Glossary
On the pages of the site certain terms, abbreviations and symbols are used that are best explained from the beginning.
Military units
The nationality of the military units is often indicated in the text by its international initials:
- US for the United States of America
- UK for the United Kingdom
- CA for Canada
- GE for Germany
On the maps the military units are represented following the notation used by NATO: within a rectangle the specialty of the unit is indicated, on the right the name or the number of the unit is written, and above other symbols indicate the dimension of the unit. The color of the symbol represents the nationality.
The specialty presented on the maps are indicated as follows:
- infantry, an x within a rectangle
- armored means, an oval
- paratroopers, wings
The colors used to express nationality are:
- light brown for the Canadian units (CA)
- dark brown for the British units (UK)
- green for the American units (US)
- dark gray for the German ones (GE)
The dimensions of the units represented on the maps are the division, the army corps and the army:
- the symbol of a division is surmounted by two x’s (xx)
- the army corps has three x’s (xxx)
- the army has four x’s (xxxx)
On the maps the number of the military unit is always to the right of the symbol using Arabic numerals. In the text the divisions and the army are indicated with Arabic numerals (4th Division) while the corps are indicated with Roman numerals (VII Corps).
According to the indicated rules the symbols contained within this image are read from the first line to the last and from left to right:
1st Army US, VII Corps US, 4th Infantry Division US, 101st Airborne Division US
2nd Army UK, XXX Corps UK, 40th Infantry Division UK, 6th Airborne Division UK
II Corps CA, 3rd Infantry Division CA
7th Army GE, LXXXIV Corps GE, 352nd Infantry Division GE
II Airborne Corps GE, 21st Panzer Division GE
Terms
Bunker : defensive construction, also called casemate, often partially implanted, constructed with materials and techniques that render them resistant to direct blows of artillery and bombings. Usually a bunker is positioned in order to have the best range of vision of a zone and it has diverse openings to be able to strike the enemy with weapons of various types and caliber.
Salient : is the point of maximum penetration of a military force in the enemy’s front.
Panzer: is the German term that indicates a tank. In general, it is used to identify a military unit mostly armored or equipped with armored detachments.