Rommelspargel
Encyclopedia
Rommelspargel were 13 to 16 ft (4 to 4.9 ) logs that were placed in the fields and meadows of Normandy
to cause damage to the expected invasion of Allied
military glider
s and paratrooper
s. Also known in German
as Holzpfähle ("wooden poles"), the wooden defenses were placed in early 1944 in coastal areas of France and Holland against airlanding infantry. Rommelspargel were named after Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
who ordered their design and usage; Rommel himself called the defensive concept Luftlandehindernis ("Air-landing obstacle").
Though Rommel's forces placed more than a million wooden poles in fields, their effect on the invasion of Normandy was inconsequential. Later, in the French Riviera
, only about 300 Allied casualties were attributed to the tactic.
Rommelspargel refers specifically to wooden poles used against aerial invasion. The term has also been used to describe wooden logs set into the beaches of the English Channel
and the Atlantic Ocean to disrupt amphibious landings of troops. These wooden defenses were tested and found to be too weak to stop boats, and were largely abandoned in favor of Hemmbalken ("obstruction beams") and other beach defenses.
in occupied France. He also took control of the Atlantic Wall
defenses on the French coasts facing the United Kingdom and during a tour of anti-invasion fortifications Rommel concluded that the defenses would have to be improved, and quickly. He ordered millions of wooden tree trunks and logs to be set against airborne forces
. Barbed wire and tripwire
s were to be strung between the poles. On plans that Rommel sent to his subordinates, the complete system of wooden poles and interconnecting wires was called Luftlandehindernis.
Along inland fields and meadows where enemy gliders could land, Rommel specified that 6 inch diameter wooden poles were to be set into the ground such that some 8–12 feet (3–4 m) of the pole would project upward. In every 0.4 square miles (1 km²) there would be placed approximately 1,000 such defenses. The wooden poles were to be made from tree trunks or very thick tree branches. The tops of the poles were often connected by tripwires, and every third log carried a mine
or hand grenade
on top. Not only were tree trunks used as poles but steel rails
were put to the same purpose in some locations.
Air-landing obstacles were not the only tactic Rommel used against aerial invaders. Rommel ordered the flooding of some fields so that glider troops and paratroops landing in the water would drown. He ordered machine gun crews to cover the exits of fields that were bounded by bocage
—tall, dense hedgerows—so that glider infantry and paratroopers would come under fire as they moved out of their landing area. The bocage hedgerows themselves were the worse hazard to safe glider landings, and caused more glider casualties than Rommelspargel.
Rommel reported after an inspection tour in April 1944 that "The construction of anti-paratroop obstacles has made great progress in many divisions. For example, one division alone has erected almost 300,000 stakes, and one corps over 900,000." Rommel emphasized that "Erecting stakes alone does not make the obstacles complete; the stakes must be wired together and shells and mines attached to them... It will still be possible for tethered cattle to pasture underneath these mined obstacles."
, in charge of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force
that would be conducting air operations during the invasion of Europe, studied the threat and projected glider troops taking as much as 70% casualties from all sources, primarily from the wooden poles. However, Allied leaders noticed that German planners appeared to expect airborne landings to be carried out relatively far from the beaches. In response, invasion plans concentrated most landings near the beaches where fewer fields were planted with Rommelspargel.
Most of the Allied contact with Rommelspargel in Normandy was by British airborne forces. During Operation Tonga
, the British airborne invasion of Normandy, Airspeed Horsa
gliders landed among the wooden poles and suffered casualties. Some of the gliders were wrecked near Sainte-Mère-Église
where Americans parachutists had also landed. Where encountered, British forces blew up the logs with dynamite and cleared landing fields for reinforcements.
On June 6, 1944, and afterward, most of the American airborne landings in Normandy
were flown into areas that were not studded with Rommelspargel. Some flights, however, came up hard against the defense. Accompanying the 82nd Airborne Division, Tito Moruzo landed on D-Day with orders to don civilian clothing and make his way to Paris to seize Gestapo
papers. His glider hit a wooden pole defense which tore into the three soldiers sitting next to him, mortally wounding them. More casualties were inflicted during delivery of glider infantry reinforcements when some 16–18 gliders landed in a field of Rommelspargel and the troops that crawled from the wrecked gliders were immediately targeted by German small arms fire. Of 250 troops landing, some 50–60 survived.
