7 Leadership Lessons of D-Day: Lessons from the Longest Day—June 6, 1944

By John Antal

“Drawing universal truths from urgent battlefield crises, the author provides a terrific guide and training tool for leaders at all levels” (Ralph Peters, New York Times–bestselling author).

The odds were against the Allies on June 6, 1944. The task ahead of the paratroopers who jumped over Normandy and the soldiers who waded ashore onto the beaches, all under fire, was colossal. In such circumstances, good leadership can be the deciding factor of victory or defeat. This book is about the extraordinary leadership of seven men who led American soldiers on D-Day and the days that followed. Some of them, like Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and Lt. Dick Winters, are well known, while others are barely a footnote in the history books.

This book is not a full history of D-Day, nor does it cover the heroic leadership shown by men in the armies of the Allies or members of the French Resistance, who also participated in the Normandy assault and battles for the lodgment areas. It is, however, a primer on how you can lead today, no matter what your occupation or role in life, by learning from the leadership of these seven figures.

A critical task for every leader is to understand what leadership is. Socrates once said that you cannot understand something unless you can first define it in your own words. This book provides the reader with the means to define leadership by telling seven dramatic, immersive, and memorable stories that the reader will never forget.

“Nobody tells a story better than John Antal and nobody knows better how to root out the lessons of history.” —James Jay Carafano, author of Wiki at War

• Language: English
• Publisher: Casemate Publishers
• Release date: Aug 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781612005300

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Making the Decision

Leadership

The one quality that can be developed by studious reflection and practice is leadership. General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Never take counsel of fear. General Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson

The weather was foul. Everyone was in a dark mood. The man seated at the head of the table took a deep drag from a cigarette. He was smoking too much these days and getting too little sleep. Maybe that’s why he looked older than his 53 years. He did not worry much about himself. Mostly, he opined about the weather.

The weather in May had been beautiful, with clear skies over the French coast. His forces were ready, but last minute changes to the plan involving Utah Beach required more landing craft and the decision to launch the invasion was postponed to June. The weather in June had turned miserable. It had rained every day. He had postponed the invasion once already. Initially planned for June 5, the weather forecast he was issued on June 4 was so terrible that he was forced to postpone the invasion in the hope of better conditions. The weather prediction for June 5 turned out to be true. The seas were so rough that day that many of the Allied ships had to seek safe harbors for fear of being swamped. Timing in war is everything, and everything was coming down to this moment and his decision.

People doubted that he could do what he had been asked to do. Some of those people were sitting at the table with him and some were waiting in the wings. The previous day, June 4, he had briefed the leader of the Free French Forces in exile, General Charles de Gaulle. The dour Frenchman lectured him for an hour about the miscalculations of the invasion plans. He listened patiently but put these doubts aside. His mission was clear: You will enter the continent of Europe and, in conjunction with the other united nations, undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces.¹

He mulled over in his mind the words he would use if his plan failed. Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.²

The air was damp with moisture. Outside the building, a hard, driving rain assailed the glass windows of Southwick House, an elegant three-story English manor located north of Portsmouth in Hampshire, England. Southwick House served as the advanced command post of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF), providing space for the operations staff and for meetings of the senior commanders and staff. Spartan living quarters were located nearby. The Supreme Commander lived in a specially designed trailer and his staff slept in prefabricated metal Quonset huts or tents. As the principal Allied headquarters, SHAEF coordinated the immense duties of inter-service and inter-Allied policy, plans, and operations to prosecute the war against Nazi Germany.

The time was 4 a.m., Monday, June 5, 1944. The leaders were assembled in the library of Southwick House. A fierce storm, with near hurricane winds and drenching rain, beat against manor’s roof and walls. If the invasion were to take place on June 6, Eisenhower had to make the decision in the next few minutes.

Eisenhower sat at the head of a long rectangular table in the library, flanked by his subordinate commanders. Behind him was a hearth with a glowing fire; on the mantel, a clock continued to tick the seconds by, accentuating the intensity of the moment and adding to the pressure.

Two US soldiers stood guard outside the room, each armed with a .45-caliber Thompson submachine gun. The tension was as thick as the armor of a German Tiger tank.

At the table, to Eisenhower’s right, was Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, Commander in Chief, First US Army Group; Admiral Sir Bertram H. Ramsay, Allied Naval Commander in Chief, Expeditionary Force; and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur W. Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander, Expeditionary Force. At his left was General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, Commander in Chief, 21st Army Group; Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Allied Air Commander, Expeditionary Force; and Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower’s chief of staff. According to Smith, All the commanders were there when General Eisenhower arrived, trim in his tailored battle jacket, his face tense with the gravity of the decision which lay before him. Field Marshal Montgomery wore his inevitable baggy corduroy trousers and sweatshirt. Admiral Ramsay and his chief of staff were immaculate in navy blue and gold. The chief meteorologist was standing, facing Eisenhower and ready to brief. A slight smile crossed his lips. "I think we have found a gleam of hope for you,