Eisenhower’s verdict was epic in its consequences. Except for Truman’s resolve to strike Hiroshima, no World War II air war decision was more complex or caused more bitterness than Ike’s move to attack the French railway system in advance of the June 6, 1944 Allied landings in Normandy.
Top Allied leaders called it simply “the transportation plan.” Because both attacker and defender were in a race against time, the outcome of the Normandy invasion hinged upon it.
Across the English Channel in France waited Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, nicknamed “Desert Fox.” Hitler personally put him in charge of Army Group B, with orders to push the Allies back into the sea should they manage to put forces ashore.
After years of war with Soviet forces in the east, German forces comprised only 59 divisions in the west. Many of them were of inferior quality, but a few—notably, the Panzer divisions— were filled with Eastern Front veterans and were fearsome. They were the key to German planning; with his forces spread out across France, Rommel had no choice but to stake everything on a quick counterattack with his best units.
