title: Omaha Beach

text: Just after 05:00 the Germans at Port-en-Bessin reported ships off the coast, and at 05:30 opened artillery fire on the destroyer . The destroyer was joined in returning fire by the Free , and later by the battleship USS "Arkansas". At 05:50 the planned naval bombardment began. Pointe-du-Hoc was targeted by the battleship , and the destroyers and , the latter having first destroyed the radar station at Pointe et Raz de la Percée.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The focus of the main naval bombardment was then switched to the beach defenses, and at 06:00, 36 M7 Priest howitzers and 34 tanks that were approaching the beach on LCTs began to supplement the naval guns. They were joined by fire from ten landing craft-mounted 4.7-inch guns and the rockets of nine Landing Craft Tank (Rocket), the latter planned to hit as the assault craft were just from the beach.


title: Omaha Beach

text: At 06:00, 448 B-24 Liberators of the United States Army Air Forces, having already completed one bombing mission over Omaha late the previous day, returned. However, with the skies overcast and under orders to avoid bombing the troops which were by then approaching the beach, the bombers overshot their targets and only three bombs fell near the beach area.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Shortly after the bombardment began, the German 916th Grenadiers reported their positions to be under particularly heavy fire, with the position at WN-60 very badly hit. Although the Rangers at Pointe-du-Hoc were greatly assisted in their assault of the cliffs by the "Satterlee" and "Talybont", elsewhere the air and naval bombardment was not so effective, and the German beach defenses and supporting artillery remained largely intact.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Later analysis of naval support during the pre-landing phase concluded that the navy had provided inadequate bombardment, given the size and extent of the planned assault. Kenneth P. Lord, a U.S. Army planner for the D-Day invasion, says that, upon hearing the naval gunfire support plan for Omaha, which limited support to one battleship, two cruisers and six destroyers, he and other planners were very upset, especially in light of the tremendous naval gunfire support given to landings in the Pacific.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Historian Adrian R. Lewis postulates that American casualties would have been greatly reduced if a longer barrage had been implemented, although the First Infantry Division Chief of Staff said that the Division would not have been able to move off the beach without effective naval gunfire.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Despite these preparations, very little went according to plan. Ten landing craft were swamped by the rough seas before they reached the beach, and several others stayed afloat only because their passengers bailed water out with their helmets. Seasickness was prevalent among the troops waiting offshore. On the 16th RCT front, the landing boats passed struggling men in life preservers and on rafts, survivors of the DD tanks which had sunk in the rough sea. Navigation of the landing vehicles was made difficult by the smoke and mist obscuring the landmarks they were to use in guiding themselves in, while a strong current pushed them continually eastward.


title: Omaha Beach

text: As the boats approached to within a few hundred yards of the shore, they came under increasingly heavy fire from automatic weapons and artillery. The force only then discovered the ineffectiveness of the pre-landing bombardment. The bombers, facing overcast conditions, had been ordered to implement a pre-arranged plan to compensate for decreased accuracy. The center of targeting was displaced inland to assure the safety of the landing allied troops. As a result, there was little or no damage to the beach defenses.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Because sea conditions were so rough, the decision was made for the 116th LCT to carry the DD tanks of the 743rd Tank Battalion all the way to the beach, after 27 of the initial 29 DD tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion were swamped while wading to shore. Coming in opposite the heavily defended Vierville draw, Company B of the 743rd Tank Battalion lost all but one of its officers and half of its DD tanks. The other two companies landed to the left of B/743 without initial loss. On the 16th RCT front, the two DD tanks from the 741st Tank Battalion that had survived the swim ashore were joined by three others that were landed directly onto the beach because of their LCT's damaged ramp. The remaining tank company managed to land 14 of its 16 tanks (although three of these were quickly knocked out).


title: Omaha Beach

text: Of the nine companies landing in the first wave, only Company A of the 116th RCT at Dog Green and the Rangers to their right landed where intended. E/116, aiming for Easy Green, ended up scattered across the two beaches of the 16th RCT area. G/116, aiming for Dog White, opened up a 1,000-yard (900 m) gap between themselves and A/116 to their right when they landed at Easy Green instead. I/16 drifted so far east it did not land for another hour and a half.


title: Omaha Beach

text: As infantry disembarked from the landing craft, they often found themselves on sandbars out. To reach the beach they had to wade through water sometimes neck deep, and they still had or more to go when they did reach shore. Those that made it to the shingle did so at a walking pace because they were so heavily laden. Most sections had to brave the full weight of fire from small arms, mortars, artillery, and interlocking fields of heavy machine gun fire. Where the naval bombardment set grass fires burning, as it had at Dog Red opposite the Les Moulins strongpoint, the smoke obscured the landing troops and prevented effective fire from being laid down by the defenders. Some sections of G/116 and F/116 were able to reach the shingle bank relatively unscathed, though the latter became disorganized after the loss of their officers. G/116 was able to retain some cohesion, but this was soon lost as they made their way westwards under fire along the shingle in an attempt to reach their assigned objectives. The scattering of the boats was most evident on the 16th RCT front, where parts of E/16, F/16 and E/116 had intermingled, making it difficult for sections to come together to improvise company assaults that might have reversed the situation caused by the mis-landings. Those scattered sections of E/116 landing at Easy Red were able to escape heavy casualties, although, having encountered a deep runnel after being landed on a sandbank, they were forced to discard most of their weapons to make the swim ashore.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Casualties were heaviest among the troops landing at either end of Omaha. In the east at Fox Green and the adjacent stretch of Easy Red, scattered elements of three companies were reduced to half strength by the time they gained the relative safety of the shingle, many of them having crawled the of beach just ahead of the incoming tide. Within 15 minutes of landing at Dog Green on the western end of the beach, A/116 had been cut to pieces, the leaders among the 120 or so casualties, the survivors reduced to seeking cover at the water's edge or behind obstacles. The smaller Ranger company to their right had fared a little better, having made the shelter of the bluffs, but were also down to half strength.


title: Omaha Beach

text: L/16 eventually landed, 30 minutes late, to the left of Fox Green, taking casualties as the boats ran in and more as they crossed the of beach. The terrain at the very eastern end of Omaha gave them enough protection to allow the 125 survivors to organize and begin an assault of the bluffs. They were the only company in the first wave able to operate as a unit. All the other companies were, at best, disorganized, mostly leaderless and pinned down behind the shingle with no hope of carrying out their assault missions. At worst, they had ceased to exist as fighting units. Nearly all had landed at least a few hundred yards off target, and in an intricately planned operation where each section on each boat had been assigned a specific task, this was enough to throw the whole plan off.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Like the infantry, the engineers had been pushed off their targets, and only five of the 16 teams arrived at their assigned locations. Three teams came in where there were no infantry or armor to cover them. Working under heavy fire, the engineers set about their task of clearing gaps through the beach obstacles—work made more difficult by loss of equipment, and by infantry passing through or taking cover behind the obstacles they were trying to blow. They also suffered heavy casualties as enemy fire set off the explosives they were working with. Eight men of one team were dragging their pre-loaded rubber boat off the LCM when artillery hit; only one survived the resulting detonation of their supplies. Another team had just finished laying its explosives when the area was struck by mortar fire. The premature explosion of the charges killed or wounded 19 engineers, as well as some nearby infantry. Nevertheless, the engineers succeeded in clearing six gaps, one each at Dog White and Easy Green on the 116th RCT front, the other four at Easy Red on the 16th RCT front. They had suffered casualties of over 40%.


title: Omaha Beach

text: With the initial targets unaccomplished, the second and larger wave of assault landings brought in reinforcements, support weapons and headquarters elements at 07:00 to face nearly the same difficulties as had the first. The second wave was larger, and so the defenders' fire was less concentrated. The survivors of the first wave were unable to provide effective covering fire, and in places the fresh landing troops suffered casualty rates as high as those of the first wave. Failure to clear paths through the beach obstacles also added to the difficulties of the second wave. In addition, the incoming tide was beginning to hide the remaining obstacles, causing high attrition among the landing craft before they had reached the shore. As in the initial landings, difficult navigation caused disruptive mislandings, scattering the infantry and separating vital headquarters elements from their units.


title: Omaha Beach

text: On the 116th RCT front, the remainder of the 1st Battalion, B/116, C/116 and D/116, were due to land in support of A/116 at Dog Green. Three boats, including their headquarters and beach-master groups, landed too far west, under the cliffs. Their exact casualties in getting across the beach are unknown, but the one-third to one-half that made it to shore spent the rest of the day pinned down by snipers. Not all sections of the badly scattered B/116 landed there, but those that did were quickly forced to join those survivors of A/116 fighting for survival at the water's edge. Two companies of 2nd Rangers, coming in later on the edge of Dog Green, did manage to reach the seawall, but at the cost of half their strength.


