Editing Atlantic Wall (section)

==History==

===Creation===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101II-M2KBK-211-08A, Atlantikwall, Bauarbeiten an Befestigungsanlagen.jpg|thumb|left|Construction of the Atlantic Wall [[fortification]]s in the 1940s]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-295-1596-12, Raversijde, Rommel bei Besichtigung.jpg|thumb|Field Marshal [[Erwin Rommel]] visiting the Atlantic Wall defences near the Belgian port of [[Ostend]], part of the fortifications which today comprise the [[Atlantic Wall Open Air Museum]] at [[Raversijde]]]]

Prior to the Atlantic Wall decision, following a number of [[commando]] raids, on 2 June 1941 [[Adolf Hitler]] asked for maps of the [[Channel Islands]]. These were provided the next day and by 13 June 1941 Hitler had made a decision. Ordering additional men to the Islands and having decided the defences were inadequate, lacking tanks and [[coastal artillery]], the [[Organisation Todt]] (OT) was instructed to undertake the building of 200–250 strong points in each of the larger islands. The plan was finalised by the OT and submitted to Hitler.<ref name="H-FG">{{cite web |url=http://www.festungguernsey.supanet.com/about_us.htm |title=History:Fortifying Guernsey |publisher=Festung Guernsey |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409161003/http://www.festungguernsey.supanet.com/about_us.htm |archive-date=9 April 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The original defence order was reinforced with a second dated 20 October 1941, following a Fuhrer conference on 18 October to discuss the engineers' assessment of requirements.<ref name="CC">{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Cruickshank |title=The German Occupation of the Channel Islands |year=2004 |publisher=The History Press; New edition (30 June 2004) |isbn=978-0750937498}}</ref>{{rp|197}} The [[German occupation of the Channel Islands|permanent fortification]] of the Channel Islands was to make them into an impregnable fortress to be completed within 14 months.<ref name="WBGOC">{{cite book |first=William |last=Bell |title=Guernsey Occupied but Never Conquered |publisher=The Studio Publishing Services (2002) |isbn= 978-0952047933 }}</ref>{{rp|448}} ''Festungspionierkommandeur XIV'' was created to command the project of fortifying the Channel Islands.

It was six months later on 23 March 1942 that Hitler issued [[Führer Directive]] No. 40, which called for the creation of an "Atlantic Wall". He ordered naval and submarine bases to be heavily defended. [[Fortification]]s remained concentrated around ports until late in 1943, when defences were increased in other areas.{{sfn|Kaufmann|Robert|2003|pp=196–197}} This decision required the army engineers and the OT to organise quickly. Massive supplies of cement, steel reinforcing and armour plate would be required and everything would need to be transported.

[[Nazi propaganda]] claimed that the wall stretched from the cape of [[Norway]] down to the [[France–Spain border|Spanish border]].{{sfn|Hakim|1995|p=161}}{{sfn|Darman|2012|pp=8–9}}

===Regelbau===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-116-0336-05, Nordeuropa, Küstenbatterie, Geschütz.jpg|thumb|Camouflaged German torpedo battery in northern Norway]]
The ''[[Regelbau]]'' (standard build) system used books of plans for each of over 600 approved types of bunker and [[casemate]], each having a specific purpose, having been updated as enemy constructions were overrun and examined, even testing some to destruction for effectiveness. They incorporated standard features, such as an entrance door at right angles, armoured air intake, {{convert|30|mm|adj=on}} steel doors, ventilation and telephones,<ref name="EG">{{cite book |first=Ernie |last=Gavey |title=German Fortifications of Guernsey |year=2001 |publisher=Guernsey Armouries |isbn=978-0953163106}}</ref>{{rp|7}} internal walls lined with wood, and an emergency exit system.<ref name="Regelbau">{{cite web  |url= http://www.regelbau.com/on_regelbau_gb.htm  |title= The Regelbau concept  |access-date= 10 August 2016  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161118062830/http://www.regelbau.com/on_regelbau_gb.htm  |archive-date= 18 November 2016  |url-status= dead  }}</ref> There were over 200 standardised armour parts.<ref name="JEK">{{cite book |first=J.E. |last=Kaufmann |display-authors=etal |title=Fortress Third Reich: German Fortifications and Defense Systems in World War II |publisher=Da Capo Press, 2007 |isbn=9780306816352}}</ref>{{rp|350}}

The standardisation greatly simplified the manufacture of equipment, the supply of materials and the budgetary and financial control of the construction as well as the speed of planning for construction projects.<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|50}}

To offset shortages, captured equipment from the French and other occupied countries armies were incorporated in the defences, casemates designed for non-German artillery, anti tank and machine guns and the use of turrets from obsolete tanks in ''tobrukstand'' pill boxes ([[Defensive fighting position#Tobruk|tobruk pits]]).<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|51}}

===Organisation Todt===
[[File:The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 B10467.jpg|thumb|left|A British soldier poses next to the recently captured German 380&nbsp;mm gun Todt Battery at Cap Gris Nez.|alt=|226x226px]]

[[Organisation Todt]] (OT), formed in 1933, had designed the [[Siegfried Line]] during the prewar years along the [[Franco-German border]]. OT was the chief engineering group responsible for the design and construction of the wall's major gun emplacements and fortifications.{{sfn|Hakim|1995|p=161}}{{sfn|The Great Landings|2009}}

The OT supplied supervisors and labour as well as organising supplies, machinery and transport to supplement the staff and equipment of construction companies. Many of them were German, however construction companies in occupied countries bid for contracts. Companies could apply for OT work or could be conscripted.<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|53}} Companies failing to complete their work on time, which was always possible as the OT controlled the material and manpower of each firm, could find themselves closed down, or more likely fined, or taken over or merged with another firm to make a more efficient larger unit. Successful firms however could make attractive profits.<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|53–4}}

