Figure 1.--Hitler appointed one of his favorite generals--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, even though Rommel had defid his orders at El Alamein. He ordered Rommel to oversee the buildup of the Atlantic Wall (November 1943). Until he arrived, little had ben done beyond building poor defenses. Here Field Marshal Rommel inspects some of the beach defenses he had put in place. Under Rommel's direction, beach obstles were constructed. They were designed on the premise that the Allies would stike at hightide. Because of the lethality of the obstacles, the Allies decided to land at low tide even though this exposed the landing force to fire from the beach defenses. Like OKW, he believed the Allied blow would come at the Pas de Calais. France had a long coast, but the only other realistic site was Normandy. Rommel wasted huge resources at other sites that were not realistic targets.

With defeats in Russia and North Africa and the increasing build up of Allied forces in Europe, Hitler realised that the next blow would come in the West. He had frittered away most of 1942 by wasting resources on the Channel Islands. He now realized that a massive building program would be needed. At the time, it seemed like th Allies could be stopped, in part because the Lugtwaffe was till in tact. Hitler appointed one of his favorite generals--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, even though Rommel had defid his orders at El Alamein. He ordered Rommel to oversee the buildup of the Atlantic Wall (November 1943). With the defeat of the Afrika Korps, Rommel was left wihout a command. Rommel was appointed inspector of coastal defenses and subsequently commander of Army Group B which guarded the French Channel coast. Only with the arrival of Rommel did the Germans begin building up the beach defenses away from the major ports. Rommel toured the entire length of the Atlantic Wall. And he was shocked with what he found. He quite rightly saw the state of preparations enterely inadequate, often vitually nonexistent. By this time it was clear that the Allied invasion would come in Spring 1944 as soon as the weather offered favorable conditions. Rommel rushed prparations forward. As Army Group commander, Rommel officially reported to the overall commander in chief West, the ageing Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. German newsreels in 1944 showed Rommel inspecting the Wall. He set upon a massive building and mine laying program. [Ambrose] He oversaw the construction of a string of strong points. He sought to harden the gaps between the major defensive positions clustered around the ports. He gave attention to the beaches away from ports. He had reinforced concrete pillboxes built along the beaches and sometimes just inland. These were not the massive gun impacements, but designed to protect infantry units. The pillboxes housed machine guns, anti-tank guns and light artillery. Mines and anti-tank obstacles were planted on the beaches themselves and underwater obstacles and mines were placed in waters just off shore. All this was designed to stop the Allies on the beach. The blood leating at Omaha showed how deadly these instaltions could be. Roomel focused on the beaches because he had experienced the effectiveness of llied air in North africa, an experience that von Rundstedt did not have. While Rommen was gardening the beaches, howevr, the 8th Airforce was destroying the Luftwaffe over Germany. Thus Rommel; beavh defenses would not only hve to contend with Allied air dominace, but with the vutual total abenc of any German air support.

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Created: 9:50 AM 6/16/2015
Last updated: 9:50 AM 6/16/2015