90 D-Day Quotes from Winston Churchill, Eisenhower, & Soldiers

In this post, we’ll read D-Day quotes, also known as the Normandy Invasion, which occurred on June 6, 1944, and was a significant military operation during World War II.

D-Day was led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, and he was in charge of planning and executing the invasion. The day marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany as Allied forces launched a massive invasion on the beaches of Normandy, France.

The term, D-Day was the code name for Operation Overlord and it was aimed at liberating Western Europe from Nazi occupation and the invasion was led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, with contributions from other Allied nations. D-Day is remembered as one of the most significant military operations in history.

Let’s read some of the best D-Day quotes to commemorate this event.

Table of Contents

D-Day Quotes from Dwight D Eisenhower

1. “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”

2. “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!”

3. “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.”

4. “Our task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.” – General Dwight D Eisenhower

5. “This operation is not being planned with any alternatives. This operation is planned as a victory, and that’s the way it’s going to be. We’re going down there, and we’re throwing everything we have into it, and we’re going to make it a success.” — General Dwight D. Eisenhower

6. “When pressure mounts and strain increases, everyone begins to show the weaknesses in his makeup, it is up to the Commander to conceal his: above all to conceal doubt, fear, and distrust.” — General Dwight D. Eisenhower

7. “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.” — General Dwight D. Eisenhower

D-Day Quotes from Winston Churchill

1. “And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred.”

2. “The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

3. “Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

4. “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

5. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the new world, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

6. For unless we can go and land and fight Hitler and beat his voice on land, we shall never win this war. You must devise and design the appliance as the landing craft and the technique to enable us to affect a landing against opposition and to maintain ourselves there.”

Short D-Day Quotes

1. “At that time, we didn’t know it was D-Day. We just knew we had a job to do.” — Sergeant Tom Jensen

2. “Two kinds of people are staying on this beach—the dead and those who are going to die.” — Colonel George A. Taylor

3. “I am prepared to lose the whole group.” — Colonel Donald Blakeslee

4. “That’s when it dawned on me that we were at war.” – Mr. Turnbull

5. “I’m very disappointed, and I hate leaving the world feeling this way.” – Private Jack Port

6. “We’ll start the war from right here!” — Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt

7. “Rangers, lead the way!” — First Lieutenant Francis W. Dawson

8. “This is the end for Germany.” — Major Werner Pluskat

9. “I took chances on D-Day that I never would have taken later in the war.” — First Sergeant C. Carwood Lipton

10. “They’re murdering us here. Let’s move inland and get murdered.” — Colonel Charles D. Canham

11. “This is a very serious business.” — Photographer Robert Capa (Ohama beach)

12. “Well, is it or isn’t it the invasion?” — Adolf Hitler to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel

D-Day Quotes from Patton

1. “War is a bloody, killing business. You’ve got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you, and you wipe the dirt off your face and realise that instead of dirt it’s the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you’ll know what to do! I don’t want to get any messages saying, ‘I am holding my position.’ We are not holding a goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly, and we are not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living sh*t out of him all of the time.” — George S Patton

2. “There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. When you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you can look him straight in the eye and say, ‘Son, your granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a son-of-a-goddamned-bitch named Georgie Patton!’” — General George S. Patton

Inspirational D-Day Quotes

1. “They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt

2. “Today, when people thank me for my service, I figure three years of my time is a cheap price to pay for this country. Nobody owes me a thing.” — First Lieutenant Lynn “Buck” Compton

3. “Thank you to those men and women who put self aside because they held the thought of us on the inside. So, whether that be the bloodied beaches on D-Day or any number of other battles remembered or forgotten, we now hold you on the inside and we say, ‘Thank you.’” — Craig D. Lounsbrough

4. “’Hitler made only one big mistake when he built his Atlantic Wall,’ the paratroopers liked to say. ‘He forgot to put a roof on it.’” — Paratrooper Stephen E. Ambrose

5. “So much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only six miles long and two miles wide.” – President Barack Obama,

6. “Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt

7. “At the edge of the cliffs, the wind is a smack, and D-day becomes wildly clear: climbing that cutting edge into the bullets.” — John Vinocur

8. “I thought we were going to win because I’d never seen so many planes in my life that came over for the invasion of Normandy.” — Lawrence “Yogi” Berra