title: Omaha Beach

text: To the left of Dog Green sat Dog White, between the Vierville and Les Moulins strongpoints (defending draws D-1 and D-3); and here was a different story. As a result of earlier mis-landings, and now because of their own mis-landing, the troops of C/116 found themselves alone at Dog White, with a handful of tanks from the first wave in sight. The smoke from the grass fires covering their advance up the beach, they gained the seawall with few casualties, and were in better shape than any unit on the 116th RCT front so far. Although the 1st Battalion was effectively disarmed of its heavy weapons when D/116 suffered a disastrous landing, the buildup at Dog White continued. C/116 was joined by the 5th Ranger Battalion almost in its entirety. The Ranger commander, recognizing the situation at Dog Green on the run-in, ordered the assault craft to divert into Dog White. Like the C/116, the smoke covered their advance, although the 2nd Rangers were caught out on the right flank of the Ranger's landing. This was where the 116th RCT regimental command group, including the 29th Division assistant commander Brig. Gen. Norman "Dutch" Cota, was able to land relatively unscathed.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Further east, the strongpoint defenses were effective. On the Dog Red/Easy Green boundary, the defenses around the Les Moulins strongpoint took a heavy toll on the remaining 2nd Battalion, with H/116 and headquarters elements struggling ashore there. The survivors joined the remnants of F/116 behind the shingle, and here the battalion commander was able to organize 50 men for an improvised advance across the shingle. A further advance up the bluffs just east of Les Moulins was too weak to have any effect and was forced back down. To their left, mainly between the draws on the Easy Green/Easy Red boundary, the 116th RCT's support battalion landed without too much loss, although they did become scattered, and were too disorganized to play any immediate part in an assault on the bluffs.


title: Omaha Beach

text: On the 16th RCT front, at the eastern end of Easy Red, was another area between strongpoints. This allowed G/16 and the support battalion to escape complete destruction in their advance up the beach. Nevertheless, most of G/16's 63 casualties for the day came before they had reached the shingle. The other 2nd Battalion company landed in the second wave; H/16 came in a few hundred yards to the left, opposite the E-3 draw, and suffered for it – they were put out of action for several hours.


title: Omaha Beach

text: On the easternmost beach, Fox Green, elements of five different companies had become entangled, and the situation was little improved by the equally disorganized landings of the second wave. Two more companies of the 3rd Battalion joined the melee, and, having drifted east in the first wave, I/16 finally made their traumatic landing on Fox Green, at 08:00. Two of their six boats were swamped on their detour to the east, and as they came in under fire, three of the four remaining boats were damaged by artillery or mines, and the fourth was hung up on an obstacle. A captain from this company found himself senior officer, and in charge of the badly out of shape 3rd Battalion.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Along with the infantry landing in the second wave, supporting arms began to arrive, meeting the same chaos and destruction as had the rifle companies. Combat engineers, tasked with clearing the exits and marking beaches, landed off-target and without their equipment.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Many half-tracks, jeeps and trucks foundered in deep water; those that made it ashore soon became jammed up on the narrowing beach, making easy targets for the German defenders. Most of the radios were lost, making the task of organizing the scattered and dispirited troops even more difficult, and those command groups that did make the shore found their effectiveness limited to their immediate vicinity. Except for a few surviving tanks and a heavy weapons squad here or there, the assault troops had only their personal weapons, which, having been dragged through surf and sand, invariably needed cleaning before they could be used.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The survivors at the shingle, many facing combat for the first time, found themselves relatively well-protected from small arms fire, but still exposed to artillery and mortars. In front of them lay heavily mined flats exposed to active fire from the bluffs above. Morale naturally became a problem. Many groups were leaderless and witnesses to the fate of neighboring troops and landings coming in around them. Wounded men on the beach were drowning in the incoming tide and incoming landing craft were being pounded and set ablaze.


title: Omaha Beach

text: By 07:35, the third battalion of the 726th Grenadier Regiment, defending Draw F-1 on Fox Green beach, was reporting that 100–200 American troops had penetrated the front, with troops inside the wire at WN-62 and WN-61 attacking the Germans from the rear. From the German vantage point at Pointe de la Percée, overlooking the whole beach from the western end, it seemed that the assault had been stopped at the beach. An officer there noted that troops were seeking cover behind obstacles, and counted ten tanks burning. So, as late as 13:35 the 352nd division was reporting that the assault had been hurled back into the sea. Heinrich Severloh, a machine-gunner of 352 at WN62 got the soubriquet "The beast of Omaha": he claimed to have fired that day 400 rounds from two rifles and a staggering 13,500 rounds from his MG 42; an ammunition weight of over 560 kg. An NCO ferried ammunition from a nearby underground bunker. Low on ammunition, he even fired phosphorescent tracer rounds, which revealed his position.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Casualties among the defenders were mounting. While the 916th regiment, defending the center of the 352nd zone, was reporting that the landings had been frustrated, it was also requesting reinforcements. The request could not be met, because the situation elsewhere in Normandy was becoming more urgent for the defenders. The reserve force of the German 352nd division, the 915th regiment, which had earlier been deployed against the US airborne landings to the west of Omaha, was diverted to the Gold zone east of Omaha, where German defenses were crumbling.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The key geographical features that had influenced the landings also influenced the next phase of the battle: the draws, the natural exits off the beaches, were the main targets in the initial assault plan. The strongly concentrated defenses around these draws meant that the troops landing near them quickly became incapable of carrying out a further assault. In the areas between the draws, at the bluffs, units were able to land in greater strength. Defenses were also weaker away from the draws, thus most advances were made there.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The other key aspect of the next few hours was leadership. The original plan was in tatters, with so many units mis-landed, disorganized and scattered. Most commanders had fallen or were absent, and there were few ways to communicate, other than shouted commands. In places, small groups of men, sometimes scratched together from different companies, in some cases from different divisions, were "...inspired, encouraged or bullied..." out of the relative safety of the shingle, starting the dangerous task of reducing the defenses atop the bluffs.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Survivors of C company 2nd Rangers in the first wave landed on Dog Green around 06:45; by 07:30, they had scaled the cliffs near Dog Green and the Vierville draw. They were joined later by a mis-landed section from B/116, and this group spent the better part of the day tying up and eventually taking WN-73, which defended draw D-1 at Vierville.


title: Omaha Beach

text: At 07:50, Cota led the charge off of Dog Green, between WN-68 and WN-70, by forcing gaps in the wire with a Bangalore torpedo and wire cutters. Twenty minutes later, the 5th Rangers joined the advance, and blew more openings. The command party established themselves at the top of the bluff, and elements of G/116 and H/116 joined them, having earlier moved laterally along the beach, and now the narrow front had widened to the east. Before 09:00, small parties from F/116 and B/116 reached the crests just east of Dog White. The right flank of this penetration was covered by the survivors of the 2nd Rangers’ A and B companies, who had independently fought their way to the top between 08:00 and 08:30. They took WN-70 (already heavily damaged by naval shells), and joined the 5th Rangers for the move inland. By 09:00 more than 600 American troops, in groups ranging from company sized to just a few men, had reached the top of the bluff opposite Dog White and were advancing inland.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The 3rd battalion 116th RCT forced its way across the flats and up the bluff between WN-66 (which defended the D-3 draw at Les Moulins), and WN-65 (defending the E-1 draw). They advanced in small groups, supported by the heavy weapons of M/116, who were held at the base of the bluff. Progress was slowed by mines on the slopes of the bluff, but elements of all three rifle companies, as well as a stray section of G/116, had gained the top by 09:00, causing the defenders at WN-62 to mistakenly report that both WN-65 and WN-66 had been taken.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Between 07:30 and 08:30 elements of G/16, E/16, and E/116 came together and climbed the bluffs at Easy Red, between WN-64 (defending the E-1 draw) and WN-62 (the E-3 draw). At 09:05, German observers reported that WN-61 was lost, and that one machine gun was still firing from WN-62. 150 men, mostly from G/16, having reached the top hampered more by minefields than by enemy fire, continued south to attack the WN-63 command post on the edge of Colleville. Meanwhile, E/16, led by Second Lieutenant John M. Spalding and Captain Robert L. Sheppard V, turned westward along the top of the bluffs, engaging in a two-hour battle for WN-64. His small group of just four men had effectively neutralized this point by mid-morning, taking 21 prisoners—just in time to prevent them from attacking freshly landing troops. On the beach below, the 16th RCT commander, Colonel George Taylor had landed at 08:15. With the words "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die – now let's get the hell out of here!" he organized groups of men regardless of their unit, putting them under the command of the nearest non-commissioned officer and sending them through the area opened up by G/16. By 09:30, the regimental command post was set up just below the bluff crest, and the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 16th RCT were being sent inland as they reached the crest.


title: Omaha Beach

text: On Fox Green, at the eastern end of Omaha, four sections of L/16 had survived their landing intact and were now leading elements of I/16, K/16 and E/116 up the slopes. With supporting fire from the heavy weapons of M/16, tanks and destroyers, this force eliminated WN-60, which defended the draw at F-1; by 09:00, the 3rd battalion 16th RCT was moving inland.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The only artillery support for the troops making these tentative advances was from the navy. Finding targets difficult to spot, and in fear of hitting their own troops, the big guns of the battleships and cruisers concentrated fire on the flanks of the beaches. The destroyers were able to get in closer, and from 08:00 began engaging their own targets. At 09:50, two minutes after the destroyed a 75 mm gun position in WN-74, the destroyers were ordered to get as close in as possible. Some approached within several times, scraping bottom and risking running aground. An engineer who had landed in the first wave at Fox Red, watching the "Frankford" steaming in towards shore, thought she had been badly hit and was being beached. Instead, she turned parallel to the beach and cruised westwards, guns blazing at targets of opportunity. Thinking she would turn back out to sea, the engineer soon saw that she had instead begun backing up, guns still firing. At one point, gunners aboard the "Frankford" saw an immobilized tank at the water's edge, still firing. Watching the fall of its shot, they followed up with a salvo of their own. In this manner, the tank acted as the ship's fire control party for several minutes.


