Canadians in Radar

D-Day was the first day of the Normandy Invasion and took place on 6 June 1944. The “D” in D-Day does not actually stand for anything. The term “D-Day” is traditionally used by military forces to refer to the first day of an invasion so that if the first day of the invasion changes, all other dates regarding the invasion don’t also have to be changed. For example, D-Day was originally supposed to be 5 June but was postponed due to poor weather, so all other operations in the Normandy Invasion were also pushed back one full day. Other operations would be described as taking place a certain number of days after D-Day. The term D-Day is now used almost exclusively to refer to the first day of the Normandy Invasion.

 

On D-Day, an armada of more than 6,900 ships, including 110 Canadian warships, crossed the English Channel and approached the French coastline. Prior to D-Day, the allies had launched an unsuccessful aerial bombardment on German bases on the French coast. The failure of this operation forced soldiers to fight against heavy German artillery fire to reach their objectives. The allies attempted to land more than 156,000 soldiers — six infantry divisions, plus armoured units — on five beaches along a 100-kilometre sweep of coastline on German held French territory. This made D-Day the largest seaborne invasion ever attempted. Total allied casualties on D-Day reached more than 10,000, including 359 Canadians killed in action. None of the allied forces succeeded in reaching their inland D-Day objectives, but the Normandy beachhead was secured, allowing troops, tanks, artillery and other supplies to come ashore in France across the English Chanel. This stronghold allowed allied forces to later launch more attacks on German strongholds in Western Europe.