New scenes including high quality footage you wont see anywhere else!
After the invasion and occupation of France, Germany built a string of fortifications stretching from the Bay of Biscay to Norway, including the Channel Islands, known as the "The Atlantic Wall" to repel any attempt by Allied Forces to launch offensive operations.
Only the dense fortifications built at Pas de Calais, the shortest and most likely invasion route, could reasonably be called a "Wall,” the rest were a string of strong points, including fortified cities like Cherbourg & Brest, with reinforced beach defenses at likely landing spots in between. More than 600,000 laborers were involved in construction, including many Frenchman unwillingly drafted by the Vichy government, German subcontractors, and workers imported from abroad. "Organisation Todt," who also built "The Siegfried Line," was in charge.
These scenes, from films produced by the German Propaganda Ministry, focus mostly on heavy fortifications near Calais and were intended to reassure the German people that they were protected by a virtually invulnerable "Fortress Europe." Heavy guns were installed to attack shipping and bombard the English Coast near Dover as well as repel amphibious landings. You'll see everything from small pill boxes housing light machine guns to massive reinforced concrete bunkers with repurposed naval guns, artillery seized abroad and that could fire shells up to 406mm - 16" and huge railway guns on tracks so they could move in and out of bunkers . Some of the fortified locations seen here include the massive "Todt Battery" at Cap Gris Nez and “Battery Lindeman.” You'll see several examples of railway guns, including the KRUPP 28 CM K5(E), some mounted on huge turntables to provide a wide arc of fire.
But, like many "walls" built throughout history, including the Great Wall of China and the Maginot Line, the promised security and invulnerability of the Atlantic Wall proved to be to be an illusion on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.
For more World War 2 German and Japanese newsreel footage, see our DVD "World War 2 Through Axis Eyes" bit.ly/11ISB8R
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