Reliving D Day. The day (June 6, 1944) known as D Day on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy, which was the start of the end of World War II (on the Western front). What did D Day actually look like? Below we have an infograph which looks at the famous day. One of the most important aspects of D Day was the deception by British double agents and assisted by Patton’s fake army to convince Hitler and his generals that the main attack would come at Pas De Calais, not in Normandy. This deception continued even after the landings, and succeeded in the Germans from holding back from sending troops into the Normandy region. D Day started at night with gliders and paratroopers landing to seize (or block) vital roads, bridges and other strategic areas. In the morning came the massive assault across the English channel on 5 beaches in the Normandy region. See some quotes and the infographic below for more detail on D Day landings.
D Day Quotes
“I say that the bombing of the Abbey…was a mistake…It only made our job more difficult, more costly in terms of men, machines and time”
– Lieutenant General Mark Clark – Commander of the U.S. Fifth Army, 1944 (After the bombing of Monte Cassino)
“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”
– Winston Churchill
“God, there must be a meaning. Fiercely he was certain that there must be a meaning.
Surely, while we live we are not lost.
Oh Janos, Janos my brother!
Surely we are not lost–while we live.”
– John Hepworth
“Now at this very moment I knew that the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! … How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care … We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end … Hitler’s fate was sealed. Mussolini’s fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to a powder. All the rest was merely the proper application of overwhelming force.”
– Winston Churchill
“My strength has now been reduced to the equivalent of 36 squadrons…we should be able to carry on the war single-handed for some time if not indefinitely.”
– Sir Hugh Dowding
“With Malta in enemy hands, the Mediterranean route would be completely closed to us…this tiny island was a vital feature in the defence of our Middle East position.”
– General Hastings Ismay – 1942
“On the European Front, the most important development of the past year has been the crushing German offensive against the great armies of Russia”
– President Franklin D. Roosevelt – 29th April 1942
When I said that British fighter-bombers had shot up my tanks with 40mm shells, the Reichsmarschall who felt himself touched by this, said: ‘That’s completely impossible. The Americans only know how to make razor blades.’ I replied: ‘We could do with some of those razor blades, Herr Reichsmarshall.’
– Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.
– Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, upon learning of the success of the attack on Pearl Harbor
History knows no greater display of courage than that shown by the people of the Soviet Union.
– Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War
Don’t fire until you can see the whites of their eyes.
– Major Devereux (the battle of Wake Island, 1941)
D Day Infographic
Infographic via nola.com
