Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.
Order of the Day, 6 June, 1944 (some sources list this as issued 2 June)
- Photo: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower talks with paratroopers of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, June 5, 1944; photo credit unclear; from Ohio State University
- Be sure to check out the follow-up post, on the exigency message Ike didn’t have to use.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
[…] (This is borrowed with express permission from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.) […]
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[…] (This is mostly an encore post.) […]
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[…] Yesterday I posted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s “order of the day” to the troops about to conduct the Allied invasion of Normandy — D-Day — to establish the toehold in Europe the Allies needed to march to Berlin, and to end World War II in Europe. As a charge to the troops, it was okay — Eisenhower-style words, not Churchill-style, but effective enough. One measure of its effectiveness was the success of the invasion, which established the toe-hold from which the assaults on the Third Reich were made. […]
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[…] (This is an encore post.) […]
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Got it: “Tonight is the night of nights” comes from a second letter, from Col. Sink. Stephen Ambrose wrote about it in Band of Brothers. Check your local library (or, it’s available on Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=S4ek45Si2AcC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=Eisenhower+%2B%22night+of+nights%22&source=web&ots=3BKCqwmig3&sig=0gD0qHzA86yV-pjgRCGEtLlr82g&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result )
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“Night of Nights” is the title of a painting by Gil Cohen; descriptions I can find on the internet make reference to Eisenhower’s Orders of the Day. That is the link above, in the post — it does not include the phrase, “night of nights,” however.
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Try the Eisenhower Library, the National Archives, and the Library of Congress.
Night of nights? I don’t recall that phrase.
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ANY IDEA WHERE WE CAN GET AN ORIGINAL COPY OF THE LETTER EISENHOWER SENT TO THE TROOPS THE NIGHT BEFORE D DAY WITH THE QUOTE
TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT OF NIGHTS
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John McCain: Con man. Liar. Habitual deciever. A twister of the truth at every possible opportunity.
McCain is The Ultimate Opportunist. He simply CANNOT stop lying; it’s a deep seated, serious character flaw. Half of an uneducated or greed motivated America is buying the story of John Sydney McCain. It is my goal to spread the truth.
He has been a scoundrel for most of his life. How DARE he mar and reshape one of the greatest acts of the ultimate responsibility (Eisenhowers letter) in US history with
another one of his lies; yet again twisted to make up another story to give him an edge in a presidential debate? Hundreds upon hundreds of men were cut literally in half by machine gun fire that day, to give America freedom. Their guts spilled the beaches of Normandy. Their heads were severed. It was pure horror.
For McCain to exploit this, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Senator John McCain is a despicable human being. His total addiction to lying in the 2008 campaign, and the better part of his polital career after the Keating 5 S&L scandal, that he attempted to cover up, places him at a scoundrel level never seen before, from one seeking the office of President
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[…] You can find the first letter, the one that was released, through links at this post at the Bathtub, “Quote of the Moment: Eisenhower at D-Day Eve.” […]
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[…] A few days ago I posted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s “order of the day” to the troops about to conduct the Allied invasion of Normandy to establish the toehold in Europe the Allies needed to march to Berlin, and to end World War II in Europe. As a charge to the troops, it was okay — Eisenhower-style words, not Churchill-style, but effective enough. One measure of its effectiveness was the success of the invasion, which established the toe-hold from which the assaults on the Third Reich were made. […]
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