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Rommel wanted panzer divisions deployed at likely landing sites in Normandy to repulse invaders before they established a beachhead and were reinforced. Rommel-in charge of Army Group B under Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, German commander in chief in the West-laced beaches there with mines as well as obstructions that would force landing craft to disgorge troops at low tide, leaving them more exposed to enemy fire. German commanders did not ignore the potential threat to Normandy.
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Hitler later entrusted Rommel with defense of France’s channel coast, where, as D-Day dawned, he and Montgomery once again faced one another as the war’s dramatic endgame began.
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Second in command was Britain’s Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, who defeated German forces, under the command of Erwin Rommel, in North Africa, a major turning point of the war. In addition to a formidable military record, the future 34th president of the United States inspired his troops with his warmth and rousing addresses. Eisenhower, appointed supreme commander in Europe the year before. The Allies' meticulous plans to invade Normandy in 1944 were overseen by Dwight D. (See also: Excerpt: Rare World War II maps reveal Japan's Pearl Harbor strategy.) But when Eisenhower and Montgomery arrived in London in early 1944 to serve respectively as supreme commander and field commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force destined for Normandy, they altered the invasion plan based on amphibious operations in Italy. Their original plan, drawn up in strict secrecy, called for three divisions to come ashore on a narrow front on D-Day. Morgan and staff decided instead to land on the coast of Normandy, which lay farther from Germany but was less heavily fortified. The shortest route to Germany lay across the Strait of Dover (Pas-de-Calais), but landing around Calais meant attacking the strongest sector of the Atlantic Wall. Frederick Morgan debated where to pierce the Atlantic Wall, German coastal fortifications extending from Norway to the southwest coast of France. Planning for Operation Overlord began in London more than a year before the invasion took place.