Countdown to D-Day

by Peter Margaritis

  The Führer, as expected, will be furious when he hears this news, especially considering that Allied bombers range nearly a thousand kilometers into Germany and hit their targets accurately. In contrast, London is only 200 kilometers away from the coast.

  Today, Eisenhower formally meets for the first time with his SHAEF3 senior staff officers in London at what will be their new headquarters, the historic Norfolk House.4 They begin formal preparations for the invasion. Field Marshal Montgomery, the first speaker, somewhat monopolizes the meeting with his broad plan for a landing on the beaches of Normandy.

  The American First Army, he states, will land on the right flank, mostly so that they can receive supplies directly from the United States, as well as from England. They are to drive inland, sweep around westward, and capture the port of Cherbourg. The British Second Army, he states, will land on the left flank, immediately seize Caen, and take on the German forces counterattacking from the east and southeast. The two Allied forces will unite somewhere around the town of Bayeux. Montgomery will command both armies, to be identified as the 21st Army Group.

  Montgomery then adds, “In the initial stages, we should concentrate on gaining control quickly of the main centers of road communications. We should then push our armored formations between and beyond these centers and deploy them on suitable ground. In this way, it would be difficult for the enemy to bring up his reserves and get them past these armored formations. “

  Eisenhower will consider the plan.

  1Fifty-four-year-old General der Artillerie Eduard Wagner, the Generalquartiermeister der Heeres (chief quartermaster of the German Army).

  2“Operation Capricorn.” See entries for December 3 and 6, 1943.

  3Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force.

  4Located at 31 St. James’s Square, it was built in 1722 for the Duke of Norfolk. It had for centuries been owned by royalty (King George II was born there). In 1938, the house was demolished and an office building put in its place. It later became the headquarters for SHAEF.

  Saturday, January 22

  The weather is dreary today. Rommel and several staff officers travel to Le Mans, headquarters of the Seventh Army, commanded by General Dollmann. It is Rommel’s first trip to the western sector.1

  Rommel’s naval advisor Vizeadmiral Ruge arrives early, and meets with Dollmann and his brilliant career chief of staff, Max Pemsel.2 He is immediately besieged by both about the lack of naval artillery in this sector of France. Ruge responds by defending the navy. He argues that the responsibility of coastal defense is the army’s, and that several naval batteries have already been donated to that task. Besides, the Kriegsmarine had already supplied an abundance of batteries to defend major ports.

  Then Rommel arrives, and the conference begins. Pemsel gives a status report and a briefing on unit deployment. Static divisions have been formed out of necessity. Each typically consists of two infantry regiments, made up of second-rate, or “non-line” troops. They are supported by two field batteries, each with a dozen or so older guns, and a third battery of horse-drawn, medium guns. Divisional transport is just a couple dozen trucks and some horses and carts.

  Pemsel goes over every possible landing area and gives a shrewd evaluation of each. Brittany is an unlikely area, unless undertaken with a concurrent landing in southern France to cut off the Loire area.

  He covers the Calvados coast in detail. It seems logical that the coastal stretch from the Orne River west, around the Cherbourg peninsula to St. Malo, offers the best locations for an enemy landing. He points out that while the Normandy beaches are more rocky and treacherous than those near Calais, many small coves and beach areas on the eastern shoreline are relatively sheltered from heavy winds and high seas, and offer excellent landing areas.

  As for possible airborne landing sectors, there are three. Two are in the Calvados area: around the city of Caen, and around Carentan, on the Vire River.3 The third is in Brittany, around Montagne d’Arée, especially to the west.

  Pemsel summarizes by stating that he is convinced the invasion will occur in their sector.

  Rommel states that he thinks the best place to invade is further up the coast, closer to the Ruhr Valley. Dollmann counters that the good beaches and inland hedgerow fields in his sector invite an enemy landing. Cherbourg would be a substantial prize, and the area is weakly defended. And in Brittany, two divisions cover a 515km front.

