Atlantic Wall: The Massive Nazi Coastal Defense System

  To begin, the Atlantic Wall was constructed in the early 1940s, during the height of World War II. The German Army began building the wall in response to the Allied invasion of Normandy, which occurred in 1944. The wall was constructed along the western coast of Europe, stretching from the northern tip of Norway all the way to the Spanish border. The purpose of the wall was to prevent an Allied invasion, which was expected to come from the west. The construction of the Atlantic Wall was a massive engineering feat. The wall was made up of a series of bunkers, pillboxes, and other defensive fortifications. The bunkers were constructed using reinforced concrete and were designed to withstand direct hits from enemy artillery. The pillboxes were designed to provide cover for machine gunners and other defenders, and they were strategically placed along the coast to provide overlapping fields of fire. Despite the massive effort put into the construction of the Atlantic Wall, it proved to be