Field Marshal Erwin Rommel inspects the coastal defences of Normandy. ‘It is this very area that the Allies will land,’ he predicted.
Operation Overlord had been planned in the greatest detail, with every minute of the day accounted for. However, the success of the landings would be contingent on accurate knowledge of the terrain, weather and German defences. RAF aerial reconnaissance had provided much information about coastal defences, but more detailed intelligence necessitated clandestine commando missions to the Normandy beaches.
The French resistance worked hard to collect up-to-the-minute intelligence about shore defences and troop movements. The Calvados branch of the Organisation civile et militaire used forbidden wireless transmitters to send information directly to SHAEF planners in England.
Resistance networks, known as ‘circuits’, were awaiting a coded radio broadcast to inform them that the landings were imminent and that sabotage operations should commence.
German forces in Normandy – the 7th Army – were part of Army Group B, commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. His newly strengthened Atlantic Wall was manned largely by conscripts and Osttruppen (men from occupied Soviet territories) of questionable loyalty. The 21st Panzer Division was also under his authority, but two additional panzer divisions could be released to Rommel only on Hitler’s orders.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel inspects the coastal defences of Normandy. ‘It is this very area that the Allies will land,’ he predicted.