Reddit mentions of Eisenhower in War and Peace

OP recommended a different one but I've read Eisenhower in War and Peace in its entirety and it is fantastic. Granted, the beginning is pretty slow, but that's to be expected since it goes from his birth to his death and everything in between. I gained a lot of respect for the man and also got a glimpse at what a person in his position is like. I'd also say the book is very fair and although I like Ike overall, there's some information in there that shows when he faltered to the detriment of the world. Here are some of my favorite highlights from the book:

About the North Africa campaign during WWII:

"The Germans did not lose the battle of North Africa so much as they were overwhelmed. Hitler's war machine was no match for America's assembly line. Despite the heavy losses sustained in November and December, by February the allies had four times as many planes in North Africa as the Luftwaffe. By the end of March, the allies were flying over a thousand sorties a day. The Germans averaged sixty. Allied air superiority choked off the German supply route. Von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army had received 187 replacement tanks in November, and 191 in December. By Frebruary, the number had dropped to 52, and in March to 20. By contrast, at Kaserine Pass the U.S. II Corps lost more tanks (235) than the Germans had deployed at the outset of the battle (228). Yet within two weeks II Corps had been supplied with replacements.

'Supplies shattering. Ammunition for 1-2 days. Fuel situation similar,' von Armin signaled Berlin in late March.

For the Allies, it was just the opposite. In late January, Eisenhower asked Washington for more trucks. Three weeks later a convoy of twenty ships sailed from American ports with 5,000 two-and-a-half-ton trucks, 2,000 cargo trailers, 400 dump trucks, and 80 fighter plans. From late February to late March, 130 ships crossed the Atlantic with 84,000 soliders, 24,000 vehicles, and a million tons of cargo. When Patton demanded new shoes for his troops, 80,000 pairs arrived almost overnight. By April, the Allies could put 1,400 tanks in the field. The Germans could must only 80. Tunis fell on May 8, 1943, and the last German units surrendered on the thirteenth. Axis losses in Tunisia total 290,000 killed or c aptured — an Allied victory in some respects compareable to the Russian trimuph at Stalingrad.

Brute force prevailed. As General Lucius D. Clay, who headed all U.S. military procurement in World War II, noted: 'We were never able to build a tank as good as the German tank. But we made so many of them that it didn't really matter.'" (pg. 264)


On Eisenhower's decision to launch D-Day during a storm:

"'I think we found a gleam of hope for you, sir," Stagg (Military Meteorologist) told Eisenhower. 'The mass of weather coming in from the Atlantic is moving faster than we anticipated. We predict there will be rather fair conditions beginning late on June 5 and lasting until the next morning, June 6.' But the weather would close in again on the evening of the sixth, said Stagg, and conditions would turn foul. How long the bad weather would last, he could not say. But there was a window of about twenty-four hours when conditions would be tolerable.

Again, Eisenhower polled his commanders. Admiral Ramsay said whatever was decided, the signal had to be flashed to the fleet within the next half hour. He asked Stagg about the seas and the wind velocity, and said he was satisfied. Leigh-Mallory and Tedder thought it was 'chancy.' Montgomery said, 'Go!'

After everyone had spoken, Eisenhower sat quietly. Smith remembered the silence lasted for five full minutes. 'I never realized before the loneliness and isolation of a commander at a time when such a momentous decision has to be taken, with the full knowledge that failure or success rests on his judgement alone.'

When Ike looked up, he was somber, but not troubled.

'Ok, we'll go,' with those words, Eisenhower launched the D-Day invasion of Europe, an enterprise without precedent in the history of warfare."