The Atlantic Wall: Why Did Hitler’s “Greatest Fortification” Fail?

1944 and on the eastern front, Hitler’s forces were being pushed back towards the German border. But Germany was about to face a new threat.
In the west, Allied forces have been preparing for months to open a new front in northwest France. Training for it was well underway. But it was an attack Hitler had long been expecting. His problem was knowing when, and above all, where it would come. The stage was set for one of the greatest battles of World War II, D-Day.
The Allied landings along the Normandy coast of France. Since the early years of the war, Britain’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had always been certain that at some point an Allied invasion of Northern Europe would be necessary. The only questions were when, where, and how to test the waters. British forces had already mounted a number of practice operations.
In December 1941, British commandos raided the Vago Islands off the coast of Nazi occupied Norway. It was an attempt to probe German defenses and tie down Hitler’s troops in the north. The fish oil factory and coastal defenses were blown up before the commandos withdrew. Eight months later, Canadian and British troops were sent in to mount a more ambitious raid on the French port of Die.
It too was designed to test the defenses and also to provide combat experience for the Canadians. But this time it was a catastrophe. As landing craft approached the main beach, they were met by withering fire. Those troops that made it ashore were immediately pinned down. Behind them, the supporting tanks became bogged down in a shingle.
Few managed to scale the seaw wall. Over 3,000 Allied soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. Britain had learned an important lesson. Never attempt a direct assault on a German occupied port. Equally importantly, the DEP disaster reinforced the British view that an invasion of Europe could not be rushed.
Churchill understood it would require careful planning. Eventually, in April 1943, at an Allied conference in Washington, Churchill and the US President Franklin Roosevelt agreed upon a date. D-Day, or Operation Overlord, as a seaborn invasion of France was formerly called, would take place in the summer of 1944.
But by now the Germans were preparing for it in earnest. Since the winter of 1941 they had been building an Atlantic wall. It was a massive series of fortifications running along the European coast from Denmark to the Spanish border. Gun imp placements had been constructed at likely landing sites. Beaches had been mined and covered in barbed wire.
Obstacles have been placed in strategic places to block landing craft. Hitler had boasted, “I am the greatest builder of fortifications of all time. In the summer of 1942, in the wake of the DEP attack, work on the Atlantic wall had been stemmed up. Hitler had also ordered an increase in troop numbers in the region.
The German overall commander in the west, Field Marshal Gonstead, had been given 15 further divisions, but the western European coast stretched for some 2,000 m. He didn’t have the numbers to man the entire length. Fon Runstead faced a difficult decision.
Where should he position his overstretched forces to maximize their effect? The question led to bitter arguments inside the German leadership. Fonr run proposed holding a large force of panzas in reserve northwest of Paris. He could then send it in against an invasion once he knew where it was happening. But the hugely respected field marshal Irvin Raml, commander of the troops covering the sector from Holland along the French coast to the L, had a different view.
RML’s concern was Allied air power. He’d seen it firsthand when he fought the British in North Africa, and it had left a profound impression. He feared that any counterattack would be broken up by Allied aircraft long before it could go into action. Raml had also inspected Hitler’s Atlantic wall and found much of it wanting.
It had forced him to the conclusion that the best place to position the panzas was as close as possible to the most likely landing sites. That way, an invasion could be immediately pushed back before it got a foothold. Hitler compromised. Runet was given a small force he could hold in reserve, though Hitler himself would have the final say as to when it could be used.
The rest of the additional troops were scattered along the entire Atlantic seabboard in accordance with Raml’s wishes. It would turn out to be the worst of all the solutions. There were neither enough reserves nor enough tanks near the coast. But in the autumn of 1943, none of this was clear. In Britain, the Allied planners were also grappling with the problem of location.
where was the best place to land? Their chief planner, General Frederick Morgan, quickly realized there were two principal options, the Padakala and Normandy. The Padakala was clearly the favorite. It offered the shortest sea crossing and it offered the shortest and most direct way to Germany. But it was also the most obvious route and Morgan was sure the Germans were expecting it.
So he decided to wrong foot them. Morgan would land in Normandy. It was the beginning of a huge gamble on which the fate of hundreds of thousands of soldiers would depend. In the autumn of 1943, Allied photoreonnaissance aircraft swept over the beaches of northern France. It was part of a huge planning operation for the seaborn invasion of Europe.
The fortifications of the Atlantic Wall were monitored by the French resistance. Men crept ashore to collect sand samples to test whether armored vehicles could be landed. Northern France became the most reconoited coastline in the history of warfare. It soon became clear any landing would need some kind of port facilities.
But the disaster at DEP had shown that it was too dangerous to attempt a direct assault on a German occupied port. Britain’s planners were forced to come up with an ingenious alternative. Giant hollow concrete boxes were constructed in Britain that could later be towed to the French coast. There they would be sunk to form an artificial harbor.
