This WWII history and visitor’s guide explores the extensive network of Nazi fortifications built to defend Fortress Europe. Hitler's Atlantic Wall, the complex system of coastal fortifications that stretched from Norway to the Spanish border during the Second World War, was built to defend occupied Europe from Allied invasion. Many of its principal structures survive and can be visited today. This authoritative guide provides both practical information for visitors and essential historical context. The wall, which was constructed on a massive scale between 1942 and 1944 by German engineers, forced laborers and troops, consisted of strong points, artillery casemates, bunkers, troop shelters, minefields, anti-tank and anti-boat obstacles. It also included the concrete U-boat and E-boat pens in the key ports and, behind the Channel coast, the V-weapon sites. This huge scheme of fortifications was one of the longest series of defensive lines in military history. This comprehensive volume takes readers and visitors through the entire story of the fortifications from the fall of France to the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy that finally broke through. As a guide to some of the most impressive relics of the Second World War, this book is essential reading for travelers or anyone interested in the liberation of occupied Europe.

Features hundreds of maps, illustrations and historical photographs. The book comes in three distinct sections – the first is an in-depth analysis of the German 'Westwall' defense system built between 1936 and 1944. This includes the build phases, the organization of the workforce and the political background. The second section looks at the Allied campaign to overcome the defenses of the Siegfried Line through the winter of 1944/45, focussing on three major operations by the US, British and Canadian armies. The third section deals with the perception of the Westwall in the eighty years since the war and then outlines a battlefield tour guide of those elements that still survive. This book includes maps, photographs and illustrations. Of these, around 140 are in a color section making up the concluding section of the book.

Fresh look at D-Day, one of World War II's pivotal battles, in time for its 70th anniversary in June 2014 Explains why the U.S. Army suffered enormous casualties on Omaha Beach Focuses on Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, who oversaw German defenses in Normandy Covers little-known aspects such as the German patrols tasked with shooting down the pigeons the French Resistance used to send messages to the Allies Relies on original research, including recently discovered German artillery maps Zaloga's well-supported conclusions are sure to spark debate

Germany's Atlantic Wall was the most ambitious military fortification program of World War II. With Germany's gradual loss of the strategic initiative to the Allies, in 1942 Hitler was forced to construct an impenetrable wall of fortifications along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast. This book deals solely with the structures on the French coast, starting with the Pas-de-Calais and extending down to Spain. It features detailed illustrations and diagrams of the various sections of the Atlantic Wall and the role that they played, giving a thoughtful analysis of some of the most accessible fortifications of World War II.

German defenses along the Normandy beaches were part of the larger Atlantic Wall fortifications designed to defend Fortress Europe. When Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took command of the invasion front in late 1943, he began a program to enhance fortifications along the Normandy coast as he believed that any Allied assault had to be stopped on the invasion beaches themselves. His most important contribution to the defenses was an extensive program of improvised beach obstructions to complicate any landing attempt. This book analyses these fortifications and describes how the Allied forces overcame them on the morning of June 6, 1944.

Thousands of German construction companies worked under the Organisation Todt during the Second World War. This study enquires into the relation between the NS state and the construction industry and analyses the businesses’ strategies and entrepreneurial room for manoeuvre. Focusing on German construction projects within the Reich and in occupied Norway, the study demonstrates how state’s attempts at regulating the sector reached their limits.