Posted on 06/06/2019 10:00:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
The meaning behind the "D" in D-Day has to do with military terminology.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, Allied forces staged an enormous assault on German positions on the beaches of Normandy, France. The invasion is often known by the famous nickname “D-Day,” yet few people know the origin of the term or what, if anything, the “D” stood for. Most argue it was merely a redundancy that also meant “day,” but others have proposed everything from “departure” to “decision” to “doomsday.”
According to the U.S. military, “D-Day” was an Army designation used to indicate the start date for specific field operations. In this case, the “D” in D-Day doesn’t actually stand for anything—it’s merely an alliterative placeholder used to designate a particular day on the calendar.
The military also employed the term “H-Hour” to refer to the time on D-Day when the action would begin. This shorthand helped prevent actual mission dates from falling into enemy hands, but it also proved handy when the start date for an attack was still undecided. Military planners also used a system of pluses and minuses to designate any time or day occurring before or after D-Day or H-Hour.
For example, D+2 meant two days after D-Day, while H-1 referred to one hour before H-Hour. These terms allowed units to effectively coordinate their operations ahead of time even when they didn’t know their actual start date, and they also provided flexibility in the event that the launch day shifted.
Use of these terms stretches back to World War I. One American field order from September 1918 noted, “The First Army will attack at H-Hour on D-Day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel salient.” Other nations had their own shorthand. In World War I, the French used the code date “le Jour J,” while the British called their operation start days “Z-Day” and “Zero Hour.”
I haven't got a clue or a care.
This is correct but a bit more of the why:
Many times the planning of a military operation takes place without an actual start date. Some events are scoped based on the day that the operation kicks of. However, that day is not known. Think of it like project management.
Suppose there is a project kick off date ... some time in June. Before the project kicks off, I know that X days prior, something needs to be done. So D-DAY minus X is the start date for that effort.
Also consider that the planning for Normandy was started MONTHS before the actual landings.
It also meant when the date had to be changed (From June 4th to June 5th for example) you did not have to re-write all of the orders. They just rolled to the next date.
“D” in D-Day stands for “Deliverance”, the time when the plans made are put into operation.
No battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy. Perhaps storming the beaches was the only possible successful (if it may be called that) strategy, to expend the lives of thousands and the wounding of even more thousands, before the objective could be gained.
Warfare is the most hideously expensive pastime humanity has ever devised. And it only engages the free will of very few people. Everybody else are just pawns on the chessboard.
Once again google ignores and gives the finger to anything patriotic.....unbelievable
Wrong. The “D” does not stand for deliverance.
D-Day and H-Hour. Do you see a pattern here?
Cause it was D day hitler was going down
It was De DAY DEY WANTED TO DO IT!...............
IIRC, Hitler had taken a sleeping pill the night before and pretty much slept through the first few hours of the invasion.
It was called D-Day because FDR wanted to call it “Invasion day on June 6th 1944 in Normandy” may have tipped off the Germans.
As it was, in fact. D-Day was set for June 5 but a UK officer in charge of flying weather observation flights out of Tiree correctly predicted the weather pattern on convinced Ike to delay it by one day.
Standard Military Acronymn that became famous.
The big news of the day on June 5th, was that Rome was liberated by the Allies. Everybody forgot about that pretty quickly, LOL!
Interesting A Article
I wonder if they got their F facts right.
Thanks Red Badger. Everyone has heard of *the* D-Day, Jun 6, 1944, but any large operation involving a large invasion force (amphibious, usually) had a D-Day, D plus ten, whatever. It's analogous to the countdown and countup duriing a rocket launch.
I assume it’s the same logic NASA uses for its “T minus” countdown clock.
I don’t understand why the US had a European theater, other than because Japan was an attacker was an ally of Germany.
Did we attack to keep Muzzies out of Europe?
Did we attack to prevent European countries from not being able to control their borders?
Did we attack to assure that votes taken in Europe would be something other than ceremonial decorations..?
Did we attack to assure democracy didn’t disappear in Europe..?
The USA fought and won yet EACH ONE of those things have come true during this peace.
I was a little iffy on it 10 years ago, but now I’m not —we didn’t help ourselves by intervening and we didn’t help anyone.
Extrapolating from current trends, how will I feel in 20 years? Will girls be able to go to Euro beaches in bikinis..? Will Denmark have ham? Will France have wine..? What about the UK’s nukes..?
Our men were very brave, yes they were. The problem isn’t with the followers:
Our problem is with our leaders.
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