The FReeper Foxhole Studies The Atlantic Wall

Beach Obstacles

Czech Hedgehogs

“Czech hedgehogs” consisted of three metal girders or sections of rail welded together at the middle.

Originally designed as antitank obstacles, large numbers of them were placed on the beaches, often set into concrete bases to make them more stable in the sand.

They were intended either to block the advance of the landing barges or to hole the hulls of these light craft.

Recovered and dismantled by American engineers after the landings, some of the metal girders were used to make the “hedgecutters” fitted to the fronts of tanks to help them rip a path through the impenetrable hedgerows of Normandy’s bocage countryside.

Nutcrackers

Serrated steel blades could be fixed onto tripods made from tree trunks in order to rip open the hulls of incoming landing barges.

“Nutcrackers” were sometimes also fixed to the poles. These devices consisted of a mine and a metal girder, the idea being that the barge would push against the girder, thereby triggering the explosion of the mine directly under its hull.

Belgian gates

The Cointet devices, known as “Belgian gates”, were heavy metal barriers mounted on wheels. They had been used in Belgium in 1939-40, as part of the country’s antitank defences. Recovered by the Germans, large numbers of them were erected as obstacles on the beaches of the Channel and the North Sea, as well as on roads, to serve as barricades.

Tetrahedra

Tetrahedra were pyramids with triangular bases made from an assemblage of steel bars or from reinforced concrete. They were intended to bring landing barges to a halt, possibly even smashing their hulls.

Antitank walls

Thick antitank walls were built by the Germans to block the beach exits and prevent Allied armoured vehicles from moving inland. Powerful charges of dynamite were needed to blow breaches in them.

Dragon's teeth

“Dragon’s teeth” were concrete blocks set in the sand on the beaches in order to hinder the advance of tanks and other motorized vehicles. Extensively used along the Maginot Line in 1939-40, they were used just extensively along the coasts of the North Sea and the English Channel.

Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
www.normandiememoire.com/NM60Anglais/photos_mur/pages/h1_p2_1_USA_01-copie.htm
http://site.voila.fr/bunkers
http://home.zonnet.nl/atlanticwall/radar/

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Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on December 28:
1631 Ludolf Backhuysen Dutch seascape painter/cartoonist
1763 John Molson founded Montréal brewery (Molson Canadian)
1822 William Booth Taliaferro Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1898
1823 Thomas Alexander Scott Assistant Secretary War (Union), died in 1881
1833 Charles Miller Shelley Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1907
1835 Archibald Geikie British geologist
1856 [Thomas] Woodrow Wilson, Staunton Va, (28 pres-D-1912-21, Nobel 1919)
1895 Auguste Lumiere twin brother of Louis who opened 1st commercial cinema
1895 Louis Lumiere twin brother of Auguste who opened 1st commercial cinema
1905 Cliff Arquette Toledo OH, comedian (Charlie Weaver)
1905 Earl "Fatha" Hines Duquesne PA, jazz pianist (Deep Forest)
1911 Sam Levenson New York NY, humorist (Sam Levenson Show, Masquerade Party)
1915 Roebuck "Pops" Staples US gospel/singer (Staple Singers)
1917 Ellis Clarke President of Trinidad & Tobago (1976-87)
1921 Johnny Otis R&B singer
1924 Rod Serling, Syracuse NY, writer/host (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery)
1927 Martin Milner (actor: Adam 12)
1933 Jack Perkins Cleveland OH, newscaster (Prime Time Sunday, NBC Magazine)
1936 Nichelle Nichols Robbins IL, actress (Uhura-Star Trek)
1954 Denzel Washington Mount Vernon NY, actor
1981 Elizabeth Jordan Carr 1st American test tube baby

Deaths which occurred on December 28:
1446 Clemens VIII [Aegyd Muñoz] Spanish anti-pope (1423-29), dies
1694 Mary II, Queen of England, dies after 5 years of rule at 32
1706 Pierre Bayle, French theologist (History of Criticism), dies at 59
1859 Thomas Babington Macaulay, English essayist/historian, dies
1923 Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, engineer (Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty), dies at 91
1947 Victor Emmanuel III, king of Italy (1900-46), dies at 78
1970 Charles "Sonny" Liston heavyweight boxer champion (1962-64), dies
1970 L Mendel Rivers (Representative-D-SC), dies at 65
1980 Jersey calf, lived 222 days with an artificial heart
1983 Dennis Wilson drummer/singer (Beach Boys), drowns at 39
1984 Sam Peckinpah director, dies of cardiac arrest at 59
1993 William L Shirer, writer (Rise & Fall of 3rd Reich), dies at 89

