Dwight D. Eisenhower - Original D-Day Order of the Day, 6 June 1944

EISENHOWER, Dwight D. Order of the Day, 6 June 1944.

[England]: Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, [June 1944].

First edition. Original wartime issue.

Single-sheet broadside, printed on one side, with the SHAEF shield and Eisenhower’s printed facsimile signature. Verso blank.

A scarce original of the message handed to Allied troops on the eve of D-Day, as the invasion armada prepared to cross the Channel. This was paper intended for the men facing the operation itself, carrying their Supreme Commander’s final encouragement before the assault on Hitler’s occupied Europe.

Beginning “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade”, Eisenhower placed the coming battle within a struggle for the liberation of Europe. Yet the message also acknowledged what awaited its readers: a trained, equipped and battle-hardened enemy who would “fight savagely”. Its closing insistence, “We will accept nothing less than full Victory!”, left no doubt about the scale of the undertaking.

The public confidence was matched by a remarkable private document. On 5 June, Eisenhower prepared a statement in case the invasion failed, ending: “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

Original wartime printings are scarce survivors of a leaflet produced for immediate military use. Eisenhower had begun drafting the text in February 1944, refining it during the preparations for Operation Overlord. On D-Day, a recording of him reading the message was broadcast in Britain and the United States, carrying his appeal beyond the invasion force to anxious civilian audiences awaiting news of the landings.