The OT obtained quotes for necessary works and signed contracts with each construction company setting out the price and terms of the contract, such as bonus payments for efficiency, including the wage rates and bonus payments for OT workers (which depended on their nationality and skill). There could be several construction companies working on each site.<ref name="HOT1">{{cite book |title=Handbook of the Organisation Todt - part 1 |publisher=Military Intelligence Records Section, London Branch |date=May 1945}}</ref>

Labour comprised skilled volunteers, engineers, designers and supervisors, who were paid and treated well.  Second came volunteer workers, often skilled technicians, such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and metal workers.  Again, these workers were paid, took holidays and were well treated. Next came unskilled forced labour, paid very little and treated quite harshly.  Lastly came effective slave labour, paid little, badly fed and treated very harshly.<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|75}} The OT ran training courses to improve labour skills.<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|18}}

Massive numbers of workers were needed.  The [[Vichy France|Vichy regime]] imposed a compulsory labour system, drafting some 600,000 French workers to construct these permanent fortifications along the Dutch, Belgian, and French coasts facing the [[English Channel]].{{sfn|The Great Landings|2009}} Efficiency of the OT decreased in late 1943 and 1944 as a result of manpower pressures, fuel shortages and the bombing of worksites, such as [[V-weapons]] sites, where some volunteer workers refused to work in such dangerous areas.<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|50}}

OT Cherbourg in January 1944 dealt with 34 companies with 15,000 workers and 79 sub contractors. Daily, weekly and monthly reports showing progress, work variations, material used, stocks of material, labour hours used per skill type, the weather, equipment inventory and quality, level of supervision, employee absences, staffing levels, deaths and problems experienced all had to be filed with the OT.<ref name=HOT1/>{{rp|57}}

===British attacks===
Throughout most of 1942–43, the Atlantic Wall remained a relaxed front for the [[Axis powers|Axis]] troops manning it, with only two large-scale British attacks. [[Operation Chariot]], launched near [[St Nazaire]] in March 1942, successfully destroyed German pumping machinery for, and severely damaged, the Normandy dry dock and installations.{{sfn|Mountbatten|2007|p=72}} The second attack was the [[Dieppe Raid]], launched near the French port of [[Dieppe]] in August 1942 to test the German defences and provide combat experience for [[Canada|Canadian]] troops. The Germans were defeated at St. Nazaire, but had little difficulty in repulsing the attack at Dieppe, where they inflicted heavy casualties.  Although the Dieppe raid was a disaster for the Allies, it alarmed Hitler, who was sure an Allied invasion in the West would shortly follow.{{sfn|Overlord|2009}} Following Dieppe, Hitler gave Field Marshal [[Gerd von Rundstedt]], the overall German [[Commander-in-Chief]] in the West, 15 further divisions to shore up the German positions.{{sfn|Overlord|2009}}

===Reorganisation===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-297-1716-28, Im Westen, Belgien-Frankreich, Atlantikwall.jpg|thumb|left|German soldiers placing landing craft obstructions, 1943]]
Early in 1944, with an Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe becoming ever more likely, [[Field Marshal]] [[Erwin Rommel]] was assigned to improve the wall's defences.{{sfn|Darman|2012|pp=8–9}}{{sfn|Overlord|2009}} Believing the existing coastal fortifications to be entirely inadequate, he immediately began strengthening them.{{sfn|Overlord|2009}} Rommel's main concern was Allied air power. He had seen it first-hand when fighting the British and Americans in [[North African Campaign|North Africa]], and it had left a profound impression on him.{{sfn|Overlord|2009}} He feared that any German counterattack would be broken up by Allied aircraft long before it could make a difference.{{sfn|Overlord|2009}} Under his direction, hundreds of [[reinforced concrete]] [[Pillbox (military)|pillboxes]] were built on the beaches, or sometimes slightly inland, to house machine guns, [[antitank guns]], and light and heavy artillery. [[Land mine]]s and antitank obstacles were planted on the beaches, and underwater obstacles and [[naval mine]]s were placed in waters just offshore.{{sfn|Assault Plan}} Little known was that touch sensitive mines were placed atop the beach obstacles.  The intent was to destroy the Allied [[landing craft]] before they could unload on the beaches.{{sfn|Assault Plan}}

===D-Day===
[[File:Batterie Longues-sur-Mer bunker gun 2.jpg|thumb|One of the [[casemate|casemates]] of the [[Longues-sur-Mer battery]] in Normandy, destroyed by naval gunfire during the [[Normandy landings|Allied landings]] ]]
By the time of the [[Normandy landings|Allied invasion]], the Germans had laid almost six million mines in Northern France.{{sfn|Darman|2012|pp=8–9}} More gun emplacements and minefields extended inland along roads leading away from the beaches.{{sfn|Darman|2012|pp=8–9}} In likely landing spots for [[military glider|gliders]] and [[paratroop|parachutists]], the Germans emplanted slanted poles with sharpened tops, which the troops called ''[[Rommelspargel]]'' ("Rommel's Asparagus").{{sfn|Ambrose|1994|pp=221–222}} Low-lying river and [[estuary|estuarine]] areas were intentionally flooded.{{sfn|Overlord|2009}} Rommel believed that Germany would inevitably be defeated unless the invasion could be stopped on the beach, declaring, "It is absolutely necessary that we push the British and Americans back from the beaches. Afterwards it will be too late; the first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive."{{sfn|Assault Plan}}