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. I've seen combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. I haven't
seen combat to the scale of what they saw on the first day they jumped into Normandy. There's just
a lot of emotion, but a grim determination that they're going to beat this
enemy no matter what.
However successful the jump was the night before, it doesn't matter a hill of beans, if they had
not been able to seize the town of Carentan. It was a key crossroads. It controlled access to
both Utah and Omaha Beach. Whichever side controls it has a marked advantage. Carentan's going to
become important. The Germans have decided is an important piece of terrain too. They made the
decision to reinforce Carentan and fight to the last man. There is no tomorrow. There is
no time
to fix this, it has to happen now. When you see how hard the Germans fought to keep Carentan
and how hard it was for the Americans to take Carentan, then you realize that it's the entire
American Invasion that was at stake. Somebody's going to have to make some of those those
sacrifices. If you are a leader in the 101st, you are the first one out, you are leading from
the front and you're leading the way. Follow me were going. Things did not go exactly as planned.
Robert Cole - he
had 732 men on June the 8th. By the early hours of June the 12th he will have 123
men standing. Every time you look at the soldiers that came before you, you can't help but take
inspiration from it. They said in World War II, where the American Soldier went Freedom follows.
At the end of the day, it comes down to a group of paratroopers fixing bayonets and assaulting
a farmhouse, man it's a pretty pretty amazing story.
Comments