Marching Orders: The Untold Story of How the American Breaking of the Japanese Secret Codes Led to the Defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan

by Bruce Lee

“However,” he says, “as a result of studying the problem, and because of recommendations which have been made by Marshal Rommel, the Germans have now decided that the coastal lines must be held at all cost and that the enemy must not be permitted to set foot on the Continent.… The changes in defense plans are the result of the German experience in Sicily, Salerno and Nettuno. In Rommel’s opinion it was bad strategy to allow the enemy to land because (1) after the British and American forces had obtained a bridgehead, the Germans did not quickly move into action against them, and (2) with superiority in the air, the enemy makes it a rule to pound the rear of the defending forces and that makes impossible a defense in which small units hold the front lines and a large reserve in the rear is used for counterattacks.… It is also considered that it would be very unwise, from a political point of view, to allow the enemy to set foot on the Continent.”