78 MAY/JUNE 2019
took place. Allied staff officers led by Lt. Gen.
Frederick Morgan debated where to pierce the
Atlantic Wall, German coastal fortifications
extending from Norway to the southwest coast
of France. The shortest route to Germany lay
across the Strait of Dover (Pas-de-Calais), but
landing around Calais meant attacking the
strongest sector of the Atlantic Wall.
Morgan and staff decided instead to land on
the coast of Normandy, which lay farther from
Germany but was less heavily fortified. Their
original plan, drawn up in strict secrecy, called
for three divisions to come ashore on a nar-
row front on D-Day. But when Eisenhower and
Montgomery arrived in London in early 1944 to
serve respectively as supreme commander and
field commander of the Allied Expeditionary
Force destined for Normandy, they altered the
invasion plan based on amphibious operations
in Italy.
Five divisions would land on D-Day on a
broader front, supported by three airborne divi-
sions and followed by an immense influx of men
and material. The huge commitment of landing
craft and other resources to Normandy meant
that a second invasion of France along the Med-
iterranean coast, which was meant to coincide
with Overlord to prevent Germans in the south
from being shifted to Normandy, would instead
take place a few months after Overlord unfolded.
Germany’s Defense
German commanders did not ignore the potential
threat to Normandy. Rommel—in charge of Army
Group B under Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt,
German commander in chief in the West—laced
beaches there with mines as well as obstructions
that would force landing craft to disgorge troops
at low tide, leaving them more exposed to enemy
fire. Rommel wanted panzer divisions deployed
at likely landing sites in Normandy to repulse in-
vaders before they established a beachhead and
were reinforced. “Everything we have must be on
the coast,” he insisted.
“I HAVE FULL CONFIDENCE IN
YOUR COUR AGE, DEVOTION TO
DUTY AND SKILL IN BATTLE. WE
WILL ACCEPT NOTHING LESS
THAN FULL VICTORY!”
GEN. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER,
SUPREME COMMANDER,
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
THE ALLIES’ meticulous plans to invade Normandy in 1944
were overseen by Dwight D. Eisenhower, appointed su-
preme commander in Europe the year before. In addition
to a formidable military record, the future 34th president
of the United States inspired his troops with his warmth
and rousing addresses. Second in command was Britain’s
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, who defeated
German forces, under the command of Erwin Rommel, in
North Africa, a major turning point of the war. Hitler later
entrusted Rommel with defense of France’s channel coast,
where, as D-Day dawned, he and Montgomery once again
faced one another as the war’s dramatic endgame began.The Commanders
GERMAN FIELD MARSHAL
ERWIN ROMMEL INSPECTING
THE ATLANTIC DEFENSES IN
FRANCE, IN 1943 0R 1944BRITISH FIELD MARSHAL
B. L. MONTGOMERY
POINTING TO NORMANDY
IN A 1945 PAINTING BY
FRANK O. SALISBURY
GRANGER/ALBUMAFP/GETTY IMAGES