9. “There has never been a military operation remotely approaching the scale and the complexity of D-Day. It involved 176,000 troops, more than 12,000 airplanes, almost 10,000 ships, boats, landing craft, frigates, sloops, and other special combat vessels—all involved in a surprise attack on the heavily fortified north coast of France, to secure a beachhead in the heart of enemy-held territory so that the march to Germany and victory could begin. It was daring, risky, confusing, bloody, and ultimately glorious.” — Tom Brokaw

10. “At the core, the American citizen soldiers knew the difference between right and wrong, and they didn’t want to live in a world in which wrong prevailed. So they fought, and won, and we, all of us, living and yet to be born, must be forever profoundly grateful.” – Stephen Ambrose

11. “Lieutenant Welsh remembered walking around among the sleeping men, and thinking to himself that ‘they had looked at and smelled death all around them all day but never even dreamed of applying the term to themselves. They hadn’t come here to fear. They hadn’t come to die. They had come to win.’” — Stephen E Ambrose

D-Day Quotes from Politicians

1. “We know that progress is not inevitable. But neither was victory upon these beaches. Now, as then, the inner voice tells us to stand up and move forward. Now, as then, free people must choose.” – President Bill Clinton

2. “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

3. “So much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only six miles long and two miles wide.” — President Barack Obama

4. “These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.” — President Ronald Reagan

5. “That road to V-E Day was hard and long and traveled by weary and valiant men. And history will always record where that road began. It began here, with the first footprints on the beaches of Normandy.” — President George Bush

6. “Four years ago, our nation and empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy, with our backs to the wall. Now once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time the challenge is not to fight to survive but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause. At this historic moment, surely not one of us is too busy, too young, or too old to play a part in a nation-wide, perchance a worldwide vigil of prayer as the great Crusade sets forth.” — King George VI

7. “There’s a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn’t a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.” — Barbara Kingsolver

8. “After nearly five years of toil and suffering, we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour.” — King George VI

9. “Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.” — President Ronald Reagan

10. “May we all, as a nation of believers, fight for the achievement of America, may we make sacrifices worthy of those proud men and women who fought for us, labored for us, bled soil from the beaches of Normandy to the fields of Gettysburg for us.” — Senator Cory Booker

11. “If D-Day—the greatest amphibious operation ever undertaken—failed, there would be no going back to the drawing board for the Allies. Regrouping and attempting another massive invasion of German-occupied France even a few months later in 1944 wasn’t an option.” — Douglas Brinkley

12. “On the beaches of Normandy, on the seas beyond and in the skies overhead, our armed forces carried out their duty with a humbling sense of resolve and determination, qualities so characteristic of that remarkable wartime generation. Very many of them never came home, they lost their lives on the D-Day landing grounds or in the many battles that followed. It is with the most profound sense of gratitude that we remember them and all those who served at that critical time” – British King Charles

D-Day Quotes from Soldiers

1. “Believe me, gentlemen, the first 24 hours of this invasion will be decisive! It will become for the Allies, as well as for the Germans, the longest day—the longest day.” — German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel

2. “The waiting for history to be made was the most difficult. I spent much time in prayer. Being cooped up made it worse. Like everyone else, I was seasick, and the stench of vomit permeated our craft.” — Private Clair Galdonik

3. “Suddenly, all hell let loose. The beach was under fire from shells, mortars and machine guns, we dived for cover. The sea was covered in blood and vomit and flies began to arrive by the thousands, which created another nightmare. We continued all night and the following day without a break. Slowly, slowly we overcame all the nightmares. There was no lack of humor. A soldier coming ashore asked, ‘Is this a private beach? I was promised a private beach. If not, I am not staying.’ And we heard, ‘My mother told me not to travel by air, she thought it was much safer by sea.’” — David Teacher

4. “We have a sufficiency of troops; we have all the necessary tackle; we have an excellent plan. This is a perfectly normal operation which is certain of success. If anyone has any doubts in his mind, let him stay behind.” — General Bernard L. Montgomery

5. “Jerry started to shell the beach at about 9am. Suddenly, all hell let loose. The beach was under fire from shells, mortars and machine guns, we dived for cover. The sea was covered in blood and vomit and flies began to arrive by the thousands, which created another nightmare … We continued all night and the following day without a break. Slowly, slowly we overcame all the nightmares .There was no lack of humour. A soldier coming ashore asked, ‘Is this a private beach? I was promised a private beach. If not I am not staying.’ And we heard, ‘My mother told me not to travel by air, she thought it was much safer by sea.’ An army officer came ashore and instead of getting his men off the beach quickly, he stopped to consult his map. I approached him, ‘Sir, off this beach, now!’ ‘And who are you?’ he asked. ‘Sorry, no time for introductions.’” – Royal Air Force Beach Unit David Teacher