Once Allied troops were on the ground, some German units used the Rommelspargel for defense, by cutting them down and using the logs to reinforce impromptu positions. Sturmmann Karl Vasold of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
described how his unit dug in under fire in a tank trench and foxholes on the road from Buron
to Villons-les-Buissons
, and used cut-down Rommelspargel poles to cover their positions and protect them from enemy fire.
was put in command of the French Riviera, where it was expected that the Allies would conduct an invasion of Vichy France
. Wiese ordered Rommelspargel planted in vineyards and fields from Nice to Marseille
. On August 15, Allied paratroopers and gliders of General Robert T. Frederick
's mixed-nationality 1st Airborne Task Force landed in Operation Dragoon
. One of the constituent units, the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion, dropped on Draguignan
, 26 miles (42 km) from the coast. Some gliders were wrecked by Rommelspargel but more were destroyed by other obstacles such as trees, and by gliders landing atop one another. An officer in the 551st, Major "Pappy" Herrmann, saw the damage inflicted upon the gliders by the wooden poles and concluded for himself "I'll stick to parachutes."
In total, the wooden stakes caused about 300 casualties in the 1st Airborne Task Force.
were being built upon the beaches of Belgium and France. On February 3, 1944 during a visit to the beach at Neufchâtel-Hardelot
, Rommel was shown a method by which local troops employed a high pressure water hose to quickly create a hole in beach sand, one which could be used to set high wooden stakes (Hochpfähle) into the beach as an obstacle to landing craft
. The water hose method took three minutes, fifteen times faster than using a pile driver
. Rommel ordered such methods to be used to place wooden beams, metal rails and other obstructions along the beaches of Normandy. Nearly 11,000 were emplaced in the south part of Normandy's coastline where the Allies would eventually land.
However, a test against the wooden stakes in mid-February showed them to be too weak to stop a captured British landing craft. As a result, a stronger design was contrived using a larger beam set at an angle and reinforced with other thick beams, most topped with a Teller mine
. The more robust obstacles were called Hemmbalken, or "obstruction beams". The original upright beams were left in place – some were topped with mines for greater effectiveness. The Hochpfähle have sometimes been called "Rommel's asparagus" or Rommelspargel for their close resemblance to the air-landing obstructions.
U.S. Navy Commander Edward Ellsberg
said of the various Atlantic Wall obstacles, "Rommel had thoroughly muddled our plans. Attacking at high tide as we had intended, we'd never get enough troops in over those obstacles..." Instead, the Allies landed at low tide which uncovered and revealed the obstacles, greatly reducing their effectiveness.
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
to cause damage to the expected invasion of Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
military glider
Military glider
Military gliders have been used by the military of various countries for carrying troops and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft were towed into the air and most of the way to their target by military transport planes, e.g...
s and paratrooper
Paratrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
s. Also known in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
as Holzpfähle ("wooden poles"), the wooden defenses were placed in early 1944 in coastal areas of France and Holland against airlanding infantry. Rommelspargel were named after Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
who ordered their design and usage; Rommel himself called the defensive concept Luftlandehindernis ("Air-landing obstacle").
Though Rommel's forces placed more than a million wooden poles in fields, their effect on the invasion of Normandy was inconsequential. Later, in the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
, only about 300 Allied casualties were attributed to the tactic.
Rommelspargel refers specifically to wooden poles used against aerial invasion. The term has also been used to describe wooden logs set into the beaches of the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
and the Atlantic Ocean to disrupt amphibious landings of troops. These wooden defenses were tested and found to be too weak to stop boats, and were largely abandoned in favor of Hemmbalken ("obstruction beams") and other beach defenses.
Design and development
In November 1943, Rommel took command of the German Army Group BArmy Group B
Army Group B was the name of three different German Army Groups that saw action during World War II.-Battle for France:The first was involved in the Western Campaign in 1940 in Belgium and the Netherlands which was to be aimed to conquer the Maas bridges after the German airborne actions in Rotterdam...
in occupied France. He also took control of the Atlantic Wall
Atlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain.-History:On March 23, 1942 Führer Directive Number 40...
defenses on the French coasts facing the United Kingdom and during a tour of anti-invasion fortifications Rommel concluded that the defenses would have to be improved, and quickly. He ordered millions of wooden tree trunks and logs to be set against airborne forces
Airborne forces
Airborne forces are military units, usually light infantry, set up to be moved by aircraft and 'dropped' into battle. Thus they can be placed behind enemy lines, and have an ability to deploy almost anywhere with little warning...
. Barbed wire and tripwire
Tripwire
A tripwire is a passive triggering mechanism. Typically, a wire or cord is attached to some device for detecting or reacting to physical movement...
s were to be strung between the poles. On plans that Rommel sent to his subordinates, the complete system of wooden poles and interconnecting wires was called Luftlandehindernis.
