The Old Eighteen

D-Day

D-Day
June 6, 1944

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We gave the wounded their morphia - and then we had to leave them. The thing that sticks in my heart was the fact that as we set off they all gave us a cheer. An hour later there was nobody left alive.

James Hill

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The thing you remember most is the terrific noise. Our own tanks firing and of course the opposition. That tremendous noise, it never ceased.

Ian Gill

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We began leading the first wave into the beach as the bombardment began. The large projectiles flying overhead looked like footballs. We recovered the bodies of numerous soldiers who had drowned because the sea-swells sank their DD tanks.

Robert Louis Curl

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I was sent out to one of the hospital ships to look for our missing men. Bodies were stacked like cordwood on the beach. The bowels of the hospital ship were crowded with the wounded and dying. I saw one doctor standing in the doorway of a stateroom, which was being used as an operating room. The floor was covered with blood, as were his clothes.

Vincent E. Baker

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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. The
hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on
other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war
machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of
Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well
equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of
1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats,
in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their
strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home
Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions
of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.
The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to
Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in
battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great
and noble undertaking.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

[UPDATED] The true horrors of Hiroshima

UPDATE:  Via Andrew Sullivan, apparently questions have been raised about the authenticity of the photographs referred to in my post below:

NOTE: The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University  contains ten photographs purportedly showing the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. Mr. Capp was assigned to the occupation forces outside Hiroshima after World War II. According to to Mr. Capp's oral history (available along with the photographs in the Robert L. Capp collection), he found these photos among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside of Hiroshima. Since making these photographs publicly available, I have received reliable proof that several of these photos are actually of the 1923 Kanto earthquake. While I cannot speak for the entire collection, this evidence raises grave doubts about all of the photos and strongly suggests that the identification provided by the Hoover Archives is incorrect. I take full responsibility for my own failure to take additional steps to verify that the original archival designation was correct. I have removed the photographs, sent a correction to my publisher, and forwarded all evidence that I have received casting doubt on the photos directly to the Hoover Archives so that they can conduct their own investigation. Should that investigation shed any light on the circumstances surrounding the Capp collection, I will make that information available here.

Le Monde has an article up about the story here - it's in French, but you can translate the page here at the Babelfish web site.

I apologize for allowing myself to get taken in by an apparent act of deception, and worse, for allowing my readers to be taken in as well.  I am leaving my original post intact, because I think that the points I raised about war being sanitized for popular consumption are valid, but the photographs should be disregarded.