title: Omaha Beach

text: While the coastal defenses had not turned back the invasion at the beach, they had broken up and weakened the assault formations struggling through them. The German emphasis on this Main Line of Resistance (MLR) meant that defenses further inland were significantly weaker, and based on small pockets of prepared positions smaller than company sized in strength. This tactic was enough to disrupt American advances inland, making it difficult even to reach the assembly areas, let alone achieve their D-Day objectives. As an example of the effectiveness of German defenses despite weakness in numbers, the 5th Ranger battalion was halted in its advance inland by a single machine gun position hidden in a hedgerow. One platoon attempted to outflank the position, only to run into another machine gun position to the left of the first. A second platoon dispatched to take this new position ran into a third, and attempts to deal with this met with fire from a fourth position. The success of the MLR in blocking the movement of heavy weapons off the beach meant that, after four hours, the Rangers were forced to give up on attempts to move them any further inland.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Despite penetrations inland, the key beach objectives had not been achieved. The draws necessary for the movement of vehicles off the beach had not been opened, and the strongpoints defending these were still putting up a spirited resistance. The failure to clear beach obstacles forced subsequent landings to concentrate on Easy Green and Easy Red.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Where vehicles were landing, they found a narrow strip of beach with no shelter from enemy fire. Around 08:30, commanders suspended all such landings. This caused a jam of landing craft out to sea. The DUKWs had a particularly hard time of it in the rough conditions. Thirteen DUKWs carried the 111th Field Artillery Battalion of the 116th RCT; five were swamped soon after disembarking from the LCT, four were lost as they circled in the rendezvous area while waiting to land, and one capsized as they turned for the beach. Two were destroyed by enemy fire as they approached the beach and the lone survivor managed to offload its howitzer to a passing craft before it also succumbed to the sea. This one gun eventually landed in the afternoon.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The official record of Omaha reports that "...the tanks were leading a hard life...". According to the commander of the 2nd battalion 116th RCT the tanks "...saved the day. They shot the hell out of the Germans, and got the hell shot out of them." As the morning progressed the beach defenses were gradually being reduced, often by tanks. Scattered along the length of the beach, trapped between the sea and the impassable shingle embankment and with no operating radios amongst the commanders, tanks had to be controlled individually. This was perilous work. The commanding officer of the 111th Field Artillery, who had landed ahead of his unit, was killed as he tried to direct the fire of one tank. The command group of the 741st Tank Battalion lost three out of their group of five in their efforts. Additionally, the commander of the 743rd tank battalion became a casualty as he approached one of his tanks with orders. When naval gunfire was brought to bear against the strong-points defending the E-3 draw, a decision was made to try to force this exit with tanks. Colonel Taylor ordered all available tanks into action against this point at 11:00. Only three were able to reach the rallying point, and two were knocked out as they attempted to go up the draw, forcing the remaining tank to back off.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Reinforcement regiments were due to land by battalion, beginning with the 18th RCT at 09:30 on Easy Red. The first battalion to land, 2/18, arrived at the E-1 draw 30 minutes late after a difficult passage through the congestion off shore. Casualties were light, though. Despite the existence of a narrow channel through the beach obstacles, the ramps and mines there accounted for the loss 22 LCVPs, 2 LCI(L)s and 4 LCTs. Supported by tank and subsequent naval fire, the newly arrived troops took the surrender at 11:30 of the last strong-point defending the entrance to the E-1 draw. Although a usable exit was finally opened, congestion prevented an early exploitation inland. The three battalions of the 115th RCT, scheduled to land from 10:30 on Dog Red and Easy Green, came in together and on top of the 18th RCT landings at Easy Red. The confusion prevented the remaining two battalions of the 18th RCT from landing until 13:00, and delayed the move off the beach of all but 2/18, which had exited the beach further east before noon, until 14:00. Even then, this movement was hampered by mines and enemy positions still in action further up the draw.


title: Omaha Beach

text: By early afternoon, the strong-point guarding the D-1 draw at Vierville was silenced by the navy. But without enough force on the ground to mop up the remaining defenders, the exit could not be opened. Traffic was eventually able to use this route by nightfall, and the surviving tanks of the 743rd tank battalion spent the night near Vierville.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The advance of the 18th RCT cleared away the last remnants of the force defending the E-1 draw. When engineers cut a road up the western side of this draw, it became the main route inland off the beaches. With the congestion on the beaches thus relieved, they were re-opened for the landing of vehicles by 14:00. Further congestion on this route, caused by continued resistance just inland at St. Laurent, was bypassed with a new route, and at 17:00, the surviving tanks of the 741st tank battalion were ordered inland via the E-1 draw.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The F-1 draw, initially considered too steep for use, was also eventually opened when engineers laid down a new road. In the absence of any real progress opening the D-3 and E-3 draws, landing schedules were revised to take advantage of this route, and a company of tanks from the 745th tank battalion were able to reach the high ground by 20:00.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Approaches to the exits were also cleared, with minefields lifted and holes blown in the embankment to permit the passage of vehicles. As the tide receded, engineers were also able to resume their work of clearing the beach obstacles, and by the end of the evening, 13 gaps were opened and marked.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Observing the build-up of shipping off the beach, and in an attempt to contain what were regarded as minor penetrations at Omaha, a battalion was detached from the 915th Regiment being deployed against the British to the east. Along with an anti-tank company, this force was attached to the 916th Regiment and committed to a counterattack in the Colleville area in the early afternoon. It was stopped by "firm American resistance" and reported heavy losses. The strategic situation in Normandy precluded the reinforcement of the weakened 352nd Division. The main threat was felt by the Germans to be the British beachheads to the east of Omaha, and these received the most attention from the German mobile reserves in the immediate area of Normandy. Preparations were made to bring up units stationed for the defense of Brittany, southwest of Normandy, but these would not arrive quickly and would be subject to losses inflicted in transit by overwhelming Allied air superiority. The last reserve of the 352nd Division, an engineer battalion, was attached to the 916th Regiment in the evening. It was deployed to defend against the expected attempt to break out of the Colleville-St. Laurent beachhead established on the 16th RCT front. At midnight General Dietrich Kraiss, commander of the 352nd Division, reporting the total loss of men and equipment in the coastal positions, advised that he had sufficient forces to contain the Americans on D+1 but that he would need reinforcements thereafter, to be told that there were no more reserves available.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Following the penetrations inland, confused hard-fought individual actions pushed the foothold out deep in the Colleville area to the east, less than that west of St. Laurent, and an isolated penetration in the Vierville area. Pockets of enemy resistance still fought on behind the American front line, and the whole beachhead remained under artillery fire. At 21:00 the landing of the 26th RCT completed the planned landing of infantry, but losses in equipment were high, including 26 artillery pieces, over 50 tanks, about 50 landing craft and 10 larger vessels.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Only 100 of the 2,400 tons of supplies scheduled to be landed on D-Day were landed. An accurate figure for casualties incurred by V Corps at Omaha on 6 June is not known; sources vary between 5,000 and over 6,000 killed, wounded, and missing, with the heaviest losses incurred by the infantry, tanks and engineers in the first landings. Only five tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion were ready for action the next day. The German 352nd division suffered 1,200 killed, wounded and missing; about 20% of its strength. Its deployment at the beach caused such problems that Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commander of the U.S. First Army, at one stage considered evacuating Omaha, while Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery considered the possibility of diverting V Corps forces through Gold.


title: Omaha Beach

text: The foothold gained on D-Day at Omaha, itself two isolated pockets, was the most tenuous across all the D-Day beaches. With the original objective yet to be achieved, the priority for the Allies was to link up all the Normandy beachheads. During the course of June 7, while still under sporadic shellfire, the beach was prepared as a supply area. Surplus cargo ships were deliberately sunk to form an artificial breakwater and, while still less than planned, 1,429 tons of stores were landed that day.


title: Omaha Beach

text: With the beach assault phase completed the RCTs reorganized into infantry regiments and battalions and over the course of the next two days achieved the original D-Day objectives. On the 1st divisional front the 18th Infantry Regiment blocked an attempt by two companies from the 916th and 726th Grenadiers to break out of WN-63 and Colleville, both of which were subsequently taken by the 16th Infantry Regiment which also moved on Port-en-Bessin. The main advance was made by the 18th Infantry Regiment, with the 3rd battalion of the 26th Infantry Regiment attached, south and south-eastwards. The heaviest opposition was encountered at Formigny where troops of the 2nd battalion 915th Grenadiers had reinforced the headquarters troops of 2nd battalion 916th Grenadiers. Attempts by 3/26 and B/18 with support from the tanks of B/745 were held off and the town did not fall until the morning of June 8. The threat of an armored counterattack kept the 18th Infantry Regiment on the defensive for the rest of June 8. The 26th Infantry Regiment's three battalions, having been attached to the 16th, 18th and 115th Regiments the previous day, spent June 8 reassembling before pushing eastwards, forcing the 1st battalion of the German 726th Grenadiers to spend the night extricating itself from the pocket thus forming between Bayeux and Port-en-Bessin. By the morning of June 9 the 1st Division had established contact with the British XXX Corps, thus linking Omaha with Gold.


title: Omaha Beach

text: On the 29th divisional front two battalions of the 116th Infantry Regiment cleared the last defenders from the bluffs while the remaining 116th battalion joined the Rangers in their move west along the coast. This force relieved the 2nd Ranger companies who were holding Pointe du Hoc on June 8 and subsequently forced the German 914th Grenadiers and the 439th Ost-Battalion to withdraw from the Grandcamp area which lay further to the west. Early on June 7 WN-69 defending St. Laurent was abandoned and the 115th Infantry Regiment was therefore able to push inland to the south-west, reaching the Formigny area on June 7 and the original D-Day phase line the following day. The third regiment of 29th Division; the 175th, started landing on June 7. By the morning of June 9 this regiment had taken Isigny and on the evening of the following day forward patrols established contact with the 101st Airborne Division, thus linking Omaha with Utah.


