1. German Defenses
The highly decorated Field Marshal Erwin Rommel believed that the Allied Normandy landings would take place at high tide. This would be a time when the beachhead would be at its narrowest. So he devised a series of obstacles to be disguised under water. The obstacles were comprised of jagged-edge iron ‘hedgehogs’, explosives and round, flat landmines attached to wooden posts. The iron hogs would tear the bottom of a vessel exposing the Allied troops to German fire during high tide. The explosives and the landmines would explode on impact with the landing craft. Inland, the Field Marshal, also designed a system of large posts vertically fixed into the ground to prevent gliders from landing in open areas. Being Rommel’s idea, these obstacles were codenamed ‘Rommel’s Asparagus’. These turned out to be of less value to the Germans as the Normandy landings occurred at low tide when all the obstacles at the beach were clearly exposed.