Thread by @almostjingo

Lest we forget that freedom that is never free. Normandy then and now.
#DDay75Anniversary

"They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate."
-- President Franklin D. Roosevelt's official address announcing the invasion #DDAY75

"They're murdering us here. Let's move inland and get murdered."
--Colonel Charles D. Canham, 116th Infantry Regiment commander, on Omaha Beach #DDay75thAnniversary

"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."
--Lieutenant Buck Compton #DDAY75

Well, is it or isn’t it the invasion?
— Adolf Hitler to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel on the afternoon of 6 June.
(Captured Germans below)
#DDay75thAnniversary

“..we are not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy’s balls”
- General George S. Patton #DDAY75

“wondered if I was hallucinating, or if this was a delirium of some kind. I had never seen such an assembly of ships, and I’m sure nobody will ever see such a thing...The sea was absolutely solid with metal, that is no exaggeration.”
Holger Eckhertz #DDay75
Through German Eyes

“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.”
—Col. Paul R. Goode, addressing the 175th Infantry Regiment, Twentyninth Infantry Division, before D-Day #dday75thanniversary

“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.” — Lt. Col Robert L. #DDAY75

We’re going in alone and I don’t think we’re coming back.

—Lt. Col. Josef ‘‘Pips’’ Priller, Kommodore of JG-26, to his wingman before their strafing attack on Sword and Juno beaches. #DDay75Anniversary

"They didn't tell us anything we didn't need to know..Heck, some of the guys on our ship thought we were headed to Japan, not Normandy. Just months earlier, we were either in high school or working odd jobs. We weren't soldiers, at least not yet."
-PVT Tom Jensen #DDAY75

“Once defeated the enemy will never again try to invade..the whole outcome of the war depends on each man fighting in the West, and that means the fate of the Reich as well!” -Hitler
**their view below #DDay75

"Everyone was in the street. They were so happy because first of all we were liberated, we felt free, but really because we were alive! That whole day was a wonderful feeling of life."
- Thérèse le Chevalier age 15 #DDay75

“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” - Stephen E. Ambrose, E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy #DDay75thAnniversary

“There are so many who have died for us, to rescue us, If they hadn’t landed at that time, maybe we would be Germans now or we wouldn’t exist.”
-Martin Deshayes age 10 on #DDAY

" I think the French people will be forever grateful to the Americans for their freedom We are also grateful to the English, the Canadians and all the allies that landed here. But there's something special about the Americans." -Joseph Delecolle French historian #DDay75

“The blood that they spilled, the tears that they shed, the lives that they gave, the sacrifice that they made, did not just win a battle, it did not just win a war. They won a future for a nation.” -@realDonaldTrump 🇺🇸🦅
#DDay75years

God Bless our troops. Forever grateful.
#DDay75thAnniversary

**quick note re: Easy company flag it was made by a local French girl not carried in by them.

Source for photos is from French project aiming to publish and classify thousands of photos taken on Normandy front line from June-August 1944, started publishing to FLICKR in 2007 in an effort to identify everyone but its all in French.
flickr.com/photos/photosn…