During the Second World War, between 1940 and 1945, the Netherlands was occupied by the Germans. Along the western coast of Europe, Belgium, France, Norway, and Denmark were also under German occupation. The Germans were afraid that the Allied forces, the countries fighting against Germany, including Britain and the United States, would invade Europe by sea. Therefore, they began building a huge defensive line along the entire western coast of Europe.
On maps of Europe, it looked as if a “wall” of defensive structures was being built along the coastline, stretching from northern Norway to southern France, with a total length of more than 5,000 kilometers. It consisted of bunkers, artillery, trenches, and beach obstacles such as barbed wire and steel barriers.
The Germans called this the Atlantic Wall, which literally means “Atlantic wall,” although it was of course not a real wall. The idea was that the enemy would not be able to land anywhere safely, because they would be stopped everywhere by tens of thousands of defensive structures. German propaganda portrayed the Atlantic Wall as being impenetrable.
In Normandy, a coastal region in France, the Atlantic Wall had also been built, but it was not fully completed or equally strong everywhere. On 6 June 1944, D-Day took place, short for “Decision Day.” This was the day when the Allied forces managed to land with a very large and well-prepared attack. The breakthrough marked the beginning of the end for Germany, which now had to fight on two fronts at the same time: in the west against the Allies and in the east against the Soviet Union.