when the germans were building the atlantic wall did the allies not try and disrupt the building off them with bombing raids cant see any info on the royal airforce/navy order of battle. also Hitler must have fealt that the main threat of invasion was going to come from the west rather than Russia thats why they biult the atlantic wall. did the Germans build any fortifications to the east. any thoughts please
Recent reading on Wallis' bombs suggests that several thousand workers were pulled off the Atlantic Wall defences in order to rebuild the Ruhr Dams. This helped to slow down the construction of the Atlantic defences somewhat which meant they were not completed or at full strength by D-Day. As to raids or attacks directly on the Atlantic wall defences I have not heard.
The building of the Atlantic wall was both an ambitious project and an essencial one. The Atlantic coast, from the border with Spain right up around the coast of Denmark and even Norway was an enormous open border. While it wasn't likely that the entire coast was lible for invasion, it was open to the landing of raiding parties and sabotours. Mearly patroling the coast wouldn't have provided the deterent that a complete chain of bunkers and emplacments did. I believe that it wasn't attacked as much as it could have been during construction because there were seen to be much more important targets and that it was seen as being waste of recorses for much of it's length. After all, the allies knew where they were planning to invade, the Germans didn't.
great replies thanks. thats what i thought ......there isnt much listed on raids on the wall and the allies must have had other important targets. the germans actually ran out of concrete i heard. any ideas on any eastern fortification.....i'm thinking there wasnt any as the Germans didnt expect to be defeated. cheers
great replies thanks. thats what i thought ......there isnt much listed on raids on the wall and the allies must have had other important targets. the germans actually ran out of concrete i heard. any ideas on any eastern fortification.....i'm thinking there wasnt any as the Germans didnt expect to be defeated. cheers The Germans did build a number of fortified areas on the Eastern Front, but nothing on the scale of the Atlantic Wall. The war was too fluid. They did turn their front lines into fortified areas during the many pauses between battles, and did so with some effectiveness. Their main fortification policy was to turn towns and cities into forts, like Bobruisk, Vilna, Mogilev, for example, and Posen, Stargard, Breslau, and others later. Breslau itself was still holding out on V-E Day, despite being surrounded for a month. The Eastern Front was more of a mobile war...the invasion beaches of Western Europe, being a set-piece assault, fitted Hitler's memories of the static trench lines of World War I.
