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, devotion to duty, and skill in battle, we will accept nothing less

than full victory. Good luck, and let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this

great and noble undertaking. First is the danger of futility. The belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do

against the enormous array of the world's ill, against misery, against ignorance, or injustice

and violence. It is from numerous, numberless, diverse acts of courage such as these, but the belief that human history is thus shaped.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice,

he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different

...