German 709th Infantry Division
▶ Explore on the mapThe 709th Infantry Division was a static coastal formation holding the Cotentin peninsula and the area behind Utah Beach on D-Day. Like the other garrison divisions of the Atlantic Wall, it was made up largely of older men and equipped with captured and obsolescent weapons, and it had little mobility. Its defences were expected to hold the shoreline rather than to manoeuvre against a landing. On 6 June 1944 its positions were pierced around Utah Beach, and in the following weeks it was pushed back northwards as the Americans cut the peninsula. It was heavily engaged in the defence of Cherbourg and was effectively destroyed when the port fell at the end of June, its remnant being absorbed into other formations. The positions shown here are schematic and follow the division's coastal sector from Utah Beach towards Cherbourg. Its rapid destruction showed how brittle the static divisions of the Atlantic Wall were once their shoreline had been pierced.
Sources
- Wikimedia Commons — Charnwood (SVG, by EyeSerene)
- Wikimedia Commons — Operations Greenwood and Pomegranate, Normandy, July 1944 (EN.svg)
- Wikimedia Commons — Operation Tractable (SVG, by EyeSerene)
- Wikipedia — 352nd Infantry Division (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Falaise pocket (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Normandy landings (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikipedia — Operation Overlord (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Related
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