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One lesson of D-Day - specifically, the vastly superior Allied position in 1944 compared to that of Germany in 1940 - shows how utterly impossible any invasion of Britain would have been.
Knowing what Germany's plans were and how D-Day went with the planning, men and equipment involved, that is 100% correct.
I participated in the 50th Anniversary D-Day events while stationed on the USS George Washington CVN-73. The GW was the flagship for the flotilla that left Portsmouth and headed to Normandy. It was quite the site and honor to be there.
We had a lot of VIP's on our ship including QEII, POTUS and all the military secretaries and top leaders.
I participated in the 50th Anniversary D-Day events while stationed on the USS George Washington CVN-73. The GW was the flagship for the flotilla that left Portsmouth and headed to Normandy. It was quite the site and honor to be there.
We had a lot of VIP's on our ship including QEII, POTUS and all the military secretaries and top leaders.
It's something I will never forget.
Oh wow....how exciting and very moving that must have been....
where was the ship located at the time? Were you off the coast of France?
While I quite admire Eisenhower as both a military commander and a president, it should be noted that in 1944 there was absolutely no possibility that Hitler could 'destroy freedom in the world'. Really, there never was - for example, the UK and Ireland and Iceland were beyond Germany's reach, to say nothing of the United States and Canada and Australia and New Zealand. Also, the war did not allow that 'the world could be free'. Hell, 'the world' isn't free today - just some parts of it are.
I don't begrudge Ike's mythologizing at a 20-year memorial, but this is a history forum so I just wanted to clarify that.
Perhaps a bit of a hyperbolic statement, but understandable in the context of the time. A lot of things that seem clear to us now were anything but clear at the time, and people were very disturbed and frightened. There were still any number of ways the war could have turned out, and some of the possibilities that seemed apparent at the time were frankly terrifying. Also, "we're making the world safe for democracy" was the go-to pep talk for explaining to the American people why we were sacrificing the lives of 400,000 of our children in other people's countries. I don't find it surprising that he still lived and died by it 20 years later; he probably had a lot of sleepless nights over the course of his life, looking back and thinking of all the young men and women he'd sent to their deaths.
But in the end, did it really matter? Did his choice of words matter that much? Tens of millions of innocent men, women, and children were being slaughtered by totalitarian regimes all across the globe, and it had been going on for 15 years. It had to stop. It had to be stopped, and the Normandy invasion was one of the most significant, decisive steps toward stopping it since the whole tragedy began. The morning of that day was the moment the free world began rolling the Nazi death machine back from the occupied countries of Western Europe. For the couple of hundred of innocent people in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, et al who lived in terror every single day, that pretty much was the world. I can live with Ike's poetic license.
Perhaps a bit of a hyperbolic statement, but understandable in the context of the time. A lot of things that seem clear to us now were anything but clear at the time, and people were very disturbed and frightened. There were still any number of ways the war could have turned out, and some of the possibilities that seemed apparent at the time were frankly terrifying. Also, "we're making the world safe for democracy" was the go-to pep talk for explaining to the American people why we were sacrificing the lives of 400,000 of our children in other people's countries. I don't find it surprising that he still lived and died by it 20 years later; he probably had a lot of sleepless nights over the course of his life, looking back and thinking of all the young men and women he'd sent to their deaths.
But in the end, did it really matter? Did his choice of words matter that much? Tens of millions of innocent men, women, and children were being slaughtered by totalitarian regimes all across the globe, and it had been going on for 15 years. It had to stop. It had to be stopped, and the Normandy invasion was one of the most significant, decisive steps toward stopping it since the whole tragedy began.
The morning of that day was the moment the free world began rolling the Nazi death machine back from the occupied countries of Western Europe. For the couple of hundred of innocent people in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, et al who lived in terror every single day, that pretty much was the world. I can live with Ike's poetic license.
"we're making the world safe for democracy" was the go-to pep talk for explaining to the American people why we were sacrificing the lives of 400,000 of our children in other people's countries.
You may find it was because the Japanese wiped out a lot of the US Pacific fleet and a whole raft of Axis countries declared war on the USA was the reason - one which the population fully understood. The liberation of Western Europe was started with Sicily the year before.
Perhaps a bit of a hyperbolic statement, but understandable in the context of the time. A lot of things that seem clear to us now were anything but clear at the time, and people were very disturbed and frightened. There were still any number of ways the war could have turned out, and some of the possibilities that seemed apparent at the time were frankly terrifying. Also, "we're making the world safe for democracy" was the go-to pep talk for explaining to the American people why we were sacrificing the lives of 400,000 of our children in other people's countries. I don't find it surprising that he still lived and died by it 20 years later; he probably had a lot of sleepless nights over the course of his life, looking back and thinking of all the young men and women he'd sent to their deaths.
But in the end, did it really matter? Did his choice of words matter that much? Tens of millions of innocent men, women, and children were being slaughtered by totalitarian regimes all across the globe, and it had been going on for 15 years. It had to stop. It had to be stopped, and the Normandy invasion was one of the most significant, decisive steps toward stopping it since the whole tragedy began. The morning of that day was the moment the free world began rolling the Nazi death machine back from the occupied countries of Western Europe. For the couple of hundred of innocent people in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, et al who lived in terror every single day, that pretty much was the world. I can live with Ike's poetic license.
Apparently, you didn't read my final sentence, despite quoting it.
Let me repeat it:
Quote:
I don't begrudge Ike's mythologizing at a 20-year memorial, but this is a history forum so I just wanted to clarify that.
Eisenhower, had prepared a message for the press and public, accepting all the blame for Overlord’s failure. This message was never distributed.
I suspect that this is a lot more common than we know. It is known that Nixon had 2 speeches prepared when the first moon landing took place. I would assume that Carter had a congratulatory speech prepared but he had to use the accepting the blame speech when the helicopter crashed in Iran.
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