Summary of Richard Hargreaves's The Germans in Normandy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The French countryside was dotted with obstacles and wooden crosses, which were symbols of the German occupation. The German army knew that the days of their comparatively idyllic existence were drawing to a close by 1944.

#2 In the summer of 1940, there was no thought of an invasion in the minds of Germany’s soldiers basking in the glory of victory over their traditional foe. But as the German Army advanced into the Soviet Union in 1941, it began to realize that it needed to rest its troops.

#3 Rundstedt was the OB West, and he was frustrated with the situation in France. He had no authority over the air and naval units, and Hitler and his closest advisers on the Wehrmacht High Command oversaw operations in the west.

#4 The German occupation of France was not good for the discipline of the German soldier. The activities in Paris, which were severely restricted, led to a rise in attacks, rapes, assaults, and misdemeanours.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822529373

IRB Media

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Insights on Richard Hargreaves's The Germans in Normandy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The French countryside was dotted with obstacles and wooden crosses, which were symbols of the German occupation. The German army knew that the days of their comparatively idyllic existence were drawing to a close by 1944.

#2

In the summer of 1940, there was no thought of an invasion in the minds of Germany’s soldiers basking in the glory of victory over their traditional foe. But as the German Army advanced into the Soviet Union in 1941, it began to realize that it needed to rest its troops.

#3

Rundstedt was the OB West, and he was frustrated with the situation in France. He had no authority over the air and naval units, and Hitler and his closest advisers on the Wehrmacht High Command oversaw operations in the west.

#4

The German occupation of France was not good for the discipline of the German soldier. The activities in Paris, which were severely restricted, led to a rise in attacks, rapes, assaults, and misdemeanours.

#5

The Allies had lost thirty-three landing craft, 106 aircraft, and every one of the twenty-eight tanks that landed at Dieppe. The raid showed that the Germans could defend their coastline, and Hitler began to build an impregnable wall along the Atlantic and Channel Coast.

#6

The Atlantic Wall was the Nazi’s dream bulwark to protect France, but it was beyond the means of the Third Reich. The Organization Todt, responsible for major construction projects in the Reich, believed that at best it could build just 6,000 of the positions the Führer expected of it.

#7

By October 1943, intelligence reports suggested that the Allies had a seventeen-division advantage in the west. If the German High Command did its sums, they didn’t have a single reason for not attacking.

#8

Rommel was a field marshal in the German Army, and he was known for his lightning thrust through France in May and June 1940 with 7th Panzer Division. He had his troops at the gates of Tobruk in 1942, but was stopped by the British at El Alamein.

#9

In 1943, Rommel was sent to inspect the defenses of the west from Denmark to Brittany, and decide how to defeat the Allied invasion which would come in 1944. The much-touted Atlantic Wall was not all it seemed.

#10

The German army was in good spirits ahead of the upcoming invasion. The Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel, met with the commander in chief, West, and was full of optimism.