Set during World War II, the story follows Steve Dawson, a sergeant in the British Army left with an inoperable bullet next to his heart after being shot during the D-Day landings.

Battle Picture Weekly co-creator Pat Mills worked with freelance writer Gerry Finley-Day on "D-Day Dawson" for the launch issue of the new IPC Magazines title through 1974.

Finley-Day would recall the story was inspired by two principle factors - a TV series Mills remembered about a private eye living on borrowed time, and the wide coverage of the 30th anniversary of D-Day itself in the mainstream media throughout the year.

While the strip was still popular, editor Dave Hunt reluctantly concluded that the story's chronological nature and the approaching end of World War II in the serial meant "He had to die".

Despite what he felt was a tone similar to "the 'straight bat' stories of the War Picture Library", then-Battle assistant editor Steve MacManus would recall "D-Day Dawson" rapidly became the most popular strip in the comic.