These Expensive Military Decisions Were A Total Waste of Money

Money 8/4/19

Hitler’s Atlantic Wall Got Obliterated In One Day

In 1942, Adolph Hitler predicted that the Allied Forces would invade his French territory. To prevent future invasions, Hitler commissioned a 2,000-foot-long wall filled with guns, tank traps, and other obstacles. The “Atlantic Wall” would have been the most impressive engineering feat ever conceived if it worked.

The Nazi propaganda image shows German Wehrmacht soldiers on the Atlantic Wall
Berliner Verlag/Archiv/picture alliance via Getty Images
Berliner Verlag/Archiv/picture alliance via Getty Images

To start, Hitler wanted the Atlantic Wall finished within a year; it took two years to build. He bought 1.2 millions tons of steel, enough to build 20,000 tanks. Around 25,000 Germans worked on the wall, and the entire endeavor cost $200 billion in today’s money. The Atlantic Wall ended up scattered and unstable, and even Hitler’s generals weren’t impressed. The wall fell within a day.