On April 25, 1944, six weeks before D-Day, General George S. Patton gave a speech at an English “Welcome Club” for servicemen organized by the in Knutsford Women’s Voluntary Service in Cheshire, England.
Patton, in his usual honesty, went on to say:
I feel that such clubs as this are a very real value, because I believe with Mr. Barnard Shaw, I think it was he, that the British and Americans are two people separated by a common language, and since it is the evident destiny of the British and Americans, and of course, the Russians to rule the world, the better we know each other, the better job we will do.
A club like this is an ideal place for making such acquaintances and for promoting mutual understanding. Also, as soon as our soldiers meet and know the English ladies and write home and tell our women how truly lovely you are, the sooner the Americans ladies will get jealous and force this war to a quick termination, and I will get a chance to go and kill Japanese.
Not the most tactful statement, but a honest expression of what American planners were thinking at the time.
Thanks for reading,
Notes:
Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace