To protect occupied Europe from an Allied invasion, Hitler demanded the construction of a defensive wall stretching thousands of kilometers from France in the south to Norway in the north.To protect occupied Europe from an Allied invasion, Hitler demanded the construction of a defensive wall stretching thousands of kilometers from France in the south to Norway in the north.To protect occupied Europe from an Allied invasion, Hitler demanded the construction of a defensive wall stretching thousands of kilometers from France in the south to Norway in the north.
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Peter Lieb
- Self - German Militairy Historian
- (as Dr. Peter Lieb)
Storyline
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Walls --
Hitler's Atlantic Wall was a series of fortified possessions that stretched along the cost of northern Europe from Norway to Spain. The first guns were emplaced around Calais, the closest point to the British coast. They were designed not to protect occupied Europe from invasion but to aid Hitler in his planned invasion of Britain. The English channel is about 30 kilometers wide at that point and the range of these big guns was more than double that, so while the Battle of Britain was being fought in the air, Hitlers coastal guns were pounding the English coast. This was news to me because it's hardly ever mentioned.
With the invasion of the USSR in 1941, Hitler's attention turned away from the proposed invasion of Britain. After all, it was a tiny, isolated country with no valuable natural resources,. whereas Russia was big game. But after Pearl Harbor, he was once again forced to look closely at the West, and this time for defensive purposes. He began construction of a three-thousand mile long wall, nearly twice the length of America's east coast. Many of the walls were made of concrete with internal lattices of steel, in places as much as ten feet thick or, to put it plainly, impenetrable to anything that the Allies might throw at it.
The wall was not as formidable in some places. Most of the construction was done around harbors and coastal cities. Across the channel, Churchill was intent on finding the weakest spots and launched a series of commando raids along the coast, aimed at radar stations and the like, but also to determine the local strength of the defenses. Special attention was paid to Trondheim, Norway, because it was an important point for loading iron. The Germans removed an entire turret from a battleship and schlepped it to a place where it could cover Trondheim. The turret worked just as it had aboard ship, as a barbette. A concrete-surrounded shaft was sunk five floors deep into the solid rock of the position, the laborers being POWs. And inside the shaft were the crew's quarters, the ammunition storage, and all the mechanical apparatus that made the guns traverse, elevate, and fire -- an engineering feat by any measure.
I ought to mention that the USAAF made an appallingly costly raid on a ball bearing plant at Schweinfurt. I don't doubt that many who have heard of the event have asked themselves -- "ball bearings?" Yes, ball bearings. The turrets of the Atlantic Wall traversed on ball bearings, just as the turrets on German naval ships did and the turrets on German airplanes, the anti-aircraft guns on the ground, and all of Germany's tanks. The 900-ton Trondheim turret required 138 steel ball bearings, weighing about 25 pounds each, in order to rotate. No ball bearings, no aiming. Similar big guns were buried from Norway to France.
There isn't room to go into detail but these bunkers were designed by engineers who must have been geniuses of paranoia. One example. Bunkers that are made of concrete six-feet thick must have ventilation, and so they did. At about shoulder height was a round opening about the size of a soccer ball. But suppose someone dumped a grenade into it? The opening was covered with a checkerboard steel grating to prevent it. But what if some Allied soldier smashed and hammered away at the opening until the grating yielded -- and THEN dumped a grenade in? The pipe behind the opening ran downward until the met a joint between an intake pipe and another pipe that sloped downward towards a second opening in the outer wall. No one could dump anything into the lower opening because the pipe behind it sloped upward. An object dumped into the top opening would simply roll down past the joint and out of a second opening just above ground level to explode at the soldier's feet. Thus: fresh air without the grenades.
At Omaha Beach, just 500 Germans had to defend a five-mile beach against 35,000 Americans, one of them being the actor Charles Durning. There would have been fewer defenders if the 14-inch shells of the battleships had been able to penetrate the bunkers and if they hadn't landed too far inland, at the expense of innumerable placid Normandy cows. Of course, in the end, the Atlantic Wall was overcome.
I am no techie. My interest in engineering is real but modest, but I found it fascinating.
With the invasion of the USSR in 1941, Hitler's attention turned away from the proposed invasion of Britain. After all, it was a tiny, isolated country with no valuable natural resources,. whereas Russia was big game. But after Pearl Harbor, he was once again forced to look closely at the West, and this time for defensive purposes. He began construction of a three-thousand mile long wall, nearly twice the length of America's east coast. Many of the walls were made of concrete with internal lattices of steel, in places as much as ten feet thick or, to put it plainly, impenetrable to anything that the Allies might throw at it.
The wall was not as formidable in some places. Most of the construction was done around harbors and coastal cities. Across the channel, Churchill was intent on finding the weakest spots and launched a series of commando raids along the coast, aimed at radar stations and the like, but also to determine the local strength of the defenses. Special attention was paid to Trondheim, Norway, because it was an important point for loading iron. The Germans removed an entire turret from a battleship and schlepped it to a place where it could cover Trondheim. The turret worked just as it had aboard ship, as a barbette. A concrete-surrounded shaft was sunk five floors deep into the solid rock of the position, the laborers being POWs. And inside the shaft were the crew's quarters, the ammunition storage, and all the mechanical apparatus that made the guns traverse, elevate, and fire -- an engineering feat by any measure.
I ought to mention that the USAAF made an appallingly costly raid on a ball bearing plant at Schweinfurt. I don't doubt that many who have heard of the event have asked themselves -- "ball bearings?" Yes, ball bearings. The turrets of the Atlantic Wall traversed on ball bearings, just as the turrets on German naval ships did and the turrets on German airplanes, the anti-aircraft guns on the ground, and all of Germany's tanks. The 900-ton Trondheim turret required 138 steel ball bearings, weighing about 25 pounds each, in order to rotate. No ball bearings, no aiming. Similar big guns were buried from Norway to France.
There isn't room to go into detail but these bunkers were designed by engineers who must have been geniuses of paranoia. One example. Bunkers that are made of concrete six-feet thick must have ventilation, and so they did. At about shoulder height was a round opening about the size of a soccer ball. But suppose someone dumped a grenade into it? The opening was covered with a checkerboard steel grating to prevent it. But what if some Allied soldier smashed and hammered away at the opening until the grating yielded -- and THEN dumped a grenade in? The pipe behind the opening ran downward until the met a joint between an intake pipe and another pipe that sloped downward towards a second opening in the outer wall. No one could dump anything into the lower opening because the pipe behind it sloped upward. An object dumped into the top opening would simply roll down past the joint and out of a second opening just above ground level to explode at the soldier's feet. Thus: fresh air without the grenades.
At Omaha Beach, just 500 Germans had to defend a five-mile beach against 35,000 Americans, one of them being the actor Charles Durning. There would have been fewer defenders if the 14-inch shells of the battleships had been able to penetrate the bunkers and if they hadn't landed too far inland, at the expense of innumerable placid Normandy cows. Of course, in the end, the Atlantic Wall was overcome.
I am no techie. My interest in engineering is real but modest, but I found it fascinating.
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- rmax304823
- Apr 1, 2016
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- Runtime57 minutes
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Atlantic Wall (2013) in Australia?
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