Creation s in the 1940s visiting the Atlantic Wall defences near the Belgian port of
Ostend, part of the fortifications which today comprise the
Atlantic Wall Open Air Museum at
Raversijde Prior to the Atlantic Wall decision, following a number of
commando raids, on 2 June 1941 that
Adolf Hitler asked for maps of the
Channel Islands. These were provided the next day and by 13 June 1941 Hitler had made a decision. Ordering additional men to the islands and having decided the defences were inadequate, lacking tanks and
coastal artillery, the
Organisation Todt (OT) was instructed to undertake the building of 200–250 strong points in each of the larger islands. The plan was finalised by the OT and submitted to Hitler. The original defence order was reinforced with a second dated 20 October 1941, following a Fuhrer conference on 18 October to discuss the engineers' assessment of requirements. The
permanent fortification of the Channel Islands was to make them into an impregnable fortress to be completed within 14 months.
Festungspionierkommandeur XIV was created to command the project of fortifying the Channel Islands. It was six months later on 23 March 1942 that Hitler issued
Führer Directive No. 40, which called for the creation of an "Atlantic Wall". He ordered naval and submarine bases to be heavily defended.
Fortifications remained concentrated around ports until late in 1943, when defences were increased in other areas. This decision required the army engineers and the OT to organise quickly. Massive supplies of cement, steel reinforcing and armour plate would be required and everything would need to be transported.
Nazi propaganda claimed that the wall stretched from the cape of
Norway down to the
Spanish border.
Regelbau The
Regelbau (standard build) system used books of plans for each of over 600 approved types of bunker and
casemate, each having a specific purpose, having been updated as enemy constructions were overrun and examined, even testing some to destruction for effectiveness. They incorporated standard features, such as an entrance door at right angles, armoured air intake, steel doors, ventilation and telephones, internal walls lined with wood, and an emergency exit system. There were over 200 standardised armour parts. The standardisation greatly simplified the manufacture of equipment, the supply of materials and the budgetary and financial control of the construction as well as the speed of planning for construction projects. Labour comprised skilled volunteers, engineers, designers and supervisors, who were paid and treated well. Second came volunteer workers, often skilled technicians, such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and metal workers. Again, these workers were paid, took holidays and were well treated. Next came unskilled forced labour, paid very little and treated quite harshly. Lastly came effective slave labour, paid little, badly fed and treated very harshly. The OT ran training courses to improve labour skills. Massive numbers of workers were needed. The
Vichy regime imposed a compulsory labour system, drafting some 600,000 French workers to construct these permanent fortifications along the Dutch, Belgian, and French coasts facing the
English Channel. Efficiency of the OT decreased in late 1943 and 1944 as a result of manpower pressures, fuel shortages and the bombing of worksites, such as
V-weapons sites, where some volunteer workers refused to work in such dangerous areas. OT Cherbourg in January 1944 dealt with 34 companies with 15,000 workers and 79 sub contractors. Daily, weekly and monthly reports showing progress, work variations, material used, stocks of material, labour hours used per skill type, the weather, equipment inventory and quality, level of supervision, employee absences, staffing levels, deaths and problems experienced all had to be filed with the OT.
British attacks Throughout most of 1942–43, the Atlantic Wall remained a relaxed front for the
Axis troops manning it, with only two large-scale British attacks.
Operation Chariot, launched near
St Nazaire in March 1942, successfully destroyed German pumping machinery for, and severely damaged, the Normandy dry dock and installations. The second attack was the
Dieppe Raid, launched near the French port of
Dieppe in August 1942 to test the German defences and provide combat experience for
Canadian troops. The Germans were defeated at St. Nazaire, but had little difficulty in repulsing the attack at Dieppe, where they inflicted heavy casualties. Although the Dieppe raid was a disaster for the Allies, it alarmed Hitler, who was sure an Allied invasion in the West would shortly follow. Following Dieppe, Hitler gave Field Marshal
Gerd von Rundstedt, the overall German
Commander-in-Chief in the West, 15 further divisions to shore up the German positions.
Reorganisation Early in 1944, with an Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe becoming ever more likely,
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was assigned to improve the wall's defences. Believing the existing coastal fortifications to be entirely inadequate, he immediately began strengthening them. Rommel's main concern was Allied air power. He had seen it first-hand when fighting the British and Americans in
North Africa, and it had left a profound impression on him. He feared that any German counterattack would be broken up by Allied aircraft long before it could make a difference. Under his direction, hundreds of
reinforced concrete pillboxes were built on the beaches, or sometimes slightly inland, to house machine guns,
antitank guns, and light and heavy artillery.
Land mines and antitank obstacles were planted on the beaches, and underwater obstacles and
naval mines were placed in waters just offshore. Little known was that touch sensitive mines were placed atop the beach obstacles. The intent was to destroy the Allied
landing craft before they could unload on the beaches.
D-Day of the
Longues-sur-Mer battery in Normandy, destroyed by naval gunfire during the
Allied landings By the time of the
Allied invasion, the Germans had laid almost six million mines in Northern France. More gun emplacements and minefields extended inland along roads leading away from the beaches. In likely landing spots for
gliders and
parachutists, the Germans emplanted slanted poles with sharpened tops, which the troops called
Rommelspargel ("Rommel's Asparagus"). Low-lying river and
estuarine areas were intentionally flooded. Rommel believed that Germany would inevitably be defeated unless the invasion could be stopped on the beach, declaring, "It is absolutely necessary that we push the British and Americans back from the beaches. Afterwards it will be too late; the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive." ==Channel Islands==