What is the "D" in D-Day?

Yes. We had this question last year- and i forget all the answers. I originally had the information that the invasion force commanders were waiting for optimum weather, and had a series of days in their plan, labelled alphabetically; day A, B, and C had sea conditions which were too rough for the landings, and the earliest day was the fourth day, called D-Day.

However I now believe this is WRONG.

The real reason is not as logical; the term became current just as a kind of verbal intensifier.

McTag is close and on the right track. They used D for Day and H for Hour to designate the timing for actions. i.e. D -3 H etc. The original invasion was set for June 5, 1944 but was moved to June 6th due to bad weather. At that point, they just called it D day. The D stuck for this particular battle and later battles were labeled with other letters.

Here's some more:

The terms D-day and H-hour are used for the day and hour on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. They designate the day and hour of the operation when the day and hour have not yet been determined, or where secrecy is essential. There is but one D-day and one H-hour for all units participating in a given operation.

When used in combination with figures, and plus or minus signs, these terms indicate the point of time preceding or following a specific action. Thus, H-3 means 3 hours before H-hour, and D+3 means 3 days after D-day. H+75 minutes means H-hour plus 1 hour and 15 minutes. Planning papers for large-scale operations are made up in detail long before specific dates are set. Thus, orders are issued for the various steps to be carried out on the D-day or H-hour minus or plus a certain number of days, hours, or minutes. At the appropriate time, a subsequent order is issued that states the actual day and times.

The earliest use of these terms by the U.S. Army that the Center of Military History has been able to find was during World War I. In Field Order Number 9, First Army, American Expeditionary Forces, dated 7 September 1918: "The First Army will attack at H hour on D day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel Salient."

D-day for the invasion of Normandy was originally set for June 5, 1944, but bad weather caused Gen. Eisenhower to delay until June 6, and that date has been popularly referred to ever since by the short title "D-day". (In French, it is called jour-J.) Because of this, planners of later military operations sometimes avoided the term. For example, MacArthur's invasion of Leyte began on "A-day", and the invasion of Okinawa began on "L Day".


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an interesting note about d-day, when asked how the landing was going by a reporter Ike responded with this quote "things are more like they are today then they've ever been before"

Intrepid's explanation is how i had learned it. My mother landed at Omaha Beach on D+16, i.e., she landed on June 22, 1944.

I hear it is an abbreviation of Day-Day.

Very interesting. Thanks all so much!

Another version is that Hitler often spoke of how on how great the world would be the day (Der Tag) when the Nazi's had fulfilled their destiny. "That'll be the day" is a more negative take on the same phrasing that is also common in Anglo-American. D-Day (Der Tag) was an ironic turning of Hitler's words according to this version.

Of course, the actual date, day and hour and even location of the re-invasion of the continent was at first uncertain, and then secret to all but the highest levels. Great efforts were taken to misdirect the Nazi to other places and times.

Personally, I prefer the simpler version you've gotten from the other posts as being more likely. The Der Tag explanation was actually taught in some high school history classes as late as the mid-fifties.

What about V-Day?

Heard this was for Victory Day however that woudn't make sence if the D didn't stand for anything.

The staging of the invasion of western Europe was a multistep process that involved multiple tasks, the embarkation of troops, the assembly of the fleet, the transportation of the invading army to the coast of France and their dembarkation (invasion). Each of the days involved in this process received a letter designation A, B, C, etc. and on each day certain tasks were scheduled to be accomplished. The invasion was set for the forth day of the process, or D day.

Found this...
D-Day

This has all been explained early in the postings ;-)

Some dozens more :wink:

Acquiunk, in the interests of accuracy, I suggest you are wrong here. Read through the previous page, where the real meaning is to be found.

And all the time, I thought it was started when a West Indian officer woke up that fatefull day and said, "Well, dis is d day when we do d dam ting mun".
Hee..heeeee.. (I crack me up)

me too

Dyslexia,
.....Was Ike using aYogiism, Or was Yogi using, an Ike-ism?...are we rolling today, are what, Setanta?..

hotter'n a two dollar pistol, Boo . . .