"Atlantic Wall failed to prevent D-day" Topic

For the 80th anniversary of the landings, AFP photojournalist Olivier Morin spent three weeks documenting the remnants of the supposedly impregnable defences designed to keep the allies at bay

The Guardian: link

Just too many miles to cover, even on the landing beaches it was uneven enough they failed. D-Day has become my favorite WWII battle these last few years. My FiL was in the 149th Combat Engineer Battalion HQ company

And it failed in much less than 24 hours.

"Der längste tag…Der längste tag"

No, the Germans didn't win, thank Heaven. But would they have been better off without prepared defenses?

Mostly forgotten on the D-Day anniversary is the sacrifice of Canadian lives at Dieppe two years earlier which helped pave the way for the 6 June 1944 success. Dieppe taught the Allies a lot about how to and how not to assault a fortified coast. It also convinced Hitler that his Atlantic Wall was impregnable, which contributed in part to the handcuffing of a more rapid German response to the initial landings.

Robert Piepenbrink +1, also the resources spent trying to neutralize them.

The prepared fortifications delayed the landing and increased the allied planning – resulting in a greater chance of success

THe Dieppe raid may not have been a focus of today's 80th anniversary commemorations- which is hardly surprising.

That is not an indication that it has been forgotten, any more than St Nazaire or Bruneval.

I thought the issue at Dieppe was not fortifications per se but the objective of capturing a port intact by direct assault.

Don't forget the fact that the Atlantic Wall wasn't finished, in part due to the diversion of workers and material to fix the Mohne and Eder dams.

Did the Germans believe it was possible to build a system of fortifications capable on their own of actually keeping the Allies out? I thought the idea was 1) to prevent the Allies from achieving a secure lodgment by launching a quick cross Channel (or cross North Sea) dash; and 2) to hold up a larger assault long enough for the Luftwaffe and local reserves to come up.

"2) to hold up a larger assault long enough for the Luftwaffe and local reserves to come up."

How true, both Me-109's were the deciding factor!

Yes Hitler did his part to make D-Day a success.

And now t is a cafe

As posted on the What if D-Day Failed thread
I am starting to realize failure was a slimmer possibly than taken foe granted. Maybe later if the Germans could build the coastal defense better, but it was to sparse in June 44 and they got overwhelmed. Consider the Allies hit 5 beaches and only Omaha was a give or take for a few hours.

If you can get onto the MOD testing range at Shoeburyness you can see copies if German bunkers that were built prior to D Day to test the various weapons used by the Allies against them