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GoodGuy -> RE: CC5 => Longest Day ? (4/28/2009 9:56:24 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Anthropoid
Hey, question for you guys: how did the Germans know the allies were gonna land at Normandy? Or did they not know? If anyone can recommend a good book on that issue and the planning and execution of the Normandy invasions I appreciate it.
Hitler himself had a gut feeling and came up with the idea that the Allies may attempt a landing in Normandy, as the Bretagne or even Brest region could be ruled out, but his high command generals and the Supreme commander in the West, Rundstedt, "favored" the Calais region, due to the short distance to the British coast. Hitlers reasoning was that the Allies could opt for the "unexpected" and pick the most distant coast line. He then dismissed his own idea later on and favored Calais as well, driven by increasing Allied airstrikes and faked radio messages pointing towards Calais.
Rommel wasn't sure, but he wanted to prepare for both possibilities and tried to strengthen the defensive positions on the beaches and cliffs in Normandy - he ordered to lay massive mine fields right on the beaches, some 1.5 million mines had been layed.
Due to lack of support from Rundstedt and difficulties with supplies (regarding allocation of workforce and/or material - i.e. a massive workforce had been deployed to build a coastal fortress at the Spanish border {Bayonne} and a massive battery in Calais and other locations, but Normandy defenses still needed improvements at the time of the actual landings; establishment of additional coastal gun batteries progressed slowly), Rommel - who was in charge of improving the coastal defenses - found that Normandy was a wild mix of heavily fortified areas and areas which "only" had a few tank traps (czech hedgehogs) and mostly trenches and barbed wire. He ordered to build thousands of additional obstacles and tank traps, he designed special obstacles (which were underwater obstacles - with mines attached to blow up incoming LCs) and he ordered to build more trenches and MG nests. Rommel knew all these installations still wouldn't create massive holdups, unless he was allowed to commit the tank reserves. He planned to have them either dig in at or near the beaches, or deploy them right behind the coastal defenses, to commit them where needed. Rundstedt and Hitler did not agree there, the majority of these reserves were held back in Calais area, the minority way south of Normandy, too far to get there on D-Day.
EDIT: I should add that it seems like Hitler took over a role as a kind of moderator, as he highly respected Rommels expertise, but putting Rommel in charge of the coastal defenses created an odd command structure, as, in theory, Rommel was the direct subordinate of Rundstedt (which Rommel regarded as "old school" general), although Rommel was ordered to take orders from Hitler/OKW only, - this created arguments about who would have certain responsibilities/rights between the 2 commanders. Hitler decided to arrange a compromise between these two parties, by splitting up the tank reserves, but with the majority being stationed way off the Normandy area (Calais/Caen and way south of Normandy).
Rommel found that his vague anticipation became true, when he got the news on D-Day, but he was still somewhat surprised that the Allies really dared to pick the most distant coast - it was quite risky and the Allied aerial recon/bombardments turned out to be less accurate/effective than expected.
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