A question on terms

What does the D in D-Day stand for?  Was in asked this in game tonight,
and I'm not sure.

Please help

Have a Good One,

> DOCAgren@aol.com wrote:

It stands for "Day Day". Much like "H" in "H-Hour" stands for
"Hour". I believe this is because major operations take place on "D Day" and
jump off at zero time ("H Hour"). Just that some events are so monumentous
that their date or code name becomes
associated with that one event (e.g., "9/11" has special meaning,
even though there is a September 11th every year).

Mk

What does the D in D-Day stand for?  Was in asked this in game tonight,
and I'm not sure.

Please help

Debarkation Day, used for the first day of all army operations back in the
40s.

In World War II operations began at H-Hour on D-Day, so June 6th 1944
was D-Day for Operation Overlord, 10th July 1943 was D-Day for Operation
Husky and so on. In World War I it was Z-Hour on Z-Day, (Z for Zero)

Chris Downes-Ward

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From: DOCAgren@aol.com

> What does the D in D-Day stand for? Was in asked this in game tonight,

As a lot of things of this nature, there is no real consensus on what it
means. There are four main answers: D stood for day, as in D-Day,
H-Hour, etc.; D stood for Debarkation; D stood for Disembarkation; D
stood for Decision (this latter one apparently even made it into a school
textbook).

Here's what the National D-Day Museum's web site has to say about it
(found at http://www.ddaymuseum.org/education_studentsfactd.html and if
you ever find yourself in New Orleans, I _strongly_ advise you to visit
it).

"In Stephen Ambrose's D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World
War II, he writes, Time magazine reported on June 12 [1944] that "as far as
the U.S. Army can determine, the first use of D for Day, H for Hour was in
Field Order No. 8, of the First Army, A.E.F., issued on Sept. 20,
1918, which read, 'The First Army will attack at H-Hour on D-Day with
the object of forcing the evacuation of the St.Mihiel salient.'" (p.
491) In other words, the D in D-Day merely stands for Day. This coded
designation was used for the day of any important invasion or military
operation. For military planners (and later historians), the days before
and after a D-Day were indicated using plus and minus signs: D-4 meant
four days before a D-Day, while D+7 meant seven days after a D-Day.

"In Paul Dickson's War Slang, he quotes Robert Hendrickson's Encyclopedia of
Word and Phrase Origins. Many explanations have been
given for the meaning of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the day the Allies invaded
Normandy from England during World War II. The Army has said that it is
"simply an alliteration, as in H-Hour." Others say the first D in the
word also stands for "day," the term a code designation. The French maintain
the D means "disembarkation," still others say "debarkation,"
and the more poetic insist D-Day is short for "day of decision." When
someone wrote to General Eisenhower in 1964 asking for an explanation, his
executive assistant Brigadier General Robert Schultz answered: "General
Eisenhower asked me to respond to your letter. Be advised that any amphibious
operation has a 'departed date'; therefore the shortened
term 'D-Day' is used." (p.146)"

Thats as close to an official answer as you'll get.

Note that "D-Day" was used for every amphibious operation involving
Americans, including the landings in Italy and in the Pacific. We just
think of June 6, 1944 as "D-Day" because of the importance and scale of
that operation.

"D-Day" has taken on the popular meaning "Debarkation Day", but in
planning circles (both military and civilian) it's just a planning marker, and
was used at least as far back as WWI.

Planning is set up in reference to D-Date or D-Zero.

Say something is supposed to be accompliched 14 days prior to D-Day.
That
activity completion is scheduled for D-14.
If the activity is supposed to take place 14 AFTER D-Day, it's D+14.

"H-Hour" does the something for hours, "M-Minute" for minutes, and
there's
even a "S-second" in industrial planning.

Why all this? It allows planners to schedule complicated activities as a
process, rather than a series of calender linked end dates. If the
"D-Date"
gets changed, everything is adjusted from there, rather than 40,000 people
going "That June 26th completion date, was that the new schedule, the old
schedule, or the new old schedule?"

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