title: Omaha Beach

text: In the meantime, the original defender at Omaha, the 352nd Division, was being steadily reduced. By the morning of June 9 the division was reported as having been "...reduced to 'small groups'..." while the 726th Grenadier Regiment had "...practically disappeared." By June 11 the effectiveness of the 352nd was regarded as "very slight", and by June 14 the German corps command was reporting the 352nd as completely used up and needing to be removed from the line.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Once the beachhead had been secured, Omaha became the location of one of the two Mulberry harbors, prefabricated artificial harbors towed in pieces across the English Channel and assembled just off shore. Construction of 'Mulberry A' at Omaha began the day after D-Day with the scuttling of ships to form a breakwater. By D+10 the harbor became operational when the first pier was completed; "LST 342" docking and unloading 78 vehicles in 38 minutes. Three days later the worst storm to hit Normandy in 40 years began to blow, raging for three days and not abating until the night of June 22. The harbor was so badly damaged that the decision was taken not to repair it; supplies being subsequently landed directly on the beach until fixed port facilities were captured. In the few days that the harbor was operational, 11,000 troops, 2,000 vehicles and 9,000 tons of equipment and supplies were brought ashore. Over the 100 days following D-Day more than 1,000,000 tons of supplies, 100,000 vehicles and 600,000 men were landed, and 93,000 casualties were evacuated, via Omaha.


title: Omaha Beach

text: Today at Omaha jagged remains of the harbor can be seen at low tide. The shingle bank is no longer there, cleared by engineers in the days following D-Day to facilitate the landing of supplies. The beachfront is more built-up and the beach road extended, villages have grown and merged, but the geography of the beach remains as it was and the remains of the coastal defenses can still be visited. At the top of the bluff overlooking Omaha near Colleville is the American cemetery. In 1988, particles of shrapnel, as well as glass and iron beads resulting from munitions explosions were found in the sand of the beach, and the study of them estimated that those particles would remain in the sand of the beach for one to two centuries.


title: Urban legend

text: An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family member, often with horrifying, humorous, or cautionary elements. These legends can be entertaining but often concern mysterious peril or troubling events, such as disappearances and strange objects or entities. Urban legends may confirm moral standards, reflect prejudices, or be a way to make sense of societal anxieties. Urban legends in the past were most often circulated orally, but now can also be spread by any media. This includes newspapers, mobile news apps, e-mail, and most often, social media. Some urban legends have passed through the years/decades with only minor changes, in where the time period takes place. Generic urban legends are often altered to suit regional variations, but the lesson or moral remains majorly the same.


title: Urban legend

text: The term "urban legend", as used by folklorists, has appeared in print since at least 1968, when it was used by Richard Dorson. Jan Harold Brunvand, professor of English at the University of Utah, introduced the term to the general public in a series of popular books published beginning in 1981. Brunvand used his collection of legends, "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings" (1981) to make two points: first, that legends and folklore do not occur exclusively in so-called primitive or traditional societies, and second, that one could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales.


title: Urban legend

text: Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror, fear, or humor. Often they serve as cautionary tales. Some urban legends are morality tales that depict someone acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in trouble, hurt, or dead.


title: Urban legend

text: Urban legends will often try to invoke a feeling of disgust in the reader which tends to make these stories more memorable and potent. Elements of shock value can be found in almost every form of urban legend and are partially what makes these tales so impactful. An urban legend may include elements of the supernatural or paranormal.


title: Urban legend

text: As Jan Brunvand points out, antecedent legends including some of the motifs, themes and symbolism of the urtexts can readily be identified. Cases that "may" have been at least partially inspired by real events include "The Death Car" (traced by Richard Dorson to Michigan, United States); "the Solid Cement Cadillac" and the possible origin of "The Hook" in the 1946 series of Lovers' Lane murders in Texarkana, Texas, United States. The urban legend that Coca-Cola developed the drink Fanta to sell in Nazi Germany without public backlash originated as the actual tale of German Max Keith, who invented the drink and ran Coca-Cola's operations in Germany during World War II.


title: Urban legend

text: The narrator of an urban legend may claim it happened to a friend (or to a friend of a friend), which serves to personalize, authenticate and enhance the power of the narrative whie distancing the teller from the tall tale. Many urban legends depict horrific crimes, contaminated foods, or other situations that would potentially affect many people. Anyone believing such stories might feel compelled to warn loved ones. On occasion, news organizations, school officials and even police departments have issued warnings concerning the latest threat. According to the "Lights Out" rumor, street-gang members would drive without headlights until a compassionate motorist responded with the traditional flashing of headlights, whereupon a prospective new gang-member would have to murder the citizen as a requirement of initiation. A fax retelling this legend received at the Nassau County, Florida, fire department was forwarded to police, and from there to all city departments. The Minister of Defence for Canada was taken in by it also; he forwarded an urgent security warning to all Ontario Members of Parliament.


title: Urban legend

text: Urban legends typically include common elements: the tale is retold on behalf of the original witness or participant; dire warnings are often given for those who might not heed the advice or lesson contained therein (a typical element of many e-mail phishing scams); and the tale is often touted as "something a friend told me", the friend being identified by first name only or not identified at all. Such legends seem to be believable and even provocative, as some readers are led in turn to pass them on, including on social media platforms that instantly reach millions worldwide. Many are essentially extended jokes, told as if they were true events.


title: Urban legend

text: Persistent urban legends do often maintain a degree of plausibility, as in the story a serial killer deliberately hiding in the back seat of a car. Another such example since the 1970s has been the recurring rumor that the Procter & Gamble Company was associated with Satan-worshippers because of details within its nineteenth-century "57" trademark. The legend interrupted the company's business to the point that it stopped using the trademark.


title: Urban legend

text: The earliest term by which these narratives were known, "urban belief tales", highlights what was then thought of as a key property: their tellers regarded the stories as true accounts, and the device of the FOAF (acronym for "Friend of a Friend" invented by English writer and folklorist Rodney Dale in 1976) was a spurious but significant effort at authentication. The coinage leads in turn to the terms "FOAFlore" and "FOAFtale". While at least one classic legend, the "Death Car", has been shown to have some basis in fact, folklorists have an interest in debunking those narratives only to the degree that establishing non-factuality warrants the assumption that there must be some other reason why the tales are told, re-told and believed. As in the case of myth, the narratives are believed because they construct and reinforce the worldview of the group within which they are told, or "because they provide us with coherent and convincing explanations of complex events".


title: Urban legend

text: Social scientists have started to draw on urban legends in order to help explain complex socio-psychological beliefs, such as attitudes to crime, childcare, fast food, SUVs and other "family" choices. The authors make an explicit connection between urban legends and popular folklore, such as "Grimm's Fairy Tales", where similar themes and motifs arise. For that reason, it is characteristic of groups within which a given narrative circulates to vehemently reject claims or demonstrations of non-factuality; an example would be the expressions of outrage by police officers who are told that adulteration of Halloween treats by strangers (the subject of periodic moral panics) occurs extremely rarely, if at all.


title: Urban legend

text: The Internet has made it easier both to spread and to debunk urban legends. For instance, the Usenet newsgroup "alt.folklore.urban" and several other websites, most notably snopes.com, focus on discussing, tracking, and analyzing urban legends. The United States Department of Energy had a now-discontinued service called Hoaxbusters that dealt with computer-distributed hoaxes and legends. The most notable such hoaxes are known as creepypastas, which are typically horror stories written anonymously. Although most are regarded as obviously false, some, such as the Slender Man, have gained a following of people that do believe in them.


title: Urban legend

text: Television shows such as "Urban Legends", "", and later "", feature re-enactments of urban legends, detailing the accounts of the tales and (typically later in an episode) revealing any factual basis they may have. The Discovery Channel TV show "MythBusters" (2003–2016) tried to prove or disprove several urban legends by attempting to reproduce them using the scientific method.


title: Urban legend

text: The 1998 film "Urban Legend" featured students discussing popular urban legends while at the same time falling victim to them.


title: Urban legend

text: Between 1992 and 1998 "The Guardian" newspaper "Weekend" section published the illustrated "Urban Myths" column by Phil Healey and Rick Glanvill, with content taken from a series of four books: "Urban Myths", "The Return of Urban Myths", "Urban Myths Unplugged", and "Now! That's What I Call Urban Myths". The 1994 comics anthology the "Big Book of Urban Legends", written by Robert Boyd, Jan Harold Brunvand, and Robert Loren Fleming, featured 200 urban legends, displayed as comics.


title: Urban legend

text: The British writer Tony Barrell has explored urban legends in a long-running column in "The Sunday Times". These include the story that Orson Welles began work on a Batman movie in the 1940s, which was to feature James Cagney as the Riddler and Marlene Dietrich as Catwoman; the persistent rumour that the rock singer Courtney Love is the granddaughter of Marlon Brando; and the idea that a famous 1970s poster of Farrah Fawcett contains a subliminal sexual message concealed in the actress's hair.


title: Urban legend

text: As with traditional urban legends, many internet rumors are about crimes or crime waves - either fictional or based on real events that have been largely exaggerated. Such stories can be problematic, both because they purport to be relevant modern news and because they do not follow the typical patterns of urban legends.


title: Urban legend

text: Some legends are medical folklore, such as the claim that eating watermelon seeds will result in a watermelon growing in the stomach, or that going outdoors just after showering will result in catching a cold.


