The Atlantic Wall was a coastal fortification system erected by Germany beginning in 1942, extending from Norway to the Spanish border. In the Normandy sector, it comprised bunker installations, gun emplacements, and obstacles that were attacked and partially heavily damaged during the Allied landing operation of June 6, 1944. Jack Lieb documented such destroyed fortifications as part of his recordings in the immediate aftermath of the landing, which he reached together with units of the 82nd Airborne Division via Utah Beach. The ruins of the bunkers stood in the film as visible evidence of the breakthrough through German coastal defenses.