serbs avoided the NATO no bombing. US & NATO lost more $ in the air, compared to Serbia on the ground in Kosovo (main focus). That's why NATO later started bombing civilians out of panic to fail. Cuz at the end only US, UK and some were still flying.
@@abrahamcalderon1843 RANT IN 5...4.... BOOM! if it was irrelevant, Germany wouldn't have fought to 1945 April. Air was strong, but 2days air superiority would mean a different world see Iraq 2003 "Highway of death". (yes territory: sand sand sand and sand with no forests) etc. But even today it's possible to keep ur strength, with some options to outsmart /hide/conceal: see Serbia 1999. I'm Croat BTW. and my Great Uncle said "NATO & even Croat generals said it was nothing short of amazing. They were actualiy euphoric how good the Serbs avoided the NATO no bombing. US & NATO lost more $ in the air, compared to Serbia on the ground in Kosovo (main focus). That's why NATO later started bombing civilians out of panic to fail. Cuz at the end only US, UK and some were still flying.
That Korean guy was captured at Normandy , by US soldiers . He endend up fighting in three different armies . First he was conscripted into the Japanese army , then captured by the Russians in Mongolia , then pressed into the Soviet army to fight the Germans , was captured . Pressed into the German army , sent to Normandy , then captured for a final time by the Americans . True story .
@@tolik5929The two books cited by media merely alleged his existence without any citations to back that up. In those books they even quote, “some say” which is really just “believe me bro”. No one has ever found any records of a Korean by that name in Illinois.
"Below average" according to standards before operation Barbarossa. That sums up everything. Most of the elite soldiers were dead or worn out after 5 years of war.
Fit for offensive operations after rest is plenty good. The Heer was at its absolute peak June 1941. Almost the entire army had had a year to rest and retrain, yet most had also real life experience in 1939 and 1940. Plenty of action, very few casualties, all the prep they could need. Find me another army in WW2 that had 90% of their army in tip-top shape at the same time.
@@andrewklang809 Unfortunately for the Wehrmacht, the American and British forces in the UK were in the same or better condition, but with air support, tank support, and naval gun support.
@@stuartdollar9912don’t even dare to compare allied troops that fought in Africa with troops that conquered Europe in a few months Fighting in Africa was so so so different and mainly was won by logistics not combat skill
At Omaha beach, part of the reason for the eventual breakthrough was the eventual lack of German ammunition and replacement barrels for the MGs. I think this is detailed by Ambrose Bierce, but I may have the source wrong. But if the soldaten held until they ran out of effective fire, I think that points to effective fortification, (no reason to leave currently held position,) and good enough training, (we won the battle until our capacity to resist, ie ammunition,) was exhausted. It’s an awful thought, that the American soldiers on Omaha had to win by wearing through all the ammunition their opponents had, but according to sources, this is the method by which they prevailed. They just soaked up all the bullets, until the bullets became sparse enough to advance through.
"You see, the germans have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down."
You must mean Stephen Ambrose, D-Day Museum director until his death. Ambrose Bierce, I believe , wrote "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" first published in the 19th century. Other than that I agree with the rest of your opinion.
Nice piece. The paybook analysis and then the German evaluation / ranking of II for this formation were both illuminating. Nice leg work for going into what documents can be found (or speaking with the right people willing to research that material).
During my Bundeswehr time in the 90s we had the MG3 which is basically the MG42 with NATO ammo 7.62x51. This says something about the crazy engineering of this fckn monster 😅
I visited Omaha Beach and spoke with a French historian who showed me on the map where a single MG position on the ridge was able to shoot down behind the sea wall where the pinned-downed GIs where sheltering. As veteran infantryman from the Army, I can tell you that if I had an M60 wit 3 cans of ammo and a loader, that position probably was responsible for many, many, casualties. The Frenchman told me that the position was abandoned when destroyers came in close and delivered close support.
Very accurate work, high quality content as always. As an amateur historian, I came to the conclusion that the 352nd Infantry Division was a good one because it was able to fight no-stop for weeks before being completely destroyed... the stationary divisions were not able to hold for so long and so well.
A major reason the division was able to stay in the fight on the St.Lô front was because it was quickly heavily reinforced by battlegroups and detachments from other divisions/formations. Also, it faced very limited pressure for much of June and early July.
The two infantry divisions facing the invasion were the 352nd and 716th. You can tell from their high numbers that they were, at least by German standards, second or third rate troops made up of older reservists, national minorities, ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the like.
Nah the 352nd wasn't one of the old reservist units. They had proper recruits and a cadre of East Front veterans. The 716th was the one full of reservists and second rate troops, as by definition a Static Division wasn't meant to be mobile at all. The main issue with the 352nd compared to earlier Divisions was that it was a two regiment Division versus a three regiment one, meaning it has considerably fewer infantry. Thats why despite having a pretty decent allocation of artillery and heavy weapons it wasn't really as good as early war formations in the attack.
It is very good you mention "Normandy 1944: German Military Organization, Combat Power and Organizational Effectiveness" by Niklas Zetterling. The discussion of the battles in Normandy is still dominated by the often self-serving memoirs written by people who served there. Written some 50 years ago or earlier, many facts like code breaking of the Enigma or documents held by the NSA until 2014 are just not included. Sadly, for most modern authors it's easier to copy and paste old stories than doing the homework themselves. This video is a positive surprise and an exception to that rule.
Given the insane casualty numbers the Allies suffered combined with the supply and chain of command issues the Wehrmacht defenders had, I'd say the German forces were above average.
The allies expected higher losses and took a contested beach. The 352nd was a garrison division unfit for attack duties. And it was the best division around
@@MrZauberelefantThe division had a full allotment of artillery and anti-tank guns, a full battalion of tank destroyers, and all the support weapons it needed, plus months to dig in and prepare. It failed because it was forced to defend a fixed position against absolute air superiority and naval support (impossible to counter). No division can hold out forever, especially when its supply lines are long and subject to interdiction. Eventually, American firepower wore them down, and there was no backup plan. Airstrikes and partisan sabotage slowed efforts at a counterattack. It was a very strong position, but the US had several waves, and the defenders had only themselves. They were degraded, exhausted, worn away. It took a hell of a lot of US effort to do so, but that was part of the plan. Omaha Beach had the most formidable natural defenses, but superior firepower will eventually carry the day.
It's underpowered and victim to power creep, sadly. It's also one of my favorites, mainly because of history. But sadly it just doesn't cut it in game, should receive a long needed rework
I am surprised by the number of pistols for a division, and the number of gewehr 41 rifles was this modernization effort or just variety caused by short fall in bolt action rifles available at the time?
Germany basically did what the French and Soviets did when they realized they could not arm everyone with a semiauto rifle: they gave a small number to units and said give these to the guys commanders thought would use the guns best.
It seems well-equipped to me, but poorly led and inexperienced troops tend to fail irrespective of their equipment; just look at the LW field divisions when they first came out. 'All the gear, no idea' is a phrase that comes to mind!
Luftwaffe Field Division weren't well-equipped at all, they were organized as "light infantry" and had less artillery, heavy weapons and support elements than regular infantry divisions. So they were "no gear, no idea" instead. These divisions were meant to just free up regular Heer infantry units in quiet rear areas but unsurprising the front lines came to them instead.
Same issue the Russians ran into in Chechnya, or in general since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Soviet army was big, with decent training and had a lot of advanced equipment to boot. Russia was stuck with most of that equipment after the fall, and budget cuts/economic collapse led to the army having a massive drop in quality going into the Chechen Wars, which led to T-80U MBTs and other extremely advanced systems being thrown in with a lack of core manpower to actually properly use it. The same problem exists now, especially after losses early on in Ukraine. All the tanks, IFVs and systems you could want and yet no one to properly use them.
@@sthrich635 some of these were actually deployed on the front lines early on, at Oranienbaum around Leningrad as an example. They were supported by elite waffen ss divisions and had, like them, early access to camouflage equipment
The 352nd Infantry division covered a 33 mile stretch of front, a large area for a static unmotorized unit. Only 2 Battalions were at Omaha. On June 5 it's Chief of Staff classed it as suitable for defense only. It lacked training, NCO,s and combat experienced officers.
The thing that stood out to me was the large number of bipod MGs vs tripod MGs, a fixed mounted MG is very deadly against onrushing forces, while a bipod mounted MG is more of a suppression weapon(still effective when basically the beach is covered with troops). The second thing is the lack of training on the German side and the training on the US side. I can imagine a lot of MG42s with bent barrels after 5 minutes of long bursts, and as the American Units started pushing forward the ability to track targets with bipod MGs would decrease their effectiveness.
