* THE “D” IN D-DAY doesn’t stand for anything — it’s just a designation for whichever day a military operation begins.

* D-DAY PLANNERS used holiday postcards of Normandy to help fill in details.

* GEN. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER gave the go-ahead for D-Day with the words, “OK, let’s go”

* BRITISH LT. DEN BROTHERIDGE, shot shortly after midnight while storming a machine-gun nest on Pegasus Bridge, was the first Allied soldier killed by enemy fire on D-Day.

* ONE HUNDRED OF 355 GLIDER PILOTS ferrying British troops to Normandy before the beach landings were killed or wounded.

* A DOG used to listen for enemy movements required rescue when its parachute snagged on a tree.

* MIDGET SUBS, which surfaced near the coast to flash colored lights as beacons, guided the invasion fleet to Normandy.

* D-DAY INVOLVED 4,126 landing craft.

* BRITISH AND CANADIAN TROOPS used tanks fitted with revolving flails to clear beach minefields.

* GERMAN GEN. ERWIN ROMMEL was the first to describe D-Day as “the longest day of the century.”

* A BIBLE in his breast pocket saved the life of U.S. Staff Sgt. Lou Havard when it stopped a bullet.

* ALL BUT TWO of the 29 amphibious tanks deployed by U.S. forces on D-Day sank.

* HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR JOHN FORD led a camera crew on Omaha Beach filming newsreel footage.

* MORE THAN 156,000 ALLIED TROOPS landed at Normandy on D-Day; total Allied casualties are estimated at 10,000 for the day, with 2,500 dead (Total German casualties are not known,

but estimates range from 4,000 to 9,000).

* TWENTY-SEVEN WAR CEMETERIES hold the remains of more than 110,000 dead from both sides during the Battle of Normandy that followed D-Day

MCT News Service