D-day

D-Day, one of the most important days during World War II, was a pivotal moment that changed an entire continent. Despite the name, D-Day did not occur in just one day, but rather over several days. It was a code name for the start of Operation Overlord. D-Day is well-known for marking the beginning of the end of the war in Europe and Hitler's rule over much of the continent. Many historians believe that without D-Day, Europe would have fallen to Hitler. There are several terms associated with D-Day. The first is D-Day, a military term used to indicate the unknown date in the future when an attack will be launched. It is most commonly used for the invasion of Normandy. The second term is H-hour, which is the hour that D-Day is supposed to start. H-hour for the three Normandy invasion sites varied by as much as eighty-five minutes due to weather conditions. The third term is Overlord, which was the code name for the entire Allied plot to invade and free France and Western Europe. The fourth term is Neptune, which stood for the first phase of Operation Overlord, including the planning of the Normandy assault, the movement of the armada across the English Channel, and the battle for the beaches. The fifth term is the Atlantic Wall, which was the German's first line of defense in the west along the English Channel coast of France. The wall was only partially completed by June of 1944 and included guns, beach obstacles, and minefields. The part of the wall directly across from England was manned by Field Marshal Rammel's seventeenth and eighteenth armies, which contained thirty-seven divisions. Another term associated with D-Day is landing craft. There were six different types of landing craft used on D-Day, including the LCVP, which stands for Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel and carried thirty-two men ashore; the LCA, which was an armored wooden craft that delivered troops; and the LCI, which carried one hundred fifty-eight small landing craft, each delivering two hundred troops.