What if D-Day was a complete failure? In the alternate history novel, and HBO
miniseries, Fatherland, Nazi Germany wins World War II by defeating the
Allies on the beaches of Normandy. That was what Erwin Rommel, the famed
"Desert Fox," wanted. In order to do that, he'd needed German tanks to move
toward the Normandy beaches in a timely fashion. They didn't because the tanks weren't under his command. They were under Hitler's and Hitler, on June
6, 1944, was still asleep. Nobody wanted to wake him up. He didn't wake up until late on the morning of D-Day, about 10 or 11 a.m., and by the time he'd
authorized the tanks to move on the Normandy beaches, it was too late.
The Allies were already ashore. Of course, Rommel, himself, wasn't in Normandy. June 6, 1944, was his wife's birthday and he'd brought her a present from France. A pair of French shoes. What if Rommel was in Normandy on D-Day? What if Hitler had authorized the use of tanks when the
Allies were on the beach?