6. “After enduring all the ordeals and training in England, we felt like we were completely ready for anything, and we were very ready to fight the Germans, and we looked forward to the day that we could actually get into the real fight.” — Sergeant John Robert Slaughter

7. “Nobody dashed ashore. We staggered. With one hand I carried my gun, finger on the trigger; with the other, I held onto the rope-rail down the ramp, and with the third hand I carried my bicycle.” — Corporal Peter Masters

8. “We shall see who fights better and who dies more easily, the German soldier faced with the destruction of his homeland or the Americans and British, who don’t even know what they are fighting for in Europe.” — General Alfred Jodl

9. “Let’s remember the brave men, British, Commonwealth, Canadian, American, and European who left these shores and never left back, for their sacrifice, we will be forever in debt.” — Unknown

10. “I am firmly convinced that our supporting naval fire got us in; that without the gunfire we positively could not have crossed the beaches.”— Colonel Stanhope B. Mason

11. “Seeing later at low tide all those sunken craft. There must have been hundreds of them and thinking, ‘You poor devils’. That is something I will always remember.” — Pat Churchill

12. “The first time I saw a poster wanting men to sign up to be paratroopers and heard how hard it would be to make it in, I knew that was for me. I wanted an elite group of soldiers around me.” – Staff Sergeant Frank Soboleski

13. “It was a different world then. It was a world that required young men like myself to be prepared to die for a civilization that was worth living in.” – Harry Read

14. “All I could see was water, miles and miles of water. But this was D-Day and nobody went back to England and a lot of infantry riding in open barges seasick to the low-tide beaches were depending on us to draw the Germans off the causeways and gun batteries, and so, as Porter hurled himself against me, I grabbed both sides of the door and threw myself at the water.” – Private David Kenyon Webster

D-Day Quotes from American Soldiers

1. “It was a different world then. It was a world that required young men like myself to be prepared to die for a civilization that was worth living in.” — Harry Read

2. “You get your ass on the beach. I’ll be there waiting for you and I’ll tell you what to do. There ain’t anything in this plan that is going to go right.” — Colonel Paul R. Goode

3. “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

4. “They’re murdering us here. Let’s move inland and get murdered.” — Colonel Charles D. Canham,

5. “Men, I am not a religious man and I don’t know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask His blessing in what we are about to do.” — Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Wolverton

6. “All that remained on the beach was some sniping and artillery fire, and the occasional startling blast of a mine geysering brown sand into the air … That plus the bodies of soldiers lying in rows covered with blankets, the toes of their shoes sticking up in a line as though on drill. And other bodies, uncollected, still sprawling grotesquely in the sand or half hidden by the high grass beyond the beach. That plus an intense, grim determination of work-weary men to get this chaotic beach organised and get all the vital supplies and the reinforcements moving more rapidly over it from the stacked-up ships standing in droves out to sea. Now that it is over it seems to me a pure miracle that we ever took the beach at all.” – Ernie Pyle, D-Day column

7. “I don’t feel that I’m any kind of hero. To me, the work had to be done. I was asked to do it. So, I did. When I lecture kids, I tell them the same thing.” — Private First Class Joseph Lesniewski

8. “On 14 July 1944, the French in our locality were able to celebrate Bastille Day for the first time in four years. In the morning, all attired in their best, they went to church. Any Frenchman with a uniform wore it. An ex-Naval man, holding his little girl by the hand, wore his sailor’s uniform. The village postmen wore theirs. The British organised a fete with army transport bringing in civilians from nearby villages. A Royal Marines Band and a Scottish Regiment provided music. There were races for the children, even refreshments. To mark the occasion, practically every truck, jeep or motorcycle had a spray of red, white and blue flowers tied on the front. In addition, some had ‘Vive La France’ and tricolours chalked on the sides. A festive air prevailed.” – Beach Squadron John H Fenton

9. “I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, ‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’ Grandpa said, ‘No, but I served in a company of heroes.'” – Major Richard Winters

10. “We have a sufficiency of troops; we have all the necessary tackle; we have an excellent plan. This is a perfectly normal operation which is certain of success. If anyone has any doubts in his mind, let him stay behind.” – Gen. Bernard L. Montgomer

These D-Day quotes inspire us to live a freedom-loving and justice driven life as D-Day’s success paved the way for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany and the restoration of peace in Europe.

The operation is a symbol of international cooperation and the fight against tyranny.

Which of these D-Day quotes left an impact on you?

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