What does the "D" in D-Day stand for?
by 
wickedwillie
ANSWERS: 3
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According to the DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, D-Day is "the unnamed day on which a particular operation commences or is to commence." Incidentally, there is also a C-day, an M-day, an N-day, an R-day, an S-day, a T-day, and a W-day. For more information on all these terms, see http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict/data/t/05407.html
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In military terms when an operation is planned the days leading up to the day of execution of a plan are labelled as, for example, D-10, D-9, D-8, D-7 and so on, meaning "Day Minus 10, Day Minus 9" etc. right up to D-Day itself. Similarly the days after an operation are labelled as D+1, D+2, D+3 etc. This system is used for two main reasons, one it helps to keep the actual planned date of an operation secret, and secondly that date can be changed without having to re-issue all the associated plans. In the same way in military planning, the hours leading up to and following an operation are labelled, H-4, H-3, H-2, H-1, H-Hour, H+1, H+2, and so on. Thus the "D" in D-Day stands for "Day" despite it looking strange, and the H in H-Hour stands for "Hour". So you will see that there have actualy been many D-Days in military history - it's just because this one was so special it has retained its label.
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D-Day for the invasion of Normandy by the Allies was originally set for 5 June 1944, but bad weather and heavy seas caused Gen. Dwight D Eisenhower to delay until June 6 and that date has been popularly referred to ever since by the short title "D-Day". Therefore the "D" in D-Day of the most popular use of the name could actually stand for "Delay"!
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