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 GRELLA DONALD C.---LAUREL NE.
[ACFT OVERDUE ON 10-15 MIN FLIGHT]
1965 PHELPS JESSE D.---BOISE ID.
[ACFT OVERDUE ON 10-15 MIN FLIGHT]
1965 RICE THOMAS JR.---SPARTANBURG SC.
[ACFT OVERDUE ON 10-15 MIN FLIGHT]
1965 STANCIL KENNETH L.---CHATTANOOGA TN.
[ACFT OVERDUE ON 10-15 MIN FLIGHT]
1972 AGNEW ALFRED H.---MULLINS SC.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 CONDON JAMES C.---VERSAILLES OH.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 CUSIMANO SAMUEL B.---BIRMINGHAM AL.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV,ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 FRYER BEN L.---STOCKTON CA.
[09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV]
1972 GOUGH JAMES W.---FRESNO CA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 HAIFLEY MICHAEL FIRESTONE---LISBON OH.
[REMAINS RETURNED 08/14/85]
1972 JOHNSON ALLEN L.---TUSCUMBIA AL.
[DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 12/04/85]
1972 LEWIS FRANK D.---FORT WAYNE IN.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 1998]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0418 St Boniface I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0801 Louis the Vrome occupies Barcelona
1065 Westminister Abbey opens in London
1732 1st known ad for "Poor Richard's Almanack" (Pennsylvania Gazette)
1816 American Colonization Society organizes
1821 Naples: Gioacchini Rossini moves to Bologna
1828 6.8 earthquake strikes Echigo Japan, 30,000 killed
1832 John Calhoun becomes 1st Vice-President to resign (differences with President Jackson)
1836 Spain recognizes independence of México
1846 Iowa becomes 29th state
1849 M Jolly-Bellin discovers dry-cleaning, he accidentally upset lamp containing turpentine & oil on his clothing & sees cleaning effect
1850 Rangoon Burma destroyed by fire
1864 Battle of Egypt Station MS
1869 William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon OH, patents chewing gum
1877 John Stevens, Wisconsin, applies for a patent on his flour rolling mill
1878 Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Quod apostolici muneris (socialism)
1895 World's 1st movie theater opens in Paris
1902 1st indoor pro football game, Syracuse beats Philadelphia 6-0 (Madison Square Garden, NYC)
1902 Trans-Pacific cable links Hawaii to US
1903 Clyde Fitch's "Glad of It" premieres in New York NY
1904 1st daily wireless weather forecasts published (London)
1905 Intercollegiate Athletic Association of US founded (becomes NCAA in 1910)
1908 Messina, Italy struck by an earthquake (nearly 80,000 died)
1912 National Council of Young Israel convenes
1915 San Francisco City Hall dedicated by Mayor James Rolph
1923 George Bernard Shaw's "St Joan" premieres in New York NY
1928 Last recording of Ma Rainey, "Mother of the Blues" is made
1928 Louis Armstrong makes 78rpm recording of "West End Blues"
1931 Lin-Sen succeeds Chiang Kai-shek as President of Nanjing-China
1935 W P A Federal Art Project Gallery opens in New York NY
1942 Robert Sullivan becomes 1st pilot to fly the Atlantic 100 times
1943 All inhabitants of Kalmukkie deported, about 70,000 killed
1944 Former Washington 3rd baseman Buddy Lewis wins Distinguished Flying Cross
1945 Congress officially recognizes "Pledge of Allegiance"
1948 US announced a study to launch an Earth satellite
1949 20th Century Fox announces it will produce TV programs
1950 Chinese troops cross 38th Parallel, into South Korea
1952 Detroit Lions beat Cleveland Browns 17-7 in NFL championship game
1957 CBS states it won't broadcast baseball where minor league games are on
1957 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1958 What might be called greatest NFL game, Colts beat Giants 23-17
1958 Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon & Theodore with David Seville) hit #1
1961 Tennessee Williams' "Night of the Iguana" premieres in New York NY
1962 UN troops occupy Elizabethstad Katanga
1963 Merle Haggard's 1st appearance on country chart with "Sing a Sad Song"
1964 Principal filming of "Dr Zhivago" begins
1966 China People's Republic performs nuclear test at Lop Nor People's Rebublic of China
1967 KTSB (now KSNT) TV channel 27 in Topeka KS (NBC) begins broadcasting
1967 Muriel Siebert is 1st women to own a seat on New York Stock Exchange
1968 100,000 attend Miami Pop Festival
1968 Beatles' "Beatles-The White Album" goes #1 & stays #1 for 9 weeks
1970 Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) adopts constitution
1972 Kim Il-song, becomes President of North Korea
1972 Martin Bormann's skeleton found in Berlin (Hitlers deputy)
1973 Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelag"
1973 Akron OH's Chamber of Commerce terminates itself from Soap Box Derby
1973 Comet Kohoutek at perihelion
1975 "Hail Mary Pass" -Dallass Cowboys steal win from Vikings 17-14 on last second pass
1976 Winnie Mandela banished in South Africa
1978 30th hat trick in Islander history (Mike Bossy)
1980 México terminated fishing agreements with US
1983 US says they will leave UNESCO on Dec 31, 1984
1984 Creosote bush determined to be 11,700 years old
1985 Warring Lebanese Moslem & Christian leaders sign peace agreement
1987 In Arkansas R Gene Simmons kills 2, later bodies of 14 of his relatives are found at his home near Dover AR
1989 Alexander Dubcek elected parliament chairman of Czechoslovakia
1991 Irene the Icon of the Greek Orthodox church returns after being stolen
1991 Ted Turner is named Time Magazine Man of the Year
1993 Dow-Jones hits record 3793.49
1997 Sting beats Hollywood Hogan for WCW Championship
2000 The Census Bureau released its first numbers from the 2000 national count; they showed that America's population had risen to 281,421,906, up 13.2 percent from 1990.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Iowa : Admission Day (1846)
Nepál : King Birendra's Birthday
US : Quilter's Day
US : Ujima-Collective Work and Responsibility Day (3rd Day of Kwanzaa)
US : Bairn's Day (unluckiest day of the year)
Safe Toys and Gifts Month

