Quote:
Originally Posted by Coolsurfer79
Rommel was alive during D-Day. He was absent due to his wifes birthday.
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Correct. This was very costly considering he was in charge of developing and maintaining the Atlantic Wall. Also lets not forget Calais, Patton had been punished for his slapping of a private who was "shell shocked". As punishment Eiesenhower had him stationed by himself at a diversion base in SE England. Every day he came out of his lodgings and pretended to inspect cardboard and rubber planes/tanks to keep help fool the Germans into thinking Calais was their target. To further this the allies also bombed Calais. Hitler and some of his Generals could not beleive that the Allies would try an assault anywhere without their #1 commander. So Hitler (who took control of the Panzer divisions) had his panzers stationed by Calais instead of Normandy. He also diverted a lot of troops up there despite some of his best Generals argueing other wise.
When the initial assault began on June 6th the Germans were caught almost completely by suprise, and Hitler refused to react immediately. He thought it was a diversion for the real assault coming to Calais. This was a huge factor in the success the allies had on the beaches.