They were known by their code name Malberies. The Malberries would be supplied with fuel by a pipeline unwound from giant reels and dropped on the seabed. It would run for a 100 miles. The pumping station on the aisle of white was disguised as an ice cream parlor. But the raid on deer had also revealed a second problem. How to get the first wave of troops off the beaches and through the German fortifications.
The man told to solve that question was General Percy Hobart, one of the pioneers of armored warfare. Hobart came up with a series of ingenious devices. The troops called them the funnies. They included such extraordinary machines as flamethrowers and floating tanks. Flail tacks for clearing mines.
The bobin for laying firm paths across sand or shingle. An armored ramp for climbing sea walls. the fasine carrier for tackling ditches and the bridging tank for wider obstacles. That left just one problem. How to stop the Germans rushing in overwhelming reinforcements before the Allies had established a foothold? The answer was to keep them guessing until the very last moment as to where the invasion would take place.
Operation Bodyguard was a massive and complex deception campaign. German double agents in Britain now began sending back to Germany huge amounts of carefully coordinated false information. This emphasized that the main landings would be in the paracal, although a faint attack might be launched in Normandy. To muddy the waters still further, the Allied military created a fictitious army unit, the so-called first US army group or fusac.
It was stationed very obviously in K bang opposite the padakal. The man in charge of it was the pistol toting US general George Patton who’d been removed from action in Sicily after slapping shell shocked soldiers. Patton was rated by the Germans as the allies best attacking general. Just the man they expected to command the invasion of Western Europe. Basher 52. This is Basher 11 on Alpha.
Radio transmissions mimic the wireless traffic of an army. For the benefit of any Luftvafa reconnaissance aircraft flying over Britain, the fields of Kent were filled with inflatable tanks and carefully faked tracks. There were dummy aircraft made of wood and canvas. Harbors along the Kent coast were filled with dummy landing craft.
There were even troops, though these were in reality backup units. In late 1943, the Allies appointed US General Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander for the invasion of Europe. British General Bernard Montgomery would be in overall command of the initial assault troops. D-Day was fixed for June the 5th, 1944.
Two months before the landing, Eisenhower launched an elaborate air offensive to disrupt German links to the coast. Once again, it was carefully planned to give the impression the Allies target was the Padakal region. As the date of the invasion approached, Allied troop numbers in England reached over 2 million.
They were supported by more than 3,000 tanks and 12,000 aircraft. The Germans were well aware an invasion was imminent, but they had been completely taken in by the Allies phony preparations in Kent and were convinced the most likely landing spot was the Padakal. Everything seemed to be going the Allies way.
The troops were briefed. Then the weather turned against them. Rain lashed down, visibility was poor, and the channel was stormy. Nevertheless, on June the 4th, 1944, the assault troops boarded their landing ships and the armada of more than 5,000 vessels set sail. But the rain continued to lash down, and later that day, the invasion had to be postponed.
The ships returned to port and the assault troops faced a nerve shredding wait. Early the next morning, the military leadership met again. The naval commanders were keen to go ahead, but the air chiefs were doubtful. They worried the visibility would still be too poor to provide effective air support.
After a long silence, Eisenhower looked up. Let’s go, he said. Operation Overlord, the greatest seaborn invasion ever, was underway. D-Day had begun. At 1:15 in the morning of June the 6th, 1944, British aircraft towing gliders arrived over the coast of northern France. Then the gliders were released and plunged down to capture vital bridges over the Kong Canal in eastern Normandy.
The Allies had launched their great gamble to invade Hitler’s empire in Western Europe. 50 mi to the west, US paratroops came down around the village of Smera Glee. There was a fierce firefight. But 3 hours later, the village was in US hands. One of the most crucial battles of World War II was underway.
An hour later, horrified German centuries along the Normandy coast saw a vast armada appear out of the mist. They had had no warning. The Allied fleet had sailed under cover of darkness. Moreover, Allied countermeasures had confused the German radar into believing the main weight of the attack was approaching the French coast further east at the Pakala.
Allied warships off the Normandy coast now began pounding the German defensive positions. Wave after wave of aircraft swept overhead. Under cover of the bombardment, assault troops headed for the shore. But as they closed in, German artillery and machine guns opened fire. A number of the landing craft were hit.
Others fell foul of underwater obstructions. But at 6:30 in the morning, the first waves of troops hit the beaches. At the far western end, the US Fourth Infantry Division came ashore near at what they called Utah Beach. Within 2 hours, it was linking up with the US paratroopers who’d landed at San Merles.
