| General, Army of the United States (Temporary) Dwight D. Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969), poses for photographs after addressing representative soldiers of the Allied Armies, circa December 20, 1944. This was mere days before the German Ardennes Offensive, but the event was publicized after Christmas. While the event took place before knowledge of the German onslaught, public relations tied his Christmas message to the forthcoming counteroffensive to reclaim lost ground. Soldiers were called to hear General Dwight Eisenhower’s Christmas message, which they took back to their commands. Attending the message were French, British, and American troops. United Kingdom Royal Army Signalman Charles Tighe, Royal Corps of Signals Glasgow (???? – at least 1994); United States Navy Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Daniel (David) Scrima (January 17, 1917 – November 26, 1972); United States Army Air Force Staff Sergeant Albin W. Les (September 4, 1923 – December 23, 1944), 453rd Bomb Squadron, 323rd Bomb Group, 9th Air Force; United States Army Technician 5th Class Troy Lottes, 3906 Quartermaster Truck Company (Segregated); United Kingdom Royal Navy Seaman Douglas Salway, London; Sergeant Charles F. Helfrich (November 14, 1919 – September 7, 2006), Headquarters Company, 17th Tank Battalion, 7th Armored Division; Corporal Ross D. Parry (1922 – 1991), Royal Canadian Artillery, Vancouver; Royal Air Force Airman Jack Smith, Leeds; Royal Air Force Leading Aircraftman William Kerr, Glasgow; Royal Air Force Leading Aircraftman Dennis Maloney, Birmingham; Forces Françaises Libres Sergeant Andre Jean Batiste Ferange, Battalion 103, Paris; and Forces Françaises Libres Private Guy Borre, French Infantry. The New York Times Editorial, December 23, 1944: “General Eisenhower’s Order of the Day to ‘all units of the Allied Expeditionary Force’ was typically his. It also was typically American. It does not rank in eloquence with some of the defiances Winston Churchill threw at the Nazis in England’s dark hours of 1940 and early 1941. Perhaps it does not compare in that respect even with Generel Weygand’s ‘last quarter hour’ message of June, 1940, when the Germans were exploiting the Sedan breakthrough and streaming toward Paris. But there is a difference in the occasion and in the message. General Eisenhower’s words were the plain ones of a man from Texas, giving the score to the men under his command, assaying the potentialities of the enemy attack and accepting the challenge. It was a call to battle.” “There is no defeatism in his words: ‘We cannot be content with his (the enemy’s) mere re-pulse.’ Nor is there over-optimism: ‘By rushing out of his fixed defense the enemy may give us the chance to turn his great gamble into his worst defeat.’ There is the call to his men to walk that one more mile that always can be negotiated when there is no other choice, to fire the one more shot that always can be fired when it must be. If those things are done he has confidence in the result: ‘With unshakable faith in the cause for which we fight, we will go forward to our greatest victory.’” “General Eisenhower’s order was addressed specifically to his troops. To the British, the Canadians and the French, to the Americans from California, Oregon and Washington, to those from Colorado, Texas, North and South Dakota, to the boys from Illinois and Ohio and Michigan, Alaba-ma, Georgia and South Carolina, to the sons of Delaware, Maine and New York and all the other of the forty-eight states. It was addressed to the boy next door who went away so short a time ago to fight his country’s battles. But it flows thru them to us. It is a call to us too ‘to rise now to new heights of courage, resolution and effort.’” “It is a terrible and sad Christmas message the General had to send. It probably is a far different one from that he had planned or had hoped to send only a few short weeks ago when everywhere the Allied armies were on the march. It is at the same time more optimistic than some other evaluations of the present course of battle made by persons less well informed than is the Commanding General of Allied Forces in Europe.” “This Christmas Day will not be one we soon can forget. But if we all will answer General Eisenhower’s call to battle, and with ‘courage, resolution and effort’ press the fight as the men on the front lines are pressing it, we shall hasten the day when this bloody task is accomplished and peace on earth has been restored again to all men of good-will.” Columnist Kirke L. Simpson (August 14, 1881 – June 16, 1972) commented, “General Eisenhower’s order of the day to all troops under his command [was] urging them to offensive, not purely defensive action. The other was an intimation that a weather break in Allied favor was in prospect. Into the Eisenhower message can be read a clean cut indication that Allied countermeasures on a major scale are impending. To cap that a break in the weather that has substantially earthbound Allied close support air power throughout the German attack could wholly change the forseeable battle trends in American favor. It could turn the enemy gamble into his worst defeat. It is a fair assumption that battle circumstances not yet officially publicized prompted the Eisenhower message and its confident tone. It well could signal the opening of a major Allied counteroffensive both in the German attack zone and possibly elsewhere along the rain-sodden front. A report from London that Field Marshal Montgomery, commanding the British-Canadian wing of Eisenhower’s Allied forces in the extreme north, had conferred with with the Supreme Commander could be significant in that respect. There is little doubt that to muster the strength for his surprise counterattack on the dormant sector of the American First Army front.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii0350.jpg |
| Image Size | 521.84 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2989 x 2316 |
| Photographer | James Jarche |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | December 28, 1944 |
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| Country | France |
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| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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