Alexander, Georg Murrell “Michael.

 A teenage soldier in the Wehrmacht, Gockel had his 18^th birthday while serving as a gunner in a ‘resistance nest’ Nr 62,

with 726^th Grenadier Regiment, on Omaha beach. He was shot in the hand and evacuated to Paris before serving again and being captured by the Americans. After 18 months in custody he was released and returned to his home town of Hamm, where he set up a roofing company and still lives with his wife. Gockel has made regular trips to Normandy since shortly after the war, and has many friends there. Franz Gockel died age 79, from diabetic, 22-11-2005 in Rhijnern. From 30-02-1941 Alexander as a Brigade General was the Commanding Officer of the 88^th Infantry Brigade, “Fighting Blue Devils” . From 03-02-1941 until 28-02-1941 he was assigned as Commanding Officer of the 91^st Infantry Brigade. He became assistant Deputy Provost Marshal General US European Theatre of Operations until 1945, as he retired from the Service. Living in Lynchburg Alexander died at the age of 72, on 03-03-1961 and is buried on the Spring Hill Cemetery of Lynchburg, Lynchburg City, Virginia. Georg Murrell “Michael” Alexander, born 01-08-1889 in Lynchburg, Virginia, 4 months after Hitler, became a Lieutenant in the National Guard on 06-05-1929 and a Colonel with the National Guard on 23-06-1933. He joined the Army on 26-06-1933 as the Commanding Officer of the famous 116^th Infantry Regiment from Normandy, the regiment suffered 341 casualties, most of them from Company A and the same village of Bedford, on the Omaha beach in Normandy, by fire of the young German soldier Franz Gockel. The landings took place along a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

American casualties at Omaha on D-Day numbered around 5.000 out of 50.000 men, most in the first few hours, while the Germans suffered 1.200 killed, wounded or missing.Franz Gockel a German Soldier claimed to have shot hundreds of American soldiers of the 116^th Infantry Regiment on Omaha Beach, stationed at his Widerstandnest 62, with his Polish water-cooled MG, machinegun, from WW I, a booty from the Poland invasion in September 1939. With the surrender of Germany and the end of fighting in Europe, the 116^th assumed occupation duties in and around Bremen, until they began leaving for the United States in December 1945 From 30-02-1941 he as a Brigade General was the Commanding Officer of the 88^th Infantry Brigade. From 03-02-1941 until 28-02-1941 he was assigned as Commanding Officer of the 91^st Infantry Brigade  . He became assistant Deputy Provost Marshal General US European Theatre of Operations until 1945, as he retired from the Service.

Living in Lynchburg Alexander died at the age of 72, on 03-03-1961 and is buried on the Spring Hill Cemetery of Lynchburg, Lynchburg City, Virginia.

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