Werner Pluskat

Werner Pluskat (1912 - Heilbronn, June 11, 2002) was a German Major, commander of the 352nd Artillery (Artillerie Abteilung) of the German 352nd Infantry Division during the Allied invasion in Normandy.

He was credited in the movie The Longest Day, a film about the D-day invasion, with being the first German officer who saw the Allied invasion fleet on 6 June 1944, heading toward their landing zone at Omaha Beach. However, Heinrich "Hein" Severloh, a German machine gunner on Omaha Beach that day, wrote in his book "WN62: A German Soldier's Memories of the Defence of Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6, 1944" that Pluskat was not with his unit the day of the invasion and "was not truthfully portrayed" in the film. Pluskat's men fired their guns on Omaha Beach until they ran out of ammunition.

Pluskat was with Generalleutnant Kurt Dittmar when they surrendered to soldiers of the U.S. 30th Infantry Division at Magdeburg on 23 April 1945.

For the production of The Longest Day, a film about the D-day invasion, Pluskat was a military consultant. In the film, he was portrayed by Hans Christian Blech.

External links

• The Batterie at Longues sur Mer
• Widerstandsnest WN 59
• [Hein Severloh, WN62: A German Soldier’s Memories of the Defence of Omaha Beach,I.M.K. Creativ Verlag, Garbsen, Germany, 2000]