"d" day today.

" D" just stands for the Day (eg the day of some significant event). The same question was asked in the media here yesterday.

GB

Ps I've just edited. I didn't see the above posts. 1963 John turner is spot on with description
 
My dad was 18 and went over DDay +1.....he never spoke about the war unless pressed...I can't imagine how he felt at such a young age.....Dad was always Dad, I never thought of him as a youngster, but it really brought it home to me when I thought about it today.

Without their sacrifice and in some case the ultimate sacrifice, we would not know life as we do...it's to easy to sweep it under the carpet and pass it off as history but we really do owe these men and women the utmost respect....True heroes.

RIP Dad....and thanks.
 
My old Dad bless him was fighting in the mountains of Italy (grenadier guards infantry )at the time of D Day,even though he wasn't present on the beaches at that time it has still brought it home to me how tough life was for the young then . He passed away 17 years ago was my hero then and still is ,my Mum worked for an armaments factory in London and had the German bombers almost daily causing carnage ,proper people then and like most that went through it never really spoke about it ,god bless all of them , cheers Jim.
 
Can you imagine these kids of today in their "baggy assed" trousers with the crotches that drag on the ground, who wear their caps backwards and ride their skate boards everywhere...flying in the bombers and fighters, manning the naval vessels , jumping from perfectly good planes into the dark unknown, throwing up before storming mined beaches taking direct fire ( if they are lucky to get that far)??

GB
 
Graeme / New Zealand said:
" D" just stands for the Day (eg the day of some significant event). The same question was asked in the media here yesterday.

GB

Ps I've just edited. I didn't see the above posts. 1963 John turner is spot on with description
Click to expand...

When a military operation is being planned, its actual date and time is not always known exactly. The term "D-Day" was therefore used to mean the date on which operations would begin, whenever that was to be. The day before D-Day was known as "D-1", while the day after D-Day was "D+1", and so on. This meant that if the projected date of an operation changed, all the dates in the plan did not also need to be changed. This actually happened in the case of the Normandy Landings. D-Day in Normandy was originally intended to be on 5 June 1944, but at the last minute bad weather delayed it until the following day. The armed forces also used the expression "H-Hour" for the time during the day at which operations were to begin.
 
We visited Pegasus Bridge on our way back from the FRSA Nationals a few years back.......









Drove over the 'new' bridge.......over to the right (by the flags) is where the first gliders landed.





This is the original Bridge now in the museum





we came across these guys heading for the beaches.....










If you ever get the chance take it ...the Museum is a very moving place to visit the letters and stories were heart breaking.



Lest we forget


RIP


.
 
Last edited:
33 pairs of brothers and one father and son die in the invasion. Visited it last year and left a lasting memory of the devotion of these men. And they knew that the possibility of retuning was a pipe dream. GOD BLESS OUR TROUPS
 
I visited Pointe du Hoc (Omaha Beach) in 2000 and the entire bluffs atop the cliffs are shell holed and cratered from those days. Visiting one of the American cemeteries that day can't help to be overwhelmed by emotion, so may lives and what a horrific event to be part of. Many brave young men. History was made.
 
Some of the German troops that manned the "Atlantic wall" were from "Oost" Batallions that were consripted from the occupied countries. The majority of them were only too happy to put their hands up to those that made it off the beaches.

GB
 
Last edited:
To me D day in this instance is the beginning of the free world we live in. I think we pretty much owe all that is good to the sacrifices of these soldiers. We came pretty close to hell on earth, and we were bought back, by these guys. I don't think there are words anywhere in any dictionary that I can use to describe my thanks to those that gave there everything and much more.
Martin.
 
The Army began using the codes "H-hour" and "D-day" during World War I to indicate the time or date of an operation's start. Military planners would write of events planned to occur on "H-hour" or "D-day" -- long before the actual dates and times of the operations would be known, or in order to keep plans secret. And so the "D" may simply refer to the "day" of invasion.

Roger
 
al's28/33 said:
I visited Pointe du Hoc (Omaha Beach) in 2000 and the entire bluffs atop the cliffs are shell holed and cratered from those days. Visiting one of the American cemeteries that day can't help to be overwhelmed by emotion, so may lives and what a horrific event to be part of. Many brave young men. History was made.
Click to expand...

My step-dad was a member of the 2d Ranger Battalion that assaulted Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. Many of them climbed hand-over-hand on ropes secured by grappling hooks fired from mortars on the narrow beach at the base of the cliffs. He said the rifle and machine-gun fire from the German defenders above them was relentless, augmented by potato-masher hand grenades bouncing down the slopes. Dad was one of twenty-something survivors of his 120-man platoon. After D-day, they were folded into an Infantry brigade and employed where their skills could best be utilized. He fought well and hard, mostly as a sniper because that was his special skill, all the way to the Battle of the Bulge, earning two Purple Heart injuries on the way until he was finally taken out of combat by injuries that sent him home, with one-half a jawbone and a dozen teeth missing.

He met my mom, an Army nurse, (divorced a year before from my father, an 8th Air Force airman), at Dibble General Hospital, Menlo Park, Calfiornia, just a half-hour south of the US Army Letterman hospital in San Francisco. Dibble was the military center for burn and reconstructive plastic surgery, and the medical staff did wonders there. My folks were married for just short of 50 years when my mom died, but I had another seven years to share with the old man. I love and miss him so much and am so proud of what he did for our country, and generations yet to come.

Mike
 
And then there was Korea. I remember coming back on an old WW1 troop ship with over a thousand other guys, there were no greeting bands, parades, hawraws or celebrations, just a bunch of old busses waiting to transport us back the debarcation center. We were lucky though, there were over 51,000 that didn't get back. Then came VietNam!!!!!!!
 
Mr Gwylim Rice-Evans, the original owner of my 32 Cabriolet.

Photo believed taken in the 1950's

Mr Rice-Evans worked for The War Department and assisted Barnes Wallis in creating the bouncing bomb.
 

Attachments

  • GWYLIM RICE EVANS 002.JPG
    GWYLIM RICE EVANS 002.JPG
    157.7 KB · Views: 19
  • ford b mirror (2).JPG
    ford b mirror (2).JPG
    108.2 KB · Views: 15
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top