  Next they discuss weapon stocks and calibers of shells available.

  That afternoon, in a pouring rain, Rommel heads west to Rennes, and then continues on another 135km to call on General der Infanterie Erich Straube, 4 commanding the 74th Corps at Guingamp. Several conferences with him and his chief of staff, Oberst! Ludwig Zoellner, go on into the evening. Once again, Rommel outlines his general plans for constructing defensive barriers and his basic hold-at-the-waterline strategy.

  They stay there for the night, and rest in civilian quarters.

  ***

  Startling reports begin to come in at the Berghof today that the Allies have landed at Nettuno5 and are pushing inland. Göring’s Unternehmen Steinbock against London will have to continue minus three Kampfgruppen, which are to be returned to Italy immediately.

  1Generalleutnant Friedrich Dollmann at 62 is a large and physically impressive officer who has shown great political adaptability throughout his career. A World War I veteran, he had served as an aerial observer and artillery battalion commander, and after the war, became a former artillery inspector. A Bavarian Catholic, he had nevertheless been one of the first officers to jump on the Nazi bandwagon. He had even gone as far as to dress down his Catholic chaplains back in 1937 for not having a sufficiently positive attitude toward National Socialism. Given command of the Seventh Army in 1939, the only action he has seen has been at the tail end of the French campaign in 1940. By 1944, he has turned against the Nazi regime, and believes it will be the downfall of Germany.

  2Generalmajor Max-Josef Pemsel, having just turned 47 on January 15, is also a veteran of the Great War. WhenWorld War II broke out, Pemsel was chief of staff for the 1st Mountain Division, and later for General Beyer’s XVIII Mountain Corps. He took over the chief of staff duties for the Seventh Army in January of 1943.

  3These two areas are roughly where the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions would land on the western flank, and the British 6th Airborne Division would land on the right flank.

  4Fifty-six-year-old General der Infanterie Erich Straube. For Barbarossa, he commanded the 268th Infantry Division in the Fourth Army. Straube took command of the LXXIV Corps on August 1, 1943.

  5Some battles in World War II are referred to differently by the opposing sides. The Allies referred to this invasion as “Anzio”; the Germans, “Nettuno.” Both were towns right at the landing site.

  Sunday, January 23

  Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt is on leave at the spa in Bad Tölz.1

  ***

  Generalfeldmarschall Rommel continues his inspection tour of northwest France. Today, he begins a round trip covering the northern coast of Brittany. Traveling westward to the coast at Sibiril, he turns eastward to the ancient town of Paimpol.2 There are no major ports in this 500km of shoreline, known as the Cote d’Armor, and there are fewer roads than in coastal areas.

  They discuss mines, and at one spot, when Rommel points out an area that would be ideal for minefields, one staff officer quips, “Yes, this is a great place for 80,000 mines!” Rommel’s officers laugh. Then they explain to the other officers accompanying them that this was a standing joke at Heeresgruppe B. Two years ago on a beautiful day in North Africa, Rommel and his staff had been standing at the edge of a picturesque desert scene. Gazing at a beautiful wadi, one of the officers had shaken his head in admiration and remarked, “Isn’t that a wonderful sight?” Rommel had growled in response, “Ja, it will take 80,000 mines.”

  The 74th Corps located there has put down over 100,000 mines and cannot lay any more; they have ru
n out. Rommel authorizes them another 20,000 to get them going again. The mines will come from army group supplies.

  The group inspects many of the resistance points spread out along the shore. About three quarters of the 200-odd batteries are not yet in permanent casements, and this concerns him too.

  Traveling south away from the sea some 35km, they return to spend the evening in Guingamp at the 74th’s headquarters. They dine that evening with the corps’ General Straube and Oberst! Zoellner.

