What’s going on behind the German defenses?
Rommel bases his anti-invasion plans on stand behind the Atlantic Wall
No new, ‘secret’ weapons are expected to be used
By Nat A. Barrows
How tough an opposition will our invading forces encounter when they land in Western Europe? What is really going on behind Hitler’s Atlantic Wall? From his observation post in neighboring Sweden, Nat Barrows has been collecting closely guarded information about Germany’s ability and willingness to cope with the titanic forces assembled in England for Allied victory. In a most important series of articles, of which the following is the third, Mr. Barrows reveals many hitherto unknown facts about the men directing the German war effort, Germany’s heavy industry, and other hitherto undisclosed information about the German war machine.
Stockholm, Sweden –
Inside the Atlantic Wall, hourly rechecking anti-invasion preparations for his one million fighting men, strung from North Norway to the Bay of Biscay, in more than 45,000 fortifications, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is ready for battle.
First of all, when the excited warning “Achtung!.. Achtung!” (Attention! Attention!) summons the Atlantic Wall defenders into action, Germany’s anti-invasion supreme commander is prepared to face an Allied breakthrough as a matter of course.
Rommel knows that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s infantrymen can – and will – infiltrate behind the wall, blasting their path with heavy demolition charges and massed air cover while large sections of his 200,000 “write-off” troops in France fight delaying actions.
Rommel bases his plans behind the line. That is where the real battle will be fought. That is where the Allied must build up and consolidate local superiority as soon as possible.
Rommel’s plans
Briefly, Rommel and his anti-invasion staff base their hopes for success on four main points:
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On the decisive smashing of our main bridgeheads.
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On counterattack within a definitely limited period: that is, before we have had time to establish local superiority.
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On the Nazis’ ability to keep their supply lines open.
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On the general toughness and equipment of the shock troops deployed behind the wall.
It is mere foolishness to think of German troops as demoralized. Many of Rommel’s first-line soldiers – 50 divisions, in fact – recently have been under fire on the Eastern Front; all are tough, fanatical, ruthless and utterly determined to give their lives to prevent the Allies from reaching Germany.
Their nerves, naturally enough, are at high pitch under the strain of waiting week after week, but, judging from the thoroughly reliable information leaking into Sweden from pro-Allied sympathizers, they will fight as Germans never fought before.
What of weapons?
What weapons will Rommel’s troops use against us? Not on authentic fact from inside the Atlantic Wall has reached me to show that the Germans actually have any secret weapons other than what we have already seen and publicized: the “Goliath” robot tank, the robot plane, and rocket gun.
The Germans, instead, appear to be putting their faith on improved versions of types already existing such as motorized infantry… 88mm anti-tank guns… the 62-ton Tiger “battleship tank” with its four-inch armored turret and 1¾-inch armored hull… six-barreled artificial fog-throwers… 8cm mortars, or Panzerwerfer mounted on armored chassis.
The Germans will go into battle against us with at least three new types of motorized artillery. These are the Bumblebee, Hornet and Wasp, rapid-firing field guns mounted on Tiger or Mark IV tank chassis and varying in caliber from four to six inches.
The German air picture is something else again. The Luftwaffe today is like a bright red apple rotten at the core. Any sound air force should have a working minimum of 100% reserve backing up its first-line fighting strength. But Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring has been forced to use his reserves until today he has only a little more than 1,000 combat aircraft in reserve.
Nazis lack planes
German first-line aircraft, excluding trainers and transports, today number in round figures 5,000 planes, divided as follows: 3,000 fighters, 1,500 bombers and 500 reconnaissance machines. Göring has concentrated three0quarters of his fighter strength in the west – about 2,250 planes. Most of his medium bombers are there also.
At no time since the war began have the Germans had fewer aircraft on the Russian front.
Anglo-American bombing raids in the past three months have taken a toll of 20%, 30% and in some instances as high as 50% more fighter aircraft, either in factories or in combat, than the Germans are able to replace. Nazi production figures show hardly more than 1,650 planes of all types a month.
Another hopeful sign for the Allies is the lack of trained crew reserves. Training at present is completely inadequate, a matter of only 11 or 12 months. This is fully 25% less time than the Allied training period.
German aerial engineers apparently will not put any secret airplanes into the invasion battle against us. In the past six months, they have developed several new designs such as the Focke-Wulf “Midget,” a night fighter of great firepower and maneuverability, and a two-engined Messerschmitt.
It can be doubted if any of these planes are yet being produced in large numbers.
Luftwaffe weakened
From all facts available, it would seem that the Luftwaffe has nothing beyond improved types of planes already familiar to the Royal Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force combatmen, such as the Fw 190, A and B… the Me 110 and 210… the Hs 129 ground strafer… the Ju 87, the so-called panzer Brecher with its two 3.7 anti-tank guns… and the Me 410 light bomber-fighter.
The Luftwaffe definitely has a strong first-line fighter force but decreasing production and utterly inadequate reserves make it impossible to undertake anything like a long operation involving heavy losses.
Probably the first German force to crack after D-Day will be the Luftwaffe.
Finally, what about oil stocks inside the Atlantic Wall?
Even with an estimated 20% drop in production at Ploești following the USAF raids, the Third Reich still has eight million tons in reserve, I learn from a confidential source. For a short-term policy this is enough.
More oil needed
But the Reichswehr’s oil consumption for 1943 – 15 million tons – will jump astronomically once the Allied invasion begins – to take only one Nazi fighting unit.
In 1943, the Germans got five million tons from Ploești and one and a half million tons from other European wells. The remainder, eight and a half million tons, came from synthetic oil plants of IG Farben.
And so, Rommel waits and listens and polishes his plan of counterattack. He knows that his Atlantic Wall forts can be breached: the Red Army troops taught the Germans that before Leningrad, when they smashed through concrete and steel forts of exactly the same thickness as those of the Atlantic Wall.
He knows that the ventilation system inside the wall forts can cause serious trouble; that lucky hits by Allied naval guns and aerial bombers might disable the forced draft system and suffocate many of his men.
So, he centers his plans around and behind the line of major engagements – and waits… and waits.
TOMORROW: The story “inside Germany” is recounted by Mr. Barrows.