title: Urban legend

text: Internet urban legends are those spread through the internet, as through Usenet or email or more recently through other social media. They can also be linked to viral online content. Some take the form of chain letters and spread by e-mail, directing the reader to share them or to meet a terrible fate, and following a recognizable outline of hook, threat, and finally request. Others are fake virus-alerts, warning people of nonexistent threats to their computers, often appearing as online pop-ups claiming to be giveaways or store coupons.


title: Urban legend

text: Paranormal urban-legend stories usually involve someone encountering something supernatural, such as a cryptid—for instance, Bigfoot or Mothman, legendary creatures for which evidence is wanting but which have legions of believers. Research shows that people experiencing sudden or surprising events (such as a Bigfoot sighting) may significantly overestimate the duration of the event.


title: Urban legend

text: Companies have been accused of hiding "secret messages" behind their logos or packaging, as in the case of the old Procter & Gamble symbol, supposedly an occult figure that gave panache to the brand. (If the thirteen stars in the symbol were connected a certain way, it would show three sixes in a row.) Similarly, a video of a Christian woman "exposing" Monster Energy for using the Hebrew alphabet symbol for the letter "M" to disguise the number 666 went viral on Facebook.


title: Urban legend

text: Some urban legends have been used intentionally for comic purposes in advertising. The most well-known examples include the use of a Sasquatch in Jack Link commercials, known as "Messin' with Sasquatch," and the use of unicorns in Icebreakers ads. Another is the New Jersey Devils hockey team, named for the state's popular cryptid, the Jersey Devil.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas () is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's fortnightly periodical, the . A deluxe octavo edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou. The book was widely acclaimed on its release and remains so; it is regarded as one of the premier adventure novels and one of Verne's greatest works, along with "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Its depiction of Captain Nemo's underwater ship, the "Nautilus", is regarded as ahead of its time, since it accurately describes many features of today's submarines, which in the 1860s were comparatively primitive vessels.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: A model of the French submarine "Plongeur" (launched in 1863) figured at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, where Jules Verne examined it and was inspired by it when writing his novel.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The title refers to the distance traveled under the various seas: 20,000 metric leagues (80,000 km, over 40,000 nautical miles), nearly twice the circumference of the Earth.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: During the year 1866, ships of various nationalities sight a mysterious sea monster, which, it is later suggested, might be a gigantic narwhal. The U.S. government assembles an expedition in New York City to find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and the story's narrator, is in town at the time and receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition; he accepts. Canadian whaler and master harpooner Ned Land and Aronnax's faithful manservant Conseil are also among the participants.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The expedition leaves Brooklyn aboard the United States Navy frigate "Abraham Lincoln", then travels south around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. After a five-month search ending off Japan, the frigate locates and attacks the monster, which damages the ship's rudder. Aronnax and Land are hurled into the sea, and Conseil jumps into the water after them. They survive by climbing onto the "monster", which, they are startled to find, is a futuristic submarine. They wait on the deck of the vessel until morning, when they are captured, hauled inside, and introduced to the submarine's mysterious constructor and commander, Captain Nemo.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The rest of the novel describes the protagonists' adventures aboard the "Nautilus", which was built in secrecy and now roams the seas beyond the reach of land-based governments. In self-imposed exile, Captain Nemo seems to have a dual motivation — a quest for scientific knowledge and a desire to escape terrestrial civilization. Nemo explains that his submarine is electrically powered and can conduct advanced marine research; he also tells his new passengers that his secret existence means he cannot let them leave — they must remain on board permanently.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: They visit many ocean regions, some factual and others fictitious. The travelers view coral formations, sunken vessels from the Battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice barrier, the Transatlantic telegraph cable, and the legendary underwater realm of Atlantis. They even travel to the South Pole and are trapped in an upheaval of an iceberg on the way back, caught in a narrow gallery of ice from which they are forced to dig themselves out. The passengers also don diving suits, hunt sharks and other marine fauna with air guns in the underwater forests of Crespo Island, and also attend an undersea funeral for a crew member who died during a mysterious collision experienced by the "Nautilus". When the submarine returns to the Atlantic Ocean, a school of giant squid ("devilfish") attacks the vessel and kills another crewman.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The novel's later pages suggest that Captain Nemo went into undersea exile after his homeland was conquered and his family slaughtered by a powerful imperialist nation. Following the episode of the devilfish, Nemo largely avoids Aronnax, who begins to side with Ned Land. Ultimately, the "Nautilus" is attacked by a warship from the mysterious nation that has caused Nemo such suffering. Carrying out his quest for revenge, Nemo — whom Aronnax dubs an "archangel of hatred" — rams the ship below her waterline and sends her to the bottom, much to the professor's horror. Afterward, Nemo kneels before a portrait of his deceased wife and children, then sinks into a deep depression.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Circumstances aboard the submarine change drastically: watches are no longer kept, and the vessel wanders about aimlessly. Ned becomes so reclusive that Conseil fears for the harpooner's life. One morning, however, Ned announces that they are in sight of land and have a chance to escape. Professor Aronnax is more than ready to leave Captain Nemo, who now horrifies him, yet he is still drawn to the man. Fearing that Nemo's very presence could weaken his resolve, he avoids contact with the captain. Before their departure, however, the professor eavesdrops on Nemo and overhears him calling out in anguish, "O almighty God! Enough! Enough!" Aronnax immediately joins his companions, and they carry out their escape plans, but as they board the submarine's skiff, they realize that the "Nautilus" has seemingly blundered into the ocean's deadliest whirlpool, the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom". Nevertheless, they manage to escape and find refuge on an island off the coast of Norway. The submarine's ultimate fate, however, remains unknown.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Captain Nemo's assumed name recalls Homer's "Odyssey", when Odysseus encounters the monstrous Cyclops Polyphemus in the course of his wanderings. Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name, and Odysseus replies that it is Outis () 'no one', translated into Latin as ""Nemo"". Like Captain Nemo, Odysseus wanders the seas in exile (though only for 10 years) and similarly grieves the tragic deaths of his crewmen.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The novel repeatedly mentions the U.S. Naval Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, an oceanographer who investigated the winds, seas, and currents, collected samples from the depths, and charted the world's oceans. Maury was internationally famous, and Verne may have known of his French ancestry.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The novel alludes to other Frenchmen, including Lapérouse, the celebrated explorer whose two sloops of war vanished during a voyage of global circumnavigation; Dumont d'Urville, a later explorer who found the remains of one of Lapérouse's ships; and Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal and nephew of the sole survivor of Lapérouse's ill-fated expedition. The "Nautilus" follows in the footsteps of these men: she visits the waters where Lapérouse's vessels disappeared; she enters Torres Strait and becomes stranded there, as did d'Urville's ship, the "Astrolabe"; and she passes beneath the Suez Canal via a fictitious underwater tunnel joining the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: In possibly the novel's most famous episode, the above-cited battle with a school of giant squid, one of the monsters captures a crew member. Reflecting on the battle in the next chapter, Aronnax writes: "To convey such sights, it would take the pen of our most renowned poet, Victor Hugo, author of "The Toilers of the Sea"." A bestselling novel in Verne's day, "The Toilers of the Sea" also features a threatening cephalopod: a laborer battles with an octopus, believed by critics to be symbolic of the Industrial Revolution. Certainly Verne was influenced by Hugo's novel, and, in penning this variation on its octopus encounter, he may have intended the symbol to also take in the Revolutions of 1848.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Other symbols and themes pique modern critics. Margaret Drabble, for instance, argues that Verne's masterwork also anticipated the ecology movement and influenced French "avant-garde" imagery. As for additional motifs in the novel, Captain Nemo repeatedly champions the world's persecuted and downtrodden. While in Mediterranean waters, the captain provides financial support to rebels resisting Ottoman rule during the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869, proving to Professor Aronnax that he hadn't severed all relations with terrestrial mankind. In another episode, Nemo rescues an Indian pearl diver from a shark attack, then gives the fellow a pouch full of pearls, more than the man could have gathered after years of his hazardous work. Nemo remarks later that the diver, as a native of British India, "lives in the land of the oppressed".


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Indeed, the novel has an under-the-counter political vision, hinted at in the character and background of Captain Nemo himself. In the book's final form, Nemo says to professor Aronnax, "That Indian, sir, is an inhabitant of an oppressed country; and I am still, and shall be, to my last breath, one of them!" In the novel's initial drafts, the mysterious captain was a Polish nobleman, whose family and homeland were slaughtered by Russian forces during the Polish January Uprising of 1863. However, these specifics were suppressed during the editing stages at the insistence of Verne's publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, believed responsible by today's scholars for many modifications of Verne's original manuscripts. At the time France was a putative ally of the Russian Empire, hence Hetzel demanded that Verne suppress the identity of Nemo's enemy, not only to avoid political complications but also to avert lower sales should the novel appear in Russian translation. Hence Professor Aronnax never discovers Nemo's origins.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Even so, a trace remains of the novel's initial concept, a detail that may have eluded Hetzel: its allusion to an unsuccessful rebellion under a Polish hero, Tadeusz Kościuszko, leader of the uprising against Russian and Prussian control in 1794; Kościuszko mourned his country's prior defeat with the Latin exclamation "Finis Poloniae!" ("Poland is no more!").