Along inland fields and meadows where enemy gliders could land, Rommel specified that 6 inch diameter wooden poles were to be set into the ground such that some 8–12 feet (3–4 m) of the pole would project upward. In every 0.4 square miles (1 km²) there would be placed approximately 1,000 such defenses. The wooden poles were to be made from tree trunks or very thick tree branches. The tops of the poles were often connected by tripwires, and every third log carried a mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
or hand grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...
on top. Not only were tree trunks used as poles but steel rails
Rail tracks
The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast , plus the underlying subgrade...
were put to the same purpose in some locations.
Air-landing obstacles were not the only tactic Rommel used against aerial invaders. Rommel ordered the flooding of some fields so that glider troops and paratroops landing in the water would drown. He ordered machine gun crews to cover the exits of fields that were bounded by bocage
Bocage
Bocage is a Norman word which has entered both the French and English languages. It may refer to a small forest, a decorative element of leaves, a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, or a type of rubble-work, comparable with the English use of 'rustic' in relation to garden...
—tall, dense hedgerows—so that glider infantry and paratroopers would come under fire as they moved out of their landing area. The bocage hedgerows themselves were the worse hazard to safe glider landings, and caused more glider casualties than Rommelspargel.
Rommel reported after an inspection tour in April 1944 that "The construction of anti-paratroop obstacles has made great progress in many divisions. For example, one division alone has erected almost 300,000 stakes, and one corps over 900,000." Rommel emphasized that "Erecting stakes alone does not make the obstacles complete; the stakes must be wired together and shells and mines attached to them... It will still be possible for tethered cattle to pasture underneath these mined obstacles."
Normandy invasion
From February 1944, Allied reconnaissance showed the growing presence of Rommelspargel in landing fields, placed about 75 to 100 ft (22.9 to 30.5 ) apart. Commander-in-Chief Trafford Leigh-MalloryTrafford Leigh-Mallory
Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory KCB, DSO & Bar was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. Leigh-Mallory served as a Royal Flying Corps pilot and squadron commander during World War I...
, in charge of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force
Allied Expeditionary Air Force
The Allied Expeditionary Air Force was a component of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force which controlled the tactical air power of the Allied forces during Operation Overlord.Its effectiveness was less than optimal on two counts...
that would be conducting air operations during the invasion of Europe, studied the threat and projected glider troops taking as much as 70% casualties from all sources, primarily from the wooden poles. However, Allied leaders noticed that German planners appeared to expect airborne landings to be carried out relatively far from the beaches. In response, invasion plans concentrated most landings near the beaches where fewer fields were planted with Rommelspargel.
Most of the Allied contact with Rommelspargel in Normandy was by British airborne forces. During Operation Tonga
Operation Tonga
Operation Tonga was the codename given to the airborne operation undertaken by the British 6th Airborne Division between 5 June and 7 June 1944 as a part of Operation Overlord and the Normandy Landings during the Second World War....
, the British airborne invasion of Normandy, Airspeed Horsa
Airspeed Horsa
The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British World War II troop-carrying glider built by Airspeed Limited and subcontractors and used for air assault by British and Allied armed forces...
gliders landed among the wooden poles and suffered casualties. Some of the gliders were wrecked near Sainte-Mère-Église
Sainte-Mère-Église
Sainte-Mère-Église is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.-History:Founded in the eleventh Century, the earliest records include the name Sancte Marie Ecclesia, Latin for "Church of St. Mary", while a later document written in Norman-French mentions Saincte...
where Americans parachutists had also landed. Where encountered, British forces blew up the logs with dynamite and cleared landing fields for reinforcements.
On June 6, 1944, and afterward, most of the American airborne landings in Normandy
American airborne landings in Normandy
The American airborne landings in Normandy were the first United States combat operations during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy by the Western Allies on June 6, 1944. Around 13,100 paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions made night parachute drops early on...
were flown into areas that were not studded with Rommelspargel. Some flights, however, came up hard against the defense. Accompanying the 82nd Airborne Division, Tito Moruzo landed on D-Day with orders to don civilian clothing and make his way to Paris to seize Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
papers. His glider hit a wooden pole defense which tore into the three soldiers sitting next to him, mortally wounding them. More casualties were inflicted during delivery of glider infantry reinforcements when some 16–18 gliders landed in a field of Rommelspargel and the troops that crawled from the wrecked gliders were immediately targeted by German small arms fire. Of 250 troops landing, some 50–60 survived.
