A battalion was scheduled to arrive around 0930hrs, but never did as it was trapped on the roads by persistent Allied fighter-bomber attacks. The WN62 detachment would have to hold out with no reinforcements.
By 0900hrs, much of Co. E and Co. F was still trapped on the beach in front of strongpoint WN62 and casualties had been appallingly high, at least half the troops who had landed. The US troops called for naval gunfire and, around 0920hrs, W 62 was hit by a 25 minute bombardment by the USS Arkansas. At 1012hrs, the forward command post at WN62 radioed back to GR.726 headquarters that "WN60 is holding, WN62 is firing with one machine gun, but the situation is critical. The rest of the 1st and 4th companies are counterattacking." In fact, W 60 had already fallen and there were no counterattacks. WN62's two 76mm gun casemates were both silenced by 1015hrs. Although both bunkers were hit numerous times by naval gunfire, it was tank fire that finally silenced the field guns. The upper case mate had been hit on the outside 27 times, mainly by naval gunfire, and nine times inside, mainly by tank fire. The lower casemate had been hit 18 times on the outside and seven times inside. Around 1l00hrs, the 741st Tank Battalion rallied its remaining three tanks near the E3 exit. They proceeded to attack the remaining positions in WN62, though two of the three tanks were disabled in the action.
Another example of one of the VK 3001 Panzerstellung, located at the WN68 strongpoint covering the Saint Laurent draw.
By late morning, the intensity of the fighting around WN62 had subsided as US infantry bypassed the strongpoint. The German positions were starting to run low on ammunition, and one surviving MG42 machine gunner, Hein Severloh, recalled firing off all 12,000 rounds of ammunition available. By this time, the US infantry was beginning to use 60mm mortars against the defences in WN62, which proved much more effective than direct-fire weapons. By late morning, the Gls were beginning to probe into the defences of WN62, and few of the crew-served weapons were still functioning. The infantry penetration to the west had expanded after 1030hrs when LCIs crashed through the beach obstacles and began disgorging reinforcements in the relatively secure area between WN62 and WN64. When the WN62 artillery forward observer called in fire against landing craft on the beaches from the battery near Houteville around noon, he was told that the battery was now out of ammunition and no further fire support would be coming that day. Fewer than half the original troops in WN62 remained as many of the wounded had been sent to the rear during interludes between artillery attacks. By noon, the 741st Tank Battalion could no longer find targets worth engaging. In the early afternoon, two US destroyers began pounding the remaining bunkers on either side of the Colleville exit, including WN62. The last remaining machine-gun post was finally put out of action in the early afternoon when it was hit by tank fire. Strongpoint WN62 was largely abandoned by mid-afternoon after the few surviving troops in the command bunker pulled back to Colleville.
This 50mm anti-tank gun in an H667 casemate proved to be one of the most effective elements of the WN6S strongpoint covering the E-1 St. Laurent draw. It was finally silenced by 37mm automatic cannon fire from a pair of M ISA I multiple gun motor carriage half-tracks of the 467th AAA Battalion.
The fighting around WN62 on D-Day was a clear example of how effectively a modestly fortified position could resist an infantry attack. The German detachment of 31 men held out for about nine hours, and inflicted several hundred American casualties. Of the 11 US tanks to make it ashore in the assault waves near WN62, seven were knocked out and two damaged by anti-tank guns, while one was lost to mines. The beaches in front of WN62 were littered by over a dozen smashed and burning landing craft, some destroyed or damaged by obstacles, others by direct gunfire from W 62, and the rest by artillery fire called in by the WN62 observation post.
WN62 enjoyed the advantage of its elevated position over the beach, giving its numerous weapons clear fields of fire. The steep hill also prevented US tanks from manoeuvring around the position, and the tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion were trapped on the narrow confines of the beach until late in the day when the Colleville draw was finally cleared. This situation contrasts sharply with the situation on the neigh boring beaches where the flat terrain permitted the tanks to rapidly escape the killing zones on the beach and manoeuvre around the German strongpoint’s from the landward side.
This shows the effect of the 37mm fire on the 50mm pedestal gun inside the H667 case mate of WN65 with the gun-shield collapsed on the right side. This casemate and gun are still preserved.
On the other hand, the fighting for WN62 also illustrates why the German defences failed on D-Day. In spite of the horrific casualties inflicted on the 16th Regimental Combat Team, there were significant penetrations past W 62 less than an hour after the landings, and the strongpoint had been rendered ineffective and bypassed within four hours. The gaps between the strongpoints were vulnerable, and even with infantry from the 352nd Infantry Division on hand behind the beach, there was no real defense in depth. Once the thin crust of beach fortifications had been overcome, the defences had been effectively breached.
This view shows the same H667 casemate from WN65 from the rear. As can be seen, a wall protects the rear armoured door, but evidently the wall was breached and the door caved in, probably by tank fire. These bunkers were sometimes knocked out, reoccupied by other German troops and knocked out again during the course of the D-Day fighting.