Elite or Trash? German D-Day Unit at Omaha

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Today we look at the 352nd German Infantry Division that was responsible for the defense of Omaha Beach. Now depending on who you ask, the division was either elite or trash. Well as so often, a look at the details might reveal a bit more information. We look at the division weapons layout, its experience and the German combat effectiveness rating the division received.
Cover Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-198-1383-39 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Colorization & modification by vonKickass.
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» SOURCES «
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Ose, Dieter: Entscheidung im Westen 1944: der Oberbefehlshaber West und die Abwehr der alliierten Invasion, Helios: Aachen, Germany, 2013.
Müller-Hillebrand, Burkhart: Das Heer 1933-1945. Entwicklung des organisatorischen Aufbaues. Band III. Der Zweifrontenkrieg. Das Heer vom Beginn des Feldzuges gegen die Sowjetunion bis zum Kriegsende., E.S. Mittler & Sohn: Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1969.
Scherzer, Veit: Deutsche Truppen im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Band 1: Formationsgeschichte des Heeres und des Ersatzheeres 1939 bis 1945. Teilband 1 A., Scherzers Militaer-Verlag: Ranis / Jena, Germany, 2007.
Lieb, Peter: Unternehmen Overlord: Die Invasion in der Normandie und die Befreiung Westeuropas, C.H. Beck: München, Germany, 2014.
Boog, Horst/Krebs, Gerhard/Vogel, Detlef: Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg 7: Das Deutsche Reich in der Defensive. Strategischer Luftkrieg in Europa, Krieg im Westen und in Ostasien 1943-1944/45. Bd. 7, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Stuttgart, Germany, 2001 (Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg 7).
Messenger, Charles: The D-Day Atlas: Anatomy of the Normandy Campaign, First paperback edition 2014, Thames & Hudson: London, UK, 2014.
Penrose, Jane (Hg.): The D-Day Companion: Leading Historians explore History’s Greatest Amphibious Assault, Paperback ed, Osprey: Oxford, UK, 2009.
#dday80 #omahabeach #352nd #normandy #ww2 #elite #trash
00:00 Intro
00:32 Unit History
00:58 Actual Strength
Heavy Weapons
02:55 Machine Guns
04:15 Small Arms
05:12 Comparison with the ID 44 & static defense division
06:50 Combat Effectiveness
07:02 Experienced or not?
09:40 German Rating
10:45 Not the whole division
11:01 Summary

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1 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 458

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized Месяц назад

Be sure to check out Niels twitter here: x.com/Niels_1944

@clintonreisig 28 дней назад

Mixed quality and effectiveness of German forces at Omaha Beach and Normandy in general

@clintonreisig 28 дней назад

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

@maflones 27 дней назад

Only nazis left on twatter...

@airwicky5441 25 дней назад

@@clintonreisig😊 4:57 4:58

@Faustrecht2010 27 дней назад

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

@abrahamcalderon1843 18 дней назад

That’s why all the “elite infantry” talk is irrelevant. Logistics, supply, smart strategy.

@tolik5929 29 дней назад

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 .

@csongi6 28 дней назад

My Way 2011 movie

@edwhite7078 26 дней назад

Thanks imdb

@eine52 26 дней назад

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.

@tolik5929 26 дней назад

@@edwhite7078 Its a fact , he later immigrated to the United States .

@WellBattle6 25 дней назад

@@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.

@catalinsoare1261 Месяц назад

"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.

@Sufferingzify Месяц назад

Below Average Pre-Barbarrosa, that means that Division is 2 degrees below the Divisions that conquered Europe.

@andrewklang809 Месяц назад

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.

@stuartdollar9912 Месяц назад

@@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.

@andrewklang809 Месяц назад

@@stuartdollar9912 Many of the British and Canadian troops at D-Day had been prepping in one form or another for TWO YEARS.

@tavish4699 Месяц назад

@@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

@hjhuber7929 28 дней назад

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 😅

@Veteran-Nurse Месяц назад

You always provide a 1st class briefing format.

@meansofproduction4213 29 дней назад

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.

@herschelmayo2727 29 дней назад

That was Eisenhower's intent.

@CostaCola 28 дней назад

The old Zap Branaghan technique

@b2tall239 28 дней назад

Stephen Ambrose. Ambrose Bierce was the great Civil War era writer.

@commisaryarreck3974 28 дней назад

"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."

@johnzimmerman862 27 дней назад

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.

@michaeldunne338 Месяц назад

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).

@onenote6619 23 дня назад

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.

@stepanokhrimenko9189 Месяц назад

My favourite in SD1/2! Very versatile division with some interesting and unusual units.

@czwarty7878 24 дня назад

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

@lonestar1233 Месяц назад

Thank you for the excellent video. The way you present this type of video is perfect for the subject.

