Field Marshal Rommel and Field Marshal von Rundstedt fundamentally disagreed on the best way to defeat any invasion by the Western Allies. Rommel believed that the only way to defeat an invasion was to counterattack the beaches as early as possible with armour, and wanted at least some armour placed close enough to the beaches to deliver an immediate counterattack. Von Rundstedt and General Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, the commander of Panzer Group West, favoured concentrating the Panzer Divisions further inland so that the primary enemy line of advance could be determined. Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, the Inspector General of Armoured Troops, supported this later view.
This debate reflected the differing experiences in the war between the key decision-makers. Both von Rundstedt and Guderian had gained the bulk of their command experience when the Luftwaffe controlled the skies over the battlefield or, in the vast expanses of the Eastern Front, where neither side was able to claim air superiority over the entire front. Rommel on the other hand had gained his experiences in the Western Desert Campaign under a decidedly unfavourable air power disparity. Von Rundstedt and Guderian apparently never considered Allied airpower in terms of the Luftwaffe's heyday in 1939–1941, of which Allied air power was now several times greater. Rommel however, knew the stark reality of the Allied tactical bombers' capabilities. In attempting to resolve the dispute Hitler split the available Panzer Divisions in northern France and allocated three directly to Rommel’s Army Group B. The remaining three were placed a good distance back from the beaches and could not be released without the direct approval of Hitler's operations staff.
The air defences of the French coast along the English Channel comprised of just 169 fighter aircraft, as the airfields in northern France had been seriously pummelled by incessant Anglo-American air attacks. Fighter cover in the event of an invasion was therefore to be augmented by aircraft sent from Germany.
