Figurine U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower

By the Spring of 1944, Dwight David Eisenhower had served in the U.S. Army for 29 years. He held postings as far afield as Panama and the Philippines; in the States: Texas, Georgia, and Maryland. He was subordinate to many prominent officers including John J. Pershing, and Douglas MacArthur. But now, on 6 June 1944, he was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. As he told the thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen under his command that they were to embark upon "the Great Crusade" to wrest the Continent from Nazi control, he knew it would be a close-run thing. To that end he had penned a propitiatory statement, "...If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."