Atlantic Wall facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Atlantic Wall
Part of the Third Reich
Western Coast of Europe
The Atlantic Wall, shown in yellow
Site information
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Partially demolished, mostly intact
Site history
Built	1942–1944
In use	1942–1945
Battles/wars	World War II

The Atlantic Wall (in German: Atlantikwall) was a huge system of defenses built by Nazi Germany during World War II. It stretched along the western coast of Europe from 1942 to 1944. Its main purpose was to stop the Allies (like Britain and America) from invading mainland Europe from Great Britain.

Building the Giant Wall

On March 23, 1942, Adolf Hitler gave an order to officially start building the Atlantic Wall. After a raid by Allied forces in April 1942, Hitler ordered that naval and submarine bases needed very strong defenses. At first, most of the defenses were built around important ports. But by late 1943, defenses were increased in many other coastal areas too.

The main group in charge of designing and building these huge defenses was called Organisation Todt. This group had also designed the Siegfried Line along the German-French border. Many workers were made to build these strong fortifications along the coasts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, all facing the English Channel.

In early 1944, a famous German general named Erwin Rommel was put in charge of making the Wall even stronger. Rommel believed that the existing defenses were not good enough. He knew that the Allies could land on the beaches between the ports, which were not well defended. Then, they could attack the ports from the land.

Under Rommel's leadership, many new things were built:

• Strong concrete pillboxes were placed along the beaches or slightly inland. These held machine guns, anti-tank guns, and light artillery.
• Mines and obstacles to stop tanks were put right on the beaches.
• Underwater obstacles and mines were placed in the water close to the shore. The goal was to destroy Allied landing craft before they could reach the land.

The Germans laid almost six million mines just in northern France. More gun positions and minefields were placed further inland, along roads leading away from the beaches. In places where military gliders or paratroopers might land, the Germans put slanted poles with sharp tops. Soldiers called these Rommelspargel, which means "Rommel's asparagus." Low-lying areas near rivers were also flooded to make it harder for invaders.

Rommel was very sure that Germany would lose the war unless the invasion could be stopped right on the beaches.

Even though the Wall was never fully finished, its existence was used to explain why the D-Day invasion (the "Second Front") didn't happen until June 6, 1944. This was less than a year before the war ended in Europe. The Wall mainly had gun batteries, bunkers, and minefields. From 1942 to 1944, it stretched all the way from the French-Spanish border to Norway.

Many bunkers from the Atlantic Wall still exist today. You can find them near places like Scheveningen and Katwijk in the Netherlands, and in Normandy, France. In Ostend, Belgium, you can even visit a well-preserved part of these defenses. This section includes gun positions and living quarters used by German military engineers who built the bunkers.

The Channel Islands, which are British territories, were also heavily fortified. Especially the island of Alderney, which is closest to England. Hitler ordered that a lot of the steel and concrete used for the Atlantic Wall should go to these islands. The Allies decided to go around the islands and didn't try to free them during the Normandy landings. The German soldiers on the Channel Islands didn't surrender until May 9, 1945, which was a day after the main German forces in Europe surrendered. The German soldiers on Alderney held out even longer, surrendering on May 16.

Walcheren Island in the Netherlands was thought to have "the strongest group of defenses the Nazis had ever built."

Atlantic Wall Strongholds

Many important ports and locations were made into strongholds as part of the Atlantic Wall. Hitler ordered the soldiers defending them to fight until the very end. Some of these places stayed in German hands until Germany officially surrendered on May 8, 1945. Some of these port fortresses were even resupplied by submarines after Allied forces surrounded them. The soldiers defending these places included Slavic soldiers and SS troops.

Images for kids

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  A fortification being built in northern France.

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  A German bunker at Søndervig in Denmark.

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  German bunkers at Longues-sur-Mer in France.

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  One of three huge 40.6cm guns at Batterie "Lindemann", a German Cross-Channel gun. It was named after Ernst Lindemann, the commander of the battleship Bismarck.

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  Field Marshal Erwin Rommel visiting the Atlantic Wall defenses near the Belgian port of Ostend. This area is now part of the Atlantic Wall Open Air Museum at Raversijde.

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  A camouflaged German torpedo battery in northern Norway.

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  A British soldier next to the recently captured German 380 mm gun at Todt Battery at Cap Gris Nez.

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  German soldiers placing obstacles to stop landing craft, 1943.

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  One of the gun positions of the Longues-sur-Mer battery in Normandy, destroyed by naval gunfire during the Allied landings.

See also

In Spanish: Muro atlántico para niños