Rommelspargel Rommelspargel ( " Rommel ' s asparagus " ) were logs that were placed in the fields and meadows of Normandy to cause damage to the expected invasion of Allied military glider s and paratrooper s . Also known in German as Holzpfähle ( " wooden poles " ) , the wooden defenses were placed in early 1944 in coastal areas of France and Holland against airlanding infantry . " Rommelspargel " were named after Field Marshal Erwin Rommel who ordered their design and usage ; 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 . Later , in the French Riviera , only about 300 Allied casualties were attributed to the tactic . " Rommelspargel " 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 Channel and the Atlantic Ocean to disrupt amphibious landing s of troops . These wooden defenses were tested and found to be too weak to stop boats , and were largely abandoned in favor of " Hemmbalken " ( " obstruction beams " ) and other beach defenses . Design and development . In November 1943 , Rommel took command of the German Army Group B in occupied France . He also took control of the Atlantic Wall defenses on the French coasts facing the United Kingdom and during a tour of anti - invasion fortifications Rommel concluded that the defenses would have to be improved , and quickly . He ordered millions of wooden tree trunks and logs to be set against airborne forces . Barbed wire and tripwire s were to be strung between the poles . On plans that Rommel sent to his subordinates , the complete system of wooden poles and interconnecting wires was called " Luftlandehindernis " . Along inland fields and meadows where enemy gliders could land , Rommel specified that diameter wooden poles were to be set into the ground such that some 8 – 12 feet ( 3 – 4 m ) of the pole would project upward . In every there would be placed approximately 1 , 000 such defenses . The wooden poles were to be made from tree trunks or very thick tree branches . The tops of the poles were often connected by tripwires , and every third log carried a mine or hand grenade on top . Not only were tree trunks used as poles but steel rails were put to the same purpose in some locations . Air - landing obstacles were not the only tactic Rommel used against aerial invaders . Rommel ordered the flooding of some fields so that glider troops and paratroops landing in the water would drown . He ordered machine gun crews to cover the exits of fields that were bounded by bocage — tall , dense hedgerows — so that glider infantry and paratroopers would come under fire as they moved out of their landing area . The bocage hedgerows themselves were the worse hazard to safe glider landings , and caused more glider casualties than " Rommelspargel " . Rommel reported after an inspection tour in April 1944 that " The construction of anti - paratroop obstacles has made great progress in many divisions . For example , one division alone has erected almost 300 , 000 stakes , and one corps over 900 , 000 . " Rommel emphasized that " Erecting stakes alone does not make the obstacles complete ; the stakes must be wired together and shells and mines attached to them . . . It will still be possible for tethered cattle to pasture underneath these mined obstacles . " Operational history . Normandy invasion . From February 1944 , Allied reconnaissance showed the growing presence of " Rommelspargel " in landing fields , placed about apart . Commander - in - Chief Trafford Leigh - Mallory , in charge of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force that would be conducting air operations during the invasion of Europe , studied the threat and projected glider troops taking as much as 70 % casualties from all sources , primarily from the wooden poles . However , Allied leaders noticed that German planners appeared to expect airborne landings to be carried out relatively far from the beaches . In response , invasion plans concentrated most landings near the beaches where fewer fields were planted with " Rommelspargel " . Most of the Allied contact with " Rommelspargel " in Normandy was by British airborne forces . During Operation Tonga , the British airborne invasion of Normandy , Airspeed Horsa gliders landed among the wooden poles and suffered casualties . Some of the gliders were wrecked near Sainte - Mère - Église where Americans parachutists had also landed . Where encountered , British forces blew up the logs with dynamite and cleared landing fields for reinforcements . On June 6 , 1944 , and afterward , most of the American airborne landings in Normandy were flown into areas that were not studded with " Rommelspargel " . Some flights , however , came up hard against the defense . Accompanying the 82nd Airborne Division , Tito Moruzo landed on D - Day with orders to don civilian clothing and make his way to Paris to seize Gestapo papers . His glider hit a wooden pole defense which tore into the three soldiers sitting next to him , mortally wounding them . More casualties were inflicted during delivery of glider infantry reinforcements when some 16 – 18 gliders landed in a field of " Rommelspargel " and the troops that crawled from the wrecked gliders were immediately targeted by German small arms fire . Of 250 troops landing , some 50 – 60 survived . Once Allied troops were on the ground , some German units used the " Rommelspargel " for defense , by cutting them down and using the logs to reinforce impromptu positions . " Sturmmann " Karl Vasold of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend described how his unit dug in under fire in a tank trench and foxholes on the road from Buron to Villons - les - Buissons , and used cut - down " Rommelspargel " poles to cover their positions and protect them from enemy fire . Southern France . On June 29 , 1944 , German General of Infantry Friedrich Wiese was put in command of the French Riviera , where it was expected that the Allies would conduct an invasion of Vichy France . Wiese ordered " Rommelspargel " planted in vineyards and fields from Nice to Marseille . On August 15 , Allied paratroopers and gliders of General Robert T . Frederick ' s mixed - nationality 1st Airborne Task Force landed in Operation Dragoon . One of the constituent units , the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion , dropped on Draguignan , from the coast . Some gliders were wrecked by " Rommelspargel " but more were destroyed by other obstacles such as trees , and by gliders landing atop one another . An officer in the 551st , Major " Pappy " Herrmann , saw the damage inflicted upon the gliders by the wooden poles and concluded for himself " I ' ll stick to parachutes . " In total , the wooden stakes caused about 300 casualties in the 1st Airborne Task Force . Atlantic Wall defenses . Before Rommel was assigned defense of the Atlantic Wall , obstacles to amphibious landing were being built upon the beaches of Belgium and France . On February 3 , 1944 during a visit to the beach at Neufchâtel - Hardelot , Rommel was shown a method by which local troops employed a high pressure water hose to quickly create a hole in beach sand , one which could be used to set high wooden stakes ( " Hochpfähle " ) into the beach as an obstacle to landing craft . The water hose method took three minutes , fifteen times faster than using a pile driver . Rommel ordered such methods to be used to place wooden beams , metal rails and other obstructions along the beaches of Normandy . Nearly 11 , 000 were emplaced in the south part of Normandy ' s coastline where the Allies would eventually land . However , a test against the wooden stakes in mid - February showed them to be too weak to stop a captured British landing craft . As a result , a stronger design was contrived using a larger beam set at an angle and reinforced with other thick beams , most topped with a Teller mine . The more robust obstacles were called " Hemmbalken " , or " obstruction beams " . The original upright beams were left in place – some were topped with mines for greater effectiveness . The " Hochpfähle " have sometimes been called " Rommel ' s asparagus " or " Rommelspargel " for their close resemblance to the air - landing obstructions . U . S . Navy Commander Edward Ellsberg said of the various Atlantic Wall obstacles , " Rommel had thoroughly muddled our plans . Attacking at high tide as we had intended , we ' d never get enough troops in over those obstacles . . . " Instead the Allies landed at low tide , which increased the length of the beach to be crossed but uncovered and revealed the obstacles , greatly reducing their effectiveness .