Once it became apparent that German military ambitions in the west were to be thwarted by British resistance and Hitler's attention turned to the greater goal of the defeat of Stalin's Russia, the need to shore up the defense of Europe against any possible attack from the British Isles became imperative. Although earlier phases of the war had proved the ineffectiveness of fixed defensive lines- most notably in the failure of the French Maginot Line -the concept of an Atlantic Wall was central to German defensive plans in the west. Stretching along the Atlantic and Channel coasts, a complex network of fortifications was constructed, a network that was to have a dramatic impact on the Allied strategic planning for D-Day in June 1944.
Although the Atlantic Wall was to fail its ultimate test, along certain sections of the coast the German defenses were able to impose massive casualties on the invasion force; if the German support forces had been able to reach the Allied beachhead more rapidly, the history of the war might have been fundamentally different.
A book devoted to the construction, manning and defence of Hitler's Atlantic Wall, largely from the German viewpoint, and covering such issues as how far the French resistance stifled construction and sabotaged materials.
pdf, 43.1MB: