3. Allied Deception Campaigns Succeeded in Weakening German Defenses in Normandy
Germany built the ‘Atlantic Wall’, a series of fortifications along the coast of Scandinavia and continental Europe as a defense against the anticipated Allied invasion that materialized on June 6, 1944.
These defenses were often insufficiently manned. The Allied forces ran a series of deception campaigns that succeeded as late as July 1944 in persuading the Germans that the main invasion was yet to come. It would land somewhere else. The anticipation of larger invasion kept the Germans shaken, and their reinforcements tied down away from Normandy, weakening their defense of that coastal region.
