Here's a guy who knew how to take personal responsibility:

[Lord Jim]

Here's The Chilling Letter General Eisenhower Drafted In Case The Nazis Won On D-Day

Eloise Lee

On this day 68 years ago,[70 now]nearly 3 million Allied troops readied themselves for one of the greatest military operations of world history...

D-Day. And the push that led to Hitler's defeat...

At least 160,000 of those troops landed on the shores of Normandy, France. As they stormed the beaches, General Dwight D. Eisenhower's confident words summed up the incredible significance of their mission:

"You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you," he wrote in a famous letter sent to troops before the assault.

"We will accept nothing less than full victory! Good Luck!"

But there's another letter that he set aside "in case of failure.":

Here's what it says:

"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

He accidentally wrote "July 5th" rather than "June 5th"... He probably had a lot on his mind...

[Joe Guy]

He accidentally wrote "July 5th" rather than "June 5th"... He probably had a lot on his mind...

Ya think?

[Long Run]

This is a pretty good "what if" article listing several of the way things could have gone wrong: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/fiv ... ster-10601 Good planning, good luck, and lots of grit made it a success.

[Lord Jim]

It really was a very near thing; an operation that depended as much as it did on the success of the troops on the beaches, as it did on the success of the effort of the disinformation campaign that led the Nazis to be believe that the landing on Normandy was a feint; and that the true attack would come at the "Pas de Calais"...

[Sue U]

This is a pretty good "what if" article

Speaking of "what if" articles:

THE LONGEST CRAY-CRAY
What If Fox News Had Covered D-Day?

by Doktor Zoom

You guys, Fox News thinks that President Roosevelt screwed the pooch again. After yesterday’s amphibious landings in Normandy, the network grudgingly agreed that Allied troops had established a beachhead in France, but they were really not happy with how Our Boys pulled it off, insisting that the casualties were unacceptably high, speculating that “Two-Wheeler Delano” picked such a dangerous location for the invasion so that it would fail, and blaming Roosevelt for the invasion’s terrible planning, like the dropping of paratroopers dozens of miles off their target:

“How would President Roosevelt face the parents of these brave fighting men who parachuted into flooded fields and drowned?” asked Sean Hannity. “Are the grieving families supposed to simply accept ‘cloud cover over the drop zone’ or ‘the planes were dodging flak’ as an excuse?”

Hannity called for President Chairdaddy’s resignation, asking “why does anyone still trust this president, after his demonstrated failures in protecting Pearl Harbor? Or the Philippines?”

Bill O’Reilly noted that “‘Eisenhower’ sounds like a German name” and questioned the wisdom of letting a possible Nazi sympathizer command the invasion force when a "Real American, Gen. George Patton, is being wasted on a diversionary operation back in England, the sort of pinhead scheme we’ve come to expect from this President."

On Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade traded innuendo-laden quips about rumors that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is a lesbian, and guest Dr. Keith Ablow, the worst psychiatrist in the world, attributed the shaky start of the invasion to the mental scars that polio left on the psyche of Ol’ Gimpy What Rides In A Wheelchair Haw Haw Haw:

"The President is a broken man. So it only makes sense that he’d have a broken plan. You’d never see Calvin Coolidge rushing into a European invasion without knowing where the paratroopers were going to land."

Fox commentators reserved some of their harshest mockery for Paratrooper John M. Steele of the 82nd Airborne, who spent much of the day hanging from his parachute’s shroud lines after his ‘chute snagged on a church roof in the occupied village of Ste-Mère-Église. Steele had played dead while German patrols passed beneath him, and was eventually captured by Nazi troops, although he later escaped and made his way back to American lines. Megyn Kelly said she was “disgusted” and “skeptical” of the recommendation that Steele be awarded the Bronze Star:

"The Bronze Star is for valor. What kind of “valor” is there in playing dead and getting yourself captured? What information did Steele give up to his captors? Was President Roosevelt aware of Steele’s cowardice?"

On Facebook, Sarah Palin wrote “Any Grizzly Mama would have shot down some of those Germans, just like shootin’ a moose.”

Meanwhile, CNN covered the invasion with a brief 5-minute story and then returned to its ongoing coverage of the search for Amelia Earhart.

Source,with pix & linx.

[Econoline]

Speaking of Roosevelt...

THE DAY THE GIANTS WALKED
On this day, 70 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. made history. He gave an order, and the men followed, and the world began to change.

By Lt. Col. Robert Bateman on June 6, 2014

At 06:31 this morning the first Americans landed on the beach. Paratroopers had preceded them the night before, but well inland. These men, from the 8th Infantry Regiment were the first of the amphibious troops. With them came a little old man, short and wrinkled, he carried a walking stick. He had a bum shoulder and a dodgy ticker. His name was Roosevelt and he really should not have been there. His father had been the President, and now his cousin filled that same role. Somebody like that would have been a prize, if captured, so his presence was unexpected. But then his family had something of a history of being places where you really would not expect them to be, and the men of his Division had come to believe.

