rmany was through the Pas-de-Calais coast and the open tank country beyond; however, that is where the Germans had concentrated most of their forces in France and had the strongest set of fortifications. The COSSAC allied planning team in London recommended that the assault be centered on Normandy even before Gen. Dwight Eisenhower arrived in London on January 15, 1944 to take up his duties as Supreme Commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). COSSAC determined that the Normandy beaches could handle Allied armor. Its principal reason for favoring Normandy as the point of attack was the element of surprise.
In order, however, for the invasion to succeed, the Germans, whose land forces in the Northwest Europe (59 divisions, including 53 in France), had to be kept in the dark and misled through a grand scheme of deception called Operation Fortitude as to where, as well as when, the invasion was coming. Ambrose says that "the greatest advantages of Calvados [Normandy] were that surp
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