Fortress Europe DVD Review by Blaine Taylor

There is perhaps no other pivotal event of the Second World War that has been more covered in Western movies and television programs than the Allied invasion of France known simply as "D-Day," and yet most of it is from the Allied attackers' view, and not from that of the German defenders. Now comes this spectacular collection of wartime German newsreels of the years and months of preparations leading up to the assault, as well as rare combat footage of the resulting Battle of Normandy as the Germans themselves both waged it and photographed it.

Here is Field Marshal Erwin Rommel giving a last-minute pep talk to his troops about to man the bunkers, tunnels, gun emplacements, and other fortifications that were designed to stop the Allies cold at the water's edge. After the much-vaunted Atlantic Wall was breached, there followed three months of intensive, bloody combat of the Allies against some of the more elite formations of the German military, including the Waffen/Armed SS and the super elite Hitler Youth SS Division. Truly, the road to Paris was no cakewalk, as presented here in unequalled vivid, grainy, you-are-there combat footage that is the most real and gripping visual images you will ever see anywhere.

What was it really like to face and fight the greatest amphibious invasion ever launched? Here you will see the answer in the best collection of footage known.