defenders in France and the rest of Europe. I wonder why he wasn’t tasked with this responsibility but then I consider how much more aggressive and modern General Rommel is and I see the rationale for der Führer’s partiality. Der Führer’s faith in General Rommel was as obvious as his admiration and gratitude. With this assignment, der Führer also awarded General Rommel the diamonds to his Knight’s Cross. If my understanding is correct, only five other generals have been given this distinction and honor. It was also just about this time when General Rommel’s 14 year old son received his draft notice.
I’m glad der Führer recognized how brilliant a soldier Herr Rommel is when he promoted him to be Commander of the Atlantik Wall. With that promotion, der Führer put him in charge of defending France. Well actually, not “in charge” but he joined with a few others of our outstanding Command staff. Field Marshal von Rudstedt is our Commander in Chief in the West. Field Marshal Rommel who is Commander of Army Group B is just under him and he commands General Friedrich Dollmann who was appointed Generaloberst and commander-in-chief of the Seventh German Army and General Hans von Salmuth who is Commander of the Fifteenth Army. Commanding Panzer Group West is General Geyr von Schweppenburg who earlier commanded armored divisions in Russia. Between these highly decorated and seasoned officers, I was sure we would be ready for anything the enemy could throw at us.
In order to fortify and aggressively protect Festung Europa, Hitler ordered General Rommel to undertake the following prioritized list of tasks:
First: Establish protection of our U-boat pens
Secondly: Provide harbor defense for coastal traffic
Thirdly: Provide harbor defense against enemy landings and
Lastly: Provide for the defense of open beaches.
While General Rommel has seen to all of these tasks, I believe he will be most famous for the last item on Hitler’s list, “providing for the defense of open beaches.”
General Rommel went to France thinking that all he had read about the security and impregnability of the Atlantik Wall was true. While there are bunkers and pillboxes which had been put in place ever since the time we began occupying France in 1940, Herr Rommel inspected sector after sector and found that the linear defense currently in place was nothing but a good start. It is true that there were gun batteries covered and hidden by thick concrete casemates which had massive guns, range finding capabilities, telephone connections to keep all personnel in constant contact, map rooms and even bunk rooms for sleeping. Besides centimeters of thick concrete, they were further protected by machine gun nests, barbed wire, minefields, ditches and many were dug into the sides of hills. I read something that I thought was most ironic. It seems that many of the guns in place in these casemates were taken off old French, British, or Czech tanks. We were going to use the enemies’ own guns against them! But the gun batteries were so spread out and so under-defended that General Rommel knew more had to be done if we stood any hope of repelling an enemy invasion.
If truth be told, after General Rommel inspected the wall and the defenses which had been built over the last three years, he was incensed at their inadequacy. He wanted new and better defenses and many more new gun batteries. So more were built and many were more heavily fortified. He issued orders to make certain that all empty spaces along the disconnected wall were filled with as many deadly obstacles as possible. He ordered camouflage to be added to all the batteries and emplacements to prevent the Allied planes from spotting our defenses from the air. I heard that small holes were made on the tops of these gun emplacements so that grass and flowers could be planted in them to make the disguises even more realistic. General Rommel understood immediately the urgency of defending France
I’m glad der Führer recognized how brilliant a soldier Herr Rommel is when he promoted him to be Commander of the Atlantik Wall. With that promotion, der Führer put him in charge of defending France. Well actually, not “in charge” but he joined with a few others of our outstanding Command staff. Field Marshal von Rudstedt is our Commander in Chief in the West. Field Marshal Rommel who is Commander of Army Group B is just under him and he commands General Friedrich Dollmann who was appointed Generaloberst and commander-in-chief of the Seventh German Army and General Hans von Salmuth who is Commander of the Fifteenth Army. Commanding Panzer Group West is General Geyr von Schweppenburg who earlier commanded armored divisions in Russia. Between these highly decorated and seasoned officers, I was sure we would be ready for anything the enemy could throw at us.
In order to fortify and aggressively protect Festung Europa, Hitler ordered General Rommel to undertake the following prioritized list of tasks:
First: Establish protection of our U-boat pens
Secondly: Provide harbor defense for coastal traffic
Thirdly: Provide harbor defense against enemy landings and
Lastly: Provide for the defense of open beaches.
While General Rommel has seen to all of these tasks, I believe he will be most famous for the last item on Hitler’s list, “providing for the defense of open beaches.”
General Rommel went to France thinking that all he had read about the security and impregnability of the Atlantik Wall was true. While there are bunkers and pillboxes which had been put in place ever since the time we began occupying France in 1940, Herr Rommel inspected sector after sector and found that the linear defense currently in place was nothing but a good start. It is true that there were gun batteries covered and hidden by thick concrete casemates which had massive guns, range finding capabilities, telephone connections to keep all personnel in constant contact, map rooms and even bunk rooms for sleeping. Besides centimeters of thick concrete, they were further protected by machine gun nests, barbed wire, minefields, ditches and many were dug into the sides of hills. I read something that I thought was most ironic. It seems that many of the guns in place in these casemates were taken off old French, British, or Czech tanks. We were going to use the enemies’ own guns against them! But the gun batteries were so spread out and so under-defended that General Rommel knew more had to be done if we stood any hope of repelling an enemy invasion.
If truth be told, after General Rommel inspected the wall and the defenses which had been built over the last three years, he was incensed at their inadequacy. He wanted new and better defenses and many more new gun batteries. So more were built and many were more heavily fortified. He issued orders to make certain that all empty spaces along the disconnected wall were filled with as many deadly obstacles as possible. He ordered camouflage to be added to all the batteries and emplacements to prevent the Allied planes from spotting our defenses from the air. I heard that small holes were made on the tops of these gun emplacements so that grass and flowers could be planted in them to make the disguises even more realistic. General Rommel understood immediately the urgency of defending France
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