Once Allied troops were on the ground, some German units used the Rommelspargel for defense, by cutting them down and using the logs to reinforce impromptu positions. Sturmmann Karl Vasold of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was a German Waffen SS armoured division during World War II. The Hitlerjugend was unique because the majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were generally veterans of the Eastern...
described how his unit dug in under fire in a tank trench and foxholes on the road from Buron
Buron
Buron is a village in France near Caen, in the communes of Saint-Contest and Cairon .It was the site of two major battles, one on June 7, 1944, and another during Operation Charnwood on July 8, 1944 when the Highland Light Infantry of Canada liberated the town from defending elements of the 12th SS...
to Villons-les-Buissons
Villons-les-Buissons
-References:*...
, and used cut-down Rommelspargel poles to cover their positions and protect them from enemy fire.
Southern France
On June 29, 1944, German General of Infantry Friedrich WieseFriedrich Wiese
Friedrich Wiese was a German general who commanded the 19. Armee during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...
was put in command of the French Riviera, where it was expected that the Allies would conduct an invasion of Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
. Wiese ordered Rommelspargel planted in vineyards and fields from Nice to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. On August 15, Allied paratroopers and gliders of General Robert T. Frederick
Robert T. Frederick
Robert Tryon Frederick was a highly decorated American combat commander during World War II, who commanded the 1st Special Service Force, the 1st Airborne Task Force and the 45th Infantry Division.-Career:...
's mixed-nationality 1st Airborne Task Force landed in Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...
. One of the constituent units, the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion, dropped on Draguignan
Draguignan
Draguignan is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in southeastern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of Artillery" and "Porte du Verdon".The city is only from St...
, 26 miles (42 km) from the coast. Some gliders were wrecked by Rommelspargel but more were destroyed by other obstacles such as trees, and by gliders landing atop one another. An officer in the 551st, Major "Pappy" Herrmann, saw the damage inflicted upon the gliders by the wooden poles and concluded for himself "I'll stick to parachutes."
In total, the wooden stakes caused about 300 casualties in the 1st Airborne Task Force.
Atlantic Wall defenses
Before Rommel was assigned defense of the Atlantic Wall, obstacles to amphibious landingAmphibious warfare
Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain...
were being built upon the beaches of Belgium and France. On February 3, 1944 during a visit to the beach at Neufchâtel-Hardelot
Neufchâtel-Hardelot
Neufchâtel-Hardelot is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Neufchâtel-Hardelot is a farming and tourist town of forests, golf courses and beaches, situated some south of Boulogne, at the junction of the D940, D308 and D215 roads...
, Rommel was shown a method by which local troops employed a high pressure water hose to quickly create a hole in beach sand, one which could be used to set high wooden stakes (Hochpfähle) into the beach as an obstacle to landing craft
Landing craft
Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...
. The water hose method took three minutes, fifteen times faster than using a pile driver
Pile driver
A pile driver is a mechanical device used to drive piles into soil to provide foundation support for buildings or other structures. The term is also used in reference to members of the construction crew that work with pile-driving rigs....
. Rommel ordered such methods to be used to place wooden beams, metal rails and other obstructions along the beaches of Normandy. Nearly 11,000 were emplaced in the south part of Normandy's coastline where the Allies would eventually land.
However, a test against the wooden stakes in mid-February showed them to be too weak to stop a captured British landing craft. As a result, a stronger design was contrived using a larger beam set at an angle and reinforced with other thick beams, most topped with a Teller mine
Teller mine
The Teller mine was a German-made antitank mine common in World War II. With explosives sealed inside a sheet metal casing and fitted with a pressure-actuated fuze, Teller mines had a built-in carrying handle on the side. As the name suggests the mines were plate-shaped...
. The more robust obstacles were called Hemmbalken, or "obstruction beams". The original upright beams were left in place – some were topped with mines for greater effectiveness. The Hochpfähle have sometimes been called "Rommel's asparagus" or Rommelspargel for their close resemblance to the air-landing obstructions.
U.S. Navy Commander Edward Ellsberg
Edward Ellsberg
Rear Admiral Edward Ellsberg, OBE was an officer in the United States Navy and a popular author. He was widely known as "Commander Ellsberg."-Early years:...
said of the various Atlantic Wall obstacles, "Rommel had thoroughly muddled our plans. Attacking at high tide as we had intended, we'd never get enough troops in over those obstacles..." Instead, the Allies landed at low tide which uncovered and revealed the obstacles, greatly reducing their effectiveness.