Utah Beach, the western-most landing spot for the Allied armies, was well away from the other beaches where American, Canadian, and British forces were arriving early this morning 70 years ago. And as it turned out, Utah Beach itself was not where it was supposed to be. Not by a long shot.

In the smoke and dust kicked up by the massive pre-landing naval bombardment, the markers leading the way into the beach were missed by the men piloting the landing craft. Sure, they were heading ashore, but unbeknownst to them they were heading for the wrong section of the shore. The place they were supposed to land was more than a mile, some 2,000 yards, to the north. With confusion created by smoke, dust, noise, and fear, the landing craft were well off-target. But time and tide wait for no man, and so when they grounded on the gently sloping sands and the ramps dropped, the men of the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, and the diminutive general accompanying them, stepped ashore.

Even today Utah Beach is unremarkable. This stretch of the coast is at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, and it is low, with just a single light sand dune abutting the beach. Go there off-season and you can walk these sands, alone, lost in the memories of 100,000 men. You can wander the beaches imagining the approach and the arrival all those decades ago, with not a single person in sight. If you have a vivid imagination, and know your history, it can border on the spiritual. There are no beachside cafes, nor bustling hotels or tourist shops selling kitschy D-Day schlock to interrupt you, as at some of the other landing sites. There is only the beach, where the first of the allies waded ashore, and the world started to change.


Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was the deputy division commander of the units that landed in the first wave. He had to pull strings to be allowed to land with the dogfaces, but when your cousin is the President of the United States, some of your "strings" can be quite substantial. Roosevelt only played that card, significantly, in order to get in to combat, not to avoid it. Eventually General Bradley caved, and so Roosevelt was there, in the first confusing moments. Confusing, of course, because the terrain did not match what the infantry was expecting. They had maps, but the ground did not match the maps they were issued. What to do?

Two battalions of American infantry were now ashore, and the battalion commanders were wondering, "what do we do now?" And this is the moment when that wizened little man who was not supposed to be there, using a walking stick, made his mark upon the history of the world.

Roosevelt knew from the initial scout reports that they were in the wrong place. But he also knew, because he was there, that the place where they landed worked.

The lead infantry units had then pushed inland and felt none of the horrific resistance they would have encountered if they had landed where they were supposed to be. He knew the chaos of war, having landed on other beaches in other places, and he knew the reality of military planning. He knew it was up to him, the only general ashore, to make the call: Where would the second, and third, and all the waves after that, land? Would they go in where they were supposed to land, effectively transforming the second wave into a de facto new first wave, or would they follow-on, on the wrong beach? Would they follow the military plan, or change it, based upon circumstances?

Roosevelt was not long for this earth, and he probably knew it. I suspect that he did not care. What he cared about were the men, the mission, and the countless memories recorded by the men who served with or under him substantiate that. He was a worthy successor to his father, and might have left a mark known to more, had there been more time. He was not to have that time.

Less than 60 days later, having just been appointed as the commander of his own Division, he died of a heart attack. But on this day, this morning, 70 years ago, he made history. He gave an order, and the men followed, and the world began to change.

"We start…from here."

(source)

[Lord Jim]

It really was a "what if?" situation...

The Germans had sufficient tactical reserves to defeat the invasion on the beaches had they been properly deployed;

But at the time the invasion was launched, Erwin Rommel was back in Germany celebrating his wife's birthday, because he believed that the weather reports made a full scale invasion impossible till the middle of June at the earliest...

And then of course there was Hitler himself, who Field Marshall Von Rundstedt woke up in the middle of the afternoon to inform Der Fuhrer that The Reich was under attack...

And then Hitler refused for a number of critical hours to have his reserve Panzer units deployed to Normandy because he was still waiting for a second attack at the Pas-de-Calais...

No question about it;

There was a lot of luck involved when our boys (fathers and grandfathers) hit those beaches on June 6, 1944...

[Lord Jim]

Convincing Hitler that the primary Allied attack would take place at the Pas-de-Calais is probably the greatest dis-information success in the history of modern warfare...

[rubato]

Speaking of Roosevelt...

THE DAY THE GIANTS WALKED
On this day, 70 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. made history. He gave an order, and the men followed, and the world began to change.

By Lt. Col. Robert Bateman on June 6, 2014... "

Great story Econoline. I had not heard it before.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

I watched some of the ceremony yesterday, and it was nice to see that Her Majesty was present....

I thought it was an outrageous snub five years ago on the 65th anniversary that then French President Sarkozy failed to invite her...

She is the last remaining Head Of State who actually served in The War, and to not invite her to participate in commemoration events was disgraceful...