@maximkretsch7134 29 дней назад

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.

@AK-hi7mg 28 дней назад

Ethnic germans from Eastern europe were not considered differently than other germans. That's BS

@mk18397 25 дней назад

They also refreshed these divisions with young recruits. severloh was 19 and held his position by himself for almost 9 hours straight

@thomasellysonting3554 24 дня назад

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.

@captainhurricane5705 Месяц назад

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!

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized Месяц назад

LW Fail Divisions

@tomhenry897 Месяц назад

Train to guard airfields Not fight

@sthrich635 29 дней назад

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.

@hansshekelstein9450 25 дней назад

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.

@mk18397 25 дней назад

@@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

@frankgulla2335 27 дней назад

Nice summary. Thank you.

@jolanjump 22 дня назад

Bedankt voor de fijne video's. Guter Nachbar!

@phillipsmith4814 13 дней назад

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 RU-vid video called “the 32 men who unlocked Omaha Beach” covers some of these difficulties.

@TomWilson-sy4jo Месяц назад

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.

@mikeromney4712 29 дней назад

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".....^^

@mladenmatosevic4591 28 дней назад

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.

@mikeromney4712 28 дней назад

@@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...." 😄

@chuckyxii10 28 дней назад

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.

@mikeromney4712 28 дней назад

@@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.

@AW-ix5qg Месяц назад

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.

@MrZauberelefant Месяц назад

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

@AW-ix5qg Месяц назад

@@MrZauberelefant according to the video it was classified as fit for attack duties though.

@gratefulguy4130 Месяц назад

That was true in general of German forces.

@andrewklang809 Месяц назад

@@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.

@Badass-History Месяц назад

It was full of conscripts from conquered nations, most of them weren't even German or willing to fight to the death

@alexandershorse9021 Месяц назад

Thanks always wondered about this.

@andrewburleson9846 18 дней назад

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.

@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 16 дней назад

WN62? He was using likely using the grossly exaggerated testimony of Hein Severloh.

@zyxzevn 19 дней назад

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.

@BenNy-dd6hh 23 дня назад

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.

@jim99west46 Месяц назад

If you subtract the support, hq and arty troops the number of machineguns available to infantry units is quite amazing.

@rob5944 27 дней назад

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!

@jimfesta8981 25 дней назад

The German 352 ID was a step above the regular static 716 ID manning the defenses above Omaha Beach.

@Buggsy61 16 дней назад

New to the channel but really enjoyed this. Very well researched/ well done

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized 16 дней назад

Glad you enjoyed it!

@MN-hc4sn 25 дней назад

Deine Aussprache, Betonung, die Pausen und generelle Verständlichkeit ist viel besser geworden.

@Cheduepallottole 27 дней назад

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.

@nielshenkemans 27 дней назад

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.

@knoll9812 24 дня назад

Being decimated on Russian front tempered these divisions into durable units

@mikebrase5161 25 дней назад

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.

@frankvandergoes298 26 дней назад

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.

@michaelguerin56 13 дней назад

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.

@CDMJDMHHC Месяц назад

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?

@genericpersonx333 Месяц назад

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.

@defendingnormandy8109 Месяц назад

In squads/sections self-loading rifles were often used instead of a second machine-pistol

@tavish4699 Месяц назад

Well think about it , usually only officers ncos and Mayby every second machine gunner or ammo bearer had a pistol

@CDMJDMHHC Месяц назад

@@tavish4699 good point

@ppsh43 Месяц назад

Pistols were issued to a lot of the non-infantry troops.

@dennis2376 Месяц назад

Thank you.

@Gliptalful Месяц назад

Great video as usual, but shouldn't this be in MHV rather than MHnV?

@moblinmajorgeneral Месяц назад

MHnV still uses graphs and stuff, but it's mainly because Bernard shows his face in these videos, too

@thomasellysonting3554 24 дня назад

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)

@czwarty7878 24 дня назад

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.

@thomasellysonting3554 23 дня назад

@@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.

@eric-wb7gj Месяц назад

TY🙏🙏

@TheYeti308 22 дня назад

The Atlantic Wall was manned mostly by eastern conscripts .

@robertonavarro7713 18 дней назад

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.

@rhyssheppard8609 24 дня назад

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

@Ts5EVER 6 дней назад

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.

@Pasteurpipette 28 дней назад

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?

@mowvu5380 15 дней назад

you're questioning a miscount of TWO mg?

@marjae2767 Месяц назад

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)?

@olafkunert3714 Месяц назад

"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.

@biggiouschinnus7489 27 дней назад

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.

@nateweter4012 15 дней назад

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.

@malcolmclayton6651 26 дней назад

10.000 allied planes vs 800 planes for Germany over Normandy .

