By June 1944, the German army had deployed a total of 58 divisions on the Western Front, including 33 garrison divisions, 15 infantry divisions, 9 armored divisions and 1 armored grenadier division.

On the surface, although the German army gathered a large number of division-level units on the Western Front, Hitler kept drawing soldiers from the Western Front to the Eastern Front, so each infantry division on the Western Front was very short of personnel.

What's more serious is that infantry divisions with combat experience only account for a small number, most of which are garrison divisions with lack of training and combat experience, and there are very few people and equipment that can actually be put into combat.

Among the Western Front troops, a total of 38 infantry and garrison divisions were deployed on the coastline, defending the coastline of more than 3,000 kilometers from the Netherlands, Belgium to the Atlantic coast of France and to the Mediterranean.

Deployed in the Netherlands, there are 8 divisions in Belgium, and another 17 divisions are distributed in southern France.

There are only 6 divisions on the coastline of more than 300 kilometers in Normandy, and 4 of them are garrison divisions.

From these data, it can be seen that many reasons have caused the German army's fortresses in the Atlantic Ocean to not constitute a "line of defense", but only protection.

The direct consequence of this phenomenon of widespread distribution of troops is that it is impossible to concentrate superior forces to annihilate the enemy.

Of course, this does not mean that the Atlantic fortress built with a huge amount of manpower, material resources and financial resources is useless and is completely like a good thing.

In fact, on the coastlines of many key defense areas, concrete bunkers and fortifications are everywhere, which can be described as terrifying firepower and indestructible.

However, passive defense means passively being beaten. Even if the German troops currently defending the Atlantic Fortress doubled, it would not be possible to guard the long coastline tightly.

As the largest country in Western Europe, France has a long coastline and numerous ports. Because it is across the sea from Britain, the French coast is undoubtedly the most ideal landing site for the Allied forces.

To this end, the German army gathered heavy troops in this area, and the areas where they focused on defense were Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne and the ports of Le Havre.

The German army built four large naval turrets, as well as a large number of small and medium-sized turrets, centered on Calais and Boulogne.

The most tightly defended is undoubtedly Dunkirk in front of you. Fortifications surround the entire town and extend 5 kilometers along the coastline.

Standing on a high ground, Rommel looked solemnly and looked at everything in front of him.

On the coastline directly ahead is a typical fortification group. On the beach are first wooden obstacles, barbed wire, then minefield, and then a 4-meter-high anti-tank wall.

Further down, there are bunker groups and forts that have been carefully built and disguised.

In order to confuse the Allies, the Germans disguised both the bunkers and the forts, often disguised the entire bunker group as a coastal town.

For example, paint the outer walls of the fortress or bunker into the shapes of various civilian houses, or add camouflage nets, and some simpler ones directly apply mud on the outer walls of the fortifications to keep them consistent with the surrounding landform.

Some fortifications near the sea will paint windows and doors on the outer walls, disguising them as coastal villas.

Most of some artillery positions were buried underground, and only exposed the barrels of the gun were exposed. In order to avoid Allied bombings, camouflage nets or tents were hung on these barrels.

Fortifications must be fully integrated with the terrain. Fortifications that do not require much sunlight and breathability must be buried underground, while the top is as flat as possible with the surrounding horizontal lines.

At the same time, in order to reduce the hit rate of Allied bombers, the air-to-air cross-section of the fortifications must be small.

The cross-section requirements for the targets of the Allied key targets such as the fort and ammunition depot are stricter, and the principle of design and construction is to not hinder the gunner from operating the artillery.

Fortifications on Atlantic fortresses can be divided into the following categories: open bunkers, bunkers, forts, closed bunkers and observation posts, and of course, there are various anti-landing obstacles, such as anti-tank trenches, "dragon teeth", various minefields, etc.

It can be said that the German army used all kinds of defenses in the Atlantic fortifications, whether in terms of protection, firepower or concealment, they all took full consideration.

It is no wonder that after the US military investigated the Atlantic Fortress after the war, it was said that fortunately it was early to land in Normandy, and these fortresses were really terrible.

However, at this moment, facing these iron-clad defensive fortress systems, Rommel did not have much confidence or confidence, but was only worried and anxious.

According to intelligence, the landing operation of the Allied forces opening the second battlefield on the European continent is about to emerge, and may become a reality within a few days.

However, the German army was in an embarrassing situation in terms of military strength and technical equipment. At the same time, it was impossible to judge which location the Allied forces carried out landing operations, which made Rommel even more uncomfortable.

Although in addition to the army, the German Navy and Air Force also built numerous bases along the Atlantic coast.

Therefore, there are also quite a lot of people in the Atlantic Fortress, but in terms of number, the Navy Coast Artillery and Air Force Anti-aircraft Artillery corps occupy the majority of the Navy and Air Force forces.

Although the German Air Force's 3rd Air Force is located in the Western Front, it is directly commanded by the Air Force Commander-in-Chief Goren. It has a total of 815 aircraft of various types under its jurisdiction, and the reliability rate of the aircraft is less than 50%. Under best conditions, only about half of the flights are suitable for combat.

Germany's naval forces in the Straits area include: about 100 submarines, 8 destroyers and large torpedo boats, 5 small torpedo boats, 34 torpedo speedboats, 262 minesweepers and patrol boats.

What's even more terrible is that the German Navy only owns 4 torpedo boats, 15 speedboats and 6 gunboats in the Normandy area.

Although there are naval artillery batteries on the shore, the navy does not have its own reconnaissance aircraft to perform reconnaissance. There is no doubt that it is very difficult to deal with the Allied landings with such a naval force and equipment.

As early as September 1941, the Soviet Union proposed to Britain to open a second battlefield in Europe to implement strategic attacks on Germany, but Britain was simply unable to organize such a large-scale strategic landing operation.

By the first half of 1943, the situation on the battlefield of the Soviet-German army was very serious, and the German army had advanced to Stalingrad. The Soviet Union strongly demanded that Britain and the United States launch landing operations in Europe to restrain the German army and reduce the pressure on the Soviet army.

The UK had to rush to send an assault force of 6,018 people to land in Dipper, France, but suffered a crushing defeat, with 5,810 casualties, with a casualty rate of 96.5%.

Afterwards, the UK took advantage of Dieppe's failure and insisted on delaying the landing on the European continent on the grounds that it must be carefully engaged in the complexity and danger of large-scale amphibious landings.

In fact, Britain wanted to take advantage of the Soviet-German struggle, and to reap the benefits of the fisherman, and to use the power of the United States to restore the traditional British Empire's pre-war power in North Africa and southern Europe.

It was not until May 1943 that the British and American Washington Conference finally made a decision to land on the European continent in May 1944 and open up a second battlefield.

After a year of preparation and planning, the Normandy Landing Operation Plan code-named "Operation Overlord" has been released, and the specific operation time is set at the early morning of June 6, 1944.
Chapter completed!