Rommel's asparagus

Common card · No. 406867

Rommel's asparagus (German: Rommelspargel; German pronunciation: [ˈʁɔml̩ˌʃpaʁɡl̩] ) or Holzpfähle ("wooden poles") were wooden poles erected in early 1944 by Axis forces in coastal areas of France and the Netherlands as defenses against Allied military gliders and paratroopers. The 4-to-5-metre (13 to 16 ft) logs were called Rommelspargel after Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who ordered their design and use; he called the defensive concept Luftlandehindernis ("air-landing obstacle"). Rommel's forces placed more than a million wooden poles in fields, but their effect on the invasion of Normandy was inconsequential. Later, in the French Riviera, only about 300 Allied casualties were attributed to the tactic. These casualties could have been caused immediately or over time from trauma to the brain, organs, infection, etc. Rommel's asparagus 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...

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