WW2 Trivia Archive

Severloh was stationed at Widerstandsnest 62 (WN62) at the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach. He fired continuously for approximately nine hours. German military historians who interviewed him postwar and analyzed ammunition records from WN62 estimated he fired around 12,000 rifle rounds and used 400 MG42 belts. He published a memoir in German ("WN62: Erinnerungen an Omaha Beach," 2000) expressing profound guilt for the rest of his life. He died in 2006.

Nineteen men from Bedford — from a town of only 3,200 people — died in the first fifteen minutes of the assault on Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. They served in Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division. Among the dead were twin brothers Ray and Roy Stevens, both killed. Their mother Bertie received both death notifications. The National D-Day Memorial was built in Bedford, Virginia, dedicated by President George W. Bush on June 6, 2001. The memorial lists the names of those who died and was specifically located to honor the town's extraordinary sacrifice.

Roosevelt personally wrote three letters requesting permission to land with the first wave; his commander denied all three before approving the fourth. When the 4th Infantry Division landed approximately 2,000 yards south of the designated position, Roosevelt walked the beach under fire with his cane, assessed the terrain, and declared: "We'll start the war from right here." He redirected subsequent landing waves to the actual landing site rather than the planned one. He suffered a fatal heart attack five weeks later and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He and his father, President Theodore Roosevelt Sr., are the only father-son pair in American history to both hold the Medal of Honor.