The Atlantic Wall

A study of the planning and thinking that went into the creation of Hitler's "Atlantic Wall," which was intended to prevent the D-Day invasion and throw Allied soldiers back into the sea. The book details how and why the Atlantic Wall failed to perform as Hitler intended.

This WWII history and visitor’s guide explores the extensive network of Nazi fortifications built to defend Fortress Europe. Hitler's Atlantic Wall, the complex system of coastal fortifications that stretched from Norway to the Spanish border during the Second World War, was built to defend occupied Europe from Allied invasion. Many of its principal structures survive and can be visited today. This authoritative guide provides both practical information for visitors and essential historical context. The wall, which was constructed on a massive scale between 1942 and 1944 by German engineers, forced laborers and troops, consisted of strong points, artillery casemates, bunkers, troop shelters, minefields, anti-tank and anti-boat obstacles. It also included the concrete U-boat and E-boat pens in the key ports and, behind the Channel coast, the V-weapon sites. This huge scheme of fortifications was one of the longest series of defensive lines in military history. This comprehensive volume takes readers and visitors through the entire story of the fortifications from the fall of France to the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy that finally broke through. As a guide to some of the most impressive relics of the Second World War, this book is essential reading for travelers or anyone interested in the liberation of occupied Europe.

Refreshingly different perspective on the momentous events of D-Day.

With the ever-growing interest in Hitler's Atlantic Wall, it comes as a surprise that so little has been written about it in the English language until now, that is. In this, the first substantial work in English, author Tony Saunders takes a critical look at the history of the wall, how it was built, what was built and the role it played in the Second World War, together with a guide to what remains to see of it today in France. Hitler conceived the Atlantic Wall during the Second World War as a line of impregnable fortifications along the western coast of Europe to protect his newly conquered empire from seaborne invasion. From 1942 until the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, millions of tons of steel-reinforced concrete were poured into the construction of gun emplacements, bunkers, flak batteries, radar stations, command and observation posts, as well as ammunition dumps and U-boat pens. This huge project stretched from the Franco-Spanish border in the south, following the French Atlantic coast north for 1,500 miles passing through Brittany, around the Cherbourg peninsula, along the coast of Normandy and extending right to the North Sea coasts of Belgium and Holland. More than 12,000 concrete structures were built, many of them so massive that they survive today despite being shelled by battleships, and resisting most post-war attempts by Allied army engineers to demolish them. They are now tourist attractions as well as the focus for a growing number of "fortress" enthusiasts. Richly illustrated, the authoritative text is supported by a selection of contemporary photographs and plans many rare or previously unpublished and present-day photographs showing the amazing endurance of these monolithic fortifications.

The present book presents papers from a symposium held in Hanstholm, Denmark in May 2018: "The Atlantic Wall, in regional, national, and international perspective".The symposium was arranged by three Danish museums in Northern Jutland - Museum Thy, Vendsyssel Historiske Museum (Vendsyssel Historical Museum), Nordjyllands Kystmuseum (Coastal Museum of Northern Jutland) - and Aalborg University. The symposium was part of a project entitled "The Atlantic Wall in Northern Jutland", carried out by the institutions mentioned above and financed by the Velux Foundation in Denmark in the period 2016-18.The aim of the symposium in May 2018 was to situate the findings of the regional project in a national and an international perspective by inviting Danish and European scholars to present results from their research on related subjects. The symposium was organized in four sections: 1) The Atlantic Wall in Europe, 2) Building the Atlantic Wall, 3) The Atlantic Wall, the Danish armed forces and the Cold War, and 4) Musealization of the Atlantic Wall 1945-2017.

A detailed account of the usefullnes effectiveness and the necissity of the Atlantic Wall to Hitler and Germanys advances in World War II.

Shares firsthand accounts of the invasion of Europe from just prior to D-Day to ten days later, when it was clear the invasion was a success.

Immediately after Hitler halted his proposed invasion of Britain in 1940, he secretly ordered the building of an Atlantic Wall. Using material from British, American, and Canadian archives, a top military historians pieces together a unique, barely known story from the war--and memorializes the Allied soldiers caught behind it in appalling conditions.