Bernhard Frerking
Bernhard Frerking was born on 1 st December 1912 in Hanover. He joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP – commonly referred to as the Nazi Party) on 1st May 1933 and the Sturmabteilung (SA – the Nazi Party’s first paramilitary group) in the early 1930s. Before he was called up, he worked as a teacher and also directed the local choir society & choir in Latferde. Frerking and his wife Marie Luise had three children together.
On 6th June 1944 – commonly referred to as D-Day – when the Allies landed in Normandy, First Lieutenant Frerking was stationed at the German strong point WN62 near Omaha Beach as the gunnery control officer. This was one of sixteen defensive positions in a bay that was six kilometres wide. Difficult currents hampered the landings of the US troops. In front of WN62, the units were caught by a barrage of machine gun fire for nine hours. Robert Sales from B Company of the US 29th Infantry Division & 116th Infantry Regiment landed on the coast at 06:45 with the second wave of troops that attacked. Sales later recalled: “When the ramp went down, our officer was hit immediately. Everyone who jumped out was immediately mowed down. Our landing craft lay directly in the crossfire. We were literally cut to pieces. If you moved, you were dead. I survived by pure chance. Every landing craft that came in was taken under fire. I was the only survivor of my boat.”
Harry Parley, 24 years old at the time and a member of E Company of the US 29th Infantry Division & 116th Infantry Regiment, landed near WN62. His landing craft had headed for the wrong sector in the morning. He later recalled: “I had a flamethrower. When I jumped from the boat, it pulled me under the water. I would almost have drowned if a comrade had not pulled me out. On the beach, there was utter chaos. Each one tried to survive the next moment. We saw no enemy - we were simply targets...” Despite all German efforts, the defences had not been fully completed by 6th June 1944. Due to the hillside location, the position was exposed to view in the direction of the sea. Frerking was killed by a shot in the head in the afternoon of 6 June 1944 as he and his remaining comrades attempted to retreat. His order to retreat from WN62 saved the lives of the remaining soldiers under his command. Frerking last saw his family when on leave in December 1943. His youngest daughter was born three months after he had died. On 6th December 1948 the German casualty records service informed Marie Luise Frerking that her husband had been buried in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. Frerking’s remains were exhumed and reburied at the German war cemetery in La Cambe.