HISTORY IN IMAGES: Pictures Of War, History , WW2: d day

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The enemy must be annihilated before he reaches our main battlefield...We must stop him in the water...destroying all his equipment while it is still afloat.

-Field Marshall Erwin Rommel - 22nd April 1944

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Before D-Day, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower gives his "Nothing else, but complete victory" talk to American soldiers of 101st Airborne Division

QUOTES

"Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely"
General Dwight Eisenhower - 6th June 1944

VIDEO: GERMAN NEWSREEL

American soldiers march through a British town to their embarkation vehicles

QUOTES

"At the present time, it is still too early to say whether this is a large-scale diversionary attack or the main effort"
German C-in-C West - Morning Report for the 6th June 1944

American paratroopers sit grimly on a plane to parachute into France

Others join a Protestant prayer service on D-Day

These guys are the first batch to disembark on Omaha beach. No wonder they are tensed up.

These US soldiers are tense too.

The Canadians prepare to disembark

American soldiers land on Omaha Beach

These British troops are having a rough time. Many were injured. Or dead.

The Britishers are tensed up as they wait for further orders after landing on the Normandy beach.

QUOTES

"In spite of intense efforts, the moment has drawn near when this front, already so heavily strained, will break. I consider it my duty to bring these conclusions to your notice,...my fuhrer."
Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge - C-in-C West - July 1944

Germans who were captured.

VIDEO: GERMAN NEWSREEL: FIGHTING AMERICAN AND BRITISH SOLDIERS IN NORMANDY

Major general Barton had to urge his men, "we have got to fight for our country just as hard as the Germans are fighting for theirs."

Anthony Beevor wrote the bestseller Stalingrad in 1998. Now he comes up with D-Day: The Battle for Normandy. His book brings out many interesting, hitherto little known facets of that part of the Second World War.

Courage of the German soldiers: They fought well. The allies had 5000 landing ships and assault craft, 6 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, 152 escort vessels, 277 minesweepers that cleared the waters of mines. Despite all this the German soldiers fought well and earned the bitter admiration of the allied soldiers.Major general Barton had to urge his men, "we have got to fight for our country just as hard as the Germans are fighting for theirs." He also talked of the overwhelming superiority in number of arms and fighting men. "We outnumber them 50 to
1 in artillery, 10 to 1 in infantry and infinite number in the air."

Military analyst Sir Basil Liddell Hart opined that the allied soldiers were not willing to make sacrifices. The Germans were, in contrast, very well motivated.

Allied disregard for property and lives of French civilians. The American and British soldiers used to blast everything to smithereens before they came into the scene so as to avoid casualties. 70,000 french civilians died in Allied action in the war.

French Resistance: General George Patton said their contribution was "better than expected and less than advertised". Beevor says they did much. They loaded ammunition, cleared snipers,secured bridges, provided intelligence and generally hurt the Germans.

French mobs in liberated towns behaved badly. in epuration sauvage, 14,000 alleged collaborators were killed. Specially targeted were women whose heads were shaven, faces tarred black and they were stripped half naked and paraded in the streets.

This was done by Frenchmen who had partied and made merry during the occupation and turned patriotic suddenly as the Allied forces landed on the Normandy beaches.

Source: The Economist

Points To Ponder

WHY WAS THE FIGHTING ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT SO FIERCE DURING WW2?

It is difficult to distinguish between the quality of both the German and Russian soldiers. Both were motivated by their love for their motherland. But there were others factors that drove the two sides to such desperate fighting.

One, both sides knew that this was a no-holds bar war. Not fighting was thus not an option.

Second, both Hitler and Stalin had squads that killed any deserter. Turning away from fighting was just not possible.

Thus was seen some of the most bitter, brutal and desperate fighting on the WW2 eastern (Russian) Front.

Quotes....

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
--Hermann Goering