Ike’s Thank You

A week after the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower sent the following message on June 13 to the Troops of the Allied Expeditionary Forces after touring the Normandy beachhead:

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“One week ago this morning there was established through your coordinated efforts, our first foot-hold in Northwestern Europe. High as was my pre-invasion confidence in your courage, skill and effectiveness in working together as a unit, your accomplishments in the first seven days of this Campaign have exceeded my brightest hopes.

You are a truly great Allied Team; a Team in which each part gains its greatest satisfaction in rendering maximum assistance to the entire body and in which each individual member is justifiably confident in all others.

No matter how prolonged or bitter the struggle that lies ahead you will do your full part toward the restoration of a free France, the liberation of all European nations under Axis domination, and the destruction of the Nazi military machine.

I truly congratulate you upon a brilliantly successful beginning to this great undertaking. Liberty-loving people, everywhere, would today like to join me in saying to you ‘I am proud of you.'”

From the Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower (http://eisenhower.press.jhu.edu/), a project supported by the NHPRC. The Army photo shows Gen Dwight Eisenhower, Gen George Marshall, and Gen “Hap” Arnold, beside their VIP DUKW during their tour of the Normandy beachhead, Normandy, France, Jun 12, 1944.

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