to General Rommel. He took control of disarming the weak Italians for a while but eventually, command of that theater was transferred. Herr Rommel was recalled yet again to be sent to another battleground. That battleground was France.
After our stunning rout of the British at Dunkirk, where virtually all of the remaining British troops were evacuated from France, the French army surrendered. With their surrender and the evacuation of the British, France was in our hands and it came to serve as an outpost for our German troops. There was now no real need to keep German troops tied down in France and as our glorious Russian campaign needed more and more troops, der Führer took them from France in order to send them to the Eastern Front to help in the defeat of Russia. With the weakening of troop protection of France, der Führer came up with another plan of genius proportions and he ordered an “Atlantik Wall” to be erected to protect “Festung Europa” from enemy invaders from the sea. We already had the impregnable West Wall protecting our western borders. A similar defensive string would allow even more troops to be taken from France and moved to Russia. The engineers and laborers of Organisation Todt therefore began constructing this “Wall” but because it really wasn’t a solid wall per se, only sporadic blocks of defensive emplacements, there were still gaps which could be exploited by the enemy. It actually was more like an empty space with a defensive stronghold every so often than a real wall. So as time went by, more and more defensive structures such as concrete bunkers, gun emplacements and artillery batteries were added by the engineers of Organisation Todt, which fortified the Wall all along the French coastline. This great “Atlantik Wall” would protect and allow us to defend our holdings from Norway, across the French coast all the way to the French-Spanish border some 6,000 kilometers away, minimizing the need for the whole coast to be manned with troops. Hitler is a genius!
Really, though, it was only after the Americans entered the War that Herr Hitler gave any real thought to the need for more ambitiously fortifying the defense to Festung Europa since before that, there was virtually no need. We occupied France and even if the British tried to come over here again, the Wall was plenty strong to repel them. Who else did we have to worry about? But after Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and our declaration of War on the United States, Der Führer was brilliant in his assessment that sooner or later, the Americans would come to fight. It became clear to der Führer that the big, but stupid, Americans would undoubtedly join up with the British and try at some time to invade Europe. So after we declared war on the Americans, it was clear to everyone that European coastlines, especially in France, had to be fortified. Now that der Führer divined that a cross Channel invasion would be coming sometime in the future, he needed a commander to put more teeth into the Atlantik Wall to ensure it would protect the territories in Europe that were now ours. I heard that he even stopped taking troops from France to send to Russia. In fact, what I heard now, was that he actually took Ost Front troops and moved them into France. Hitler is a genius!
It was in November of 1943, I remember, when Field Marshal Rommel received his new orders and with those orders, he was given a new title. He was now Commander of Army Group B and was responsible for the area in northern France from the Orne River to Antwerp in Belgium, more than 500 kilometers away. Field Marshal Rommel was sent to France with the general directive ordering him to inspect the defensive “Atlantik Wall,” report his findings directly to der Führer and command Army Group B. Was this a slap in old Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s face? After all, General Gerd von Rundstedt had been called out of retirement in March 1942 to command our German
After our stunning rout of the British at Dunkirk, where virtually all of the remaining British troops were evacuated from France, the French army surrendered. With their surrender and the evacuation of the British, France was in our hands and it came to serve as an outpost for our German troops. There was now no real need to keep German troops tied down in France and as our glorious Russian campaign needed more and more troops, der Führer took them from France in order to send them to the Eastern Front to help in the defeat of Russia. With the weakening of troop protection of France, der Führer came up with another plan of genius proportions and he ordered an “Atlantik Wall” to be erected to protect “Festung Europa” from enemy invaders from the sea. We already had the impregnable West Wall protecting our western borders. A similar defensive string would allow even more troops to be taken from France and moved to Russia. The engineers and laborers of Organisation Todt therefore began constructing this “Wall” but because it really wasn’t a solid wall per se, only sporadic blocks of defensive emplacements, there were still gaps which could be exploited by the enemy. It actually was more like an empty space with a defensive stronghold every so often than a real wall. So as time went by, more and more defensive structures such as concrete bunkers, gun emplacements and artillery batteries were added by the engineers of Organisation Todt, which fortified the Wall all along the French coastline. This great “Atlantik Wall” would protect and allow us to defend our holdings from Norway, across the French coast all the way to the French-Spanish border some 6,000 kilometers away, minimizing the need for the whole coast to be manned with troops. Hitler is a genius!
Really, though, it was only after the Americans entered the War that Herr Hitler gave any real thought to the need for more ambitiously fortifying the defense to Festung Europa since before that, there was virtually no need. We occupied France and even if the British tried to come over here again, the Wall was plenty strong to repel them. Who else did we have to worry about? But after Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and our declaration of War on the United States, Der Führer was brilliant in his assessment that sooner or later, the Americans would come to fight. It became clear to der Führer that the big, but stupid, Americans would undoubtedly join up with the British and try at some time to invade Europe. So after we declared war on the Americans, it was clear to everyone that European coastlines, especially in France, had to be fortified. Now that der Führer divined that a cross Channel invasion would be coming sometime in the future, he needed a commander to put more teeth into the Atlantik Wall to ensure it would protect the territories in Europe that were now ours. I heard that he even stopped taking troops from France to send to Russia. In fact, what I heard now, was that he actually took Ost Front troops and moved them into France. Hitler is a genius!
It was in November of 1943, I remember, when Field Marshal Rommel received his new orders and with those orders, he was given a new title. He was now Commander of Army Group B and was responsible for the area in northern France from the Orne River to Antwerp in Belgium, more than 500 kilometers away. Field Marshal Rommel was sent to France with the general directive ordering him to inspect the defensive “Atlantik Wall,” report his findings directly to der Führer and command Army Group B. Was this a slap in old Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s face? After all, General Gerd von Rundstedt had been called out of retirement in March 1942 to command our German
Similar Books
