Last updated: April 13, 2021
Place
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial: Honoring the General
NPS / Victoria Stauffenberg
Quick Facts
Location:
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial
Amenities
3 listed
Benches/Seating, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information
On the right side of the memorial core, Eisenhower as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II is commemorated by a bronze heroic-sized statue with sculptures of his soldiers inspired by the famous photograph with the 101st Airborne Division before their jump into France. Behind the sculptures is a bas relief depicting the Normandy landings on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
During the Second World War, General Eisenhower spoke with soldiers, sailors and pilots from a wide variety of backgrounds and forged them into an effective team. From November 1942 through December 1943, Ike’s diplomacy and determination created a multinational headquarters that controlled British and American units. His forces liberated North Africa, Sicily and Southern Italy which weakened Nazi Germany’s strategic position.
The culmination of Eisenhower’s success in building an allied force was the amphibious assault from the southern coast of England to Normandy, France. [second sentence removed] On the night of 5\6 June 1944, British and American airborne personnel landed behind enemy lines and they secured the flanks of the beaches from German attack. After an air and sea bombardment that morning, British, Canadian, and American troops stormed ashore from small landing craft to defeat Germans in fortified positions. American commandos, known as Rangers climbed up the one hundred foot tall cliff at Pointe du Hoc where they destroyed a dangerous German artillery position.
Eisenhower’s forces then made great sacrifices along a broad front that moved across Western Europe into Germany. Many of them were buried in a series of military cemeteries on the continent. For the rest of his very active life, Eisenhower remembered the high price that his personnel paid to preserve humanity’s right to choose their own governments. On the twentieth anniversary of D-Day, he visited one of the Normandy cemeteries and said, “These people gave us a chance… so that we can do better than we have before.”
During the Second World War, General Eisenhower spoke with soldiers, sailors and pilots from a wide variety of backgrounds and forged them into an effective team. From November 1942 through December 1943, Ike’s diplomacy and determination created a multinational headquarters that controlled British and American units. His forces liberated North Africa, Sicily and Southern Italy which weakened Nazi Germany’s strategic position.
The culmination of Eisenhower’s success in building an allied force was the amphibious assault from the southern coast of England to Normandy, France. [second sentence removed] On the night of 5\6 June 1944, British and American airborne personnel landed behind enemy lines and they secured the flanks of the beaches from German attack. After an air and sea bombardment that morning, British, Canadian, and American troops stormed ashore from small landing craft to defeat Germans in fortified positions. American commandos, known as Rangers climbed up the one hundred foot tall cliff at Pointe du Hoc where they destroyed a dangerous German artillery position.
Eisenhower’s forces then made great sacrifices along a broad front that moved across Western Europe into Germany. Many of them were buried in a series of military cemeteries on the continent. For the rest of his very active life, Eisenhower remembered the high price that his personnel paid to preserve humanity’s right to choose their own governments. On the twentieth anniversary of D-Day, he visited one of the Normandy cemeteries and said, “These people gave us a chance… so that we can do better than we have before.”