Citizen Soldiers Quotes

“Ethnic Germans also surrendered. Even veterans of the Eastern Front. Corp. Friedrich Bertenrath of the 2nd Panzer Division explained, "In Russia, I could imagine nothing but fighting to the last man. We knew that going into a prison camp in Russia meant you were dead. In Normandy, one always had in the back of his mind, 'Well, if everything goes to hell, the Americans are human enough that the prospect of becoming their prisoner was attractive to some extent.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“Egy másik amerikai tiszti egyenruhába bújtatott német a dzsipjével odahajtott egy útzárhoz, ahol a zászlóaljtörzs egyik tisztje kérdezte ki. A német beszéde és személyazonosságot igazoló iratai hibátlanok voltak - amint kiderült, túlságosan is hibátlanok. Minden GI magánál hordta a "Főhadsegédi Hivatal Azonosító Kártyája" elnevezésű igazolványt, amelynek első oldalára felül hibásan ezt nyomtatták: "Nem belépési engedély, kizárólag azonnosításra szolgál!" A német hamisító a legendás teuton precizitás szellemében kijavította a helyesírási hibát, így a hamisított igazolványon ez állt: "azonosításra". Az a hiányzó "n" betű a német tisztnek az életébe került.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“Nor did the Americans find it necessary to wage a ruthless campaign. As has been mentioned previously, both sides respected”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“Hitler had recognized that his only hope for victory lay on the Western Front. His armies could not defeat the Red Army, but they might defeat the British and Americans, so discouraging Stalin that he would make a settlement. But after correctly seeing the critical theater, Hitler completely failed to see the critical battlefield. He continued to look to the Pas-de-Calais as the site where he would drive the invaders back into the sea, and consequently kept his main striking power there. To every plea by the commanders in Normandy for the panzer divisions in northwestern France to come to their aid, Hitler said no. In so saying he sealed his fate. He suffered the worst humiliation of all, the one with the most consequences—he had been outwitted.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“The GIs didn’t like to talk about country or flag and were embarrassed by patriotic bombast. They were all American boys, separated by eighty years only—but that separation included World War I. The Great War changed the language. It made patriotic words sound hollow, unacceptable, ridiculous, especially for the next set of young Americans sent to Europe to fight over the same battlefields their fathers had fought over. Nevertheless, as much as the Civil War soldiers, the GIs believed in their cause. They knew they were fighting for decency and democracy and they were proud of it and motivated by it. They just didn’t talk or write about it.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“sense of fatalism. Pvt. Ken Webster of the 101st Airborne expressed his feelings and insights in a letter to his mother: “I am living on borrowed time. . . . If I don’t come back, try not to take it too hard. I wish I could persuade you to regard death as casually as we do over here. In the heat of battle you expect casualties, you expect somebody to be killed and you are not surprised when a friend is machine-gunned in the face. You have to keep going. It’s not like civilian”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“But then the GIs ran into an iron door that blocked access to St. Julien’s interior. The Shermans crossed the causeway and fired point-blank at it, but the 75mm shells just bounced off. A tank destroyer with a 90mm gun drove up. It fired six rounds at a range of less than fifty yards. They had no effect. With the machine-gun fire from the Shermans keeping the Germans back from the firing slits, a 155mm howitzer was wheeled into place. The big gun slammed ten rounds into the door, but still it held. That Vauban was some builder.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“I sometimes think the biggest price we pay for war is what might have been.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“The Bridge at Remagen,”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“A tank cannon thrust through a kitchen door really stimulates exodus”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“Pvt. David Webster of the 101st spoke directly to it. On February 15, a buddy had died a particularly gruesome death. Webster wrote, “He wasn’t twenty years old. He hadn’t begun to live. Shrieking and moaning, he gave up his life on a stretcher. Back in America the standard of living continued to rise. Back in America the race tracks were booming, the night clubs were making record profits , Miami Beach was so crowded you couldn’t get a room anywhere. Few people seemed to care. Hell, this was a boom, this was prosperity , this was the way to fight a war. We wondered if the people would ever know what it cost the soldiers in terror, bloodshed, and hideous, agonizing deaths to win the war.” 48”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

“They were learning about others. A common experience: the guy who talked toughest, bragged most, excelled in maneuvers, everyone’s pick to be the top soldier in the company, was the first to break, while the soft-talking kid who was hardly noticed in camp was the standout in combat. These are the clichés of war novels precisely because they are true. They”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany