"Cota and inspirational quotes by generals" Topic

So I was watching The Longest Day on June 6th and something struck me.
When Gen Cota was making his famous speach about getting off the beach, just how many people could possibly have heard him?
I imagine Omaha Beach was quite loud. I suspect it could not have been moree than a dozen or so that actually heard it.

Same thing about when he told teh Rangers to lead the way.

I figured in real life Cota gave that same talk, more or less, dozens of times to small bands of soldiers, much like a politician's "stump speech." I would not recommend that degree of realism in a movie.

I'd have to go through the "Rangers lead the way" bit again, but my first thought is that he'd have been speaking to the highest-ranking ones he could find.

There's some 18th Century writing about a general "imparting energy" to his forces, and Cota on D-Day seems an excellent 20th Century example.

Uhm, you might want to check, but I think you'll find it was someone else who said that.

On June 6, 1944, the Rangers took part in one of their most famous missions: D-Day. During the attack on Omaha Beach in Normandy, General Norman Cota of the 29th Infantry Division unintentionally created the ranger motto.

While asking Max Schnider, Lieutenant of the 5th Battalion of the 75th Infantry Ranger Regiment, what unit he was a part of, General Cota then stated, "Well godd*mmit, if you're Rangers, lead the way!" From link as one source. Many claim the incident was apocryphal

"Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Lets go inland and be killed."

Norman Cota From link among other sources

It was Col. George Taylor, CO 16th Infantry, who is supposed to have said " There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die"- quite a few times apparently, in the days running up to June 6th, 1944.