D-Day, June 6, 1944 Quotes

“No matter how bad things got, no matter how anxious the staff became, the commander had to “preserve optimism in himself and in his command. Without confidence, enthusiasm and optimism in the command, victory is scarcely obtainable.” Eisenhower realized that “optimism and pessimism are infectious and they spread more rapidly from the head downward than in any other direction.” He learned that a commander’s optimism “has a most extraordinary effect upon all with whom he comes in contact. With this clear realization, I firmly determined that my mannerisms and speech in public would always reflect the cheerful certainty of victory—that any pessimism and discouragement I might ever feel would be reserved for my pillow.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches

“When you talk about combat leadership under fire on the beach at Normandy,” Ellery concluded, “I don’t see how the credit can go to anyone other than the company-grade officers and senior NCOs who led the way. It is good to be reminded that there are such men, that there always have been and always will be. We sometimes forget, I think, that you can manufacture weapons, and you can purchase ammunition, but you can’t buy valor and you can’t pull heroes off an assembly line.”18 •   •”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“free.” On the edge of town, Fitzgerald saw a sight “that has never left my memory. It was a picture story of the death of one 82nd Airborne trooper. He had occupied a German foxhole and made it his personal Alamo. In a half circle around the hole lay the bodies of nine German soldiers. The body closest to the hole was only three feet away, a potato masher [grenade] in its fist.II The other distorted forms lay where they had fallen, testimony to the ferocity of the fight. His ammunition bandoliers were still on his shoulders, empty of M-1 clips. Cartridge cases littered the ground. His rifle stock was broken in two. He had fought alone and, like many others that night, he had died alone. “I looked at his dog tags. The name read Martin V. Hersh. I wrote the name down in a small prayer book I carried, hoping someday I would meet someone who knew him. I never did.”34”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“failure at one point could throw the momentum out of balance and result in chaos. All in that room were aware”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Pvt. Robert Fruling said he spent two and a half days at Pointe-du-Hoc, all of it crawling on his stomach. He returned on the twenty-fifth anniversary of D-Day “to see what the place looked like standing up” (Louis Lisko interview, EC).”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“General Eisenhower, who started it all with his “OK, let’s go” order, gets the last word. In 1964, on D-Day plus twenty years, he was interviewed on Omaha Beach by Walter Cronkite. Looking out at the Channel, Eisenhower said, “You see these people out here swimming and sailing their little pleasure boats and taking advantage of the nice weather and the lovely beach, Walter, and it is almost unreal to look at it today and remember what it was. “But it’s a wonderful thing to remember what those fellows twenty years ago were fighting for and sacrificing for, what they did to preserve our way of life. Not to conquer any territory, not for any ambitions of our own. But to make sure that Hitler could not destroy freedom in the world. “I think it’s just overwhelming. To think of the lives that were given for that principle, paying a terrible price on this beach alone, on that one day, 2,000 casualties. But they did it so that the world could be free. It just shows what free men will do rather than be slaves.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Admiral Ramsay ended his June 6 diary with this entry: “We have still to establish ourselves on land. The navy has done its part well. News continued satisfactory throughout the day from E.T.F. [Eastern Task Force, the British beaches] and good progress was made. Very little news was rec[eived] from W.T.F. [the American beaches] & anxiety exists as to the position on shore. “Still on the whole we have very much to thank God for this day.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Pvt. Felix Branham was a member of K Company, 116th Infantry, the regiment that took the heaviest casualties of all the Allied regiments on D-Day. “I have gone through lots of tragedies since D-Day,” he concluded his oral history. “But to me, D-Day will live with me till the day I die, and I’ll take it to heaven with me. It was the longest, most miserable, horrible day that I or anyone else ever went through. “I would not take a million dollars for my experiences, but I surely wouldn’t want to go through that again for a million dollars.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“The men fighting for democracy were able to make quick, on-site decisions and act on them; the men fighting for the totalitarian regime were not.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“But Goering was in Berchtesgaden, agreeing with Hitler’s self-serving, ridiculous assertion that the Allies had launched the invasion exactly where he had expected them, while the Luftwaffe was either in Germany or redeploying or grounded due to administrative and fuel problems. Once the terror of the world, the Luftwaffe on June 6, 1944, was a joke.III”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“As there was absolutely no depth to the Atlantic Wall, once it had been penetrated, even if only by a kilometer, it was useless. Worse than useless, because the Wehrmacht troops manning the Atlantic Wall east and west of the invasion area were immobile, incapable of rushing to the sound of the guns. The Atlantic Wall must therefore be regarded as one of the greatest blunders in military history.II”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“But the fact is that with the exception of some paratroopers and units of the U.S. 4th Division at Utah, none of the Americans reached their D-Day objectives either. The Americans too tended to feel after they had cleared the beaches that they had done enough for one day. Major Taylor put it best. Sitting outside the Gondrée cafe as it grew full dark, he sipped his champagne and felt good. “And at that moment I can remember thinking to myself, My God, we’ve done it!”