MY SAY: MEMORIAL DAY 75 YEARS AGO
In August 1943 President Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill in Quebec to discuss a plan for a cross-English Channel assault to liberate Nazi occupied France. The operation’s code name was “Overlord.” In November 1943, at a meeting held the Soviet Union’s embassy in Teheran, the plan was formulated and shortly thereafter President Roosevelt appointed General Dwight David Eisenhower to be Supreme Allied Commander of “Overlord.” British Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery, renowned for leading the first major Allied victory at El Alamein, Egypt, in 1942 became ground commander of the Anglo-American forces under Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On Memorial Day May 30, 1944 2,876,000 Allied troops were amassed in southern England joined by an armada of 4,000 American, British and Canadian ships and 1300 planes to give air cover to the invasion troops prepared to land on five French beaches code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
Strategy was bedeviled by disagreements, poor weather and tidal conditions, but on June 5th before dawn, Eisenhower decided to proceed. He wrote a brief note accepting full responsibility for the decision and accepting total blame should the assault fail.
To his troops as they were boarding transports to combat, he gave this speech:
Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months.
The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.
Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
After Normandy, there were many hard won and brutal battles, but the tide did turn and eleven months later, on May 7, 1945 the war in Europe ended. God bless our troops ….rsk
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