You also have to remember that such a defensive section does not only include the beach line. The defense system at the landing sites was sometimes up to 5km deep. Mobile reserves were needed in the majority. The static "Widerstandsnest/ resistance nests" (the famous WN64 as an example) were only being present in the form of small bases and in isolated strongpoints at neuralgic places. The main part of the defence system was simple field positions. My grandfather's brother, for example, sat with two comrades in a sunken lane in a machine gun bay made from sandbags and practically never saw the beach. The boys only noticed that the Canadians had already passed them on the right and left - so they grabbed their old Czech machine gun and fled back to the nearby village - straight into the arms of the Canadians... "Hands up".....^^
Bipod version was standard SAW in each German squad and MG-42 had easily replaceable barrel which could be then cooled by water from flask. There were 1-2 spare barrels in this configuration. Tripod configuration had own MG squad, since you need one man to carry tripods, another with 3-5 spare barrels and as many ammunition carriers as possible. One guy would be assigned just to cool barrels by pouring water in them. Limitation would have been mainly ammunition. Properly trained soldiers would know to regularly change barrel and process would take 5-10s. There was even asbestos glove in kit for that purpose.
@@mladenmatosevic4591 In winter 12 seconds....^^ "Los, sie nasser Sack! Laufwechsel!!...und gnade ihnen Gott, wenn sie länger als 12 Sekunden brauchen! Dann fahre ich persönlich mit ihnen Schlitten! Dann machen wir hier im Schnee "Häschen hüpf" bis sie nicht mehr wissen, ob sie Männlein oder Weiblein sind!......7, 8, 6...." 😄
Not really, Tripod was more about extending effective range since aim could be adjusted mechanically. within most combat range (less than 300m) you could achieve plenty of stability by just having an AG hold the bipod down and accuracy was not really a problem. For example at Omaha the distance from the German positions to where landing craft disembarked generally around 200m IIRC.
@@chuckyxii10 Right. Heinrich Severloh even sat alone in his trench and fired thousands of rounds without an assistant from his light machine gun with sufficient precision.
Regardless of the quality of this unit, it has to be said that seeing the sheer weight of force that was coming at them would have had a major effect on morale.
In a documentary about the defense construction, it was mentioned that the amount of ammunition was much lower than planned. It was planned by Rommel that the ammunition should last 2 days, but there were only 2 hours of ammunition delivered. Since the landing only had real success after 2 hours, it might be that the Germans were running out of ammunition.
I have read that one big factor that resulted in higher casualties at Omaha is that the pre landing bombardment overshot the German fortifications due to poor visibility and fear of hitting French civilians and friendly troops. Thus the soldiers landed facing undamaged bunkers. Also the geography of the beach was more favorable to defense due to the bluffs and cliffs. Also the exists of the beach were draws that channelized the troops/tanks as they went through them. Finally, due to rough seas many landing craft were swamped or pushed off course, thus creating confusion and dispersion. The RUclips video called “the 32 men who unlocked Omaha Beach” covers some of these difficulties.
Small question: at 3:34 you mention 671 light machine guns, and 102 heavy machine guns. You then mention 775 machine guns total, while these earlier numbers add up to 773. Where there perhaps additional captured or training machine guns included in this count?
A couple questions: 1. What are good sources for wartime estimates of combat effectiveness? 2. How do these German ratings compare with American WW1-era estimates of 1st-4th class German divisions, or WW2-era estimates of combat efficiency, or Dupuy-style Combat Effectiveness Value (as a force multiplier)?
"How do these German ratings compare with American WW1-era estimates of 1st-4th class German divisions" You compare apples with oranges. The Germans had a very good grasp for the quality of their own units and usually were quite honest and blunt in respect to the quality. K.H. Frieser in Blitzkrieg Legend gives good examples for the ratings and the changes during winter 1939/40. Most higher officers served in the Imperial army which was considered very good in 1914, therefore, the army of August 1914 set often the bar even in WW2. (Only before Operation Barbarossa the avaerage infantry unit was considered on par with active divisons in 1914). In contrast, the WW1 US estimates were low quality. They were based on incomplete and sometimes outdated pieces of information, assessed by officers who did not understand the German army.
I would take anything related to Trevor N. Dupuy with a big pinch of salt. He was a very clever man, but his methodology was deeply flawed and based on data that wasn't always well-handled. Allied armies, for example, had a different system of reporting casualties to that of the Germans.
Given the 1944 TO&E for the standard infantry division, the 352d was a reinforced standard infantry division. The standard MTO&E did not have Marders or StuGs. Also, the small arms were German standard, not Czech substitute standard or foreign weapons.
The 352nd wasn't the only unit at Omaha on D-day according to Balkoski (the main historian for the US 29th ID), the 716th Static Division also had a battalion on the beaches. Likewise note the 352nd was actually spread pretty thin. A battalion was tied up by the Rangers near Point Du Hoc, another battalion spent most of its time fighting American paratroopers, while a significant battlegroup including all the Stugs were sent to counter-attack the British beaches and were destroyed. So its not entirely accurate to say the 352nd was the German D-day unit at Omaha, since maybe at most two battalions actually fought at the beaches alongside the battalion from the 716th. It was however the main opposition on the road to St Lo for the first couple of days, at least until major reinforcements arrived particularly the 3rd Fallschirmjaeger, though by that point the 352nd was so short of infantry it was mainly just the artillery and support units at that point helping shore up the 3rd (which coincidentally had a shortage of artillery)
But nobody says they were the only unit at Omaha? It's just that arrival of 352nd was a surprise for allies, who expected the beaches to be manned by low-tier 716th static division, yet met a proper fighting force in form of 352nd. That's why it's most commonly discussed in this topic.
@@czwarty7878 yes, but its also not accurate to imply the whole Division was at Omaha. As I noted the Stugs were sent to fight the Brits, and at most only two battalions were at Omaha itself. That there has been this back and forth on wether the 352nd was elite or not is indeed largely born out of the controversy of whether the Germans genuinely had a strong force at Omaha, or there was really major deficiencies in the US plan and execution resulting in high losses despite a relatively weak enemy.
My Grandfather landed on Omaha Beach with the US first Infantry Division. His wife my Grandmothers brother Fritz was killed June 7th while a member of the German 352nd Infanterie Division. My Grandma and Great Grandma emigrated to the US in 1937. My Great Grandfather died in Russia, one of the brothers was shot down and captured, one was captured in Italy with the 18th SS and Fritz KIA D+1.
A regular infantry squad had 1 LMG, with a gunner and an assistant gunner. All soldiers were trained on the LMG according to regulations. ruclips.net/video/-rKRt5zVZgw/видео.html
I think panzer lehr illustrates a point m tanks had to be nearby as they couldn't move. I think that tanks could not have survived within five miles if the beach with airower and naval guns Germans would have done better with division nearer the beach but would not have affected result. @RifleEyez
German doctrine was to always counterattack. It happened at Salerno and Sicily before german panzers punched through the allied lines just to get absolutely mauled by naval gunfire and airpower.
Plenty actually. There is even a rather famous memoir (amongst the german speaking history community) from a tanker served in Barbarossa, got wounded, was in the stalingrad campaign in the relief effort to try to break out 6th army, participated in kursk, got almost fatally wounded, send to retrain on the new tanks in germany and was in france when DDay happened. He ultimatly ended up in hungary first in bucharest and them in vienna when both cities were overrun by the russians, to then flee west and surrender to the americans Bacuffz made the whole diary available here on youtube but in german, but I think there is an english trsnslation
Yeah, i think the chances of you surviving the war was far higher if you were in the army already before the war then if you joined during the war. My own grandfather joined the german army in 1936 and participated in operation barbarossa in a grenadier regiment, he was a frontline soldier. The war ended for him in the courland pocket on 8th of may 1945. He came home from russia in 1947.
There were definitely some though most did not. I read a memoir about an artilleryman that started as a private in the 20's Weimar army served through the entire war, mostly on Eastern Front and ended the war as a General Staff Major in the defense of Berlin, then survived Soviet internment till 1953.
No, 20 000 were made during its whole production run, which STARTED in 1941. They were produced until late 1943. If you look at unit reports from mid 44, the G41 was a pretty standard weapon, with most units having a few hundreds of them.
Thank you Bernhard. I always prefer your well researched presentations to the rehashed propaganda, sloppy research and bad guesses that still prevail in some literature and ‘documentaries’. Have a good week.
Gut gemachtes Video -- dankeschön. Kleiner Verbesserungsvorschlag: Es wäre super, wenn Dein Lesen und das Erscheinen des Textes synchronisiert wäre -- vor allem für Nichtmuttersprachler. Ansonsten... weiter so!
Danke! Du meinst die Zitate? Wenn nicht, am besten die Captions/Untertitel aktivieren, fast alle meine Videos haben inzwischen die Untertitel von mir, aber die sind auch für die Zitate. Das genaue synchronisieren der Zitate ist ein Heidenaufwand.
They were part of the anti-tank battalion. The Marders formed 1st Company, the StuGs formed 2nd, and the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns formed 3rd. In the spring these StuG companies were renamed to Abteilung (detachment) and received their own number, in this case 1352. Still, they remained part of the battalion and were still often shown as and called 2nd Company. Sometimes there's some confusion over this, but 2./Pz.Jg.Abt.352 and Stu.Gesch.Abt.1352 were the same formation. Regardless of its name, it was part of the Panzertruppen, not of the artillery.
