D Day landings: What the ‘D’ in D Day means and quotes to remember those who died

D Day landings: What the ‘D’ in D Day means and quotes to remember those who died

D Day landings: What the ‘D’ in D Day means and quotes to remember those who died

Seventy-two years ago 156,000 allied soldiers landed in Normandy, ready to to liberate northern Europe from Nazi control.
More than 425,000 people, both allied and German, would die in the invasions and the date would leave a lasting memory on those involved in the World War II conflict.
Today June 6 was that date and people across the world are remembering those who lost their lives in 1944 with memorial services, quotes, thoughts, prayers and online #dday hashtags.

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When was D Day?

American soldiers go ashore during the Normandy landings (Picture:Getty Images)

British soldiers launched an amphibious assault on five French beaches on June 6, 1944.
The landings were meant to be on June 5 but the weather delayed the assault.

What does the ‘D’ stand for in D Day?

US troops ready to board landing ships at Weymouth (Picture: Getty Images)

Some suggest the D means ‘deliverance’, ‘doom’, debarkation’ but in reality it is none of those. The ‘D’ just means the day of the beginning of a military operation, although nowadays ‘D Day’ is only used for the landings in Normandy.
The name came about because the day before D Day would be referred to as ‘D-1’ and the day after as ‘D+1’ and two days after ‘D+2’ etc.
Hours in military terminology also work the same way with ‘H-Hour’ being used for the landing time.

Where is Sword beach?

(Picture: Wikicommons)

The name ‘Sword’ was actually the collective code name for five separate beaches in Normandy where allied troops landed. These were Sword Beach, Juno Beach, Utah Beach, Omaha Beach and Gold Beach.

What were the different operations called?

A ‘2nd Invasion Extra’ edition of the Worcester Telegram newspaper (Picture:Getty Images)

Operation Overlord – this was the code name for the invasion of north west Europe as a whole. The operation ended when allied forces crossed the Seine River in to Paris on 19 August 1944.
Operation Neptune – this was the assault phase of Operation Overlord aka the Normandy Landings. The operation started on D Day and ended on 30 June 1944.
Battle of Normandy–  this was the fighting stage after Operation Neptune, which continued until Paris was liberated on 25 August 1944.

How many soldiers were involved?

American troops and their equipment disembark from US Navy landing craft onto a beach east of Toulon during the Allied invasion of southern France (Picture: Getty Images)

61,715 British, 73,000 American and 21,400 Canadian soldier made up the allied troop, with the Americans and Canadians arriving in Britain before D Day.
Allied forces also used an airborne assault of 14,674 sorties where 127 were lost.

How many died?

Troops on parade just before D-Day invasion of Normandy during WWII (Picture: Getty Images)

There is no official D Day casualty number, as it is unknown exactly how many died but it is understood that more than 425,000 allied and German soldiers were killed.
Among the allies it is believed 209,000 died – nearly 37,000 of them ground troops and 16,714 airborne forces.
German losses can only be estimated but are believed to be around 200,000 killed and wounded. Another 200,000 (not included in the total casualty estimation of 425,000) were captured as prisoners of war.

Quotes to remember those who died

US Navy Landing craft are loaded in England just before the D Day Normandy invasion 1944 (Picture: Getty Images)

1) ‘And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred.’ – Winston Churchill
2) ‘We want to get the hell over there. The quicker we clean up this goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the goddamned Marines get all of the credit.’ – General George S Patton Jr
3) ‘It was unknowable then, but so much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only 6 miles long and 2 miles wide.’ – President Barack Obama
4) ‘Lieutenant Welsh remembered walking around among the sleeping men, and thinking to himself that ‘they had looked at and smelled death all around them all day but never even dreamed of applying the term to themselves. They hadn’t come here to fear. They hadn’t come to die. They had come to win.’ – Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne
5) ‘Men, I am not a religious man and I don’t know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do.’ – Lt Col Robert L Wolverton
6) ‘We know that progress is not inevitable. But neither was victory upon these beaches. Now, as then, the inner voice tells us to stand up and move forward. Now, as then, free people must choose.’ – President Bill Clinton