WW2, D-Day Speech, General Eisenhower, June 6, 1944 -'The Light of Dawn' D-Day Film

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Last edited Mon Jun 17, 2024, 03:48 AM - Edit history (1)

- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's D-Day Speech, Order of the Day, June 6, 1944. (2 mins). Pritzker Museum and Library.
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- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's Order of the Day 1944. National Archives & Records Admin. Ed.

This order was issued by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to encourage Allied soldiers taking part in the D-day invasion.

Almost immediately after France fell to the Nazis in 1940, the Allies planned a cross-Channel assault on the German occupying forces. At the Quebec Conference in Aug. 1943, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt reaffirmed the plan, which was code-named Overlord. Although Churchill acceded begrudgingly to the operation, historians note that the British still harbored persistent doubts about whether Overlord would succeed. The decision to mount the invasion was cemented at the Tehran Conference held in Nov. and Dec. 1943.

Joseph Stalin, on his first trip outside the Soviet Union since 1912, pressed Roosevelt and Churchill for details about the plan, particularly the identity of the supreme commander of Overlord. They told Stalin that the invasion “would be possible” by Aug. 1, 1944, but that no decision had yet been made to name a supreme commander. To the latter point, Stalin rejoined, “Then nothing will come of these operations. Who carries the moral and technical responsibility for this operation?” Churchill and Roosevelt acknowledged the need to name the commander without delay.

Soon after the conference ended, Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to that position.

By May 1944, over 2,876,000 Allied troops were amassed in southern England. While awaiting deployment orders, they prepared for the assault by practicing with live ammunition. The largest armada in history, made up of more than 4,000 American, British, and Canadian ships, lay in wait. More than 1,200 planes stood ready to deliver seasoned airborne troops behind enemy lines, to silence German ground resistance as best they could, and to dominate the skies of the impending battle theater. Amid uncertain weather forecasts, disagreements in strategy, and timing dilemmas based on the need for optimal tidal conditions, Eisenhower decided before dawn June 5 to proceed with Operation Overlord.

That afternoon, he wrote a note intended for release, accepting responsibility for the decision to launch the invasion and full blame should the effort to create a beachhead on the Normandy coast fail. More polished is his printed Order of the Day for June 6, 1944, which Eisenhower began drafting in Feb. It was distributed to the 175,000-member expeditionary force on the eve of the invasion...
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/general-eisenhowers-order-of-the-day

- June 6, 1944 - The Light of Dawn - D-Day. 1:40:19. (Best Documentaries, 2014).

The Light of Dawn tells the story of Operation Overlord. It traces the largest military operation man has ever conceived - since the summer of 1941 when Roosevelt and Churchill first broached the issue - to June 6, 1944. The film recounts the crucial turning point in WWII when questions of geopolitics (the difficult alliance between London, Moscow and Washington), the various military strategies and technological prowess, as well as the fate of young soldiers who will attack the Atlantic Wall and pay a heavy price...