Religious Observances
Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican : Feast of St John, apostle/evangelist
Roman Catholic : Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph

Religious History
1741 English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'Redeem your precious time: pick up the fragments of it, that not one moment of it may be lost. Be much in secret prayer. Converse less with man, and more with God.'
1832 In Missouri, St. Louis Academy (founded in 1818) was chartered as St. Louis University. It was the first Catholic university established in the U.S. west of the Allegheny Mountains.
1838 Greensborough Female College was chartered in North Carolina, under the Methodist Church. In 1920 its name was changed to Greensboro College.
1847 Birth of Samuel A. Ward, American music publisher. Ward composed the tune MATERNA, to which we sing today the patriotic hymn, "America, The Beautiful."
1916 At a seven_day convention in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the General Assembly of Apostolic Assemblies (GAAA) was formed. Its institutional life was short, however. Due to the pressures of World War I, the GAAA was formed too late to recognize ministers of military age.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The only rose without thorns is friendship."

Question of the day...
If humans get a charley horse, what do horses get?

Murphys Law of the day...(Perkin's postulate)
The bigger they are, the harder they hit.

Amazing Fact #361...
An average human drinks about 16, 000 gallons of water in a lifetime.

Atlantic Wall Conclusion

All in all the landings and the airborne drops that preceded them were successful, if unexpectedly challenging in some places and easier in others. The overall result was that the Allies had breached Hitler’s ‘Atlantic Wall’ and won themselves a foothold on Europe.

Rommel’s fears of an Allied thrust through too-thin coastal defenses seemed to have come true. With some defenders along the coasts already overrun on D-Day, and others holding on until their ammunition ran out, the first line of defense - the beach - was compromised. While Rommel rushed back from his abbreviated leave in Germany, his divisions were throwing their reserves up to the line at “crisis points (where an Allied breakthrough seemed imminent). But the marching columns were attacked again and again by whole swarms of fighter-bombers.