29 дней назад

Nice Video again. Hein Severloh made it sound like the Unit was quite a bit worse :)

@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 16 дней назад

He lied or exaggerated about so much, I wouldn't believe his testimony.

@AND-od5jt 25 дней назад

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!

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized 25 дней назад

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.

@Korhanne 28 дней назад

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.

@Korhanne 28 дней назад

it was General Marcks in the film, and I expect in real life, too.

@eighthelement Месяц назад

mmm Niels Henkemans, Niklas Zetterling, well-known competent researchers providing information, this is gonna be a great video!

@bigsarge2085 27 дней назад

Interesting.

@VramsGamingChannel 21 день назад

Danke fürs diese ausführliche Erklärung. Ich fand es interessant, das von einem Deutschen zu hören.

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized 21 день назад

Danke :)

@sd_league Месяц назад

352nd was my favorite division in SDN44, fun division to play but for sure not elite :D

@kushanblackrazor6614 Месяц назад

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.

@HalfLifeExpert1 26 дней назад

I had always thought that they were neither elite nor trash, but a middle of the road regular army division

@mladenmatosevic4591 28 дней назад

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.

@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 16 дней назад

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?

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized 16 дней назад

A regular infantry squad had 1 LMG, with a gunner and an assistant gunner. All soldiers were trained on the LMG according to regulations. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--rKRt5zVZgw.html

@konstantinatanassov4353 24 дня назад

This unit had quite a lot of firepower and equipment, unlike many other infantry divisions during the same time.

@konstantinatanassov4353 24 дня назад

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.

@WAFFENAMT1 28 дней назад

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.

@Hamilton-kz2xw 11 дней назад

Interview with a few servivors from ALL the beaches answered the same, we surrendered because we ran out of ammunition.

@SirMatthew 27 дней назад

I'm surprised by how many Gewehr 41s were available. I always thought of them as rarities.

@greyfells2829 25 дней назад

They were. This division wasn't typical, they were holding a high value target and therefor got better firepower.

@Ts5EVER 6 дней назад

@@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.

@cammobunker 22 дня назад

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.

@Juanhop 23 дня назад

It hard to defend positions once you run out ammo...

@joeklejko1391 22 дня назад

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.

@vitorsousa8172 28 дней назад

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.

@ninaakari5181 29 дней назад

were the StuG's part of anti-tank platoon or did they form their own StuG platoon as part of this division?

@nielshenkemans 29 дней назад

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.

@ninaakari5181 29 дней назад

@@nielshenkemans thank you very much for the in depth answer sir!

@Wien1938 29 дней назад

@@ninaakari5181 If you can get hold of it, Zetterling's book on Normandy is very comprehensive.

@ninaakari5181 29 дней назад

@@Wien1938 thank you for the tip! Found it from Amazon and definetly will order a copy

@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 16 дней назад

@@nielshenkemans Nice work. Looking forward to buying a copy of your book.

@Newbobdole 14 дней назад

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

@cookeatliverepeat8815 25 дней назад

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.

@MichaelSmith-pp3wp 23 дня назад

It gets a solid "B".

@thomasfeltes1041 26 дней назад

I've read there was less than one hundred germans defending Omaha Beach

@paperkites9101 Месяц назад

Were there any frontline German soldier that took part in Barbarossa at the start and made it through till the end of the war?

@justtheaverageone3840 Месяц назад

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

@Kargaron Месяц назад

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.

@justtheaverageone3840 Месяц назад

@@Carlton-B Peter's war is it called but I don't think he was, but I have not found an english translation yet

@chuckyxii10 28 дней назад

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.

@timothykelly5588 27 дней назад

I'm interested in the German MP in Band of brothers who said it was his 2nd war I assume WW1 was his first

@EgipskiKocur 29 дней назад

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.

@Nick-zj4ee 14 дней назад

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.

@Kumimono 27 дней назад

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.

@nielshenkemans 27 дней назад

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.

@joyogggKids 11 дней назад

Being pounded by 380mm ship cannon and 1000lbs plane bomb over their top and they still try to resist yet the allied still called them trash is misleading😂😂

@Longhunter393 24 дня назад

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”.

@knoll9812 24 дня назад

Hard to learn when you are tired.

@evanroberts2771 29 дней назад

+ ALL german 'divisions' were also under strength.

@Wien1938 29 дней назад

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.

@herschelmayo2727 29 дней назад

There were no "elite" units stationed at Normandy. They were, with one exception, troops that were designated for service as occupation.

@czwarty7878 24 дня назад

me when I spread misinformation online

@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 16 дней назад

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.

@czwarty7878 16 дней назад

@@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.

@poil8351 29 дней назад

I suspect the confused german command structure caused all sorts of confusion and suppply and logistical problems.

