Why Germany's 'Unbreakable' Atlantic Wall Crumbled In A Single Day скачать в хорошем качестве

Why Germany's 'Unbreakable' Atlantic Wall Crumbled In A Single Day

For two years, Nazi propaganda trumpeted its existence: a chain of steel and concrete stretching 3,000 miles from Norway to Spain. It was the Atlantikwall, an impenetrable fortress designed to make any Allied invasion of Europe a suicidal bloodbath. Armed with colossal coastal batteries, interlocking machine gun nests, and millions of ingenious and deadly beach obstacles, the Atlantic Wall was meant to be the graveyard of the Allied armies. This feature-length documentary explores the myth and the reality of Hitler's vaunted coastal defense. We will delve into the mind of its final architect, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, as he raced against time to turn a propaganda dream into a deadly reality. We will uncover the vast, secret Allied effort to understand, deceive, and ultimately overcome this fortress, from the spies of the French Resistance to the development of a bizarre and brilliant menagerie of secret weapons known as "Hobart's Funnies." Finally, we will relive the epic, brutal events of June 6th, 1944, D-Day, to provide the definitive answer to the crucial question: Why did a defense system years in the making, designed to be unbreakable, utterly crumble in less than 24 hours? Sources Primary Sources: 1)Eisenhower, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe (1948). The memoir of the Supreme Allied Commander, providing the highest-level strategic overview of the planning and execution of Operation Overlord. 2)Rommel, Erwin. The Rommel Papers (edited by B.H. Liddell Hart, 1953). Absolutely essential. Rommel's letters and diary entries from late 1943 and 1944 are a running commentary on the state of the Atlantic Wall, his frustrations with the high command, and his strategic thinking. 3)U.S. War Department. Omaha Beachhead (6 June-13 June 1944) (American Forces in Action Series, 1945). The official, contemporary US Army history of the Omaha landing. Incredibly detailed and based on immediate after-action reports. 4)Harrison, Gordon A. Cross-Channel Attack (United States Army in World War II, 1951). The official and exhaustive US Army history of the strategic planning and execution of Operation Overlord. 5)Memoirs and Oral Histories: Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (1994). While a secondary source, it is built almost entirely on thousands of interviews with Allied and German veterans, functioning as a vast collection of primary accounts. Ryan, Cornelius. The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 (1959). The classic narrative that brought the personal stories of D-Day to the public, based on hundreds of interviews. Von Luck, Hans. Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck (1989). Provides the perspective of a German Panzer commander in Normandy, detailing the confusion and paralysis of the German response. Secondary Sources: 1)Zaloga, Steven J. D-Day 1944 (Osprey Campaign Series, 4 volumes) and The Atlantic Wall (Osprey Fortress Series, 2 volumes). Zaloga is a premier historian of WWII technology and operations. These books provide unparalleled, concise detail on the fortifications and the forces involved. 2)Beevor, Antony. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (2009). A masterpiece of modern military history, blending strategic analysis with visceral, ground-level accounts of the fighting. 3)Hastings, Max. Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy (1984). A classic, and at the time controversial, work that was one of the first to critically analyze the performance of Allied and German armies. 4)Keegan, John. Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris (1982). A brilliant analysis of the experience of the different national armies (American, British, Canadian, Polish, German) involved in the campaign. 5)Fletcher, David. Swimming Shermans: The M4A2 DD Tank in World War II (2006). The definitive work on the Duplex Drive tanks, a crucial piece of the D-Day technology puzzle. 6)Caddick-Adams, Peter. Sand and Steel: The D-Day Invasions and the Liberation of France (2019). A massive and comprehensive modern history of the campaign, filled with incredible detail. 7)Brown, Anthony Cave. Bodyguard of Lies: The Extraordinary True Story Behind D-Day (1975). The classic, sprawling account of the Allied deception operations that were critical to the success of the landings. 8)Kershaw, Ian. The "Hitler Myth": Image and Reality in the Third Reich (1987). Provides crucial context for understanding the propaganda aspect of the Atlantic Wall versus its military reality. World War II, Documentary, Military History, D-Day, Normandy, Atlantic Wall, Operation Overlord, Omaha Beach, Erwin Rommel, Hobart's Funnies, Wehrmacht, US Army, British Army, Canadian Army, WWII, History, WW2 Documentary #WW2 #History #DDay #Normandy #Documentary #MilitaryHistory #AtlanticWall