Monday, May 19, 2014

This Day in WWII History: May 19, 1943: Churchill and FDR plot D-Day

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On this day in 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt set a date for the cross-Channel landing that would become D-Day—May 1, 1944. That date will prove a bit premature, as bad weather becomes a factor.

 Band of Brothers: Churchill with American troops

Battling on: Churchill knew the D-Day battle marked the end of Britain's - and his own - supremacy on the world stage

Addressing a joint session of Congress, Churchill warned that the real danger at present was the "dragging-out of the war at enormous expense" because of the risk that the Allies would become "tired or bored or split"—and play into the hands of Germany and Japan. He pushed for an early and massive attack on the "underbelly of the Axis." And so, to "speed" things up, the British prime minister and President Roosevelt set a date for a cross-Channel invasion of Normandy, in northern France, for May 1, 1944, regardless of the problems presented by the invasion of Italy, which was underway. It would be carried out by 29 divisions, including a Free French division, if possible.

File:Churchill Oversees Preparations for D-Day.jpg

 http://www.iwm.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/visbrowse/1280_IWM_CL_000026_0.jpg

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Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/churchill-and-fdr-plot-d-day [19.05.2014]

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