The wall was initially set to protect German U-Boats and other naval fleets, however, once the boats became countered by Allied forces, the Germans re-centered their defenses towards the French side of the wall. In 1944, esteemed Nazi General Erwin Rommel was put to lead the defenses for Germany. He believed that the French beaches, which included Normandy, would be the invading point by the Allies. In order to prevent this, Rommel created a system of defenses that took defense to another standard. Instead of constructing a wall, Rommel instead chose to create bunkers inside the mountains, reinforced by steel to withhold from enemy fire. In the bunkers, machine guns and other forms of artillery were set in place to be able to attack enemies attempting to attack by storming the beaches.
The large machine guns were arranged with overlapping ranges of fire, which in the case of one malfunctioning or being attacked, the other could cover. However, before the troops could even make it to the shore, mines were placed under the waves to go undetected and prevent boats and boots to enter the beach soil. As well as this, the beaches were set up with barb wire and wooden stakes. With all these defenses created and aligned across the coast of France, the Nazi’s waited for the Allies to attack one of the beaches.
Significant attempts of deception by the allies worked against the Nazi’s, making them believe that they were going to attack beaches around Normandy. On the day when the Allies attacked, better known as D-Day, due to the weather, Rommel left his post to go celebrate his wife’s birthday. Due to his absence and confusion, he gave the allies the steps needed to successfully take Normandy and break through the Atlantic Wall.
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I found your article really interesting, I wonder if events could have turned out differently if Rommel was there on the day of the invasion. The preservation of the Atlantic wall bunkers and artillery has been a controversial topic in France, but recently private associations began restoring these bunkers along the shoreline. I found it interesting that they uncovered war-time graffiti made by German soldiers when they were stationed there! Due to erosion, many bunkers and blockhouses have been swallowed up by the sands, and cannot be saved. The French government is reluctant and will probably never recognize the Atlantic wall as a national historical landmark because of the connotation of shame the Atlantic wall carries, but the people of France themselves has taken on protecting and restoring the wartime bunkers with a new perspective of collaboration and history instead of national shame.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10632543
I found your article quite intriguing, especially with how you mentioned the specific strategies and equipment implemented for defense. Throughout the Atlantic wall, millions of beachfront mines, machine gun bunkers, such as those you mentioned, and the flooding of inland marshes, as well as general fortification of the Normandy region was used to trap Allied paratroopers. Also, I found that many ploys to deceive the Germans were instituted, including the "Dummy Army". In the aftermath of the battle, Nazi Germany, despite experiencing a major loss, remained able to score many casualties of Allied forces, thanks to their strong fortification through the Atlantic Wall. The Allied forces experienced an estimated 10,000 total casualties, compared to only 4-9,000 for Germany.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/news/d-day-casualties-deaths-allies
https://www.history.com/news/d-day-hitler-germany-defenses-miscalculations