German Defences 1944

As it became increasingly obvious that the Allies were planning a large scale offensive against mainland Europe, the Germans had to try to bolster their defences on the western front. The eastern front was still using resources at an unprecedented rate as the Red Army gathered momentum, so extra fighting capacity for the western front had to be sourced mainly from occupied territories and units that were not fully trained. By D-Day on 6 June the Germans had managed to amass a considerable force of 59 divisions across western Europe in anticipation of the Allied invasion. They did not know where the landings would take place so had to try to spread their forces reasonably evenly to cover a number of eventualities. German forces were stationed mainly around the coastal defences as Field Marshall Rommel believed that their best hope was to repel the attack before it gained any ground.