Control of the Atlantic enabled the Allies to carry Britain as a base for the liberation of Europe. On May 10, Adolf Hitler had his forces within the West -- after months of patient preparation -- launch the assault on France by way of the Low Countries and the Ardennes Forest farther to the south, which the Allies had thought impassable by a fashionable military. A couple of weeks later Erhard, acting against orders, issued an edict abolishing many financial controls which had been originally ...