# D-Day in the dark

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-day-in-the-dark/689139>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 24, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-day-in-the-dark/689139 "2014-05-24T00:52:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-day-in-the-dark/689139/21 "2014-05-26T18:10:20Z")

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The idea was to use one experienced and orregular division and one NG / gree division in each assault corps it seems. On Utah beach you had the regular 4th and the brand new 90th.

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-day-in-the-dark/689139/22 "2014-05-26T21:29:53Z")

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> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#):
>
> 1. is correct, just a Britishism for something going wrong. Apropos to this thread I’ve heard it dates back to the war, if an RAF pilot tried to do a loop and it went wrong, literally going pear shaped.

> [@Shakester](#):
>
> [Piriform - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pear-shaped)

Fascinating. Suggested etymologies also a hoot.

It doesn’t say it in the Wik, but “pear-shaped” is used regularly, without quotes, to describe a body type common among Type II diabetics–being fat around waist, hips, and butt. (Although I now see an opposing position.)

In a recent thread on diabetes one of GQ’s good doctors described how the fat in those areas is physiologically different than other fat hanging around your body.

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**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-day-in-the-dark/689139/23 "2014-05-27T04:34:14Z")

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They would have had to call it “N-Night.”

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