June 2014 Oklahoma D-Day Newspaper Jun. 2014 | Page 18

D-Day: The 70th Anniversary
Origins of the Normandy landing

The Atlantic Wall in Normandy

The creation of the "combined operations"

Todt organization

The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was convinced that the
only means to beat the Germans was to fight the war on the French soil
itself.

To prevent any landing, the Germans call upon the Organization
Todt, a military company specialized in military constructions with
vocation, like casemates, roads borrowed by armoured, etc. Dice
1941, works start opposite England, once the German attempt to
invade England (Operation Sealion) is cancelled by Hitler. Concrete
fortifications are built from Norway to the Spanish Country and allong the Mediterranean coast in France, accompanied by minefields, thousands of kilometers of barbed wires, flame throwers, machine guns, anti-tank ditches

To bring the mission to a successful conclusion, three points were laid
down : first of all, it is necessary to start a military operation from the
Great-Britain island itself, in order to definitively put aside the menace of
a German invasion on the British territory.

This fortification, very quickly called the “Atlantic Wall”, is reinforced
in priority zones, opposite England for example, in Pas-de-Calais,
where an landing is more than probable according to the German
generals. Coastal batteries are built at key places of the coasts, to
protect a port or an estuary.
In August 1942, the Allies organize a “test” raid at Dieppe which
fails because of the lack of reinforcements. The German staff officers become aware of the major risk to dismantle the coasts of the
North-West of Europe: thus, 150000 men of the German 15th Army
stay in the Pas-de-Calais.
Then, the British army, extremely weakened by the beginning of the
conflict, needed to follow a new training and to receive new military
equipments. The Allies also needed to take advantage from the extraordinary industrial and economical power of the United States of America.
In 1939, no army in the world had the experience of amphibious operations; the troops were not equiped with amphibious crafts and did not
clearly realize the strategic stake of a landing operation.
Winston Churchill then created an organization called "Combined Operations" in order to conduct light amphibious attacks : short raids striking
at some sensitive and strategic points.
The British Prime Minister wished the creation of specialized assaults
units (often refered as "commandos" today), which were to be operational as soon as July 1940. The first military action of such unit took
place on the island of Guernesey.
In October 1941 Winston Churchill asked the young captain Lord Mounbatten to take the lead of the n"Combined Operations" with the following
instructions : "You must prepare the invasion of Euro H