I remember there being a statement by one of the german generals in the longest day to the effect that "it wouldn't matter the weather, and it wouldn't matter what they sent at us, if enough were sent, they'd get through" -- I don't think any single division could have changed much.
Might get answered, but in case I forget, these guys would not be in charge of defending "Omaha Beach". What is that, some, American gangster resort? Wonder if they had a name for the sector they were defending.
The division's sector was called Coastal Defense Sector H2, aka Coastal Defense Sector Bayeux. This area was further subdivided. Omaha Beach was partially located in Coastal Defense Sub-Group Percée and partially in Coastal Defense Sub-Group Bessin. Further to the west the division's sector also included Sub-Group Vire.
@@greyfells2829 No, this is simply wrong. The G41 was not particularily rare, most divisions had a couple hundreds in 1944. It was just rare in the sense that most soldiers still had a K98k, but a standard division like this one usually had enough to equip each squad with one or two.
I don't like to use 'Elite' but units like Panzer Lehr and 12th SS were in Normandy. Also 2nd Panzer, 116th Panzer (not combat ready) and of course 21st Panzer.
@@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 116th Panzer had veteran elements, but they were far from elite. But yes, the list is long. 2. Panzer, Panzer-Lehr, LSSAH, Das Reich, 12. SS, 3rd Fallschirmjager, and smaller elements like 6. Fallschirm-Regiment. Those are all elite units in the strictest sense of the word, and on top of these there were multiple non-elite but veteran divisions like 9. Panzer or 21. Panzer, which were also serious fighting force. Considering the percentage of force these divisions made up, Normandy was the most elite-division filled sector in the entire european theatre of war. OP's comment makes zero sense and is a straight up lie lol.
I don’t know - In my opinion further inquiry into the meaning of the rating „II“ would have been necessary: Didn‘t it mainly refer to equipment rather than combat experience? A fully equipped division with hardly trained soldiers might well lack behind a somewhat battered division with battle-hardenend veterans. Plus there are reports of soldiers defending Omaha who had to use Polish liquid-cooled machine guns which does not exactly fit the reports about the division being fully equipped with MG 34 or 42.
> Plus there are reports of soldiers defending Omaha who had to use Polish liquid-cooled machine guns > which does not exactly fit the reports about the division being fully equipped with MG 34 or 42. 10:45 Other units were also present.
There were three sources of weaponry being used on Omaha: 1) Those of the 716th elements. Those troops remained there when the 352nd took over. Their MGs were mainly MG34s 2) weapons from the 352nd. They had MG42s in their frontline troops. 3) static (bodenständige) weapons, which were sector bound and provided additional firepower. Those weapons included captured MGs.
Oh, and about those ratings, it was used as a quick way to assess what a division was capable of. That's determined by the combination of equipment, personnel and training. The ratings are often based on the Zustandsbericht, which includes the commander's assessment of the quality of his division. In general those tend to be a fair representation of the situation: make your division look better than it is and you may be given tasks they're not up to, which you'll be blamed for; downplay your division's capabilities and get your leadership qualities questioned. So generally it is best to give a fair assessment, even if there is some room.
@@nielshenkemans, thank you for your answer. I believe to remember from the memoirs of Franz Gockel „Das Tor zur Hölle“ (?) he was firing with a Polish machine gun. That made me think the divisions defending Omaha Beach were ill-equipped - what made sense to me as I heard many Wehrmacht officials believed the main invasion to happen elsewhere.
If anyone reading this has an interest in the 352nd and their experiences on DDay. I highly recommend ‘Normandiefront’ which is available via audiobook on Audible and Audiobooks. By Bruce Conner and Vince Milano. Very good resource. There’s multiple references to Artillerie Regiment 352 and their ops. While it looks like they have a lot of guns, ammo supply became a chronic problem.
Many of the NCOs and a fair number of the enlisted men were people coming out of hospitals after being wounded or were folded into the new division from remnants of units decimated in Russia. These were mixed with new recruits who were, in many cases underweight and weakly built from poor nutrition. Divisional command worked hard to get these men built up and as well trained as possible for what they thought would be deployment to the east in the summer of '44. The German Army liked to mix combat veterans and new recruits in rebuilding or new units and train them together which was, honestly, a much better system than the US "Spare Parts" personnel system. By the time of the invasion the 352nd Infantry Division was a capable outfit that had a pretty good amount of cohesive unit training, although not especially mobile with so much being horse-drawn. Allied Intel had no idea they were there and they were a nasty shock to the US 1st and 29th Divisions.
some people say the germans at the beach were ill prepared low recourse no rempalcement barrels low ammunition and no rear support or even a single artillery. but the us had almost limitless support and resourses both in flesh and metal. so germans would eventually run out of ammo or personell and the paratroopers who landed on also provided additional support for allied forces. if the germans had been well prepared and had great resource then the allied forces might have had double the loss or maybe triple. but they would have eventually overrun the beach with sheer numbers. that is the most russian and chinese tactic i can think of.
I mean, 9 hours a day of building your defensive positions followed by 3 hours of tactical training near or on them… not a bad combination of time spent. A good NCO or officer will be able to get some training accomplished during construction periods by talking about cover and concealment, blind spots, rates of fire for their weapons systems, where the extra ammunition will be located in the event “the Allies land here”.
more than 600 MG42s, more than 800 MP40s, 24 SPGs/StuGs, and this with the new style division model (i.e. fewer infantry battalions, lower manpower), means, that this is quite well equipped.
Considering recruitment pattern among Volksdeutsche in former Yegoslavia, volunteers remained in local SS like Prinz Eugen, and most others went to Ostfront. Exception were people with some smaller disability who went to occupation force in Western Europe, like France.
They weren't bad. They were like Ukraine today, massively outgunned, over powered and with serious shortages of ammunition. They have reserves for 4 hours of fire mostly. That's a really, really bad thing. Air dominance and lack of tanks is also an important factor for loosing. It wasn't soldiers fault.. Nazzis were fucked up every thing...
The Germans expected the Allies to capture a port, not some random beach. So I am surprised that they put the 352nd Division, one of their best divisions, at Omaha Beach. I would have thought rating IV divisions would be put on the beaches and rating II and III at the ports. IIRC the Germans were tunnel visioned into thinking the Allies would need to take a port instead of using Mulberry harbors. Maybe it has something to do with allied airpower?
The 325th were on R&R after taking a beating in the East. I reckon they were put in "low risk" area as some sort of reward for their merit in that front.
Few troops, 1 regiment and changes. Lack of ammo to keep fighting. A below average division in 1941 standarts. And a rearguard in a mess with all those airborne divisions creating chaos behind their backs. Overall they did their role well and the outcome was no surprise. Plus it didn't matter, the invasion succeded in all other beaches.
I learned about them from the original Close Combat! I have a fond memory of them as a result, them and the US 29th Division which faced off against them.
The US boys could invade at Omaha beach because the defending tank batallions had no order to defend the fortifications. But its true the americans didnt fight against the real Wehrmacht. They almost lost against the germans as they launched the Ardennen Offensive.
Not true at all. When the invasion starts, the bulk of divisions in the West are at full strength. It's not like late 1944 when there is a small shortage of manpower (no reserves though!) but large shortages of heavy equipment. The big issue was training. Units like 5th FJ Div, some of the infantry units (such as 346 ID) and even 1st SS PzD had not had time to properly train. In some cases, (5FJD, 1SSPzD) units had just been stood up or were being refitted but in other cases, units had been used for garrison duty and had not been trained for field service.
My dad was an American.M.P. attached to 3id, Normandy to Berlin, his orders were kept the traffic moving on the beach and the detainment and interrogation of German soldiers, after the war ended his best friend was a guy named Fritz from Dresden Germany and he had a brother that was being held prisoner buy the Soviets.
You mean captured French tanks and artillery? Most of that was used on the Eastern Front. There were a hell of a lot of conversions and ersatz equipment with French guns on German chasses. I imagine only the smallest/weakest/oldest stuff was kept behind for shore defense. Bury a gun in the dirt, hide it behind a bunker. What's a 1930s 25mm low-velocity cannon to do in 1944? Barely a shotgun, really.
Many French tanks were used as static pillboxes or had their turret fittet on a German tank And the artillery needs new barrels every few thousand rounds and other spareparts Aswell Not to forget the lack of ammo
Everything is about "engagement" in this day and age, but even alluding to men who died in combat as "trash" (whether German, American, Sri Lankan, or anything else) is not worthy of a sensible discussion on the combat performance of a fighting unit.
It’s the four MG 42 machine gun that wrecked havoc to the US allied forces at Omaha beach this machine gun is called by US forces as the zipper cause it sounds like opening a zipper and it can fire around 1,200 bullets per minute around 5k US soldiers died on that day.