Soon all the reserves had been committed, the front began to crumble at many points and by the afternoon it was clear that the Allied landing had succeeded. According to German Lieutenant General Fritz Bayerlein, commander of the Panzer Lehr Division stationed some 100 miles south-southeast of Sword Beach, “On the evening of 6th June, therefore, the situation did not look very encouraging.” The I Panzer Corps, which included the 12 SS Panzer and Panzer Lehr Divisions, was finally released late in the day on 6 June.(44) Once his division and other armored units, also previously held inland, were redeployed they were met by devastating air attacks, which scattered their formations and slowed their advance toward the coast.

Indeed, the layered combination of obstacles in the water, on the beaches and inland presented the Allied with many challenges, and cost the invaders dearly in lives, equipment, and time. However, static defenses, regardless of strength, seemed at this point in time to be dated – remnants of the Great War. The Germans had made this painfully clear to the French when they used maneuver to marginalize the value of the Maginot Line in 1940. Without mobile units and reserves to fill the gaps that would eventually develop in these static lines, such defenses were useless, and served only to stave off inevitable defeat. Rommel seemed to know this, and strove for a cooperative defense, built not only of concrete and barbed wire, mines and welded steel obstacles, but also panzers, mobilized infantry, artillery, rockets, and air forces.

Severely limited by time, the Desert Fox was given neither the material nor manpower support he requested, and in retrospect, sorely needed. Contradicting his own order that the invasion would be fought off by forces under one, on-site commander; Hitler spread control out among several officers in the theater: Rommel, von Rundstedt, his stooge in Goering, and others, and kept some of the most essential units under his own control.

Had Rommel been given the support and freedom he requested, the outcome may well have been different. His four belts of underwater obstacles were unfinished at the time of the invasion, and yet still cost the Allies lives and time. Hundreds of troops were killed when their gliders broke up while landing in fields planted with “Rommel asparagus.” German troops did in many places fight to the last man, or at least in the case of Cherbourg, destroy anything and everything of worth to the Allies before being captured or surrendering. Omaha was nearly lost due to a mistake in Allied intelligence; the Americans were totally unaware that an extra German division moved up to the coast just days before the invasion.

While the cities of Caen and St. Lo were not both taken until mid-July, well behind the schedule the Allies had hoped for, and the port at Cherbourg was almost completely destroyed by the Germans before it was finally captured, the Allied invasion slowly achieved its objectives. The German line was slowly pushed back. Rommel, ever energetic and dedicated, tried to stem the enemy advance, pleading with Berlin to send more units into the region. Sitting idle in southern France were four panzer divisions, which were finally sent north in July and August, long after they were most needed.

Rommel’s plans were sound and without a doubt slowed the Allied advance into Europe by weeks. Along with material and manpower shortages, the Germans lacked what Hans Speidel, Rommel’s Chief of Staff, called the “uncanny precision in the co-operation between Allied land forces and their air and naval support.” At the highest level, “Hitler, unable to compromise politically or in his propaganda, devoid of any sober clarity of thought, ordered his troops to hold their ground, and it was the soldier at the front who paid the price.

All these factors combined to produce a great deficit between Marshal Rommel’s plans and the reality forced on him by time and material constraints and organizational ineptitude; these ensured the German loss of Normandy, and eventually the war.

Good morning Valin.

You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. —Revelation 5:9

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world;
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in His sight;
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus loves all people, not just the ones who look like you.

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

Good morning Mayor. Thanks for the much needed coffee.

Good morning EGC. Computer froze up this morning and had to cold boot so I'm running a little behind. Mid 50' expected here today.

Your welcome, tastes specially good this morning...

Oh, boy.:-( sorry about that, Snippy. It's happened to me in the past. We had a cold front move through and it's forecast to go down into the upper 20's tonight.

Good morning everyone in the Foxhole.

Yes it is, isn't it!

Good morning feather.

