A D-Day Dictionary

Paris, June 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jun, 2019 ) :A guide to some of the terms associated with the D-Day landings: CZECH HEDGEHOGS: Spiky steel anti-tank obstacles around a metre (three feet) high that the Germans placed on the landing beaches to hinder the Allied forces. So-called because they were first developed in Czechoslovakia.

D-DAY: With D standing for "Day", the term is common military parlance for the day on which an operation is to be launched. D-Day has become synonymous with the Allied landings in Normandy that launched Operation Overlord.

FORTITUDE: Code name of Allied efforts to fool the Germans about the time and place of the landings. An example was the use of metallic lures to make it appear to German radar that a large force was about to land further north than it did.

FREE FRENCH FORCES: A unit established in London by Charles de Gaulle to support French Resistance fighters on the ground. FFF troops fought with the Allies in North Africa and elsewhere prior to D-Day. A small unit took part in the landings and a division later spearheaded the liberation of Paris.

FRENCH RESISTANCE: Irregular cells that harassed Nazi occupation troops in France. The Resistance provided intelligence on German defences, disrupted communications networks and railways and helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines.

GI: Generic name for US soldiers. The term is commonly believed to be short for "Government Issue", which initially designated most military material. During World War II it came to be widely associated with US ground troops in particular.

JEEP: A contraction of "General Purpose", these light, robust four-wheel trucks were essential to the Allied forces and became an icon of the landings.

MULBERRY: Code name for artificial ports built by the Allies off Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer and Arromanches which allowed hundreds of thousands of troops and tens of thousands of vehicles to disembark from ships lying offshore.

NEPTUNE: Code name of the assault phase of Operation Overlord, including the naval and airborne activities on the Normandy coast. As night fell on June 6, more than 156,000 Allied troops occupied five points along an 80-kilometre (50-mile) front on beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

OVERLORD: Code name of the overall Allied plan to open a western front against Adolf Hitler's Nazi forces. US General Dwight Eisenhower was supreme commander of the massive operation.

PEGASUS BRIDGE: Name given to a critical drawbridge that was the first site freed during the invasion by British troops, who flew in during the night on glider aircraft hours before the main assault began. The bridge, at Benouville, was so named to honour the British 6th Airborne Division which used the winged horse as its emblem.

PICCADILLY CIRCUS: The name given to a naval staging point off the Isle of Wight.

PILLBOX: Used already in World War I, these reinforced concrete and often-round structures protected German soldiers manning machine guns, mortars or artillery. Some were big enough to house large units and were connected by tunnels.

PLUTO: Standing for Pipe-Line Under The Ocean, this was a secret undersea oil pipeline that ran from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg to provide critical fuel for aircraft, ships and vehicles.

RANGERS: US army troops who took heavy casualties on Omaha Beach and scaled cliffs at the Pointe du Hoc to seize a cannon that threatened Utah Beach.

ROMMEL'S ASPARAGUS: Rommelspargel in German were wooden poles that stood two to three metres high and were linked by wires and connected to explosive mines. They were installed on orders of the German commander as a defence against airborne infantry operations.

THE LONGEST DAY: Part of a famous quote from German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel about the invasion: "For the Allies, as well as Germany, it will be the longest day". It has become an often-used description for D-Day, being the title of a 1962 film by US producer Darryl Zanuck and a book by Irish writer Cornelius Ryan.

ZIPPO: The Zippo weather-resistant lighter was standard GI equipment. It and other widely used products became closely identified with the US soldiers, and later classic pieces of general Americana.