Next door at Omaha Beach, it was more difficult. The beach was a defender’s dream with high cliffs and few ways in land. As the US first infantry division waited ashore, they were moaned down by German machine guns. To make matters worse, the Americans amphibious tanks were swapped. The troops were trapped on the beach.
Disaster was looming, but finally a few of the soldiers managed to scale the cliffs. Against all the odds, the Americans hung on to the beach head. Further east, in the center of the landing area, Britain’s 50th Infantry Division came ashore at Gold Beach. They too met savage fire. But now the British deployed their funnies.
The troops were soon moving in land. At the adjoining landing spot, Juno Beach, the Canadian Third Infantry Division faced a similar situation. Here, too, Britain’s funnies were vital in helping the troops off the beach. Finally, on the far left flank at Sword Beach, the British Third Infantry Division met only patchy resistance.
Within hours, its commandos had linked up with the Gliderborn troops at the Corn Canal. By early afternoon, the Allies had successfully established all of the beach heads. The timing of the invasion had caught the Germans completely by surprise. They’d expected the Allies to wait until the weather had cleared.
Raml, the operational German commander for the whole of the northwest French coast, had taken the opportunity of bad weather to visit his family in Germany. His immediate subordinate in Normandy and Britany, General Friedrich Dolman, was over a 100 miles away, taking part in a war game exercise. Only the overall German commander for the whole of Western Europe, Field Marshall Gonet, was at his HQ.
But he needed Hitler’s permission to move his Panza reserves to the battlefield. However, Hitler was asleep and his aids wouldn’t wake him. It wasn’t until midday that the Furer finally learned about the invasion, but he didn’t take it seriously. He was still convinced the main attack would come in the Pakal. Normandy, he believed, was just a fate.
Finally, in the late afternoon, when the scale of the invasion was becoming all too clear, Hitler unleashed his reserves. But they were too far away to provide immediate support. Despite stubborn German resistance, the beach heads around Utah, Gold and Juno and Sword were secure. Only at Omaha was a situation more precarious.
Here, German resistance had prevented the US troops moving more than a mile in land. By nightfall on June the 6th, over a 100,000 Allied troops had been landed in Normandy. It had been an extraordinary feat of planning, ingenuity, and courage. The first day of the Allies great gamble had paid off.
But it was just the beginning. Now they had to build up, break out, and push on into Europe. As the second day dawned on the greatest seaborn invasion ever attempted, thousands of Allied troops had broken out of their beach heads and were moving inland. But they found the Normandy countryside hardgoing.
The patchwork of woodland and small fields provided ideal terrain for German tanks and machine guns. The allies suffered heavy casualties. Allied air power provided crucial support. When von runted’s panza reinforcements arrived, they’d been so depleted by the air attacks that they were unable to mount a major counterattack.
The German reinforcements were also hampered by French resistance fighters operating behind German lines. They ambushed troop convoys and blew up bridges. As a result, the Dasai SS Panza division took over 2 weeks to make a journey which should have lasted a mere 3 days. Its troops took out their fury on the French civilian population.
The village of Ordor Suglan and its 642 inhabitants were wiped out. After 4 days of fighting, all the Allied beach heads were finally able to link up. But they’d still only managed to penetrate 10 miles in land. Eventually, 6 days after the landing, the British commander, General Montgomery, launched a major assault on the strategically important town of Kong.
The British 7th Armored Division, the Desert Rats, advanced, but its spearhead ran into four German Tiger tanks. The Allied Sherman tanks were completely outclassed. Their guns were outranged and their shells unable to penetrate the German armor. They were particularly vulnerable because many ran on petrol fuel and were liable to burst into flames when hit.
The Germans nicknamed the Sherman the Ronson after the cigarette lighter or more macabbery the Tommy cooker. In less than 5 minutes, more than 10 British tanks were destroyed. The attack on Kong stalked. Outmatched by the German tanks, the Allies relied on air power and artillery. But it wasn’t enough.
The desert rats retreated. Kong remained in German hands. Meanwhile, further west, US forces advanced on the equally important port of Sherborg. It would take them nearly 10 days to get close to her. They weren’t helped by the weather. During the first week of the invasion, it had been relatively calm and supplies and reinforcements had poured in through the Malbury artificial harbors.
But now the weather turned. Gales swept the English Channel. The US Malbury harbor at Omaha was destroyed. The other Malbury in the British sector was badly damaged and put out of action for several days. [Applause] The flow of reinforcement slowed. It meant the port of Sherborg was an even more vital objective.
As the US forces now approached it, the German garrison resisted. There was fierce house-to-house fighting. It would take the Allies a week to secure the city. But the port had been trashed by the fleeing Germans. It would take a further month before it could be brought back into service. Meanwhile, Montgomery launched another assault on Kong.
