St. Petersburg Times (Florida) June 06, 2003
D-DAY: JUNE 6, 1944; Armada Unlocks Fortress Europa
Fifty-nine years ago today, the Allies invaded Europe at Normandy, conducting the greatest amphibious assault in history along about 40 miles of coastline.
The invasion originally was scheduled for May 1944, but difficulties in assembling landing craft and bad weather forced delays. On the morning of June 5, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, assured of a break in the weather, announced, "Okay. We'll go." Within hours, the largest fleet ever assembled - nearly 5,000 ships - began the voyage across the English Channel. Included were 3,000 small landing craft, 71 large landing craft, nine battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, as well as troop transports, mine sweepers and merchantmen. That night, 822 aircraft, carrying paratroopers or towing gliders, roared to the Normandy landing zones. They were a fraction of the 13,000 aircraft that would support Operation Overlord.
At the end of the day, more than 57,000 American and 75,000 British and Canadian soldiers had reached land from the sea, with another 23,000 arriving by air. About 3,000 soldiers died. None of the original objectives had been achieved. The landings were eight to 12 hours behind schedule. The weather was still in doubt. But the Allies had seized a beachhead 6 miles wide and 2 miles deep. This toehold would grow consistently until the collapse of Germany less than a year later.
The term "D-day" was used long before June 6, 1944. D-day originally was a military term for the day on which a military operation would be started. The "D" comes from the first letter of day. Phrases using repetitive initials go back at least as far as World War I. Because the Normandy invasion was such a momentous operation - the day of all days, so to speak - the phrase D-day became associated with it.
Sources: Britannica Online, GlobalSecurity, New York Times and Times files.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Associated Press; On June 6, 1944 - forever remembered as D-day - American soldiers come ashore at Utah Beach, one of two landing beaches on the Normandy coast assigned to U.S. forces. By nightfall, more than 155,000 Allied soldiers were in France, breaching; Hitler's Atlantic Wall.
Copyright © 2003, Times Publishing Company