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“One major in the Air Landing Brigade had noticed a paperboy selling the afternoon London Evening Standard outside his airfield before taking off. The headline was “SKYMEN LAND IN EUROPE.” The major bought the entire stock, loaded them into his glider, and distributed them in Normandy that night, so that at least some of the paratroopers were able to read about themselves in a London paper the same day they had been dropped.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Lt. Richard Todd of the 5th Parachute Brigade, who had parachuted in during the night and joined the Ox and Bucks just before dawn (and who later became a famous British actor; he played John Howard in the movie The Longest Day) said that “for sheer bravado and bravery” the march-past of Gale, Kindersley, and Poett “was one of the most memorable sights I’ve ever seen.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“As the firefight went on, Corp. Jack Bailey saw an unexpected sight. A woman, “dressed in black, as women of a certain age do in France, with a basket over her arm, walked between us and the Germans.” Everyone on both sides stopped firing and stared. “And she was gathering her eggs! She stooped over not three feet from my firing position and gathered one in. When she had completed her task and strolled off, we resumed firing.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“It was broad daylight.” Masters remembered a film he had seen, with Cary Grant, called Gunga Din. He recalled Grant, facing a completely hopeless situation, surrounded by Indian rebels from the Khyber Pass. Grant had faced the Indians just before they overwhelmed him and said quite calmly, “You’re all under arrest.” Masters started walking down the road, yelling at the top of his voice, in German, “Everybody out! Come out! You are totally surrounded! Give yourselves up! The war is over for you! You don’t have a chance unless you surrender now!” No Germans surrendered, but neither did they fire.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Come on, get a move on, this is no different than an exercise,” Lovat called out. “He was very calm,” Masters observed. “He carried no weapon other than his Colt .45 in his holster [Lovat had handed his rifle to a soldier who had dropped his in the water]. He had a walking stick, a slim long stick forked at the top. It’s called a wading stick in Scotland.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Pvt. Harry Nomburg (using the name “Harry Drew”) was one of those Central European Jews who had joined the commandos and been put into 3 Troop, No. 10 Commando, where he and his fellow Jews were given special training in intelligence and made ready for battlefield interrogation of German POWs. He wore the green beret of the commandos with pride and went ashore full of anticipation about the contribution he was going to make to bringing Hitler down.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“When asked what her most vivid lingering memory of D-Day was, she replied, “The sea with all the boats on it. All the boats and planes. It was something which you just can’t imagine if you have not seen it. It was boats, boats, boats and more boats, boats everywhere. If I had been a German, I would have looked at this, put my weapon down, and said, ‘That’s it. Finished.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“But in 1964, when he was working as a shipping agent in Ouistreham for a British steamship line, Pickersgill met John Thornton, who introduced him to his wife, Jacqueline. Her maiden name was Noel; she had met Thornton on D plus four; they fell in love and married after the war; he too worked as a shipping agent in Ouistreham. It was Jacqueline who had been on the beach, and the story was true.10 Pickersgill arranged an interview for me with Jacqueline for this book. “Well,” she said, “I was on the beach for a silly reason. My twin sister had been killed in an air raid a fortnight before in Caen, and she had given me a bathing costume for my birthday, and I had left it on the beach, because we were allowed about once a week to remove the fences so we could pass to go swimming, and I had left the costume in a small hut on the beach, and I just wanted to go and pick it up. I didn’t want anybody to take it. “So I got on my bicycle and rode to the beach.” I asked, “Didn’t the Germans try to stop you?” “No, my Red Cross armband evidently made them think it was OK.” “There was quite a bit of activity,” she went on in a grand understatement, “and I saw a few dead bodies. And of course once I got to the beach I couldn’t go back, the English wouldn’t let me. They were whistling at me, you know. But mostly they were surprised to see me. I mean, it was a ridiculous thing to do. So I stayed on the beach to help with the wounded. I didn’t go back to the house until two days after. There was a lot to do.” She changed bandages, helped haul wounded and dead out of the water, and otherwise made herself useful.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Pickersgill himself met a French girl inland later that day; she had high-school English, he had high-school French; they took one look at each other and fell in love; they were married at the end of the war and are still together today, living in the little village of Mathieu, midway between the Channel and Caen.