But the storms had turned the fields into a sea of mud. Low cloud meant air support was impossible. To make matters worse, the newly arrived elite German second SS Panza was thrown into the defense of the city. After 4 days, the British were again forced to hover. Then, as the clouds cleared, nearly 500 Allied bombers devastated Kong.
British troops fought their way into the north suburbs, but the ruins made ideal defensive positions for the Germans. Allied casualties mounted. After 48 hours, the attack was yet again called off. 3 weeks later, Montgomery tried for a fourth time. The plan was to capture the remaining German strongholds and then push on south deeper into France.
After two more days of fighting, the city was finally one. The way now seemed open for the British tanks to move south, deeper into France. But the Germans were waiting with a large force of panzas. The British advance stopped again. The Americans in the west, however, were having an easier time.
The fighting around Kong had sucked in the majority of the German defenders. As the American forces prepared to thrust further into France, they faced only scattered opposition. The scene was set for the Allied forces to break out at last. At 9:30 in the morning of July the 25th, 1944, over 1,800 Allied aircraft carpet bombed a 4-mile stretch of the German front line south of Sherborg.
It was the beginning of Operation Cobra, the US breakout into France. The German defenders were stunned by the size of the assault, but so too were some of the US soldiers. The plan had been for the bombers to fly in from the east parallel to the US front line to minimize the risk of bombing American troops. But most of the aircraft came in over the top of the US lines. Bombs fell short.
Over a 100 US troops were hit and killed. Yet despite the ferocity of the bombardment, when the US forces later picked themselves up and moved forward, they found to their astonishment substantial numbers of German troops had survived. The survivors mounted a stubborn resistance. As fighting raged, it looked as though the Americans would fail to break through the German lines.
But then the German defenses crumbled. The next morning, US tanks broke through and moved forward into open country. There was now almost no German resistance left, and the Americans quickly pushed deeper into France. The hilltown of Coutans fell. then the crossroads town of Avanch. As the allies pressed forward, they were helped by change and confusion in the German high command.
At the beginning of July, 3 weeks after the D-Day landings, Hitler dismissed the German commanderin-chief, Field Marshal Get Fon Runet, for defeatism. Fonr run had made little attempt to hide his belief that Germany faced an unwinable struggle. He was replaced by Field Marshal Gaonuga, fresh from the Eastern Front, but with little knowledge of northwestern France.
Two weeks later, Raml, the second most senior German officer on the front, was severely injured when his staff car was strafed by a British fighter. Then, with the Nazi command already in confusion, there was an assassination attempt on Hitler’s life. On July the 20th, 1944, a disillusioned aristocratic war hero, Colonel Klaus Shank Graph Fonenberg, planted a bomb in the planning hut at Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia.
Four officers were killed, but Hitler was sheltered by a heavy solid oak conference table and escaped with only minor injuries. The plot was swiftly and brutally put down. Fon Stafenberg was shot and his principal collaborators put on trial. They would later be hanged. Hitler put a brave face on it and visited some of the wounded in hospital.
But it hardened still further his distrust of his senior officers. He would, despite his many earlier misjudgments, demand even greater control over events on the battlefield. Back in France, General George Patton, back in charge of a real fighting force, ordered his troops to fan out. They took Ren Mayen and headed for Lemon.
They were now moving round behind the German forces, still battling it out with the British and Canadians near Kong. With the Americans to their south and the British to their north, it seemed the German forces in Normandy would be surrounded. Hitler issued his usual order that there should be no retreat.
But as the Allies squeezed in on them, the Germans began to flee. They were remorselessly harried by Allied aircraft and artillery. The casualties were appalling. Finally, on August the 20th, 1944, the Allied forces moving in from both the north and south met up. The so-called Phalet’s gap, named after the nearby French village, had been closed.
Large numbers of Germans were trapped. Over 10,000 more Germans caught in the Allied Pinsir died. A further 50,000 were taken prisoner. The German army in Western Europe was in chaos. Meanwhile, far to the south on the French Mediterranean coast near K, there was a second Allied seaborn invasion. US troops came ashore virtually unopposed.
They were helped by paratroopers from the free French army, men who had escaped from German occupied French territory in Europe and North Africa. The landing had always been opposed by the British who regarded it as a diversion. But the United States had long regarded it as an essential part of clearing the Germans out of France. The troops were greeted by an ecstatic civilian population.
It was soon advancing rapidly up the Ran Valley. Leon was liberated on September the 3rd, 1944. [Applause] 10 days later they reached Djon and made contact with Patton’s forces advancing from western France. German units stationed across the region fled. In barely 3 weeks of headlong advance, the Allied invasion of Europe had liberated most of France.
That left Paris, where French resistance fighters now rose up against the German occupation. There seemed little to prevent the Allied onrush from continuing to the German border.