Everyone talks about the misplacing of the Panzer divisions during the Invasion. But the real killer was the lack of motorized infantry. Infantry holds ground, keeps the enemy pinned made much easier in the Bocage. Panzers attack. Rommel in his papers dearly laments the lack of infantry reserves and motorized infantry divisions that could arrive quickly to the AO. Instead he has to use Panzer units to hold ground and could never mass the armor necessary to deliver the needed punch. In retrospect, the big error in dispositions for the Western Front was not having enough reserve infantry divisions.
Problem is, where do those reserves come from? The Nazis had to defend an absurd amount of coastline from Norway to Greece that was threatened (and while the main invasion was unlikely to happen outside France, opening another smaller front in Norway or Greece was certainly possible if the Allies weren't confident about France, as was another Anzio type assault to get around German defenses in Italy). On top of that, they needed all the forces available to try and stem the tide in the East. Not to mention all the troops needed for internal security of occupied territories. And if the Germans went "it's Normandy, no question" and moved all their forces to counter such an invasion, biting off some peripheries or moving the main assault to Calais (or maybe opening with Dragoon to draw forces away from Normandy) would been serious considerations. My take is that, with hindsight, the Allied advantages were so great that the Germans simply could not have stopped any reasonably competent and commited invasion.
Static division, stripped of anything useful and sent to defend a stretch of beach. They were dogshit tier and the only reason that our troops had trouble was purely do to our own errors and the lack of Hobart's funnies to help break through.
Without watching the video, I can tell you that the majority of troops manning beach defences were certainly not elite. More capable troops were reserved for frontline combat rather than babysitting a beach but there were elite units in the area such as fallschirmjäger paratroopers and seasoned tank divisions but due to poor decision making, the actions of allied airborne troops causing confusion further inland and local commanders fear of waking up Hitler (yes, really) to inform him of events meant that these units were not utilised in time to make a difference because major orders had to be channeled through Hitler 1st. If these units had been left to seize the initiative under their own volition then there is every possibiliy that the allies could have been thrown back in to the sea.
My Grandpa was there, with 17 and reloaded a AA on a train this day. Get shot in the leg from a aircraft, and came later in a POW-Camp. In this areas the most are school-divisions and anothers in training. You fight against teens and cadets(most) ....
Static infantry was definitely not elite, but the very nature of an amphibious assault is so dangerous that your grandma could have rack some kills. Take note, China.
Then US divisions had manpower issues because the majority of the young enlisted men went through the shortages and social displacement of the Great Depression from 1929-1937.
But how much of that was due to the defenders being good and the terrain being the best defensive terrain of teh five main beaches? If you put equal forces defending all five beaches, Omaha is unquestionably going to be the toughest to crack none of the others even come close.
So, basically, Omaha Beach was just bad luck in spades that day. Though it explains why, once off the beach, things began to get considerably better for the guys at Omaha.
I don't have a firm opinion on this unit. I always figured it was somewhere in the middle. I found this video informative, but I work in statistics and they can be misleading. The analysis of captured pay books for instance, as presented in the video, doesn't tell us how many were analyzed, where they came from, and when they were captured, nor how they determined the man received pay for being in actual combat versus being in a combat zone. Also, if they were gathered from say the artillery, which usually suffered less combat losses, then one would expect a high number of experienced men. Further, having suffered such losses against this unit despite all the support and preparation used to suppress them, one can easily see how bias might creep into the analysis in an effort to explain and justify losses. Such bias would also be less likely to be questioned as it was a defunct unit and not one that commanders expected to encounter again. As far as equipment is concerned, this video states how much the division had, but not how much was available to to contest the landings as the video also states not all the 352nd was deployed at that location. If for instance all their 15 cm guns were elsewhere, that makes a huge difference. Further, I'm not sure the video spoke to how many men were foreigners, some of which might have been of dubious reliability? I'm still inclined to think the 352nd, given the missing forces, would have been below the grade II mentioned, but not "trash."
The allies had 156,000 troops on dday fighting 50,000 germans ,slightly over 3 to 1 odds against the germans and the germans were still decimating their numbers drastically but eventually succumbed do to being ganged up on ,that is what it is weather you like it or not that is the truth
4:53 clearly lays out the weapons available to Germans on DDay yet Call of Duty and other games make up some other shit like Gewehr 43s, StG44s, and an over abundance of PPSH41s
Severloh claimed he killed upwards of 2,000 men, but anyone who's familiar with Omaha Beach and the landings knows that's obvious bs since it's statistically impossible. It's a fun story for kids though.
He was Heinrich Severloh, also known as "The Beast of Omaha", and while he did manage to incapacitate and kill a lot of Allied soldiers using his MG42, the number of 900 has been hotly contested since then, although yes he did survive the war after being captured, and was sent back home to Germany to help his father on their family farm in 1947. He passed away in 2006.
When you consider that Omaha Beach was five miles long and had 35 pillboxes and 85 machine guns, not to mention the artillery, mortars and rocket launchers, and looking at total casualties it would appear his claim that he did that much damage by himself was exaggerated.
Before even watching the video: Fortifications are used to boost your troops capabilities, if you have elite troops you'd not need to create such line of defenses unless you expected to contact a force much larger, to even the odds of numbers, so it's most likely that no, it was not elite troops.
Be sure to check out Niels twitter here: x.com/Niels_1944
Mixed quality and effectiveness of German forces at Omaha Beach and Normandy in general
By the way, I believe that the 352nd had spent plenty of time in Normandy to have developed unit cohesion and familiarity with the local area. Put bluntly, each man was fighting for his friends on June 6
Only nazis left on twatter...
@@clintonreisig😊 4:57 4:58
Trash or not, if the enemy has 100% air superiority and endless supplies, you end up thrashed. Thrashed trash or thrashed elite but thrashed anyway
That’s why all the “elite infantry” talk is irrelevant. Logistics, supply, smart strategy.
@@abrahamcalderon1843if it was irrelevant, Germany wouldn't have fought to 1945 April. Air was strong, but 2days air superiority woul mean a different world see Iraq 2003 "Highway of death". (yes territory etc. But still). But even today it's possible to keep ur strength, see Serbia 1999. I'm Croat BTW. and my Great Uncle said "NATO & even Croat generals said it was nothing short of amazing.
They were actualiy euphoric how good the Serbs avoided the NATO no bombing. US & NATO lost more $ in the air, compared to Serbia on the ground in Kosovo (main focus). That's why NATO later started bombing civilians out of panic to fail. Cuz at the end only US, UK and some were still flying.
@@abrahamcalderon1843 RANT IN 5...4.... BOOM!
if it was irrelevant, Germany wouldn't have fought to 1945 April. Air was strong, but 2days air superiority would mean a different world see Iraq 2003 "Highway of death". (yes territory: sand sand sand and sand with no forests) etc.
But even today it's possible to keep ur strength, with some options to outsmart /hide/conceal: see Serbia 1999. I'm Croat BTW. and my Great Uncle said "NATO & even Croat generals said it was nothing short of amazing.
They were actualiy euphoric how good the Serbs avoided the NATO no bombing. US & NATO lost more $ in the air, compared to Serbia on the ground in Kosovo (main focus). That's why NATO later started bombing civilians out of panic to fail. Cuz at the end only US, UK and some were still flying.
That Korean guy was captured at Normandy , by US soldiers . He endend up fighting in three different armies . First he was conscripted into the Japanese army , then captured by the Russians in Mongolia , then pressed into the Soviet army to fight the Germans , was captured . Pressed into the German army , sent to Normandy , then captured for a final time by the Americans . True story .
My Way 2011 movie
Thanks imdb
No, it was a fiction, I read that the Asian soldier was never confirmed to be a Korean, although the Japanese officer was based on the real guy.
@@edwhite7078 Its a fact , he later immigrated to the United States .
@@tolik5929The two books cited by media merely alleged his existence without any citations to back that up. In those books they even quote, “some say” which is really just “believe me bro”. No one has ever found any records of a Korean by that name in Illinois.
"Below average" according to standards before operation Barbarossa. That sums up everything.
Most of the elite soldiers were dead or worn out after 5 years of war.
Below Average Pre-Barbarrosa, that means that Division is 2 degrees below the Divisions that conquered Europe.
Fit for offensive operations after rest is plenty good. The Heer was at its absolute peak June 1941. Almost the entire army had had a year to rest and retrain, yet most had also real life experience in 1939 and 1940. Plenty of action, very few casualties, all the prep they could need. Find me another army in WW2 that had 90% of their army in tip-top shape at the same time.
@@andrewklang809 Unfortunately for the Wehrmacht, the American and British forces in the UK were in the same or better condition, but with air support, tank support, and naval gun support.
@@stuartdollar9912 Many of the British and Canadian troops at D-Day had been prepping in one form or another for TWO YEARS.
@@stuartdollar9912don’t even dare to compare allied troops that fought in Africa with troops that conquered Europe in a few months
Fighting in Africa was so so so different and mainly was won by logistics not combat skill
You always provide a 1st class briefing format.