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Five years later, and again at Hetzel's insistence, Captain Nemo was revived and revamped for another Verne novel "The Mysterious Island". It alters the captain's nationality from Polish to Indian, changing him into a fictional descendant of Tipu Sultan, a prominent ruler of Mysore who fought against the British East India Company in the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Thus, Nemo's unnamed enemy is converted into France's traditional antagonist, the British Empire. Born as an Indian aristocrat, one Prince Dakkar, Nemo participated in a major 19th-century uprising, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which was ultimately quashed by the British. After his family was killed by the British, Nemo fled beneath the seas, then made a final reappearance in the later novel's concluding pages.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Verne took the name "Nautilus" from one of the earliest successful submarines, built in 1800 by Robert Fulton, who also invented the first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton named his submarine after a marine mollusk, the chambered nautilus. As noted above, Verne also studied a model of the newly developed French Navy submarine "Plongeur" at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, which guided him in his development of the novel's "Nautilus".


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The diving gear used by passengers on the "Nautilus" is presented as a combination of two existing systems: 1) the surface-supplied hardhat suit, which was fed oxygen from the shore through tubes; 2) a later, self-contained apparatus designed by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze in 1865. Their invention featured tanks fastened to the back, which supplied air to a facial mask via the first-known demand regulator. The diver didn't swim but walked upright across the seafloor. This device was called an "aérophore" (Greek for "air-carrier"). Its air tanks could hold only thirty atmospheres, however Nemo claims that his futuristic adaptation could do far better: "The "Nautilus"'s pumps allow me to store air under considerable pressure ... my diving equipment can supply breathable air for nine or ten hours."


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: As noted above, Hetzel and Verne generated a sequel of sorts to this novel: "L'Île mystérieuse" ("The Mysterious Island", 1874), which attempts to round off narratives begun in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas" and "Captain Grant's Children", a.k.a. "In Search of the Castaways". While "The Mysterious Island" attempts to provide additional background on Nemo (or Prince Dakkar), it is muddled by irreconcilable chronological discrepancies between the two books and even within "The Mysterious Island" itself.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Verne returned to the theme of an outlaw submarine captain in his much later "Facing the Flag" (1896). This novel's chief villain, Ker Karraje, is simply an unscrupulous pirate acting purely for personal gain, completely devoid of the saving graces that gave Captain Nemo some nobility of character. Like Nemo, Ker Karraje plays "host" to unwilling French guests — but unlike Nemo, who manages to elude all pursuers — Karraje's criminal career is decisively thwarted by the combination of an international task force and the resistance of his French captives. Though also widely published and translated, "Facing the Flag" never achieved the lasting popularity of "Twenty Thousand Leagues".


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Closer in approach to the original Nemo — though offering less detail and complexity of characterization — is the rebel aeronaut Robur in "Robur the Conqueror" and its sequel "Master of the World". Instead of the sea, Robur's medium is the sky: In these two novels he develops a pioneering helicopter and later a seaplane on wheels.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The novel was first translated into English in 1873 by Reverend Lewis Page Mercier. Mercier cut nearly a quarter of Verne's French text and committed hundreds of translating errors, sometimes drastically distorting Verne's original (including uniformly mistranslating the French "scaphandre" — properly "diving suit" — as "cork-jacket", following a long-obsolete usage as "a type of lifejacket"). Some of these distortions may have been perpetrated for political reasons, such as Mercier's omitting the portraits of freedom fighters on the wall of Nemo's stateroom, a collection originally including Daniel O'Connell among other international figures. Nevertheless, Mercier's text became the standard English translation, and some later "re-translations" continued to recycle its mistakes, including mistranslating the title as "... "under the Sea"", rather than "... "under the Seas"".


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: In 1962, Anthony Bonner published a fresh, essentially complete translation of the novel with Bantam Classics. This edition also included a special introduction written by the sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, comparing Captain Nemo to Captain Ahab of "Moby-Dick".


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: A significant modern revision of Mercier's translation appeared in 1966, prepared by Walter James Miller and published by Washington Square Press. Miller addressed many of Mercier's errors in the volume's preface and restored a number of his deletions in the text. In 1993, Miller collaborated with his fellow Vernian Frederick Paul Walter to produce "The Completely Restored and Annotated Edition", published in 1993 by the Naval Institute Press. Its text took advantage of Walter's unpublished translation, which Project Gutenberg later made available online.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: In 1998, William Butcher issued a new, annotated translation with the title "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", published by Oxford University Press (). Butcher includes detailed notes, a comprehensive bibliography, appendices and a wide-ranging introduction studying the novel from a literary perspective. In particular, his original research on the two manuscripts studies the radical changes to the plot and to the character of Nemo urged on Verne by Hetzel, his publisher.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: In 2010 Frederick Paul Walter issued a fully revised, newly researched translation, "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas: A World Tour Underwater". Complete with an extensive introduction, textual notes, and bibliography, it appeared in an omnibus of five of Walter's Verne translations titled "Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics" and published by State University of New York Press ().


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: The science fiction writer Theodore L. Thomas criticized the novel in 1961, claiming that "there is not a single bit of valid speculation" in the book and that "none of its predictions has come true". He described its depictions of Nemo's diving gear, underwater activities, and the "Nautilus" as "pretty bad, behind the times even for 1869 ... In none of these technical situations did Verne take advantage of knowledge readily available to him at the time." However, the notes to the 1993 translation point out that the errors noted by Thomas were in fact in Mercier's translation, not in the original.


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Despite his criticisms, Thomas conceded: "Put them all together with the magic of Verne's story-telling ability, and something flames up. A story emerges that sweeps incredulity before it".


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Captain Nemo's nationality is presented in many feature film and video realizations as European. However, he's depicted as Indian by Omar Sharif in the 1973 European miniseries "The Mysterious Island". Nemo also appears as an Indian in the 1916 silent film version of the novel (which adds elements from "The Mysterious Island"). Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah plays Captain Nemo in the film "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". The character is portrayed as Indian in the graphic novel. In Walt Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954), a live-action Technicolor film of the novel, Captain Nemo seems European, albeit dark-complected. In the Disney adaptation, he's played by British actor James Mason, with — as in the novel itself — no mention of his being Indian. Disney's film script elaborates on background hints in Verne's original: in an effort to acquire Nemo's scientific secrets, his wife and son were tortured to death by an unnamed government overseeing the fictional prison camp of Rorapandi. This is the captain's motivation for sinking warships in the film. Also, Nemo's submarine confines her activities to a defined, circular section of the Pacific Ocean, unlike the movements of the original "Nautilus".


title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

text: Finally, Nemo is again depicted as Indian in the Soviet 3-episode TV film "Captain Nemo" (1975), which also includes some plot details from "The Mysterious Island".


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: The Tibetan Mastiff (, THL: , Wylie: ) is a large size Tibetan dog breed. Its double coat is medium to long, subject to climate, and found in a wide variety of colors, including solid black, black and tan, various shades of red (from pale gold to deep red) and bluish-gray (dilute black), and sometimes with white markings around neck, chest and legs.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: The term "mastiff" was assigned by the Europeans who first came to Tibet because that name was used to refer to nearly all large dog breeds in the West. Early Western visitors to Tibet misnamed several of its breeds, such as the Tibetan terrier, which is not a terrier, and the Tibetan spaniel, which is not a spaniel. A better name for the breed might be the "Tibetan mountain dog" or—to encompass the landrace breed throughout its range—the "Himalayan mountain dog".


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: The Tibetan Mastiff is considered a primitive breed. It typically retains the hardiness which would be required for it to survive in Tibet, Ladakh and other high-altitude Himalayan regions.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Instinctive behaviors, including canine pack behavior, contributed to the survival of the breed in harsh environments. It is one of the few primitive dog breeds that retains a single estrus per year instead of two, even at much lower altitudes and in much more temperate climates than its native climate. This characteristic is also found in wild canids such as the wolf and other wild animals. Since its estrus usually takes place during late autumn, most Tibetan Mastiff puppies are born between December and January.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Its double coat is long, subject to climate, and found in a wide variety of colors, including solid black, black and tan, various shades of red (from pale gold to deep red) and bluish-gray (dilute black), often with white markings. , some breeders had begun marketing white Tibetan mastiffs. These dogs are actually very pale gold, not truly white.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: The coat of a Tibetan Mastiff lacks the unpleasant big-dog smell that affects many large breeds. The coat, whatever its length or color(s), should shed dirt and odors. Although the dogs shed somewhat throughout the year, there is generally one great molt in late winter or early spring and sometimes another, lesser molt in the late summer or early autumn. (Sterilization of the dog may dramatically affect the coat as to texture, density and shedding pattern.)


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Tibetan Mastiffs are shown under one standard in the West, but separated by the Indian breed standard into two varieties: Lion Head (smaller; exceptionally long hair from forehead to withers, creating a ruff or mane) and Tiger Head (larger; shorter hair).


