Engineering Fortifications

Though they approached the matter of engineering fortifications with all thoroughness and pedantry, the Germans could not foresee everything that influenced the balance of defensive lines. While they practiced the technologies of making trenches, barbed wire, and dugout shelters until they were practically automatic, the absence of effective, modern methods of making anti-tank hedgehogs gave the Germans a very hard time on the Western Front. However, hedgehogs were used quite effectively in the defence of Normandy.