At Omaha beach, part of the reason for the eventual breakthrough was the eventual lack of German ammunition and replacement barrels for the MGs. I think this is detailed by Ambrose Bierce, but I may have the source wrong. But if the soldaten held until they ran out of effective fire, I think that points to effective fortification, (no reason to leave currently held position,) and good enough training, (we won the battle until our capacity to resist, ie ammunition,) was exhausted.
It’s an awful thought, that the American soldiers on Omaha had to win by wearing through all the ammunition their opponents had, but according to sources, this is the method by which they prevailed. They just soaked up all the bullets, until the bullets became sparse enough to advance through.
That was Eisenhower's intent.
The old Zap Branaghan technique
Stephen Ambrose.
Ambrose Bierce was the great Civil War era writer.
"You see, the germans have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down."
You must mean Stephen Ambrose, D-Day Museum director until his death. Ambrose Bierce, I believe , wrote "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" first published in the 19th century. Other than that I agree with the rest of your opinion.
Nice piece. The paybook analysis and then the German evaluation / ranking of II for this formation were both illuminating. Nice leg work for going into what documents can be found (or speaking with the right people willing to research that material).
During my Bundeswehr time in the 90s we had the MG3 which is basically the MG42 with NATO ammo 7.62x51. This says something about the crazy engineering of this fckn monster 😅
I visited Omaha Beach and spoke with a French historian who showed me on the map where a single MG position on the ridge was able to shoot down behind the sea wall where the pinned-downed GIs where sheltering. As veteran infantryman from the Army, I can tell you that if I had an M60 wit 3 cans of ammo and a loader, that position probably was responsible for many, many, casualties. The Frenchman told me that the position was abandoned when destroyers came in close and delivered close support.
WN62? He was using likely using the grossly exaggerated testimony of Hein Severloh.
Very accurate work, high quality content as always.
As an amateur historian, I came to the conclusion that the 352nd Infantry Division was a good one because it was able to fight no-stop for weeks before being completely destroyed... the stationary divisions were not able to hold for so long and so well.
A major reason the division was able to stay in the fight on the St.Lô front was because it was quickly heavily reinforced by battlegroups and detachments from other divisions/formations. Also, it faced very limited pressure for much of June and early July.
Being decimated on Russian front tempered these divisions into durable units
The two infantry divisions facing the invasion were the 352nd and 716th. You can tell from their high numbers that they were, at least by German standards, second or third rate troops made up of older reservists, national minorities, ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the like.
Ethnic germans from Eastern europe were not considered differently than other germans. That's BS
They also refreshed these divisions with young recruits. severloh was 19 and held his position by himself for almost 9 hours straight
Nah the 352nd wasn't one of the old reservist units. They had proper recruits and a cadre of East Front veterans. The 716th was the one full of reservists and second rate troops, as by definition a Static Division wasn't meant to be mobile at all.
The main issue with the 352nd compared to earlier Divisions was that it was a two regiment Division versus a three regiment one, meaning it has considerably fewer infantry. Thats why despite having a pretty decent allocation of artillery and heavy weapons it wasn't really as good as early war formations in the attack.
It is very good you mention "Normandy 1944: German Military Organization, Combat Power and Organizational Effectiveness" by Niklas Zetterling. The discussion of the battles in Normandy is still dominated by the often self-serving memoirs written by people who served there. Written some 50 years ago or earlier, many facts like code breaking of the Enigma or documents held by the NSA until 2014 are just not included. Sadly, for most modern authors it's easier to copy and paste old stories than doing the homework themselves. This video is a positive surprise and an exception to that rule.
Given the insane casualty numbers the Allies suffered combined with the supply and chain of command issues the Wehrmacht defenders had, I'd say the German forces were above average.
The allies expected higher losses and took a contested beach. The 352nd was a garrison division unfit for attack duties. And it was the best division around
@@MrZauberelefant according to the video it was classified as fit for attack duties though.
That was true in general of German forces.
@@MrZauberelefantThe division had a full allotment of artillery and anti-tank guns, a full battalion of tank destroyers, and all the support weapons it needed, plus months to dig in and prepare.
It failed because it was forced to defend a fixed position against absolute air superiority and naval support (impossible to counter). No division can hold out forever, especially when its supply lines are long and subject to interdiction. Eventually, American firepower wore them down, and there was no backup plan. Airstrikes and partisan sabotage slowed efforts at a counterattack. It was a very strong position, but the US had several waves, and the defenders had only themselves. They were degraded, exhausted, worn away. It took a hell of a lot of US effort to do so, but that was part of the plan. Omaha Beach had the most formidable natural defenses, but superior firepower will eventually carry the day.
Didn’t throw the Allie’s back into the sea
My favourite in SD1/2! Very versatile division with some interesting and unusual units.
It's underpowered and victim to power creep, sadly. It's also one of my favorites, mainly because of history. But sadly it just doesn't cut it in game, should receive a long needed rework
I am surprised by the number of pistols for a division, and the number of gewehr 41 rifles was this modernization effort or just variety caused by short fall in bolt action rifles available at the time?
Germany basically did what the French and Soviets did when they realized they could not arm everyone with a semiauto rifle: they gave a small number to units and said give these to the guys commanders thought would use the guns best.
In squads/sections self-loading rifles were often used instead of a second machine-pistol
Well think about it , usually only officers ncos and Mayby every second machine gunner or ammo bearer had a pistol
@@tavish4699 good point
Pistols were issued to a lot of the non-infantry troops.
The German 352 ID was a step above the regular static 716 ID manning the defenses above Omaha Beach.
It seems well-equipped to me, but poorly led and inexperienced troops tend to fail irrespective of their equipment; just look at the LW field divisions when they first came out. 'All the gear, no idea' is a phrase that comes to mind!
LW Fail Divisions
Train to guard airfields
Not fight
Luftwaffe Field Division weren't well-equipped at all, they were organized as "light infantry" and had less artillery, heavy weapons and support elements than regular infantry divisions. So they were "no gear, no idea" instead. These divisions were meant to just free up regular Heer infantry units in quiet rear areas but unsurprising the front lines came to them instead.
Same issue the Russians ran into in Chechnya, or in general since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Soviet army was big, with decent training and had a lot of advanced equipment to boot.
Russia was stuck with most of that equipment after the fall, and budget cuts/economic collapse led to the army having a massive drop in quality going into the Chechen Wars, which led to T-80U MBTs and other extremely advanced systems being thrown in with a lack of core manpower to actually properly use it.
The same problem exists now, especially after losses early on in Ukraine. All the tanks, IFVs and systems you could want and yet no one to properly use them.
@@sthrich635 some of these were actually deployed on the front lines early on, at Oranienbaum around Leningrad as an example. They were supported by elite waffen ss divisions and had, like them, early access to camouflage equipment
The 352nd Infantry division covered a 33 mile stretch of front, a large area for a static unmotorized unit.
Only 2 Battalions were at Omaha.
On June 5 it's Chief of Staff classed it as suitable for defense only.
It lacked training, NCO,s and combat experienced officers.
The thing that stood out to me was the large number of bipod MGs vs tripod MGs, a fixed mounted MG is very deadly against onrushing forces, while a bipod mounted MG is more of a suppression weapon(still effective when basically the beach is covered with troops). The second thing is the lack of training on the German side and the training on the US side. I can imagine a lot of MG42s with bent barrels after 5 minutes of long bursts, and as the American Units started pushing forward the ability to track targets with bipod MGs would decrease their effectiveness.
You also have to remember that such a defensive section does not only include the beach line. The defense system at the landing sites was sometimes up to 5km deep. Mobile reserves were needed in the majority. The static "Widerstandsnest/ resistance nests" (the famous WN64 as an example) were only being present in the form of small bases and in isolated strongpoints at neuralgic places. The main part of the defence system was simple field positions.
My grandfather's brother, for example, sat with two comrades in a sunken lane in a machine gun bay made from sandbags and practically never saw the beach. The boys only noticed that the Canadians had already passed them on the right and left - so they grabbed their old Czech machine gun and fled back to the nearby village - straight into the arms of the Canadians... "Hands up".....^^
Bipod version was standard SAW in each German squad and MG-42 had easily replaceable barrel which could be then cooled by water from flask. There were 1-2 spare barrels in this configuration. Tripod configuration had own MG squad, since you need one man to carry tripods, another with 3-5 spare barrels and as many ammunition carriers as possible. One guy would be assigned just to cool barrels by pouring water in them. Limitation would have been mainly ammunition. Properly trained soldiers would know to regularly change barrel and process would take 5-10s. There was even asbestos glove in kit for that purpose.
@@mladenmatosevic4591 In winter 12 seconds....^^
"Los, sie nasser Sack! Laufwechsel!!...und gnade ihnen Gott, wenn sie länger als 12 Sekunden brauchen! Dann fahre ich persönlich mit ihnen Schlitten! Dann machen wir hier im Schnee "Häschen hüpf" bis sie nicht mehr wissen, ob sie Männlein oder Weiblein sind!......7, 8, 6...."