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: As a flock guardian dog in Tibet, and in the West, it uses all the usual livestock guardian tactics (e.g., barking, scent-marking perimeters) to warn away predators and avoid direct confrontations. Tibetan Mastiffs can run up to a speed of over short distances.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: As a socialized, more domestic dog, it can thrive in a spacious, fenced yard with a canine companion, but it is not an appropriate dog for apartment living. The Western-bred dogs are generally more easy-going, although still somewhat aloof with strangers. Through hundreds of years of selective breeding for a protective flock and family guardian, the breed has been prized for being a nocturnal sentry, keeping would-be predators and intruders at bay, and barking at unidentified sounds throughout the night. Leaving a Tibetan Mastiff outside all night with neighbors nearby is not recommended. They often sleep during the day, making them more active, alert and aware at night.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Like all flock guardian breeds, they are intelligent and stubborn to a fault, so obedience training is recommended (although it is only mildly successful with some individuals) since this is a strong-willed, powerful-bodied breed. Unless they are to be used exclusively as livestock guardians, socialization training is also critical with this breed, because of their reserved nature with strangers and guardian instincts. They can be excellent family dogs, depending on the family; owners must understand canine psychology and be able and willing to spend a lot of time and devotion to training their dogs. Lack of consistency can result in the creation of unpredictable dogs. The protectiveness of Tibetan Mastiffs requires alertness and planning by the owner, in order to avoid mishaps when the dog is merely reacting as a guardian. The breed is not recommended for novice dog owners.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Many breeders claim a life expectancy of 10–16 years, but these claims are unsubstantiated. Some lines do produce long-lived dogs. Other, more closely inbred lines, produce short-lived, unhealthy dogs. The breed has fewer genetic health problems than many breeds, but cases can be found of hypothyroidism, entropion, ectropion, distichiasis, skin problems including allergies, autoimmune problems including demodex, Addison's disease, Cushing's disease, missing teeth, malocclusion (overbite, underbite, dry mouth), cardiac problems, seizures, epilepsy, progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), cataracts, and small ear canals with a tendency for infection. As with most large breeds, some will suffer with elbow or hip dysplasia.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Canine inherited demyelinative neuropathy (CIDN), an inherited condition, appeared in one of the prominent lines of Tibetan Mastiffs in the early 1980s. Unfortunately, known carriers were bred extensively and are behind many lines still being actively bred. Because the mode of inheritance appears to be as a simple recessive, continued inbreeding can still produce affected puppies.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Hypothyroidism is fairly common in Tibetan Mastiffs, as it is in many large "northern" breeds. They should be tested periodically throughout their lives using a complete thyroid "panel". However, because the standard thyroid levels were established using domestic dog breeds, test results must be considered in the context of what is "normal" for the breed, not what is normal across all breeds. Many dogs of this breed will have "low" thyroid values, but no clinical symptoms. Vets and owners differ on the relative merits of medicating dogs which test "low", but are completely asymptomatic.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Originally these dogs were used to protect Buddhist monasteries and monks of Tibet from animals such as bears, wolves and snow leopards.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: The Tibetan Mastiff is a phenotypically distinct dog breed that was bred as a flock guardian in the high altitudes of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateaus.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: In the early 20th century, the Prince of Wales, George, introduced a pair of Tibetan Mastiffs to the United Kingdom, with the breed becoming prevalent enough in England in 1906 to be shown at the Crystal Palace show. However, during the war years, the breed lost favor and focus and nearly died out in England.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: The breed has been gaining in popularity worldwide since 1980. Although the breed is still considered somewhat uncommon, as more active breeders arose and produced adequate numbers of dogs, various registries and show organizations (FCI, AKC) began to recognize the breed. In 2008, the Tibetan Mastiff competed for the first time in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: Since AKC recognition, the number of active breeders has skyrocketed, leading to over-breeding of puppies, many of which are highly inbred and of questionable quality. Initially, the breed suffered because of the limited gene pool from the original stock. By 2015, due to excessive breeding and unsuitability of the breed as a pet in urban situations, prices in China for the best dogs had fallen to about $2,000, and both lower quality and crossbreed dogs were being abandoned.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: In 2011, a DNA study concluded that there was a genetic relationship between the Tibetan mastiff and the Great Pyrenees, Bernese Mountain Dog, Rottweiler and Saint Bernard, and that these large breed dogs are probably partially descended from the Tibetan Mastiff. In 2014, a study added the Leonberger to the list of possible relatives.


title: Tibetan Mastiff

text: The Tibetan Mastiff was able to adapt to the extreme highland conditions of the Tibetan Plateau very quickly compared with other mammals such as the yak, Tibetan antelope, snow leopard, and the wild boar. The Tibetan mastiff's ability to avoid hypoxia in high altitudes, due to its higher hemoglobin levels compared with low-altitude dogs, was due to prehistoric interbreeding. In 2020, a genomic analysis indicates that a ghost population of an unknown wolf-like canid which is deeply-diverged from modern Holarctic wolves and dogs has contributed the EPAS1 allele found in both Himalayan wolves and dogs, and this allows them to live in high altitudes.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Colonia Dignidad ("Dignity Colony") was an isolated colony of Germans established in post-World War II Chile by emigrant Germans which became notorious for the internment, torture, and murder of dissidents during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s while under the leadership of German emigre preacher Paul Schäfer. Colonia Dignidad has been described as a "state within a state".


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Schäfer and members of the colony were deeply religious and followed the teachings of William Branham. The main legal economic activity of the colony was agriculture; at various periods it also was home to a school, a hospital, two airstrips, a restaurant, and a power station.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Colonia Dignidad's longest continuous leader, Paul Schäfer, arrived in the colony in 1961. Schäfer was a fugitive, accused of child molestation in West Germany. The organization he led in Chile was described, alternatively, as a cult or as a group of "harmless eccentrics". The organization was secretive, and the Colonia was surrounded by barbed wire fences, and featured a watchtower and searchlights, and was later reported to contain secret weapon caches. External investigations, including efforts by the Chilean government, uncovered a history of criminal activity in the enclave, including child sexual abuse. Reports from Chile's National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, indicate that a small set of the many individuals abducted by Pinochet's Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional during his rule were held as prisoners at Colonia Dignidad, most of whom were subjected to torture, and often to extrajudicial execution as well. Several members of Colonia's leadership of the time, including Schäfer, were participants in the atrocities.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: In 1991, the name of the settlement was changed to Villa Baviera. After Schäfer fled to Argentina in 1996 to escape child molestation charges in Chile, control over residents loosened. Residents of the colony are now free to leave, and the site is open for tourism.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Located in a remote area in the Maule Region of central Chile, Colonia Dignidad was located in the commune of Parral, in a rural area on the north bank of the Perquilauquén River, about 35 km southeast of the town of Parral. The full name of the colony from the 1950s was Sociedad Benefactora y Educacional Dignidad ("Charitable and Educational Society 'Dignity'"). At its largest, Colonia Dignidad was home to some three hundred German and Chilean residents, and covered .


