June 6, 1944: General Dwight D. Eisenhower launches Operation Overlord

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=presidential&month=10272958&day=10272971
http://tinyurl.com/oc2uq

On this day in 1944, now known as D-Day, future President Dwight D. Eisenhower, then supreme commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War II gives the go-ahead for a massive invasion of Europe called Operation Overlord. Back in America, President Franklin Roosevelt waited for word of the invasion’s success.

By the first week of June 1944, Nazi Germany controlled most of Western Europe. Allied forces, numbering 156,000, were poised to travel by ship or plane over the English Channel to attack the German army dug in at Normandy, France, on June 5. Eisenhower had a window of only four days of decent weather in which an invasion would be possible. When bad weather hit the channel on June 4, Eisenhower wrestled with the idea of postponing Operation Overlord. Weather conditions were predicted to worsen over the next two weeks and he had thousands of personnel and thousands of tons of supplies that were in his words, “hanging on the end of a limb.” After a promising but cautious report from his meteorologist at 9:45 p.m. on June 5, Eisenhower told his staff “let’s go.”

That night, from Allied headquarters in England, “Ike,” as he was later affectionately called, composed a solemn and inspirational statement that was delivered the next day as a letter into the hands of every soldier, sailor and airman set to embark on Operation Overlord. In a radio delivery of the message, Eisenhower displayed the confidence and leadership skills that in 1952 would clinch his election to the presidency. Reminding the men that “the eyes of the world are upon you” and that their opponents would fight savagely, Ike exhorted them to be brave, show their devotion to duty and “accept nothing less than victory!” In closing, he wished his troops good luck and sought the “blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.” At the time, no one knew that, along with that statement, Eisenhower had also scribbled a note in which he accepted all blame in case the mission failed. The note remained crumpled up in his pocket.

Meanwhile, back at the White House on the afternoon of June 5, President Roosevelt waited for word of Operation Overlord’s commencement. According the Doris Kearns Goodwin in No Ordinary Time, Roosevelt had hoped to be in England with Churchill and Eisenhower for the monumental event, but his declining health made travel impossible. Instead, Roosevelt sat in his office tinkering with the speech he planned to deliver once the invasion began. At his daughter and son’s suggestion, Roosevelt turned the speech into a prayer entitled “Let Our Hearts be Stout.” First lady Eleanor tried to go about her daily business, but felt “suspended in space.” At 3 a.m. Eastern time on June 6, Roosevelt received the call that the invasion had commenced. He notified the nation by radio that night, saying “at this poignant hour I ask you to join with me in a prayer.”

On June 8, 1944, after years of planning, preparation and placating egos among his military peers, Eisenhower was able to report that the Allies had made a harrowing and deadly, but ultimately successful, landing on the beaches of Normandy.

I'm suprised the ACLU and/or Americans United for Separation of
Church and State hasn't had this one erased from all the archives...
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odddayp.html

Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day Prayer

June 6, 1944

My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall
of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and
our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation.
It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a
mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion,
and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to
their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the
enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with
rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by
Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory
is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will
be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not
for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.
They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all
Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to
the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic
servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers
of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--
help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in
this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of
special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great,
I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we
rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of
prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the
contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows
that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons;
Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of
our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events,
of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our
unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.
Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies.
Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a
world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to
the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live
in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

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