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Lord Lovat came in to the left of No. 4 Commando. He was, and is, a legend. At Dieppe, his commandos had done a fine piece of work in destroying a German fortification, but had some men killed in the process. Orders came to withdraw. Scots never leave their dead behind. Bringing them down the cliff in a hurried retreat was impossible. Lovat had gasoline poured over them and burned the bodies.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Those commandos seen by Webb were French, led by Commandant Philip Kieffer. On June 4, as they loaded up, the French commandos—men who had been evacuated at Dunkirk four years earlier, or who had escaped from Vichy France to join De Gaulle’s Free French—were in a gay mood. “No return ticket, pliz,” they had told the military embarkation control officers when they boarded their LST.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Piauge thought of his mother, who had protested tearfully against his joining the French army in 1939, as her husband had died as a result of World War I wounds. Then he thought of France, and “I began to cry. Not out of sorrow for myself, nor because of my wounds, but at the great joy that I felt at being back on French soil.” He passed out.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Shortly after 1800, the North Nova Scotia Highlanders reached Beny-sur-Mer, five kilometers inland. There the Canadians were greeted by the sight of excited French civilians looting German barracks. Men were carrying off bags of flour, wheelbarrows full of army boots, bread, clothes, furniture. Women were taking chickens, butter, sheets, and pillows. The parish priest was helping to liberate a set of dishes. The French took time off from their looting to offer the Canadians glasses of milk and wine. The Canadians pushed on to the south, against light resistance. One troop of 1st Hussar tanks crossed the Caen-Bayeux railway, fifteen kilometers inland. It was the only unit of the Allied invasion force to reach its final objective on D-Day.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Man for man, they were hardly a match for the young, tough, magnificently trained Canadians, and they were outnumbered by the Canadians in the first wave at a ratio of six to one (2,400 Canadians, 400 Germans). The Canadian 3rd Division contained lumberjacks, fishermen, miners, farmers, all tough outdoorsmen and all volunteers (Canada had conscription in World War II, but only volunteers were sent into combat zones).”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“She wondered if she were dreaming. “Is it all really true?” she wrote. “We are at last liberated. The enormous strength that all this war material represents is fantastic, and the way it has been handled with such precision is marvelous. . . . A group of Tommies pass and ask us for water. We fill their bottles, say a few words, and, having given chocolate and sweets to the children, they continue on their way.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“It would be too large a generalization to say that the British wanted to fight World War II with gadgets, techniques, and espionage, rather than men, to outthink more than outfight the Germans; and that the Americans wanted to fight it out in a head-to-head encounter with the Wehrmacht. Still, many people, from both countries, felt such generalizations had merit. Connected to that feeling was the British sense that the Americans took needless casualties because of their aggressive head-on mentality, and the American sense that the British were going to take needless casualties because their caution and refusal to press an attack home regardless of loss was going to prolong the war.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“In Amsterdam, Anne Frank heard the news over the wireless in her attic hideaway. “ ‘This is D-Day,’ came the announcement over the English news,” she wrote in her diary. Then, in English, she wrote, “This is the day.” She went on, “The invasion has begun! The English gave the news. . . . We discussed it over breakfast at nine o’clock: Is this just a trial landing like Dieppe two years ago?” But through the day, confirmations that this was really it kept coming on the wireless. “Great commotion in the ‘Secret Annexe’!” Frank wrote. “It still seems too wonderful too much like a fairy tale. Could we be granted victory this year, 1944? We don’t know yet, but hope is revived within us; it gives us fresh courage and makes us strong again. . . . Now more than ever we must clench our teeth and not cry out. France, Russia, Italy, and Germany, too, can all cry out and give vent to their misery, but we haven’t the right to do that yet! “The best part of the invasion is that I have the feeling that friends are approaching. We have been oppressed by those terrible Germans for so long, they have had their knives so at our throats, that the thought of friends and delivery fills us with confidence! “Now it doesn’t concern the Jews any more; no, it concerns Holland and all occupied Europe. Perhaps, Margot says, I may yet be able to go back to school in September or October.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

“Prime Minister Pierre Laval of the Vichy government broadcast a national appeal to his countrymen to ignore Eisenhower’s call over BBC for resistance: “With sadness I read today of the orders given to Frenchmen by an American general. . . . The French government stands by the armistice of 1940 and appeals to Frenchmen to honor their country’s signature. If you took part in the present fighting, France would be plunged into civil war.” Marshal Pétain called on Frenchmen to stand with the Germans: “The Anglo-Saxons have set foot on our soil. France is becoming a battlefield. Frenchmen, do not attempt to commit any action which might bring terrible reprisals. Obey the orders of the government.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II