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==== Why Normandy? ====

Normandy was not a port city, thereby making a great amphibious invasion cumbersome and problematic. Cherbourg and Le Havre, west and east of Normandy respectively, were considered and quickly declined as options for the invasion. Although these were port cities and thus would have facilitated the landings, these very reasons made them obvious choices, thereby affording Germany to mount an impregnable defense. Another accommodating site was Pas de Calais as it was just twenty miles from the coast of England. This is where the Germans expected the landing to take place and amassed defenses on the beaches of Calais accordingly. The Allies discovered this through their decoding system known as Ultra and used this knowledge to their advantage. The German commanders, except Hitler, did not consider Normandy a feasible site as it lacked ports to accommodate landings and create a supply line. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of all German forces in Western Europe, and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was the ground forces leader, both believed Calais was the target.

Field Marshal Rommel took nothing for granted and ordered the build-up of an Atlantic Wall at every possible landing spot. Rommel’s plan exhausted an immense amount of resources, including more than four million mines that were set all along the beaches of France. Bunkers and casements housing .155mm guns were constructed. Most importantly, Rommel ordered the placement of numerous underwater obstacles, realizing that in order to avoid the obstructions, the Allies must land at low tide. This enabled Germany to calculate the time of the invasion as low tide occurred at dawn only a few days each month.<ref>Lyons, 248-49. For a detailed reading on Rommel’s defensive plans, see Samuel W. Mitchum, ''The Desert Fox in Normandy: Rommel’s Defense of Fortress Europe'' (Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood, 1996).</ref>

Rommel and Rundstedt were satisfied with their defenses and were still certain Calais was to be the invasion site. Hitler, however, continued to focus on Normandy, so as to appease him, the two commanders added defensive reinforcements at Normandy. Rundstedt and Rommel had several disagreements in strategy and tactics, the most grievous for the German Army was Rundstedt’s decision to overrule Rommel’s plan to keep tanks and reserve troops close to the beaches. Rommel strategized that it was most pragmatic to halt the Allied advance immediately on the beach while Rundstedt felt the defenses were adequate and that the armor and soldiers would be most effective if held in reserve. This proved to be a great error on the part of Rundstedt as the divisions deployed on the beaches were second-rate with little experience. Reinforcements with armor may have halted the invading troops. An additional problem for the German Army was that the Allied forces controlled the airspace along the coast of France affording them air cover for the invasion.