Rommel's asparagus

Wooden poles set in France in 1944 to cause damage to military gliders and to kill or injure glider infantry

Rommel's asparagus (German: Rommelspargel - the German word Spargel means '"asparagus"; German pronunciation: [ˈʁɔml̩ˌʃpaʁɡl̩] ⓘ) were 4-to-5-metre (13 to 16 ft) logs which the Axis placed in the fields and meadows of Normandy to cause damage to the expected invasion of Allied military gliders and paratroopers. Also known in German as Holzpfähle ("wooden poles"), the wooden defenders were placed in early 1944 in coastal areas of France and the Netherlands against airlanding infantry. Rommelspargel took their name from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who ordered their design and usage;[1] 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.[2] Later, in the French Riviera, only about 300 Allied casualties were attributed[by whom?] to the tactic. These casualties could have been caused immediately or over time from trauma to the brain, organs, infection, etc.[citation needed]

Rommel's asparagus refers specifically to wooden poles used against aerial invasion.[3] The term has also been used[4] to describe wooden logs set into the beaches of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean to disrupt amphibious landings of troops. Testing found these wooden defenses too weak to stop boats, and they were largely abandoned in favor of Hemmbalken ("obstruction beams") and other beach defenses.[3]

  1. ^ Hymoff, Edward (1972). The OSS in World War II. New York: Ballantine Books. p. 351. ISBN 978-0-345-02882-2.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ambrose221 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Whitlock, Flint (2004). The fighting first: the untold story of the Big Red One on D-day. Boulder, Col.: Westview Press. pp. 93–107. ISBN 978-0-8133-4218-4.
  4. ^ Surviving a WW2 minefield was a tough ask (Podcast). Little Dot Studios Network. 2023-10-21. Event occurs at 0:06.