In support of his conviction that the war should be won on the beaches, Rommel feverishly supervised the construction of the Atlantic Wall to strengthen the natural fortress provided by the ocean and the beaches. To compensate for the dearth of German manpower, slave labor, consisting mainly of prisoners of war and civilians corralled from occupied countries, was conscripted to help erect the wall.
These laborers were assigned to Organization Todt, a paramilitary arm of the Nazi party named for its founder, Dr. Fritz Todt. Organization Todt constructed the famous Autobahn before the war, and carried out large-scale building projects throughout occupied Europe.
At the height of the construction effort, approximately ninety percent of Organization Todt workers were conscripted foreigners. The remainder were paid French volunteers and German technical personnel and supervisors.
Enduring relentless supervision and brutal coercion, the conscripts toiled slavishly a minimum of twelve hours daily, seven days a week with only a ten-to-thirty-minute break for eating. One Sunday per month, they were allowed to rest for half a day.
The workers received scant rations that were inadequate for such backbreaking work. To compound their suffering, the workers were not provided with proper clothing.
The majority of the work crews were assigned to fortify the major ports and submarine bases. The mandate was to accomplish, within six months, what under humane conditions would require three years to complete. Some work crews came close to accomplishing this goal, while others faltered. Although casualties were quickly replaced and the effort continued relentlessly, the result was a wall strong in some areas, but weak in others.
By June 1944, the Wall was far from complete. But in the course of six months, the workers had created a formidable line of defense. Obstacles constructed to rip the bottoms of landing craft were concealed in the water. Barbed wire was strung from one end of the beach to the other. In areas where Allied aircraft might land, Rommel asparagus--large stakes equipped with mines and other booby traps--were set. From five to six million mines were laid. (1) Lowland areas as far as seven miles inland were flooded. (2) Round concrete fortifications were built around artillery posts. Located on the highlands around the beaches, these fortifications were prime shelling posts.
On D-Day, 156,215 troops landed from the sea and air to confront this great wall. According to Frederich Ruge, Rommel's naval advisor, about 200 landing craft were damaged by the obstacles during the invasion. In addition, the mines destroyed or damaged 43 Allied vessels. (3) At a cost of some 10,300 casualties, by the end of the day, the mighty fortress was breached, and the march was on.
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1. Martin Blumenson, "Rommel," in "Hitler's Generals," Correlli Barnett, ed. (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989), p. 310.
2. Ronald Lewin, "Rommel as Military Commander," (London: B.T. Batsford Limited, 1969), p. 220.
3. Frederich Ruge, "German Naval Operations on D-Day," in "D-Day: The Normandy Invasion in Retrospect," (Lawrence: The University Press of Kansas, 1971), p. 161-164.
