(Ambrose, 1997) The Atlantic Wall was originally imagined by Adolph Hitler. In December 1941, Hitler conceived a broad band of steel, guns and troops on a defensive line running 2,400 miles from Holland to Spain along the coast with 15,000 strong points manned by 300,000 troops.
For two years, a quarter of a million people worked on it night and day, using a million tons of steel and pouring more than 20 million cubic yards of concrete. Teller mines were attached to poles to destroy boats. In the next two and a half years, it became an obsessive project for Hitler.
German general Erwin Rommel called it “Hitler’s cloud cuckoo land.” Rommel had told his aide “The war will be won or lost on the beaches and the first 24 hours of the invasion will be crucial. It will be the longest day!”
General von Rundstedt had a different philosophy, believing that he should hold his panzers in reserve well off the beaches until he knew exactly where the landing would take place.
An elaborate deception scheme was set up to make the Germans believe that the actual invasion would cross the Strait of Dover to the Pas de Calais, which was the shortest route but the most heavily defended.
Since Normandy had no ports and the Seine and Somme Rivers lay between them and their objectives, it made no sense to the Germans, but it made perfect sense to Eisenhower and for that reason it was chosen. The flamboyant General George Patton, the man the Germans most feared, was put in charge of a phantom army.
So, instead, a 40-mile stretch of Normandy coast between the Orne River and Cotentin Peninsula was selected. The date was set for June 5, but a gale with 60 mph winds caused a postponement for that date. Thus, the invasion date was set for the next day—June 6, 1944.
During the night the French Resistance was signaled when and where the invasion was to happen by a French poem “Autumn Song” by Paul Vertaine, broadcasted on the BBC in two parts. The first part, “The sobbing violins of autumn,” indicated that the invasion date had been set. The second part, “Wound my heart with monotonous languor” meant the attack would start within 48 hours and that sabotage instructions would follow in code.
A double agent for the French Resistance tipped off the German Supreme Headquarters in Paris. Incredibly, nothing happened and the message was not relayed to the troops in Normandy!
The blame for this failure lay at the feet of the Commander in Chief West Field Marshal von Rundstedt. That aged and inflexible officer did not believe that the invasion could take place in such foul weather and that he could not believe that the Allies would be so stupid as to announce their plans on the BBC in advance. In short, he did not believe the reports of his own military intelligence and he did nothing to prepare his army for the invasion.
Because of the foul weather, many of the top German officers had left for vacation. For instance, Edwin Rommel went to visit his wife’s birthday party in Herrlingen, Germany. Many top officers were attending staff war games in Rennes on June 6. The subject of the exercise was “Enemy landing in Normandy, preceded by parachute drops.” Hitler had taken a sleeping pill and his aides were not allowed to wake him.
(MacDonald, 1986) Before the invasion, a pipeline was laid so fuel could be pumped directly from England to Normandy via Pluto (Pipeline Under the Ocean). The sections would be towed to Normandy and reassembled there. They were given the codename “Mulberries.” In just seven months, 20,000 workers completed the project.
(Ambrose, 1997) An elaborate deception scheme called Operation Fortitude was hatched to fool the Germans to expect the invasion from Dover to the Pas da Calais region where Rommel was persuaded to keep nine of his 11 armored divisions, far away from Normandy. If the Germans had known when and where the invasion was coming, they could have easily pushed it back into the sea. There was a huge fake army that was built of cardboard tanks, landing crafts and airplanes to convince Hitler that the attack would be at Pas da Calais. It was a smashing success (Miller, 2001).
Swarms of Allied parachutists and airborne troops began descending on the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula. Behind the paratroopers came the gliders made of matchwood. They had no motors and made no noise to alert the enemy. Now and then one would be caught by A-A fire and turn into an orange plunging ball of flame. One target was the bridge over the rivers, later called the Pegasus Bridge, which was quickly taken and had to be held until relieved to prevent German counterattacks on Normandy.
(Miller, 2001) At 5 a.m., a purple flair was shot into the air about 300 yards high, then the battleships in the Armada turned and raised their cannons. This was the signal for them to all fire onto the shore batteries and the shells went directly over the heads of the soldiers headed into the beach. The result was a red wall of flame about a hundred miles long and the noise was unlike what anyone had ever heard before. The men thought that nobody could survive but the Germans had built them with concrete and steel and many still survive even today
(Miller, 2001) The Germans were caught completely by surprise. When the first light of morning came at Omaha Beach, Major Werner Pluskat looked out with his binoculars and could see for the first time this vast armada “It was gigantic and was the sight of my life! I called High Command and told them there were 10,000 warships but they said I was imagining things!” See the movie The Longest Day for this very dramatic scene.
Next, when they were about 10 miles from the coast, the small Higgin boats were lowered beside the transports like the USS Samuel Chase. Men were seasick even though they had been given Dramamine, which was the first use of this drug to combat sea sickness, according to Walter Cronkite. Many of the men had the “invasion shakes.”
Ernest Hemmingway was on the ship going into Omaha Beach as a reporter. The floor was full of vomit; Omaha Beach was a bloodbath as this strip was covered by crisscrossing machine guns and long-range big 88s guns hidden back three miles from the beach. Because of the machine gunfire bouncing off the unloading gate, they had to jump over the sides. To protect the muzzles on their rifles they covered them with condoms.
When General Theodore Roosevelt, the only general and oldest man (57) to go ashore on D-Day, found his target in Utah was overshot 2000 yards, he found it lightly defended and said that we will start the war here, follow me!
It was the destroyers, without orders, who helped save the day when they moved very close to the shore and shelled the (Morison, 1965) bunkers with their big cannons. The battle lasted until July 24, 1944. Rommel thought the situation hopeless and was trying to negotiate with Eisenhower a separate peace when Hitler had him arrested and killed.
(Botting, 1978) What happened early on June 6, 1944, made Omaha one of the immortal names in military history, as valiant and as terrible as Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Iwo Jima.