😄
Not really, Tripod was more about extending effective range since aim could be adjusted mechanically. within most combat range (less than 300m) you could achieve plenty of stability by just having an AG hold the bipod down and accuracy was not really a problem. For example at Omaha the distance from the German positions to where landing craft disembarked generally around 200m IIRC.
@@chuckyxii10 Right. Heinrich Severloh even sat alone in his trench and fired thousands of rounds without an assistant from his light machine gun with sufficient precision.
A valuable insight into what the Americans faced that day. A similar exercise into the other forces at the remaining four beeches would be great!
Regardless of the quality of this unit, it has to be said that seeing the sheer weight of force that was coming at them would have had a major effect on morale.
Deine Aussprache, Betonung, die Pausen und generelle Verständlichkeit ist viel besser geworden.
New to the channel but really enjoyed this. Very well researched/ well done
Glad you enjoyed it!
If you subtract the support, hq and arty troops the number of machineguns available to infantry units is quite amazing.
In a documentary about the defense construction, it was mentioned that the amount of ammunition was much lower than planned. It was planned by Rommel that the ammunition should last 2 days, but there were only 2 hours of ammunition delivered.
Since the landing only had real success after 2 hours, it might be that the Germans were running out of ammunition.
Thank you for the excellent video. The way you present this type of video is perfect for the subject.
I have read that one big factor that resulted in higher casualties at Omaha is that the pre landing bombardment overshot the German fortifications due to poor visibility and fear of hitting French civilians and friendly troops. Thus the soldiers landed facing undamaged bunkers.
Also the geography of the beach was more favorable to defense due to the bluffs and cliffs. Also the exists of the beach were draws that channelized the troops/tanks as they went through them.
Finally, due to rough seas many landing craft were swamped or pushed off course, thus creating confusion and dispersion.
The RUclips video called “the 32 men who unlocked Omaha Beach” covers some of these difficulties.
Small question: at 3:34 you mention 671 light machine guns, and 102 heavy machine guns. You then mention 775 machine guns total, while these earlier numbers add up to 773. Where there perhaps additional captured or training machine guns included in this count?
you're questioning a miscount of TWO mg?
@@mowvu
That's why he said "small question"
@@artificialintelligence8328 i can't fault the logic. I'm questioning the reasoning lol
A couple questions:
1. What are good sources for wartime estimates of combat effectiveness?
2. How do these German ratings compare with American WW1-era estimates of 1st-4th class German divisions, or WW2-era estimates of combat efficiency, or Dupuy-style Combat Effectiveness Value (as a force multiplier)?
"How do these German ratings compare with American WW1-era estimates of 1st-4th class German divisions"
You compare apples with oranges. The Germans had a very good grasp for the quality of their own units and usually were quite honest and blunt in respect to the quality. K.H. Frieser in Blitzkrieg Legend gives good examples for the ratings and the changes during winter 1939/40. Most higher officers served in the Imperial army which was considered very good in 1914, therefore, the army of August 1914 set often the bar even in WW2. (Only before Operation Barbarossa the avaerage infantry unit was considered on par with active divisons in 1914).
In contrast, the WW1 US estimates were low quality. They were based on incomplete and sometimes outdated pieces of information, assessed by officers who did not understand the German army.
I would take anything related to Trevor N. Dupuy with a big pinch of salt. He was a very clever man, but his methodology was deeply flawed and based on data that wasn't always well-handled. Allied armies, for example, had a different system of reporting casualties to that of the Germans.
Bedankt voor de fijne video's. Guter Nachbar!
Nice summary. Thank you.
Given the 1944 TO&E for the standard infantry division, the 352d was a reinforced standard infantry division. The standard MTO&E did not have Marders or StuGs. Also, the small arms were German standard, not Czech substitute standard or foreign weapons.
Not sure what the combat readiness of the German Army as of June 1941 has any bearing on the combat readiness of the 352d.
The 352nd wasn't the only unit at Omaha on D-day according to Balkoski (the main historian for the US 29th ID), the 716th Static Division also had a battalion on the beaches.
Likewise note the 352nd was actually spread pretty thin. A battalion was tied up by the Rangers near Point Du Hoc, another battalion spent most of its time fighting American paratroopers, while a significant battlegroup including all the Stugs were sent to counter-attack the British beaches and were destroyed.
So its not entirely accurate to say the 352nd was the German D-day unit at Omaha, since maybe at most two battalions actually fought at the beaches alongside the battalion from the 716th. It was however the main opposition on the road to St Lo for the first couple of days, at least until major reinforcements arrived particularly the 3rd Fallschirmjaeger, though by that point the 352nd was so short of infantry it was mainly just the artillery and support units at that point helping shore up the 3rd (which coincidentally had a shortage of artillery)
But nobody says they were the only unit at Omaha? It's just that arrival of 352nd was a surprise for allies, who expected the beaches to be manned by low-tier 716th static division, yet met a proper fighting force in form of 352nd. That's why it's most commonly discussed in this topic.
@@czwarty7878 yes, but its also not accurate to imply the whole Division was at Omaha. As I noted the Stugs were sent to fight the Brits, and at most only two battalions were at Omaha itself.
That there has been this back and forth on wether the 352nd was elite or not is indeed largely born out of the controversy of whether the Germans genuinely had a strong force at Omaha, or there was really major deficiencies in the US plan and execution resulting in high losses despite a relatively weak enemy.
My Grandfather landed on Omaha Beach with the US first Infantry Division. His wife my Grandmothers brother Fritz was killed June 7th while a member of the German 352nd Infanterie Division. My Grandma and Great Grandma emigrated to the US in 1937. My Great Grandfather died in Russia, one of the brothers was shot down and captured, one was captured in Italy with the 18th SS and Fritz KIA D+1.
Great video as usual, but shouldn't this be in MHV rather than MHnV?
MHnV still uses graphs and stuff, but it's mainly because Bernard shows his face in these videos, too
Thanks always wondered about this.
The Atlantic Wall was manned mostly by eastern conscripts .
It was about 6,000 kilometers coastline and the Germans were thinly spread out that long coast. Might be really hard to defend that wall.
Was the MG42 issued to individual soldiers in the light role, or was that always a two man team? Did all soldiers receive training on the Mg42?
A regular infantry squad had 1 LMG, with a gunner and an assistant gunner. All soldiers were trained on the LMG according to regulations. ruclips.net/video/-rKRt5zVZgw/видео.html
And again I wonder what effect immediate panzer division support waiting in reserve would have had
Defenders always have the edge, in particular when they are in concrete bunkers behind barbed wire and minefields.
I think panzer lehr illustrates a point m tanks had to be nearby as they couldn't move.
I think that tanks could not have survived within five miles if the beach with airower and naval guns
Germans would have done better with division nearer the beach but would not have affected result.
@RifleEyez
German doctrine was to always counterattack.
It happened at Salerno and Sicily before german panzers punched through the allied lines just to get absolutely mauled by naval gunfire and airpower.
Were there any frontline German soldier that took part in Barbarossa at the start and made it through till the end of the war?
Plenty actually. There is even a rather famous memoir (amongst the german speaking history community) from a tanker served in Barbarossa, got wounded, was in the stalingrad campaign in the relief effort to try to break out 6th army, participated in kursk, got almost fatally wounded, send to retrain on the new tanks in germany and was in france when DDay happened. He ultimatly ended up in hungary first in bucharest and them in vienna when both cities were overrun by the russians, to then flee west and surrender to the americans
Bacuffz made the whole diary available here on youtube but in german, but I think there is an english trsnslation
Yeah, i think the chances of you surviving the war was far higher if you were in the army already before the war then if you joined during the war. My own grandfather joined the german army in 1936 and participated in operation barbarossa in a grenadier regiment, he was a frontline soldier. The war ended for him in the courland pocket on 8th of may 1945. He came home from russia in 1947.
@Carlton-B Peter's war is it called but I don't think he was, but I have not found an english translation yet
There were definitely some though most did not. I read a memoir about an artilleryman that started as a private in the 20's Weimar army served through the entire war, mostly on Eastern Front and ended the war as a General Staff Major in the defense of Berlin, then survived Soviet internment till 1953.
I'm interested in the German MP in Band of brothers who said it was his 2nd war I assume WW1 was his first
Yo thats actually wild that they har 440 g41s, only 20,000 were made in 1941 yet this one unit had 440 in 1944. Thats crazy
No, 20 000 were made during its whole production run, which STARTED in 1941. They were produced until late 1943. If you look at unit reports from mid 44, the G41 was a pretty standard weapon, with most units having a few hundreds of them.
Thank you Bernhard. I always prefer your well researched presentations to the rehashed propaganda, sloppy research and bad guesses that still prevail in some literature and ‘documentaries’. Have a good week.
Gut gemachtes Video -- dankeschön.
Kleiner Verbesserungsvorschlag: Es wäre super, wenn Dein Lesen und das Erscheinen des Textes synchronisiert wäre -- vor allem für Nichtmuttersprachler. Ansonsten... weiter so!