Good morning and Merry belated Christmas,
Incredible reading here.
My father was in WWII, and I enjoy reading everything I can about it.
My first time here in the foxhole although it won't be my last.
Keep up the good work!

Good morning baltodog. Where have you been? LOL.

Welcome to the FReeper Foxhole. We're glad you found us.

Thank you for your service to our country and please join us in celebrating our great American History as we try to educate and remind folks of what those that went before us fought and sometimes died for.

We honor all our veterans no matter their service connection or job and all our current troops.

We have a pleasant mix of veterans, current and civilian folks join us here as time allows and we hope we have a place where all opinions are openly discussed and all are welcome.

You have dogs, we love dogs. We tolerate cats as best we can.

If you like we can add you to our ping list, just let me know.

I would greatly appreciate being added to your list.
Thanks!

Good morning Snippy.

Gerd von Rundstedt vs Fixed Fortifications

Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt was born December 12, 1875 in Aschersleben, Prussia. Rundstedt had never considered any vocation but that of a Prussian soldier even though he was said to have shown some early talent in drawing, music and especially acting. Gerd von Rundstedt began his active military service at age sixteen on March 22, 1892. The date was very significant because they gave him a permanent place on the ladder of advancement relative to all other career officers. After ten years of service, mostly as a battalion and regimental adjutant, Rundstedt passed the qualifying examination for the War Academy in Berlin. That year, he was promoted to senior lieutenant and married Louise von Goetz, the daughter of a retired major.

An officer in the army from 1893, Rundstedt rose during World War I to become chief of staff of an army corps. He remained in the army after the war and was active in Germany’s secret rearmament. He retired in 1938 as senior field commander, but returned to command an army group in the Polish campaign at the outbreak of World War II. Later, on the Western Front, he took part in the plan that defeated France in 1940. However, Rundstedt was partly to blame for the order to halt the German armor. This order allowed the British to escape from Dunkirk. Gerd von Rundstedt commanded the German southern wing during the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. When the Germans were forced to retreat, Rundstedt was dismissed. Returning to duty in July 1942, Rundstedt was named commander in chief in Western Europe and fortified France against an expected Allied invasion.

In September he launched the Battle of the Bulge, which further delayed Allied Victory. In the face of imminent defeat, Rundstedt retired in March 1945. Captured by U.S. troops in May 1945, he was tried by the British for war crimes but released in May 1949 due to ill health. Gerd von Rundstedt died in Hannover, on February 24, 1953.

Theoretically, the German chain of command was a good example of order. Adolf Hitler served as the supreme commander of the Wehrmacht. Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel led the High Command (OKW), which ran the war everywhere except the Soviet Union. Navy Group West and the Third Air Fleet managed Germany’s naval and air forces in Western Europe, while a ground force of about 58 divisions came under the Oberbefehlshaber West (OB West), headed by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. .

At the start of 1944, Nazi Germany’s fundamental problem was that she had conquered more land than she could defend. Hitler insisted on defending every inch of his newly conquered soil. To carry out these orders, the Wehrmacht relied in improvisations, such as the conscription of foreign troops, school-age German youths and old men. The Wehrmacht also changed its doctrinal strategy from a highly mobile Blitzkrieg equipped with light, fast tanks and hard-marching infantry, to an all-but-immobile one, featuring heavy, slow tanks and dug-in infantry.

The Nazi and Soviet powers had been partners between August 1939 and June 1941. In order to return to that situation, Hitler had to convince Stalin that the Wehrmacht was still a threat to the Red Army. In order to do this, Hitler had to strip his Western Front and hence, push back the forthcoming invasion to the sea. For this reason, Hitler declared “I can no longer justify the further weakening of the West in favor of other threaters of war. I have therefore decided to strengthen the defenses in the West…”

But Hitler’s problems were not his priorities, it was his shortages. There was a shortage of ships, planes, men, guns and tanks. Germany was far more over-extended than she had been in World War I. Hitler’s spiritual mentor, Frederick the Great, had warned Hitler, “he who defends everything, defends nothing.” “It was the human and material wastage of the war on the Eastern Front that forced Hitler to ignore Frederick’s warning and adopt a policy on the Western Front of fixed fortifications.”