  That evening, the radio reports that in the East, the Russians continue to push west. What little chance OB West had of getting additional units is gone. In fact, they will be lucky to keep the mobile divisions that they have. Then they hear the bad news of the large enemy landings at Anzio in northwest Italy. The German line is now outflanked, and a disaster could result. Despite the usual bombastic, confident tones of the announcer, Rommel is disturbed to find out that the Allies are nevertheless establishing a beachhead, and though they have been ashore now over 24 hours, no German panzer counterattack has as yet hit them.

  A critical mistake Rommel definitely does not want to repeat when the enemy invades against him.

  Today, the Führer has a visit at the Wolf’s Lair from Japanese Ambassador Baron Hiroshi Ōshima, 3 and among other things, they discuss matters in the West. By now, news is out that Dwight D. Eisenhower has been appointed the supreme Allied commander in the West. Hitler asks the Japanese attaché, “Doesn’t it look like the appointment of Eisenhower, etc., and all this boastful propaganda is a kind of camouflage?”

  He pauses and adds, “Still, in view of their relationship with Russia, England and America can’t get away without doing anything at all. Even though it might not be a large invasion, I think that they will have to carry out one that they may call in their propaganda a “second front.”

  Later in a private meeting, they discuss the invasion again. Hitler begins by saying, “Now, as for the question of the second front, no matter when it comes, or at what point, I have made adequate preparations to meet it. In Finland, we have seven divisions; in Norway, twelve; in Denmark, six; in France and the Low Countries, 62.”

  He thinks for a moment and continues: “Well, all of those divisions are not, I must admit, of the finest caliber; but I have emphasized that there must be complete mobility. I have gotten together as many armored divisions as possible, including four SS divisions, and the Herman Göring Division.”

  He begins pacing. “Besides, don’t forget our coming retaliation against England. We are going to do it principally with rocket guns. Everything is now ready... and practice shows that they are extremely effective.”

  Hitler confides that the most effective area for the enemy to land is the Straits of Dover area, but that such a landing would be very difficult, and the Allies are surely not strong enough to undertake such an operation. After a moment he adds thoughtfully, “On the other hand, along the Bordeaux coast and in Portugal, the defenses are relatively weak. So this zone might be a possibility…”

  The Führer pauses again, and then continues. “But how vast is that seacoast! It’d be impossible for me to prevent some other sort of landing somewhere or other. I couldn’t even stop this recent landing behind our lines in Italy.4 And they came ashore with little resistance. So another landing in the West is likely.”

  The Führer pauses and makes a fist as his eyes glint fiercely. “But all the enemy can possibly do is establish a bridgehead. I will stop, absolutely, any real second front.” After some discussion, Hitler walks over to a map of England, where a line has been drawn across the lower part of the country. “Now take this line running to the Birmingham area. That is a good place to start. I cannot tell you when we will begin, but we are really going to do something to the British Isles! And we also have ready two thousand schnell bombers, and last night we carried out our first real bombing of London. With all these various factors in play, I believe we can gradually regain the initiative and, seizing our opportunities, turn once again against Russia…”

  Eisenhower and his staff have analyzed Montgomerys invasion plan for two days. Pressured to give maximum latitude to maximize a spirit of detente with the British, he has decided to formally authorize the plan. At 11 p.m., through his chief of staff, Bedell Smith, he sends a detailed message to the US Joint Chiefs of Staff for their approval.

  Operation Overlord is born.

  1Bad Tölz is a spa located in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps on the Isar River, about 50km south of Munich. Once a medieval trading center for lumber and salt, it became famous as a pleasure resort when natural springs were discovered in the mid-19th century. The spa district, located on the left bank (the town itself is on the right), includes these natural springs, high in iodine content, with supposedly natural healing and curing properties. The town’s claim to fame was enhanced in 1937 with the opening there of an extensive SS Junkerschule, complete with a nice sports stadium, indoor sports halls, a heated swimming pool, and a sauna. Labor for the school and some government offices was later provided by a local branch facility of the Dachau concentration camp.

  2On the northern coast of Brittany, about midway between St. Malo and Brest.

