Nazi Megastructures – The Atlantic Wall
Duration: 44 minutes
Channel: National Geographic
Subject: The second world war, in particular the project named the Atlantic Wall
Keywords:
Atlantic wall, Hitler, Goebbels, concrete, bunkers, MG
In this episode of Nazi megastructures they explain and explore the ruins of one of the biggest building projects of the Nazi empire, The Atlantic wall. The defenses that spread from all the way up to Norway, down to France that were supposed to hold back an Allied invasion whenever they’d come. A long the whole coast of Western Europe there are still ruins of the bunkers that were once manned by the Nazi’s, who were prepared to give their life for their country and slaughter all invaders with the high caliber MG34 and lots of artillery. Hitler expected the Allies to invade a port, because it would be easy to ship in supplies from Brittain, but when Goebbels visited Omaha beach, he thought the Allies would pick that spot. He thought that because of the form of the beach, it had the exact same form as the beach the Allies invaded in Italy. Goebbels was shocked, there were no bunkers, only small trenches and machine gun nests, he immidiately commanded that the beach would get bunkers. The researchers conclude in the episode that the mistake in this project was that the supplies were spread to thin and the heaviest bunkers focused to much in a few places.