General Eisenhower - D Day Message

Just prior to the amassed Allied forces setting sail for the invasion of France, the D Day Landings on 6th June 1944, the Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued this message to the men under his command.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• D day
• ww2
• eisenhower
• war
• american
• speech

[MattQB1990]

Listening to the General drinking the Kool-Aid makes me sad. He wised up, as president he learned. This war propaganda is filth. Hundreds of thousands of our men died and for what? Money. When will people in nations realize that war is something rich men conjure up and are battles between them that have nothing to do with nationality, nobility, or lofty causes?

[11nytram11]

@xOrion89x Rundstedt refused to follow an order and got away with it, Rommel refused to follow an order and got away with it so it was possible. The problem was that too many German officers just were prepared to speak out, some were afriad to but others just hadn't been trained that way.

[11nytram11]

@xOrion89x The point was that Germany and Prussia before it had a culture of absolute obdience amongst their officers. Soldiers followed ordered whether they agreed with it or not and did not question them. In this the Nazi-German General were culpable for the mistake made by the Nazi-German military because they could have spoken out but didn't. It's an entirely different matter to follow an order without question than it is to be forced to follow that order.

[xOrion89x]

@11nytram11 Of course they opposed it, but at the end of the day hitler was the one with absolute power and could easily dismiss their objections. But to outright refuse to carry out an order or to carry out an unauthorized one is extremely circumstantial, not the easiest thing to do in a fascist dictatorship.

[giannivee1]

@11nytram11 I am not worked up about it at all. So let me start over...I really liked the Generals Speech, he possesses such great Oratorical skill, and his use of English is reflective of the public school system's high standards in turn of the Century USA circa 1900...God Bless...Gianni

[11nytram11]

@giannivee1 Fine. I just dont know why your getting so worked up about it.

[giannivee1]

@11nytram11 Ahem....ok, lets agree that we disagree...You think that it isn't great oratory, and I think it is. You be happy in your bubble of criticism and I will be happy in mine of a man who was under tremendous stress to land all of those soldiers on Normandy.....agreed???? You go your way, and I go mine.

[11nytram11]

@giannivee1 I haven't criticized you for liking the speech, I was just disagreeing with you about Eisenhower being a great orator. I dont see why you feel you need to go off on one because of a differance of opinion.

[11nytram11]

@giannivee1 I dont admire Eisenhower, actually. I have legitimate reasons for not thinking highly as a military man but that doesn't I cant recognize his better qualities as well as a his lesser ones. It doesn't matter if Eisenhower was a great talker or not, if he was able to do the job he had to an effective degree then being a good public speaker no bearing on the matter.

[11nytram11]

@giannivee1 Eisenhower was SCAFE - Supreme Commander Allied Forces in Europe - but he did not become Land Forces Commander until after Paris had fallen. Eisenhower role in the Normandy Campaign was to deal with politician who were worried about the slow pace, to deal with logistic and to mediate between the Land, Sea and Air Forces commanders so they worked together. He had little to no part in deciding how the campaign was fought on the ground.