n when British intelligence known as Ultra, had early on in the war broken the code of the standard German radio enciphering machine, the Enigma. With the use of German intelligence, Allies could tell exactly what the Germans were planning to do, and thus could plant information to either reinforce an existing false view or to feed information through German agents. The allies weren’t the only ones preparing for an invasion. Hitler had long been aware that Allies would eventually mount a cross-channel invasion, but, as long as they dissipated their forces in the Mediterranean and as long as the campaign in the East demanded the commitment of all available German forces, he put off the threat for another day. By November 1943, Hitler had accepted that it could no longer be ignored, so he now welcomed it as a chance to win the war. (Anderson, Jervis. Pg 19) If he could throw the Americans and British off the beaches, then hopefully they would not try again. He could then concentrate all of his forces, nearly half of which were in the west, against the USSR. To oversee defensive preparations, Hitler appointed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, former commander of the Afrika Korps. To prepare for the Allied attack, Rommel had German troops setup what was to be known as the Atlantic Wall. The Atlantic wall consisted primarily of pillboxes and gun emplacements embedded in cliffsides or placed on the waterfronts of seaside resorts and ports. Included were massive blockhouses with disappearing guns, antitank guns, and light artillery, newsreels of which the Germans sent out through neutral sources in an effort to awe their adversaries. Many underwater obstacles and mines were also planted in the waters just offshore to destroy Allied landing craft. Low-lying river and estuarine areas were permanently flooded. By the time of the invasion, the Germans had laid about 5,700,000 mines throughout northern France. (Anderson, Jervis. Pg 34)Six...
