or the Pas de Calais area, directly opposite of Dover, England, rather than in Normandy. At the same time, through the top-secret Ultra operation, the Allies were able to decode encrypted German transmissions providing the Overlord forces with a clear picture of where the German counterattack forces were deployed. By spurious transmissions, the Allies created an entire phantom army based in southeast England (opposite of Pas de Calais) and alleged to be commanded by the American general George S. Patton. In addition, on the night of the invasion itself, airborne radar deception presented to German radar stations a phantom picture of an invasion fleet crossing the Channel narrows, while a radar blackout disguised the real transit to Normandy. The Germans were not altogether deluded. Hitler himself declared a last-minute premonition of a Normandy landing. By then, however, Rommel, in his brief period of responsibility for the Atlantic Wall, had been able to lay mines, so that by June 5 some 4 million mines had been laid on the beaches. He had not, however, been able to position the Germans tank divisions as he wanted. Rundstedt wished to hold them back from the coast as a reserve. Rommel, warning that allied aircraft would destroy them as they advanced, wished to place them near the beaches. Hitler, adjudicating in the dispute, worsened the situation by allotting some divisions to Rommel and some to Rundstedt, keeping others under his own command. The rest of Rommels Army Group B was made up of the infantry divisions of the 7th Army in Normandy and Brittany and by the 15th Army in Pas de Calais and eastward. The reserve tank forces, given the name Panzer Group West and commanded by Leo Geyr Von Schweppenburg, came nominally under Rundstedts direct command. May 1944 had been the time chosen in Washington in May 1943 for the invasion. Difficulties in assembling landing craft forced a postponement until June, but June 5 was fixed as the unal...