In March 1942, Hitler laid the down the basic principle in Directive No. 40. Adolf Hitler ordered that the Atlantic coast defenses should be so organized, and the troops so deployed, that any invasion attempt be crushed before the landing or shortly thereafter.

In August of 1942, he ordered that fortress construction in France proceed with Fanatismus (fanatic energy). Hitler ordered a “continuous belt of interlocking emanating from bombproof concrete structures.” An American historian, Gordon Harrison commented “Hitler was not then, and never would be, convinced that defense could not be made invulnerable if enough concrete and resolution could be poured into it.”

In September, a three-hour conference was held with Goering, Reich Minister Albert Speer, Rundstedt, Gen. Guenther Blumenstedt (chief of staff), and others in order for Hitler to reiterate his orders. He wanted to prepare the strongest possible fortifications along the Atlantic Wall. “They must be built, he said, on the assumption that the Anglo-Americans would enjoy air and naval supremacy. Only concrete could stand up to the crushing weight of bombs and shells.” Hitler wanted 15,000 concrete strong points to be occupied by 300,000 men. Since no portion of the wall was safe, the whole would have to walled up. Hitler wanted the fortifications to be complete by May 1, 1943.

The end of 1943 accomplished almost none of it, but the policy had been set and the commitment made. Rundstedt disagreed strongly with Hitler’s idea of fixed fortifications. He argued that the Germans should hold their armored units far from the coast –out of range from Allied naval gunfire, and capable of mounting a genuine counteroffensive. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt said of the Atlantic Wall:

“The strength of the defenses was absurdly overrated. The “Atlantic Wall” was an illusion, conjured up by propaganda –to deceive the German people as well as the Allies. It used to make me angry to read the stories about its impregnable defenses. It was nonsense to describe it as a “wall.” Hitler himself never came to visit it, and see what it really was. For that matter, the only time he came to the Channel coast in the whole war was back in 1940, when he paid a visit on one occupation to Cap Griz Nez.

Still, shortages of men, armor and fuel made that questionable. Hitler planned to anticipate the landing, keep what armor was available for the West near there, and use it for counterattacks while the Atlantic Wall held off the invaders. Tanks were to seal off any penetration; tanks could drive the lightly armed first wave of invaders back into the sea, if the fortifications were indeed strong enough to hold back Allies and restrain them from establishing momentum. “The trick was to pick the place to make the fortifications that strong.”

The most logical place for the invasion to take place was the Pas-de-Calais for two reasons: the English Channel is the narrowest between Dover and Calais and the straight line from London to the Rhine-Ruhr and on to Berlin runs London-Dover-Calais-Belgium. Hence, the area around Calais became by far, the most fortified portion of the Kanalkueste (Channel coast). (

In 1944, it became the location with the greatest concentration of German armor in the West.

“It was there that the Atlantic Wall came closer to what German Propaganda claimed it was, an impregnable fortress.”

Hitler spent much time inspecting maps showing German installations along the Atlantic Wall. He demanded reports involving the building progress, thickness of the concrete used, kind of concrete used, system used to put in steel reinforcements, etc. But after ordering the construction of the greatest fortification in history, he never bothered to inspect any part of it. After he left Paris in triumph in 1940, Adolf Hitler did not return to French soil again until mid-June 1944.

Although Gerd von Rundstedt was nominally the commander in chief in the West, he had no direct control over the anti-aircraft units and parachute troops. Solely Goering and his Luftwaffe controlled these operations. The SS divisions stationed throughout occupied France reported to Reichfuhrer Himmler. This arrangement ruined von Rundstedt’s ability to maneuver fighting units effectively under the stress of invasion battles, when mobility was paramount. This resulted in a defense so badly fragmented that effective control was impossible. Von Rundstedt complained endlessly and bitterly to Hitler about this fragmentation of authority. This was useless, because Hitler had created the dilemma. “Fear of allowing any army commander to acquire sufficient power over the movement of troops that might be used against him compelled Hitler to defeat the enemy.”

Hitler dominated every detail of the preparations for the defense of the French coast. “The Atlantic Wall was a great monument to the military bungling and stupidity of Adolf Hitler.” At a time when such supplies where desperately needed elsewhere, the construction of the fortifications required 17.3 million cubic yards of concrete and 1.2 million metric tons of steel in only two years. The iron would have been put to better use by the armament factories.