Danke! Du meinst die Zitate? Wenn nicht, am besten die Captions/Untertitel aktivieren, fast alle meine Videos haben inzwischen die Untertitel von mir, aber die sind auch für die Zitate.
Das genaue synchronisieren der Zitate ist ein Heidenaufwand.
were the StuG's part of anti-tank platoon or did they form their own StuG platoon as part of this division?
They were part of the anti-tank battalion. The Marders formed 1st Company, the StuGs formed 2nd, and the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns formed 3rd. In the spring these StuG companies were renamed to Abteilung (detachment) and received their own number, in this case 1352. Still, they remained part of the battalion and were still often shown as and called 2nd Company. Sometimes there's some confusion over this, but 2./Pz.Jg.Abt.352 and Stu.Gesch.Abt.1352 were the same formation. Regardless of its name, it was part of the Panzertruppen, not of the artillery.
@@nielshenkemans thank you very much for the in depth answer sir!
@@ninaakari5181 If you can get hold of it, Zetterling's book on Normandy is very comprehensive.
@@Wien1938 thank you for the tip! Found it from Amazon and definetly will order a copy
@@nielshenkemans Nice work. Looking forward to buying a copy of your book.
I remember there being a statement by one of the german generals in the longest day to the effect that "it wouldn't matter the weather, and it wouldn't matter what they sent at us, if enough were sent, they'd get through"
-- I don't think any single division could have changed much.
it was General Marcks in the film, and I expect in real life, too.
Might get answered, but in case I forget, these guys would not be in charge of defending "Omaha Beach". What is that, some, American gangster resort? Wonder if they had a name for the sector they were defending.
The division's sector was called Coastal Defense Sector H2, aka Coastal Defense Sector Bayeux. This area was further subdivided. Omaha Beach was partially located in Coastal Defense Sub-Group Percée and partially in Coastal Defense Sub-Group Bessin. Further to the west the division's sector also included Sub-Group Vire.
I'm surprised by how many Gewehr 41s were available. I always thought of them as rarities.
They were. This division wasn't typical, they were holding a high value target and therefor got better firepower.
@@greyfells2829 No, this is simply wrong. The G41 was not particularily rare, most divisions had a couple hundreds in 1944. It was just rare in the sense that most soldiers still had a K98k, but a standard division like this one usually had enough to equip each squad with one or two.
Danke fürs diese ausführliche Erklärung. Ich fand es interessant, das von einem Deutschen zu hören.
Danke :)
There were no "elite" units stationed at Normandy. They were, with one exception, troops that were designated for service as occupation.
me when I spread misinformation online
I don't like to use 'Elite' but units like Panzer Lehr and 12th SS were in Normandy. Also 2nd Panzer, 116th Panzer (not combat ready) and of course 21st Panzer.
@@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 116th Panzer had veteran elements, but they were far from elite.
But yes, the list is long. 2. Panzer, Panzer-Lehr, LSSAH, Das Reich, 12. SS, 3rd Fallschirmjager, and smaller elements like 6. Fallschirm-Regiment. Those are all elite units in the strictest sense of the word, and on top of these there were multiple non-elite but veteran divisions like 9. Panzer or 21. Panzer, which were also serious fighting force.
Considering the percentage of force these divisions made up, Normandy was the most elite-division filled sector in the entire european theatre of war. OP's comment makes zero sense and is a straight up lie lol.
I don’t know - In my opinion further inquiry into the meaning of the rating „II“ would have been necessary: Didn‘t it mainly refer to equipment rather than combat experience? A fully equipped division with hardly trained soldiers might well lack behind a somewhat battered division with battle-hardenend veterans.
Plus there are reports of soldiers defending Omaha who had to use Polish liquid-cooled machine guns which does not exactly fit the reports about the division being fully equipped with MG 34 or 42.
> Plus there are reports of soldiers defending Omaha who had to use Polish liquid-cooled machine guns
> which does not exactly fit the reports about the division being fully equipped with MG 34 or 42.
10:45 Other units were also present.
@@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized. thank you, I did not know that.
There were three sources of weaponry being used on Omaha:
1) Those of the 716th elements. Those troops remained there when the 352nd took over. Their MGs were mainly MG34s
2) weapons from the 352nd. They had MG42s in their frontline troops.
3) static (bodenständige) weapons, which were sector bound and provided additional firepower. Those weapons included captured MGs.
Oh, and about those ratings, it was used as a quick way to assess what a division was capable of. That's determined by the combination of equipment, personnel and training. The ratings are often based on the Zustandsbericht, which includes the commander's assessment of the quality of his division. In general those tend to be a fair representation of the situation: make your division look better than it is and you may be given tasks they're not up to, which you'll be blamed for; downplay your division's capabilities and get your leadership qualities questioned. So generally it is best to give a fair assessment, even if there is some room.
@@nielshenkemans, thank you for your answer. I believe to remember from the memoirs of Franz Gockel „Das Tor zur Hölle“ (?) he was firing with a Polish machine gun. That made me think the divisions defending Omaha Beach were ill-equipped - what made sense to me as I heard many Wehrmacht officials believed the main invasion to happen elsewhere.
If anyone reading this has an interest in the 352nd and their experiences on DDay. I highly recommend ‘Normandiefront’ which is available via audiobook on Audible and Audiobooks. By Bruce Conner and Vince Milano. Very good resource. There’s multiple references to Artillerie Regiment 352 and their ops. While it looks like they have a lot of guns, ammo supply became a chronic problem.
Many of the NCOs and a fair number of the enlisted men were people coming out of hospitals after being wounded or were folded into the new division from remnants of units decimated in Russia. These were mixed with new recruits who were, in many cases underweight and weakly built from poor nutrition. Divisional command worked hard to get these men built up and as well trained as possible for what they thought would be deployment to the east in the summer of '44. The German Army liked to mix combat veterans and new recruits in rebuilding or new units and train them together which was, honestly, a much better system than the US "Spare Parts" personnel system. By the time of the invasion the 352nd Infantry Division was a capable outfit that had a pretty good amount of cohesive unit training, although not especially mobile with so much being horse-drawn. Allied Intel had no idea they were there and they were a nasty shock to the US 1st and 29th Divisions.
It hard to defend positions once you run out ammo...
If there's no discussion of the various Allied misdirection/double-agent intelligence actions prior to D-Day, then this is an incomplete picture imo
10.000 allied planes vs 800 planes for Germany over Normandy .
I had always thought that they were neither elite nor trash, but a middle of the road regular army division
some people say the germans at the beach were ill prepared low recourse no rempalcement barrels low ammunition and no rear support or even a single artillery. but the us had almost limitless support and resourses both in flesh and metal. so germans would eventually run out of ammo or personell and the paratroopers who landed on also provided additional support for allied forces. if the germans had been well prepared and had great resource then the allied forces might have had double the loss or maybe triple. but they would have eventually overrun the beach with sheer numbers. that is the most russian and chinese tactic i can think of.
I mean, 9 hours a day of building your defensive positions followed by 3 hours of tactical training near or on them… not a bad combination of time spent.
A good NCO or officer will be able to get some training accomplished during construction periods by talking about cover and concealment, blind spots, rates of fire for their weapons systems, where the extra ammunition will be located in the event “the Allies land here”.
Hard to learn when you are tired.
This unit had quite a lot of firepower and equipment, unlike many other infantry divisions during the same time.
more than 600 MG42s, more than 800 MP40s, 24 SPGs/StuGs, and this with the new style division model (i.e. fewer infantry battalions, lower manpower), means, that this is quite well equipped.
I suspect the confused german command structure caused all sorts of confusion and suppply and logistical problems.
Considering recruitment pattern among Volksdeutsche in former Yegoslavia, volunteers remained in local SS like Prinz Eugen, and most others went to Ostfront. Exception were people with some smaller disability who went to occupation force in Western Europe, like France.
They weren't bad. They were like Ukraine today, massively outgunned, over powered and with serious shortages of ammunition. They have reserves for 4 hours of fire mostly. That's a really, really bad thing.
Air dominance and lack of tanks is also an important factor for loosing. It wasn't soldiers fault.. Nazzis were fucked up every thing...
mmm Niels Henkemans, Niklas Zetterling, well-known competent researchers providing information, this is gonna be a great video!
Interview with a few servivors from ALL the beaches answered the same, we surrendered because we ran out of ammunition.
Thank you.
From everything I have ever heard the Germans had 3rd line units there at D-Day, they still caused substantial damage to U.S. forces.
I've read there was less than one hundred germans defending Omaha Beach
TY🙏🙏
The Germans expected the Allies to capture a port, not some random beach. So I am surprised that they put the 352nd Division, one of their best divisions, at Omaha Beach. I would have thought rating IV divisions would be put on the beaches and rating II and III at the ports. IIRC the Germans were tunnel visioned into thinking the Allies would need to take a port instead of using Mulberry harbors. Maybe it has something to do with allied airpower?
The 325th were on R&R after taking a beating in the East. I reckon they were put in "low risk" area as some sort of reward for their merit in that front.
