“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!”
— General Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Everyone was violently busy on that crowded, dangerous shore. The pebbles were the size of apples and feet deep, and we stumbled up a road that a huge road shovel was scooping out. We walked with the utmost care between the narrowly placed white tape lines that marked the mine-cleared path, and headed for a tent marked with a red cross … Everyone agreed that the beach was a stinker, and that it would be a great pleasure to get the hell out of here sometime.”
— Martha Gellhorn, Collier’s war correspondent
“Two kinds of people are staying on this beach—the dead and those who are going to die.”
— Colonel George A. Taylor, commanding the Sixteenth Infantry Regiment, First Infantry Division, on Omaha Beach.
“God almighty, in a few short hours, we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if you will, use us as your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.”
— Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Wolverton, commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
