Words in bold are explained in the D-Day Glossary.
D-Day was the first day of the Second World War military invasion code-named Operation Overlord, when the Allies landed in Normandy, in Northern France. It was one of the biggest combined military operations ever attempted.
What does the ‘D’ in ‘D-Day’ stand for?
The ‘D’ in D-Day simply stands for Day. The terms D-Day and H-Hour were used by military planners to stand for the day and hour of the start of a forthcoming operation, where the exact date and time were still to be confirmed or were top secret.
What was the goal of D-Day? Did it work?
The goal of D-Day was to defeat Nazi Germany by attacking from the west. Forces from the Soviet Union had been fighting the Nazis in Eastern Europe since 1941, and D-Day established a long-awaited ‘second front’.
It was a key turning point in the course of the war, and led to eventual victory by the Allies in Europe in May 1945. The war against Japan in the Far East, however, continued until Allied victory was won in August 1945.
When did D-Day take place and why do we remember it today?
D-Day took place on 6 June 1944.
In June 2004 we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and remembered all those who gave their lives to liberate Europe, and to protect the future security and democracy of the Allied countries.
Who planned D-Day and who took part?
In 1941 the Soviet Union and the USA had joined Britain in the ‘Grand Alliance’ against Hitler. Their leaders met in 1943 to plan their strategy.
The leaders of the Allies were:
- Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
- Franklin D Roosevelt, US President
- Josef Stalin, Soviet leader
It was agreed that Britain and the USA would launch a cross-Channel attack on occupied France in spring 1944. The Soviet Union had been demanding a ‘second front’ in the west since July 1941 and plans for the invasion had been underway since the Allies were pushed out of France by German forces, and many troops were evacuated from Dunkirk, in 1940.
Joining Britain and the US on the assault on occupied territory were Commonwealth troops from Canada. Some troops from Poland and France were also involved in the preparations for D-Day. Both Poland and France were currently under Nazi occupation, so only a few Polish and French troops had managed to escape to or been evacuated to Britain earlier in the war.
The total number of troops who landed on the Normandy beaches on D-Day was over 132 thousand men.
