Zaloga Summary

Zaloga addresses the question: “Why were the casualties so high on Omaha compared to the other four D-Day beaches?”(Pg. ix) “Not so much what happened by why it happened.”(Pg. ix) He begins with an overview of the Atlantic Wall, Hitler’s vision to defend 2,400 miles of coastline from Spain to Norway with 15,000 bunkers and 300,000 troops. Construction of the fortifications began in June 1942 and ended in 1943. The wall, however, could not be equally strong in all places. Strategic decisions led to sectors that were thin and brittle. Based on a comprehensive German analysis of the defenses done between May and October 1943, Hitler issued Directive 51 in early November 1943. The directive not only increased the priority for personnel and materiel resources in favor of units in France and the Low Countries, but it also directed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to ‘invigorate’ anti-invasion efforts in France.

Infantry divisions had to be moved forward as closely as possible to the beaches with as many weapons as possible positioned to fire directly on those beaches. Lower Normandy had traditionally been used as a location to rebuild shattered infantry divisions that were then sent back to the Russian Front. The new tactical approach led to the consolidation of earlier units under a re-designated unit called 352.Infanterie- Division, which reached full strength in March 1944. Unlike many of the neighboring “static” infantry divisions, 352 was organized and equipped as a regular infantry division. It was made up primarily of German troops—as opposed to “volunteers” from other conquered countries—and had a full complement of troops, trucks and