D-Day 75th Anniversary: The Atlantic Wall

6.  GERMANY HAD FORTIFIED FRANCE'S COAST.

Anticipating an Allied invasion somewhere along the French coast, Adolf Hitler  charged Field Marshal Erwin Rommel with fortifying German defenses in France.

In 1943, Rommel completed construction of the "Atlantic Wall,"  Germany's 2,400 mile  line of bunkers, landmines, and beach and water obstacles.  It is estimated that they planted some 4 million landmines along Normandy's beaches.