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Schäfer had been following the ministry of William Branham from Germany, and was very excited when Branham made a personal visit to Germany in 1955. Schäfer and other members of his church served as William Branham's personal security detail on his 1955 European tour. One sermon during his visit to Karlsruhe, Germany, left a deep impression on Schäfer. Schäfer claimed to experience a healing in the meeting, and thereafter began to strongly teach some of Branham's key doctrines. Following the 1955 meetings with Branham, Schäfer began to put more of William Branham's doctrines into practice in his group, and began to insist to his followers that they were the only "only faithful ones" to William Branham's teachings. "Strong ties were forged" between Schäfer, William Branham, and Ewald Frank during Branham's time in Germany, and many future members of Colonia would find refuge with Frank in Germany after investigations were launched into Colonia in later years. Ewald Frank was a key figure in helping Colonia establish its weapons factories by contracting with German arms producers to assist the colony in setting up their operations. Frank also played a role in assisting in the sale and transport of the materials and supplies for the operations in Colonia. Schäfer maintained connections to Branham until the time of his death in 1965.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: The first inhabitants of Colonia Dignidad arrived in 1961, brought by German citizen Paul Schäfer, who was born in 1921, in the town of Troisdorf. Schäfer's first employment in Germany was as a welfare worker for children in an institution of the local church, a post from which he was fired at the end of the 1940s; he then faced accusations of sexual abuse against children in his care. While these first reports led to his dismissal, no criminal proceedings were initiated. Schäfer became a follower of William Branham who campaigned in Europe during the 1950s. Schäfer may have been influenced to move to Chile by Branham's doomsday prophesies that predicted the imminent destruction of western democracies. Schäfer continued to promote Branham's teaching throughout his life, and many escapees and the current members of Colonia are still affiliated with the teachings of Branham. Afterwards, he worked as an independent preacher, forming a community in Gronau, which is an organization dedicated to working with children at risk. He quickly acquired great influence over his members, who had to perform hard farm work without pay. Shortly thereafter, stories reemerged relating to the earlier allegations of pedophilia against him. As a result, in 1961, Schäfer organized the emigration of several hundred members of their community to Chile.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: To the outside world, the colony portrayed itself as a prime example of German efficiency, cleanliness and communal work. The profitable agricultural production and an attached charity hospital helped preserving this image for a long time. The colony had its own press operations who recorded and broadcast videos showing their happy residents amid celebrations and commemorations: men dedicated to farm work, women and girls embroidering or preparing butter. Diplomats at the German embassy ignored reports of the violence and crime and praised it as a “model colony”.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: However, Schäfer's propaganda efforts were again and again overshadowed by allegations of people escaping from the colony and obtaining asylum in Germany. The first, Wolfgang Müller, fled in 1966 and first exposed the atrocities that occurred within the colony. Müller obtained German citizenship and worked for a newspaper, soon becoming an activist in Germany against the leaders of "Colonia Dignidad", and finally became the president of the foundation dedicated to the support of victims in Chile.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: In the following year, he freed another inhabitant of the colony, Heinz Kuhn, who confirmed the allegations previously made by Müller, and provided more information on abuses. However, these first allegations were rejected by politicians and were emphatically denied due to their ties with the management of the Colony in their preparation of the military coup of September 11, 1973, as demonstrated later in Chilean court cases.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: In 1988 Georg and Lotti Packmor escaped and testified in a parliamentary hearing in Bonn, Germany, that German citizens were forced to live in the enclave against their will.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Before officially moving his organization to Chile, Paul Schäfer requested that the Chilean government exempt him from paying taxes and grant him asylum as long as he helped with gaining political intelligence. The Rettig Commission noted a wealth of information supporting the accusations of the use of the land owned by Colonia Dignidad for detention and torture of political detainees during Pinochet's military dictatorship. Among these sources are spokesmen for the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. The Rettig Commission ultimately based its conclusions on evidence that it examined directly.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: In these underground prisons, the captives were tortured in numerous ways, including mutilation from dogs and electric shocks. Some torture victims allege that Schäfer was directly involved in their torture. There is speculation that the extent of Schäfer's involvement with Pinochet has not yet been fully disclosed. Schäfer's 2005 arrest saw more than 500 government files of missing detainees hidden in the ‘bodega de las papas’ (‘potato cellar’ in English). Each of these files contained details of severe human rights violations committed under Schäfer's supervision in collaboration with Pinochet. In the late 1970s, Pinochet allegedly ordered for the mass graves containing hundreds of murdered detainees to be unearthed and for the bodies to be either thrown into the sea or burned.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Journalist John Dinges has suggested that there was some degree of cooperation between the German Intelligence Service, German arms dealer Gerhard Mertins, and Colonia Dignidad, including creation of bunkers, tunnels, a hospital, and runways for the decentralized production of armaments in modules (parts produced in one place, other parts in another). This subject was proactively hidden, because of the problems experienced at the time associated with Argentina.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Because of Colonia Dignidad's close association with the Chilean military and strategic proximity to the Argentina–Chile border, the Colonia served as a base for the Chilean military during the 1978 Beagle conflict between Chile and Argentina. The hospital at Colonia Dignidad also served as a laboratory for the manufacture of weaponized sarin as part of the Pinochet government's Project Andrea.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Chile took a turn to democracy in 1990 after 17 years of dictatorship, but "Colonia Dignidad" remained unchanged. Allegations of abuses and humiliations that occurred inside the colony increased. National and international pressure intensified, but each time the police tried to conduct an investigation at the site they were greeted with a wall of silence. "Colonia Dignidad" authorities remained powerful and also had allies in the army and among the Chilean far right, who would warn them in advance when the police were preparing to visit the site.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Slowly, Chilean public awareness began to change, creating a growing feeling of resentment towards the place, which many began to perceive as an independent state, or an enclave within Chile.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Before coming to Chile, Schäfer had attempted to start an orphanage in Germany, but two mothers living there accused him of molesting their children, so to escape judicial consequences, he fled to Chile. Schäfer arrived in Chile in 1961 with around 70 followers, and a number of kidnapped children. The colony continued to ‘import’ children from Germany and the surrounding areas until the end of Schäfer's leadership. Colonia Dignidad grew to have about 350 people, around 100 of whom were children. Those on the side of the colony said that it was a harmless organization, but, those against it recounted it as tyrannical in structure, and highly restrictive in terms of interaction between genders and in expression of sexuality, with a reportedly aging population. The perimeter of the colony was made up of barbed wire, searchlights, and a watchtower. Today the colony is not as isolated as it was under Schäfer's leadership; Schäfer made great efforts to keep the colony as isolated as he could. The road to the colony cut through farmland and forest, and brought the traveler to a large barbed-wire fence that was generally heavily protected. Inside, however, the colony seemed fairly normal, though a bit old-fashioned:The village had modern apartment complexes, two schools, a chapel, several meetinghouses, and a bakery that produced fresh cakes, breads, and cheeses. There were numerous animal stables, two landing strips, at least one airplane, a hydroelectric power station, and mills and factories of various kinds, including a highly profitable gravel mill that supplied raw materials for numerous road-building projects throughout Chile. On the north side of the village was a hospital, where the Germans provided free care to thousands of patients in one of the country’s poorest areas.Schäfer, despite living in Chile for most of his adult life, spoke little Spanish, as only German was spoken inside the colony. He was described as having a very serious demeanor, and rarely smiled, but was considered to be quite charismatic nonetheless. He made great efforts to illustrate Colonia Dignidad as a utopian paradise, seemingly frozen in a time before World War II. In reality, Schäfer ran a fear-based colony where members were barred from interacting with the world outside the community, and a few were armed to protect the community against possible outside attacks. The inhabitants lived under an abnormal authoritarian system, where in addition to minimal contact with the outside, Schäfer ordered the division of families (parents did not talk to their children, or did not know their siblings). It prohibited all kinds of relations, sentimental or conjugal, among adult women and men, and segregated the living quarters of each sex. Schäfer sexually abused children and some were tortured, as is clear from the statements of the German Dr. Gisela Seewald, who admitted the use of electroshock therapy and sedatives that her boss had claimed were placebos. Members were often encouraged to confess to him both their own sins, and the sins of others that they had witnessed. Supposed sinners were often publicly outed and shamed during gathering times and meals. Women were thought to be inherently sinful, plagued by sexuality, thus the justification behind separating the men from the women. Schäfer often dictated forming romantic relationships, as far as saying when to get married and have children. Most of the time, however, conceptions of the family inside the colony were based not on genetics, but on loyalty to Schäfer, who self-identified as ‘The Permanent Uncle.’ When a child was born, it would not stay with its biological parents, but rather be raised by nurses in a group called ‘The Babies.’ Each stage of life was categorized like this, with the following stages being ‘The Wedges’ (up to age 15), ‘The Army of Salvation,’ ‘The Elder Servants’ by age 30, and lastly, by age 50, ‘The Comalos.’ This was done in an effort to give everyone an exact role in the colony's order. Inhabitants lived in groups of about six, and all wore similar German 30s-style clothing. Each person would work 12+ hours a day, receiving no payment, but doing so rather for the sake of Colonia Dignidad.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: The colony had a school and hospital in the enclave which offered support to rural families through free education and health services. This would, ultimately, create support in case the colony was attacked. However, there are many cases uncovered in recent years that refer to illegal adoptions of children from families residing in the surrounding areas by the German hierarchy in order to deliver on the promise of free education. Locals around the colony generally knew Colonia Dignidad to be made up of hygienic, hard-working individuals who led a very structured life.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: In 1996, Schäfer fled child sex abuse charges in Chile, escaping arrest until 2005. The previous year, in his absence, a Chilean court had convicted him of child abuse, together with 26 other cult members. In 2006, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He died in prison of a heart ailment, on 24 April 2010, at the age of 88. At the time of his death, he was still under investigation for the 1985 disappearance of mathematician Boris Weisfeiler, an American citizen who went missing while hiking near Colonia Dignidad.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: During the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, from 1973 to 1990, Colonia Dignidad served as a special torture center. In 1991, Chile's National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation concluded that a number of people apprehended by the DINA were held at Colonia Dignidad, and that some of the colony's residents actively helped the DINA torture some of the captives. Colonia Dignidad's involvement came to light as early as an October 1976 report from the United Nations Ad Hoc Working Group on Chile, as referenced in a March 1977 Amnesty International report, "Disappeared Prisoners in Chile", with the latter report describing the evidence in this way:


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: Some defectors from the colony have portrayed it as a cult in which the leader Paul Schäfer held the ultimate power. They claim that the residents were never allowed to leave the colony, and that they were strictly segregated by gender. Television, telephones and calendars were banned. Residents worked wearing Bavarian peasant garb and sang German folk songs. Sex was banned, with some residents forced to take drugs to reduce their desires. Drugs were also administered as a form of sedation, mostly to young girls, but to males as well. Severe discipline in the forms of beatings and torture was commonplace: Schäfer insisted that discipline was spiritually enriching.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: There are more than 1,100 desaparecidos (disappeared persons) in Chile, some taken to the Colony where they were tortured and killed. One of them is a U.S. citizen, Boris Weisfeiler, a Soviet-born mathematics professor at Pennsylvania State University. Weisfeiler, then 43 years old, vanished while on a hiking trip near the border between Chile and Argentina in the early part of January 1985. It is presumed that Weisfeiler had been kidnapped and taken to the Colony where he was tortured and killed. In 2012, a judge in Chile ordered the arrest of eight former police and army officials over the kidnapping of Weisfeiler during the Pinochet years, citing evidence from declassified US files. In 2016, the case was closed and the men were freed when a judge ruled that Weisfeiler had indeed been abducted, but that it was only a common crime, long past the statute of limitations, instead of a human rights violation.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: One of the first instances of abuse allegations was in 1966 from escapee Wolfgang Müller, who had been sixteen when he came to the colony. He claimed that he was forced into slave labor, received regular harsh beatings, and was molested by Schäfer on multiple occasions. Müller said that former Nazis were part of the colony as well.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: In June and July 2005, Chilean police found two large illegal arms caches in or around the colony. The first, within the colony itself, included three containers with machine guns, automatic rifles, rocket launchers, and large quantities of ammunition, some as many as forty years old but with evidence of recent maintenance. This cache was described as the largest arsenal ever found in private hands in Chile. The second cache, outside a restaurant operated by the colony, included rocket launchers and grenades.


title: Colonia Dignidad

text: In January 2005, former Chilean secret police operative Michael Townley, then living in the United States under a witness-protection program, acknowledged to agents of Interpol Chile links between DINA and Colonia Dignidad. Townley also revealed information about Colonia Dignidad and the army's Laboratory on Bacteriological Warfare. This last laboratory would have replaced the old DINA laboratory at Vía Naranja de Lo Curro hill, where Townley worked with the chemist Eugenio Berríos. Townley also gave proof of biological experiments, related to the two aforementioned laboratories, on political prisoners at Colonia Dignidad.