  3Fifty-eight-year-old Baron Hiroshi Ōshima had been the Japanese military attaché and ambassador to Germany for some ten years. A staunch supporter of the Third Reich and a personal friend of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, he had quickly became a favorite of Hitler, and as such, he was privy to many strategic meetings and conversations with the Führer and the German High Command. Because the United States had in 1940 cracked the Japanese diplomatic Purple Code that Ōshima used to encrypt his detailed dispatches to Japan (a code the Germans warned him on several occasions was unreliable), the Allies were privy to most of the messages the ambassador radioed to Japan, and by extension, often to many of the German High Command plans and their positions on military situations.

  Between 1941 and 1945, nearly all of Ōshima’s dispatches—almost 1,500—were intercepted, and most were decoded. Taken into custody by the Americans in 1945, he was later found guilty of war crimes, but was paroled in 1955. He died in 1975, never knowing the extent of intelligence assistance that he had given the Allies during the war. For further reading on this extraordinary individual, refer to Bruce Lee’s Marching Orders: The Untold Story of World War II.

  4Referring to the Anzio landing of January 22.

  Monday, January 24

  Rommel and his entourage continue their inspection of Brittany on a stormy day. They start out in Guingamp and travel in a cold, drenching rain some 115km, along the Cote d’Armor, eastward to St. Brieuc, and then on to the port of St. Malo. There, one division defends a staggering 250 kilometers of coast.1

  Included in the division’s order of battle are a few Östen battalions, made up of Russian POWs. Rommel is somewhat taken aback to hear their commanding officers make their status reports in crisp Russian. The fighting quality of the troops in these battalions can easily be seen. The men are rough-looking, and only the temperament of their commanding officers keeps them in line. Their quality as reliable, cohesive fighting units though is questionable, and Rommel is under no illusions about what these Russians will do if something goes wrong in their sector.

  At St. Lunaire, west of Dinard, an argument breaks out between the local area army and naval commanders about the location of a Russian 122mm battery. It is the now-familiar story about where to put the coastal batteries: along the shoreline as the navy insists, or somewhat inland, as the army wants.

  At St. Malo, they inspect the well-constructed fortress of La Cité in a driving rain. They note its intricate tunnel network, with horizontal tunnels to connect the positions and vertical shafts to store extra ammunition and supplies. Despite the fortress’ fine design, there are only a few 75mm guns there, along with some automatic weapons. And on the island of Cézembre, just outside the port entrance, the naval battery of four 190mm guns is exposed to the elements—and of course, any
naval fire.

  The tour continues on to an army battery near the small coastal fishing village of Cancale. The rain does not let up.

  That evening, they rest and warm up. Admiral Ruge gets to talk to a few fellow naval officers who have run naval convoys up to and down from the Channel Islands. Naturally, the officers take the opportunity to complain about the lack of support from the Kriegsmarine, and especially the Luftwaffe.

  1Admiral Ruge wrote erroneously that they inspected positions of the “71st Corps.” He must have meant Straube’s 74th Corps. He also mentioned deployment of the 721st Division under Generalmajor Freiherr Christoph Stolberg-Stolberg. The author could find no record of this unit.

  Tuesday, January 25

  Generalfeldmarschall Rommel continues his tour of the coast in Brittany. Admiral Ruge shows up a quarter hour early for the conference at Dol-de-Bretagne1 so that he can first visit with the commander of the five-month-old 179th Reserve Panzer Division, 2 Generalleutnant von Boltenstern.3

  Ruge chats about manipulating Rommel into visiting charming Mont-St.-Michel after the day’s inspections, and showing him the unique historical aspects of the preserved monastery. Boltenstern agrees, and adds to the inspection itinerary a small five-man guard outpost there.

  Unfortunately for them, when Rommel arrives, he does not fall for the trick. He listens to the list of stops, and when Boltenstern reads off Mont-St.-Michel, Rommel glances at Ruge with a hint of a smile and tells the division commander to scratch that one off the list. Ruge frowns amusingly in disappointment.