Overlord Code Name - Random?

Was the name Overlord the next one on the list to use or could D-Day have been some other name starting with N or P?, assuming operations were named alphabetically. Did the Allies ever choose a certain name for an operation like is done today?

Not that I know of. The idea was to select an operation name that had nothing to do with the operation.

IIRC, Churchill wrote a memo about choosing operation names that was reproduced in his history/memoirs. I don't remember everything, but one of the guidelines was to avoid silly names ('I regret to inform you that your son was killed in Operation Bunnyhug' and another to avoid overconfident names (like the US 'Operation Roundup' for a landing in France in 1943).

Did the Allies ever choose a certain name for an Now and then, but then they often changed it. Anvil was the landing in southern France, but it gave too good an idea of what it was about, so it got changed to Dragoon (Churchill said he'd been dragooned into it). Modern US operation names seem intended for propaganda rather than communications security, it being presumably less important to conceal what we're going to do.

Some operations definitely had 'chosen' names.

TORCH was so named because it was supposed to set fire to the tail of the 'Desert Fox', Rommel.

BODYGUARD was taken from Churchill's remark to Stalin that 'In wartime, truth is so precious that it should always be escorted by a bodyguard of lies.'

NEPTUNE for the seaborne operations of D-Day has an obvious significance.

So does DOWNFALL for the planned invasion and conquest of Japan (it included OLYMPIC and CORONET).

Also STARVATION, the 1945 plan to surround Japan with mines and thus cut off all imports.

The first RAF 'thousand-bomber' raid was MILLENIUM, and I'm sure that was chosen.

But the vast majority were just random words, with a preference for those that sounded good and were easily remembered:

DIADEM, DYNAMO, GRENADE, CARTWHEEL, BAYTOWN, VARSITY, HUSKY, BATTLEAXE, GALVANIC, COBRA, LUSTRE, WATCHTOWER - to name a few.

I read there was a wimpy name on a list. Ike said something like 'Don't we have something better than this?' So, another name was

I wonder if something similar cannot also be said for TORCH, AVALANCHE, and OVERLORD, which for all I know may have been chosen entirely at random but which, serendipitously or not, definitely have evocative powers to my ear.

TORCH suggests carrying the torch of liberation to the occupied and oppressed countries under the Axis yoke, something the Allies were certainly at pains to convey at this point in the war, hopefully to obviate French resistance to the landings.

AVALANCHE implies a sudden crushing blow. In the event, this proved optimistic, but you can't blame a guy for trying.

OVERLORD would speak to the supreme priority of this operation in the Allied strategy.

Now of course these names would not have been publicized prior to the operations themselves being launched, so it might be argued that their propaganda value is little or nil, but I am also thinking of the psychological effect on the planners and executors of the plans. Giving an operation an apposite name strikes me as a cheap way to enhance the focus and elan of those 'in the know'.

Of course, maybe I just suffer from an overactive imagination.

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As far as I know, the Canadian beach on D-day had it's name changed for precisely this reason.

Apparently. the person tasked with naming the beaches (amongst many other planning duties) was a keen fissherman. He decided to give the beaches names which could have the word 'fish' added to them. He named them Gold (fish), Sword (fish) and Jelly (fish). A more senior officer said he would not have any man die on Jelly Beach and ordered the name to be changed. Presumably because the rest of the planning referred to a naval Force 'J' for this beach, the new name had to start with a 'J'. Whether Juno was plucked from the air, or from a list of allowable code names I don't know.

I am assuming this was done under COSSAC, when a 3-Division assault was all the planners were allowed to prepare from. My information or this comes from an obituary in the Times about 18 months - 2 years ago. My Dad told me about it, and I didn't see the article myself, or know the name of the officer involved. You're welcome to shoot this down in flames if it's wrong - but only if you can tell me the real derivation of the beach names! This is the only account of the naming process used for the beaches that I've ever heard.

Cheers,

Martin Clements

... : But the vast majority were just random words, with a preference : for those that sounded good and were easily remembered:

: DIADEM, DYNAMO, GRENADE, CARTWHEEL, BAYTOWN, VARSITY, HUSKY, : BATTLEAXE, GALVANIC, COBRA, LUSTRE, WATCHTOWER - to name a few.

I have wondered about some of the names that might easily be confused with terms used in a military/naval message. The first one that comes to mind in that category is the code name for the invasion of Iwo Jima: DETACHMENT. Wouldn't 'detachment' be likely to appear in the normal course of traffic?