Historical Movie Theater: D-Day Newsreels

Tonight's historical movie comes with great gratitude from Tim Gray Media:



The Tim Gray Media site is a treasure trove of D-Day material and expert information. On the WWII tab we learn that ...  

"(...) the “D” does not stand for “Deliverance”, “Doom”, “Debarkation” or similar words. In fact, it does not stand for anything. The “D” is derived from the word “Day”. “D-Day” means the day on which a military operation begins. The term “D-Day” has been used for many different operations, but it is now generally only used to refer to the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944.

Why was the expression “D-Day” used?
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. (...) >>>

Also, check out the blog for more wonderful stories.

Particularly noteworthy is the footage of annual visits to the Normandy coast with veterans (a number on the YouTube Channel) - in fact Tim Gray has been tweeting live all day from the commemoration site in France.

Also drawing your attention to a beautifully produced and very touching full one hour documentary exclusively available on the official Tim Gray site, entitled "D-Day, the Price of Freedom" (trailer). Note the difference in tone compared to the newsreels of the time, in which optimism and boosting morale was of a higher order than the grim reality.

Related: 

- The National World War II Museum (U.S.)
- D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery (U.K.)

- Filed on Articles in "History Compiled" -