@stinkygravy06 Месяц назад

rip

@AkiWataru Месяц назад

*saw

@tomassmolen9443 25 дней назад

out of ammo at 10 o clock at omaha

@tomassmolen1260 Месяц назад

Out off Ammo at 10 o clock

@tavish4699 Месяц назад

And again I wonder what effect immediate panzer division support waiting in reserve would have had

@josephdirvin401 28 дней назад

Defenders always have the edge, in particular when they are in concrete bunkers behind barbed wire and minefields.

@RifleEyez 24 дня назад

Hard to say. Like most things D-Day every other beach but Omaha is ignored, but elements of the 21st Panzer Division actually reached the beach itself between the British and Canadian landings and it was forced to completely abandon the position. It's not "immediate" reserve, but the British and Canadians fought the absolute best German divisions (as most were stationed N. of the Seine expecting Calais as the landing) so were thrown at the British and Canadians early on. I think at one point like 6+ Panzer Divisions were thrown in including the 101st Heavy Tiger battalions and the SS units like the 12 SS HJ, and the Leibstandarte at Caen. IMO a more immediate response (like day one) would have struggled too. At that stage Allied dominance elsewhere was so absolute that Allied Air Supremacy and Naval firepower would have completely negated an immediate Panzer division counter attack IMO. Look at what happened to the Panzer Lehr Division trying to move in daytime. It was a massacre.

@knoll9812 24 дня назад

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

@Dimitrovski3007 21 день назад

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.

@alex_zetsu 26 дней назад

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?

@Rvoid 25 дней назад

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.

@GrenedearProductions 24 дня назад

Should have delayed this vid to june 6

@derandere4965 Месяц назад

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.

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized Месяц назад

> 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.

@derandere4965 Месяц назад

@@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized. thank you, I did not know that.

@nielshenkemans Месяц назад

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.

@nielshenkemans Месяц назад

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.

@derandere4965 Месяц назад

@@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.

@Veteran-Nurse Месяц назад

352nd was sn average Wehrmact infantry division in 1944.

@looinrims Месяц назад

No, not by combat rating

@andrewklang809 Месяц назад

After Stalingrad, a B-grade division was above-average.

@byron8657 23 дня назад

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.

@crownprincesebastianjohano7069 28 дней назад

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.

@88porpoise 26 дней назад

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.

@matthiaskaun5255 27 дней назад

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) ....

@vladimpaler3498 Месяц назад

Well, they made Omaha a tough beach to crack, so they weren't a pushover.

@88porpoise 26 дней назад

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.

@i.c.wiener2750 10 дней назад

Big shoutout to all my German boys who defended the German Reich that day.

@frauleinhohenzollern8442 5 дней назад

Last knights of Europe

@grant3933 20 дней назад

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.

@gabrielrodriguez821 25 дней назад

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.

@raulduke6105 23 дня назад

Elite units were held in reserve

@FLJBeliever1776 24 дня назад

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.

@InTheFootstepsofHeroes 16 дней назад

Not really. The 352nd were shattered to pieces but US V Corps couldn't take advantage. The road to St Lo was open.

@spoogerification 25 дней назад

They were well equipped for a late wermacht division so probably elite or at least veteran

@long88mm Месяц назад

@1joshjosh1 Месяц назад

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.

@MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized Месяц назад

Lots went to the static divisions etc

@andrewklang809 Месяц назад

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.

@tavish4699 Месяц назад

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

@PeterMuskrat6968 23 дня назад

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.

@Gearparadummies Месяц назад

I read years ago that the average age for German troops at Nofmandy was around 40. German youth died in the USSR.

@redaug4212 Месяц назад

Sounds really unlikely. It's not like the German state stopped indoctrinating their youth at any point. There were plenty of new 17, 18, and 19 year old recruits to fill the ranks of those killed in the east.

@nielshenkemans Месяц назад

Even in the static divisions it was more like 30-31. Yes, there were older troops, but the average was significantly lowered by personnel born in 1925 and 1926. Those were by far the most common years in Normandy.

@Gearparadummies Месяц назад

@@nielshenkemans Thanks. It was so long ago I don't even remember the source. Pictures of German prisoners at Normandy suggest they were older than average, though.

@franz265 12 дней назад

Who doesnt know the light MG 42? ;)

@gargoyle7863 Месяц назад

352nd "We can handle this diversion" Low-Life-Infantry-Division.

@RonSommar 29 дней назад

Having in mind what an insane Invasion fleet the Western allies could gather and the soviet break throughs preventing any significant replacements... Germany lost on the economic front first

@tomhenry897 Месяц назад

Might have had the weapons but the troops were 3rd rate If better be sent to the Russian front