The Beast of Omaha Fired 12,000 Rounds on D-Day

▶ Watch next: They believed the island would take years to capture. The Marines took it in 76 hours.    • What Japanese Commanders Wrote After U.S. ...   One German Gunner Fired 12,000 Rounds on D-Day — this is the story of Heinrich Severloh, the young German MG42 gunner stationed at WN-62 above Omaha Beach. On June 6, 1944, American troops landed on Easy Red under devastating fire from German positions on the bluff. Severloh later claimed he fired nearly 12,000 rounds from his MG42 that day — a number historians still debate. In this video, we explore the brutal reality of Omaha Beach from both sides: the American soldiers pinned down on the sand, the German strongpoint at Widerstandsnest 62, the failure of the naval bombardment to fully silence the defenses, and the narrow strip of “dead ground” that helped American troops finally climb off the beach. This is not a story about glory. It is a story about fear, survival, memory, and what one morning on Omaha Beach did to the men who lived through it. If someone in your family served during World War II — in Normandy, in the Pacific, in Europe, or anywhere else — leave their name and story in the comments, so their names are never forgotten. Subscribe to After The War for more World War II stories that deserve to be remembered. #DDay #OmahaBeach #wwii 00:00 Heinrich Severloh: The German Gunner on D-Day 00:50 WN-62: The Deadly German Strongpoint Above Omaha Beach 01:54 The D-Day Fleet Appears off Omaha Beach 02:24 Did Heinrich Severloh Really Fire 12,000 Rounds? 03:17 American Soldiers Land on Omaha Beach 04:16 General Omar Bradley Receives the Omaha Reports 05:01 Inside WN-62: Smoke, Grit, and the MG42 05:51 Colonel George Taylor Arrives on Omaha Beach 06:26 U.S. Soldiers Crawl Toward the Omaha Bluff 06:51 The Blind Spot Beneath the German Guns 07:38 Bradley Decides Not to Abandon Omaha 08:16 How the Atlantic Wall Cracked at Omaha Beach 08:32 The Retreat from WN-62 09:11 Heinrich Severloh Becomes a Prisoner of War 09:36 Omaha Beach Casualties on D-Day 10:17 The Beast of Omaha and Fifty Years of Silence 10:52 David Silva: The American Severloh Thought He Shot 11:41 Normandy American Cemetery Above Omaha Beach 12:22 Remembering the Men Who Served