June 6th is fast approaching and marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower tentatively set May 31, 1944, as D-Day for the Normandy Invasion. Ike set D-Day in motion with the official invasion order from the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington came on February 9, 1944 and read as follows:
“You will enter the continent of Europe and, in conjunction with the other United Nations, undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces. The date for entering the Continent is the month of May, 1944. After adequate Channel Ports have been secured, exploitation will be directed towards securing an area that will facilitate both ground and air operations against the enemy.”
By the time this order was received, Ike and his planners and logisticians were already in motion to plan and execute the many elements required to make D-Day successful. He requested 47 landing ships, 144 landing crafts and 24 additional destroyers and 5 cruisers just to name a few.
Troops were continually being transported from the United States to England to ready for the Overlord assault. GIs are shown in the photo as just arriving by ship in January 1944 and boarding a train at Liverpool’s Princes Dock. The next photo shows the soldiers onboard the train feasting on Red Cross donuts and coffee.
“Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice, a soldier’s pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner’s chains.”
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
It has been seventy years since D-Day. I am very proud that my 101st Airborne father’s wartime letters are now preserved in COMES A SOLDIER’S WHISPER and that Susan Eisenhower, author of Breaking Free and Mrs. Ike and granddaughter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower has authorized her following comments to be added to our book cover:
“After weeks on the road I came back to find your book, Comes A Soldier’s Whisper and also to read it. You have every reason to be very proud of your father. He was truly in the thick of battle during the war and he served his country with distinction–showing a natural human response to the destruction and loss of life.”
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Photo/Text Source: America In WWII Magazine Feb/2014
