Posted on 06/05/2012 9:11:54 AM PDT by moonshot925
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a 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 the 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 blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
You can’t say the word “crusade” anymore. It’s offensive to Muslims, donchaknow!
Ah, back in the days when our country had real men presidents.
With real brains, leadership, and most importantly, cojones.
Will our children and grandchildren ever know such men? I grieve for them, and for their futures.
May God send us, once again, strong leaders of integrity and patriotism.
If you get the chance, the D-Day Museum in New Orleans is a stirring visit. It has thousands of artifacts from the invasion, including a copy of this letter (if not the original) and Eisenhower’s speeches for after the operation. He actually prepared two: one for a successful landing, one for if it was repulsed. In the former, he gave credit to the GIs who bore the burden. In the latter he took full responsibility for the failure.
Very moving.
Unlike the present POS who now occupies the WH and knows not the simplest meaning of the word "honor".
I had blogged about D-Day, linking to his speech -
and FDR’s prayer on D-Day
http://smithsk.blogspot.com/2012/06/pray4america-part-2-fdrs-prayer-on-d.html
We so need this resolve to fight an enemy that is more covert.
In studying the histories of the D-Day invasion, we would have to give the edge of superior weapons to the Germans. In tanks, machine guns, artillery they had a decisive edge.
Thank God we had air superiority, but the errors committed on that day, almost doomed the invasion. It was the courage, tenacity, and resourcefulness of the American soldier which saved the day. The sacrifices made on June 6th 1944 will forever give glory to the annals freedom. May God continue to bless the legacy of those men.
Fortunately for us, Der Fuehrer was an idiot, who remained convinced the main assault was still going to be at Calais, even after the invasion began.
The U.S. had overwhelming numerical superiority in artillery in Europe, something like 7:1. In addition U.S. artillery was superior in quality and American artillery tactics were superior. Compounding the American advantage was a shortage of ammunition for the Germans, and compromise in lethality caused by shortage of chemical feedstocks for explosives. German shells were often filled with as much as 50% salt because of lack of explosives.
The most formidible German armor was superior to most U.S. armor, but clearly the advantage was not decisive. For the most part German armor was comparable or inferior to the Sherman. Tigers and Royal Tigers were the exception, not the rule. The U.S. enjoyed 5:1 numerical superiority in armor and probably a slight qualitative edge. U.S. armor was also more mantainable, with close to 100% availability, while German armor had a mean distance to repair of about 100 km. German logistics and repair were also distinctly substandard, meaning a disabled tank that might have been recovered and repaired by Americans, was generally a causuality for the Germans. In some ways, the largest German tanks were not particularly practical. The Royal Tiger at 70 tons could not traverse many common road bridges, consumed more fuel than the Germans could supply, and attracted a lot of direct fire artillery and P-47 Thunderbolt attacks. It was more of a semi-mobile pillbox than a tank.
German infantry weapons were probably superior to U.S., admittedly, but the big issues were airpower and artillery, with armor a close second. Infantry weapons are a distant third as a determinant of the outcome of victory.
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