Windhover,

I suspect that date, 8 May, originates from page 534 of Captain Harry C Butcher’s My Three Years with Eisenhower (1942-1945). Butcher was Eisenhower’s Naval Aide, and although his book, published in 1946, was based on his personal diary, he was not actually privy to discussions between Eisenhower and his Commanders in Chief.

On the other hand Chester Wilmot’s The struggle for Europe (1952), based on documents to which he had been allowed access, quotes the decision being made on 17 May.

Gordon A Harrison in Cross Channel Attack (page 269 of http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-XChannel/USA-E-XChannel-8.html) also quotes 8 May as being the date the decision was made – but gives no reference and completely ignores the despatches of two senior officers, General Eisenhower and Admiral Sir Bertram H Ramsay, which tell a different story.

On page 5 of his report as the Supreme Commander of the AEF (Report by the Supreme Commander to the Combined Chiefs of Staff on the Operations in Europe of the Allied Expeditionary Force: 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 (http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/070/70-58/)), Eisenhower wrote Later, on 17 May, I set June 5 as the ‘final’ date for the assault, subject of course, to last-minute revision if the weather should prove unfavourable.

In paragraph 28 of his despatch to the Supreme Commander, Admiral Sir Bertram H Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander in Chief (http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/LondonGazette/38110.pdf) gives the same date – 17 May:

28. Owing to the need to take account of the latest photographic reconnaissance showing the exact position of obstacles the final decision as to D-day and H hour was not made until 17 May when 5th June was selected, with postponement acceptable to 6th and 7th.

There is little doubt but that the date and hour of the assault were discussed during early May, as they had been during the previous year. Logistically the invasion would have been impossible by the preferred target date of 1 May, the reason Eisenhower persuaded the Combined Chiefs of Staff to accept a month’s delay – to 31 May. From that moment only two factors needed to be considered, the state of moon and tide, and the weather, which meant the earliest date had to be the 5th June (weather permitting).

Brian