D-Day (military term)

The term D-Day called in English the date of military operations. A similar German word is Day X, a French jour J. In many languages, the term is now specially for June 6 1944 as the beginning of the Allied landings in Normandy in World War II.

Word origin

The abbreviation D-Day (as well as H-Hour or Day X ) denotes the time of a major military operation without knowing anything about contents, place or time to reveal itself. D-Day is regarded in English also as an abbreviation for Day Day, Decision Day, Delivery Day, Deliverance Day, Doomsday or debarkation day, but the origin of the name is not secured. As an alternative explanation is often found also that D and H are simply repetitions of Day or Hour. This is suggested that the French " Jour J" say what follows the same scheme. Presumably, this was initially only as a placeholder for a given day and used a specific time, which had not been finalized.

The first recorded use of the term was in World War I and is found in the Field Order Number 9, First Army, American Expeditionary Forces of 7 September 1918 Battle of St. Mihiel. It reads:

Accordingly, in the planning of operations independent of the finally specified day for the steps / tasks in the days before and after counted as follows: D - 4 is, for example, for the 4th day before the date X, D 7 for the 7. the day after the day X.

Landings in Normandy

The best-known example of a D- Day is June 6, 1944, the day on which the landing of Allied troops began during World War II in Normandy and thus the long-planned opening of a second front of the anti-Hitler coalition. D-Day was the beginning of Operation Overlord. The landing itself was codenamed Operation Neptune.

Actually, the landing was to take place on June 5, 1944. However, since the weather was too bad, it was moved to the June 6, 1944 (see weather forecast for the 5 and 6 June 1944 at the English Channel ). When scheduling the Tide played an important role.