Although von Rundstedt and Rommel respected each other, the two men could not agree on how to defend the inevitable invasion. Rommel felt that the only way to fend off the Allies was to fight the invasion on the beaches, and deny the Allies a foothold anywhere. Rundstedt opted for permitting the Allies to gain beachhead from which they could not escape easily. He proposed to mass the panzers behind the invasion front so they could launch a counterattack against the invaders once the Germans knew the disposition of all the enemy forces. The panzers would push the Allies back into the sea, as Rundstedt saw it. Gerd von Rundstedt sought to re-create the conditions in Dunkirk four ears prior, when the British army had faced total destruction. Because he controlled all troop movements and made all decisions, it was left to Hitler to decide between the defenses. As in his typical style, Hitler refused to fully support either plan. He gave each man a little of what he wanted.

The end result was that neither defense could function properly because the defenses were spread out too thin. “Hitler arbitrated and arranged a compromise, telling Rommel to defeat the landings on the beaches with the help of some armored forces held nearby and let von Rundstedt retain a diluted central reserve for the main punch if the enemy was not checked on the shoreline.”

Whichever man was right, Hitler made sure that neither had the sufficient number of troops and materials to effectively conduct the defense he proposed. Hitler’s inability to make a decision in favor of one defense or the other ensures the Allied victory.When the invasion began with assaults by parachute and glider forces, Rundstedt sprung immediately into action. One of his first orders was to mobilize two powerful panzer divisions that were held in reserve by Hitler though the OKW.

The two divisions were the Panzer Lehr Division, stationed southwest of Paris, and the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Division, stationed in western France. Gerd von Rundstedt ordered the divisions to move towards Caen, under the command of Rommel’s Army Group B. Rommel was not found in his headquarters at the time. Only minutes after having received a call confirming the invasion, von Rundstedt received another call. This one was from OKW, with reference to the mobilization of the two divisions advancing towards Caen.

The field marshal was harshly reprimanded for having assumed control of the panzer divisions without prior approval from Hitler. He was then informed that the two divisions had been ordered to halt their advance and to remain stationed until Hitler gave further instructions. Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s operations officer describes what happened in the next moments:

Throughout the morning and the early afternoon I, the Chief of Staff, General Blumentritt, and Rundstedt himself repeatedly telephoned the OKW, in order to find out what Hitler had decided in the matter of these two divisions. Apparently he was asleep, and no one dared wake him. It was not until his usual conference, between three and four o’clock that afternoon, that Hitler decided to allow the commitment of the divisions. They were immediately ordered to resume their advance.

But by then it was too late. During the morning, and until 1100 hours, a hazy fog had covered Normandy. This would have provided the divisions with some protection from air attack and have permitted rapid movement. Now the haze had dissipated, and the whole area through which the divisions must march was being intensively patrolled by the Allied air forces. No road movement by day was possible in view of this air umbrella, which reached from Normandy to the Paris area.

When the two panzer divisions resumed their advance, the immediately came under violent attack by Allied fighters and bombers, suffering both heavy casualties in mean and tanks before they were to reach the actual battle ground. The minister of armaments, Albert Speer gave a description of what he found at Hitler’s headquarters on the morning of the D-Day invasion:

One June 6, I was at the Berghof about ten o’clock in the morning when one of Hitler’s military adjutants told me that the invasion had begun early that morning. “Has the Fuehrer been awakened?” I asked. He shook his head. “No, he receives the news after he has eaten breakfast.”

“The twofold disappointment over the failure to throw the Allies back into the Sea and the inability to bring about a decisive turn in military fortunes through retaliatory measures produced an extraordinary fluctuation and instability in the state of public opinion.”

Overall, the situation was regarded as grave, as certain disillusionment set in. By late August, German forces in France were defeated and they had been forced back to the West Wall. In December of 1944, the German launched their final counterattack, the Battle of the Bulge. This attack failed. The Allied landing of troops from the Italy to southern France drove the German forces deep into Germany. Under attack form all sides, their major cities having been devastated by aerial bombardment and with Hitler’s suicide on April 30, Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.