DDay, H-Hour
Sirs:
Everybody refers to DDay, H-Hour. Can you please tell me what they stand for or how they originated?
(NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST) Toronto
¶ D for Day, H for Hour means the undetermined (or secret) day and hour for the start of a military operation. Their use permits the entire timetable for the operation to be scheduled in detail and its various steps prepared by subordinate commanders long before a definite day and time for the attack have been set. When the day and time are fixed, subordinates are so informed.
So far as the U.S. Army can determine, the first use of D for Day, H for Hour was in Field Order No. 8, of the First Army, A.E.F., issued on Sept. 7, 1918, which read: "The First Army will attack at H-Hour on D-Day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel salient."—ED.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Sirs:
I have nothing against English girls as I've never known any, but Pfc. John M. Stevens' letter (TIME, May 22) was too much for any American girl to stand. . . .
There is nothing jealous about a girl who denounces the English mother of an American soldier's illegitimate quads, and besides we American girls were under the impression that the Army was in England for a purpose, and it isn't that. If we are perturbed about the boys being in England this spring it is because we feel that they are in danger and the danger we fear for them is not an English woman's charms. We were also under the impression that there is a war going on and that it isn't to decide who is the prettier— English or American girls.
I'm sure that I speak for thousands of American girls when I say that the English women are welcome to Private Stevens and any other Americans who have that same attitude. Let them darn his socks, wash his clothes and share their limited rations with him—we'll put our energy into trying to help those boys over there who feel that our country and the American girls are worth fighting for and coming home to.
JEAN AUTREY Kissimmee, Fla.
Sirs:
. . . Pfc. Stevens should wise up to himself. He isn't looking for a wife; he wants a housekeeper. . . .
DONNA MUHLEMAN
HELENE URBAN
BETTY SZABO
ELEANORE STARK
JACQUELINE MAURATH
LUCILLE KAULLMAN
Lorain, Ohio
Sirs:
. . . Someday when Pfc. John M. Stevens darn near fractures a vertebra hurrying down the gangplank onto Manhattan we'll be there to plant a nice lipstickish American kiss on his pouty lips. Cheerio, Johnnie, we'll be seeing you!
HELEN EVRINGTON Seattle, Wash.
Sirs:
... If he likes England and the English girls so much, why doesn't he stay there after this war? Anyone who has such a low conception of American girls doesn't deserve to live among them.
CÉCILE BOISCLAIR Manchester, N.H.
TIME and the Lacandons
Sirs:
You may enjoy a paragraph which your story on the Lacandons of Chiapas (TIME, May 22) brought to mind. As you remark, the Lacandons are "an ancient, charming and all but extinct people." They are also one of the few non-Christian people among Mexico's many Indian tribes who have some knowledge of TIME.