[Verginius Rufus]

John Keegan, the noted British military historian, spent some time in Normandy a few years after the war when he was a student. He remembered the French housewives complaining about how the American troops had damaged their gardens.

C-SPAN today reran a program from May 7th featuring the historian Nigel Hamilton, who has written a book about FDR and the last part of WWII (1943-1945--from the planning for D-Day until FDR's death). He said Churchill was very much opposed to the idea of invading Normandy and gave FDR credit for insisting on the plan. He praised FDR for his decision to pick Eisenhower for the supreme command in Europe (not the obvious pick).

[kearnyirish2]

American troops were surprised at how well-fed the French civilians were when they landed; they’d been spoon-fed propaganda for years about the horrors of the occupation (some of which was true) and didn’t see any suffering of the locals. Brits also weren’t thrilled, considering the strict rationing they were enduring.