The "D" in D-Day simply stands for "Day," a military term used to mark the beginning of any major operation when the exact date is secret, making D-Day the designated start day, while "H-Hour" marks the start time, with D-2 meaning two days before, and D+3 meaning three days after. The Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, became famously known as D-Day because it was the largest and most pivotal, though many other operations had their own D-Days.
The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France.
In total, the Germans suffered 290,000 casualties in Normandy, including 23,000 dead, 67,000 wounded and around 200,000 missing or captured. Some 2,000 tanks had been committed to the battle, but the panzer divisions were left with about 70 tanks between them.
Usage notes: The original meaning of the French expression le jour J is D-Day: 6 June 1944, the day the World War II Allied forces invaded Normandy, France. This is also known as the Normandy landings – le débarquement de Normandie.
Some German Generals were slow to respond, refusing to believe that the main invasion had really begun. There still remained a huge amount of fighting to be done following D-Day, and many challenges to be overcome before the Normandy campaign came to a close.
Philippe Pétain was convicted of treason for overseeing the surrender of France to the Germans in 1940 and subsequently acting as head of the collaborationist puppet government of Vichy France.
The German Army was comprehensively defeated in Normandy, its losses compounded by Hitler's refusal to allow his generals to conduct an orderly withdrawal. Allied delay in closing the Falaise-Argentan pocket allowed many German troops to escape, but around 400,000 were killed, wounded or captured during the campaign.
All the careful planning, specially designed vehicles, and months of training couldn't save the thousands of men who lost their lives that morning. Planes dropped 13,000 bombs before the landing: they completely missed their targets; intense naval bombardment still failed to destroy German emplacements.
It ended with heavy casualties — more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded in those first 24 hours — but D-Day is largely considered the successful beginning of the end of Hitler's tyrannical regime.
The Normandy beaches were chosen by planners because they lay within range of air cover, and were less heavily defended than the obvious objective of the Pas de Calais, the shortest distance between Great Britain and the Continent.
John Wayne didn't serve in WWII because he received a draft deferment (3-A) for having dependents (wife and kids) and his age (34), but also because Hollywood studios, particularly Republic Pictures, successfully argued his role making morale-boosting films and selling war bonds was an "essential" contribution, despite his own repeated attempts to enlist, which were blocked by his studio and a football injury, leaving him with guilt and leading to his later "super-patriot" image in films like The Green Berets.
Across Europe, in forests, fields and beneath old farmland, the remains of German soldiers are still being found, exhumed and reburied by teams from a nonprofit organization called the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, or German War Graves Commission, which has been doing this work for decades.
Despite his remarkably young age, the six year old Seryozha Aleshkov was recruited into the Soviet Red Army as a soldier by his adoptive father Commander Mitrofan Vorobych, and Seryozha Aleshkov became the youngest known soldier, at just six years old.
What did they do with all the bodies on Normandy Beach?
Unlike later wars, where combat fatalities were airlifted back to the United States for burial in family or national military cemeteries, the Allied dead of the Normandy invasion were buried close to where they fell.
The eastern invasion force was made up of British troops, landing at Gold and Sword beaches, and the Canadians, landing at Juno. These beaches were closer to Caen, which the Allies were planning to liberate.
