This baffles me. What does “D-day” stand for? I have heard Destiny Day and Dooms Day, but no solid replies. Even though everyone uses the term no one knows what it means. I have faith in the Teeming Millions to find out!
Webster’s New World Dictionary says that the “D” stands for “Day”… this seems somewhat puzzling to me… “Day-Day”??
I’ll bet this is the tenth time this has been answered, but I’ll give it a go.
The “D” stands for nothing. I guess you could say it stands for “day,” but it really doesn’t.
The official name of the operation was “Overlord,” not “D-day.” D-day is a military term for “the day that the operation will take place,” and the Overlord invasion became known by that day, I guess because it was a momentous example.
“D-day” is a shorthand way of planning an operation without knowing when it will start. As they planned the operation, the Allied planners didn’t actually know what date the operation would start; in fact, it wasn’t supposed to start on June 6.
A plan like the Normandy invasion is hideously complicated and involves things that have to happen on every day before and after the invasion, so your plan will look like this
D-Day -3: Get boats ready
D-Day -2: Bomb the hell out of Nazis
D-Day -1: Load boats
D-DAY: Invade; take beaches
D-Day +1: Break out of beachhead
D-Day +2: Take St. Smelle
D-Day +3: Take bridge over Riviere De Stenche
If you don’t know what date D-Day is, the advantages of planning this way are obvious. It gives you a way of saying “the start date” if you don’t know the date. Sounds better, too.
The “D” in D-Day does indeed stand for “Day.” This is (not surprisingly) military jargon, and technically means “the day the operation takes place.” Days before and after D-Day are noted with a plus or minus. To wit: “the” D-Day was June 6, 1944; June 5 was D-Day -1 (i.e., “minus 1”); June 7 was D-Day +1; and so forth.
This system is also used to designate the specific hour of an operation as well, which is conveniently designated “H-Hour”.
My question is: when they launch spacecrafts, and Ground Control says “T-Minus 5 minutes and counting,” does the “T” stand for Time?
peepthis, I always assumed that the “t” in “t-minus” was take-off… I have no evidence for this, however…
RickJay was correct that D-day wasn’t supposed to start June 6. Most histories you read on the subject point out that weather hampered the scheduled disembarkation’s.
It stands for “day”, as everyone’s said. I think that it looks odd because it’s not meant to be used as “D-Day-1” or “D-Day+2”. It’s supposed to be written as “D-1” or “D-2”, which would then make more sense.
In the same vein, military planners use “H” for hour, as in “the artillery attack will commence at H-1”. I’ve heard of “T”, which would make sense if it stood for “take-off”.
I’ve always believed that the D stood for day. In French, it’s Jour-J which tends to support the view.
I’ve just finished reading a history of the Falklands War (Max Hastings & Simon Jenkins) which uses D-Day and H-Hour in respect of the timings of the the landing at San Carlos and the attack on Stanley. This would seem to confirm that it’s standard usage in the British Army.
I believe so. The actual first movement of the vehicle is called “liftoff” or “launch”, not “takeoff”.
I believe that in military radio protocols the first letter of any name that might be misunderstand is followed by a full noun - so B Company would sometimes be called Baker Company. D could stand for day - and you simply said Day out loud to make sure the “D” is not confused for a B or a C. The same for “H” Hour. This makes it redundant, but clear. This standard was probably used for all communications.
Then you’d say “Delta,” which is the radio word for “D”.
“D-day” just means “The day it starts.” Nothing more.