Few troops, 1 regiment and changes. Lack of ammo to keep fighting. A below average division in 1941 standarts. And a rearguard in a mess with all those airborne divisions creating chaos behind their backs. Overall they did their role well and the outcome was no surprise. Plus it didn't matter, the invasion succeded in all other beaches.
352nd was my favorite division in SDN44, fun division to play but for sure not elite :D
I learned about them from the original Close Combat! I have a fond memory of them as a result, them and the US 29th Division which faced off against them.
Interesting.
Nice Video again. Hein Severloh made it sound like the Unit was quite a bit worse :)
He lied or exaggerated about so much, I wouldn't believe his testimony.
The US boys could invade at Omaha beach because the defending tank batallions had no order to defend the fortifications. But its true the americans didnt fight against the real Wehrmacht. They almost lost against the germans as they launched the Ardennen Offensive.
+ ALL german 'divisions' were also under strength.
Not true at all. When the invasion starts, the bulk of divisions in the West are at full strength. It's not like late 1944 when there is a small shortage of manpower (no reserves though!) but large shortages of heavy equipment.
The big issue was training. Units like 5th FJ Div, some of the infantry units (such as 346 ID) and even 1st SS PzD had not had time to properly train. In some cases, (5FJD, 1SSPzD) units had just been stood up or were being refitted but in other cases, units had been used for garrison duty and had not been trained for field service.
It gets a solid "B".
My dad was an American.M.P. attached to 3id, Normandy to Berlin, his orders were kept the traffic moving on the beach and the detainment and interrogation of German soldiers, after the war ended his best friend was a guy named Fritz from Dresden Germany and he had a brother that was being held prisoner buy the Soviets.
Should have delayed this vid to june 6
I'm surprised there wasn't more captured stuff.
it's mostly German stuff.
What happened to all that captured stuff?
Anyway very interesting video.
Lots went to the static divisions etc
You mean captured French tanks and artillery? Most of that was used on the Eastern Front. There were a hell of a lot of conversions and ersatz equipment with French guns on German chasses. I imagine only the smallest/weakest/oldest stuff was kept behind for shore defense. Bury a gun in the dirt, hide it behind a bunker. What's a 1930s 25mm low-velocity cannon to do in 1944? Barely a shotgun, really.
Many French tanks were used as static pillboxes or had their turret fittet on a German tank
And the artillery needs new barrels every few thousand rounds and other spareparts Aswell
Not to forget the lack of ammo
Everything is about "engagement" in this day and age, but even alluding to men who died in combat as "trash" (whether German, American, Sri Lankan, or anything else) is not worthy of a sensible discussion on the combat performance of a fighting unit.
352nd was sn average Wehrmact infantry division in 1944.
No, not by combat rating
After Stalingrad, a B-grade division was above-average.
It’s the four MG 42 machine gun that wrecked havoc to the US allied forces at Omaha beach this machine gun is called by US forces as the zipper cause it sounds like opening a zipper and it can fire around 1,200 bullets per minute around 5k US soldiers died on that day.
Everyone talks about the misplacing of the Panzer divisions during the Invasion. But the real killer was the lack of motorized infantry. Infantry holds ground, keeps the enemy pinned made much easier in the Bocage. Panzers attack. Rommel in his papers dearly laments the lack of infantry reserves and motorized infantry divisions that could arrive quickly to the AO. Instead he has to use Panzer units to hold ground and could never mass the armor necessary to deliver the needed punch. In retrospect, the big error in dispositions for the Western Front was not having enough reserve infantry divisions.
Problem is, where do those reserves come from? The Nazis had to defend an absurd amount of coastline from Norway to Greece that was threatened (and while the main invasion was unlikely to happen outside France, opening another smaller front in Norway or Greece was certainly possible if the Allies weren't confident about France, as was another Anzio type assault to get around German defenses in Italy). On top of that, they needed all the forces available to try and stem the tide in the East. Not to mention all the troops needed for internal security of occupied territories.
And if the Germans went "it's Normandy, no question" and moved all their forces to counter such an invasion, biting off some peripheries or moving the main assault to Calais (or maybe opening with Dragoon to draw forces away from Normandy) would been serious considerations.
My take is that, with hindsight, the Allied advantages were so great that the Germans simply could not have stopped any reasonably competent and commited invasion.
out of ammo at 10 o clock at omaha
Hitler did not gave more Panzer division to Rommel
He had control of 3, and had met witht Hitler to get a 4th.
Static division, stripped of anything useful and sent to defend a stretch of beach.
They were dogshit tier and the only reason that our troops had trouble was purely do to our own errors and the lack of Hobart's funnies to help break through.
Without watching the video, I can tell you that the majority of troops manning beach defences were certainly not elite. More capable troops were reserved for frontline combat rather than babysitting a beach but there were elite units in the area such as fallschirmjäger paratroopers and seasoned tank divisions but due to poor decision making, the actions of allied airborne troops causing confusion further inland and local commanders fear of waking up Hitler (yes, really) to inform him of events meant that these units were not utilised in time to make a difference because major orders had to be channeled through Hitler 1st. If these units had been left to seize the initiative under their own volition then there is every possibiliy that the allies could have been thrown back in to the sea.
Out off Ammo at 10 o clock
My Grandpa was there, with 17 and reloaded a AA on a train this day. Get shot in the leg from a aircraft, and came later in a POW-Camp. In this areas the most are school-divisions and anothers in training. You fight against teens and cadets(most) ....
Static infantry was definitely not elite, but the very nature of an amphibious assault is so dangerous that your grandma could have rack some kills.
Take note, China.
Then US divisions had manpower issues because the majority of the young enlisted men went through the shortages and social displacement of the Great Depression from 1929-1937.
Well, they made Omaha a tough beach to crack, so they weren't a pushover.
But how much of that was due to the defenders being good and the terrain being the best defensive terrain of teh five main beaches? If you put equal forces defending all five beaches, Omaha is unquestionably going to be the toughest to crack none of the others even come close.
So, basically, Omaha Beach was just bad luck in spades that day.
Though it explains why, once off the beach, things began to get considerably better for the guys at Omaha.
Not really. The 352nd were shattered to pieces but US V Corps couldn't take advantage. The road to St Lo was open.
I don't have a firm opinion on this unit. I always figured it was somewhere in the middle. I found this video informative, but I work in statistics and they can be misleading. The analysis of captured pay books for instance, as presented in the video, doesn't tell us how many were analyzed, where they came from, and when they were captured, nor how they determined the man received pay for being in actual combat versus being in a combat zone. Also, if they were gathered from say the artillery, which usually suffered less combat losses, then one would expect a high number of experienced men. Further, having suffered such losses against this unit despite all the support and preparation used to suppress them, one can easily see how bias might creep into the analysis in an effort to explain and justify losses. Such bias would also be less likely to be questioned as it was a defunct unit and not one that commanders expected to encounter again. As far as equipment is concerned, this video states how much the division had, but not how much was available to to contest the landings as the video also states not all the 352nd was deployed at that location. If for instance all their 15 cm guns were elsewhere, that makes a huge difference. Further, I'm not sure the video spoke to how many men were foreigners, some of which might have been of dubious reliability? I'm still inclined to think the 352nd, given the missing forces, would have been below the grade II mentioned, but not "trash."
They were well equipped for a late wermacht division so probably elite or at least veteran
The allies had 156,000 troops on dday fighting 50,000 germans ,slightly over 3 to 1 odds against the germans and the germans were still decimating their numbers drastically but eventually succumbed do to being ganged up on ,that is what it is weather you like it or not that is the truth
Oh, embedded enemy doing half decent against sea assault? How surprising?
4:53 clearly lays out the weapons available to Germans on DDay yet Call of Duty and other games make up some other shit like Gewehr 43s, StG44s, and an over abundance of PPSH41s
Available to one of 20 german divisions involved in d-day landings*
Didnt a german dude on omaha beach or in normandy on d-day killed/wounded like 900+ allied soldiers and survived the war?
Severloh claimed he killed upwards of 2,000 men, but anyone who's familiar with Omaha Beach and the landings knows that's obvious bs since it's statistically impossible. It's a fun story for kids though.
Well, I'm pretty sure he lost count somewhere.
You probably thing of Heinrich Severloh. One of those guys with a MG42 and enough ammo.
He was Heinrich Severloh, also known as "The Beast of Omaha", and while he did manage to incapacitate and kill a lot of Allied soldiers using his MG42, the number of 900 has been hotly contested since then, although yes he did survive the war after being captured, and was sent back home to Germany to help his father on their family farm in 1947. He passed away in 2006.
Nope.
When you consider that Omaha Beach was five miles long and had 35 pillboxes and 85 machine guns, not to mention the artillery, mortars and rocket launchers, and looking at total casualties it would appear his claim that he did that much damage by himself was exaggerated.
Before even watching the video: Fortifications are used to boost your troops capabilities, if you have elite troops you'd not need to create such line of defenses unless you expected to contact a force much larger, to even the odds of numbers, so it's most likely that no, it was not elite troops.