George A. Taylor

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George A. Taylor

George A. Taylor (1899—1969) was an officer in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division

U.S. 1st Infantry Division

The 1st Infantry Division of the United States Army —nicknamed ?The Big Red One? after its shoulder patch; and also nicknamed "The Fighting First"—is the oldest Division in the United States Army, and has seen continuous service since its organization in 1917....
during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

His famous quote from Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach was the code name for one of the main landing points of the Allies of World War II Normandy Landings of German occupation of France during World War II in the Battle of Normandy on June 6 1944, during World War II....
:

"There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here".

He arrived on the beach in a later wave, about 0800. A colonel

Colonel

Colonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures....
at the time, he was the regimental commander for the 16th Infantry Regiment, which took many casualties in the initial assault.

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George A. Taylor (1899—1969) was an officer in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division

U.S. 1st Infantry Division

World War II

Omaha Beach

"There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here".

He arrived on the beach in a later wave, about 0800. A colonel

Colonel

Combat stress reaction

Combat stress reaction, in the past commonly known as shell shock or battle fatigue, is a military term used to categorize a range of behaviours resulting from the stress of battle which decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency....
men pinned down along the seawall. He was able to motivate, organize and lead the attack inland.

Taylor is sometimes confused with General

General

A General officer is an Officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called general....
Norman Cota

Norman Cota

Norman Daniel "Dutch" Cota, Sr. was a United States General during World War II. Cota was heavily involved in the planning and execution of the invasion of France, codenamed Operation Neptune, and the subsequent Battle of Normandy....
, who was also on the beach that day, but in a different sector with a different unit, the U.S. 29th Infantry Division

U.S. 29th Infantry Division

The U.S. 29th Infantry Division is a United States infantry division that has existed since World War I as part of the Army National Guard.Nicknamed "Blue and Gray", the division's motto is "29, Let's Go!" The shoulder patch is a half-blue, half-gray Chinese language taijitu; this patch was approved 14 December 1917 and was designed by Maj...
. Both officers rallied the troops under fire. In the film The Longest Day
The Longest Day (film)

The Longest Day is a 3-hour-long Academy Award-winning war film with a very large cast, based on the 1959 in literature history book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about "D-Day", the Battle of Normandy on 6 June 1944, during World War II....
General Cota (played by Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an Academy Award-nominated United States film actor, author, composer and singer. Mitchum is largely remembered for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s....
) was given Taylor's line.

Taylor was promoted to Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier General is the lowest ranking General Officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of Colonel and Major General.The rank can be traced back to the militaries of Europe where a brigadier general, or simply a brigadier, would command a brigade in the field....
and became the assistant commander of the 1st Division from Oct 1944 to July 1945. During the signing of the surrender of German forces, Taylor struck out the location "Elbogen, Sudetenland

Sudetenland

Sudetenland is the German language name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Czech Silesia associated with Bohemia....
" and wrote "Loket

Loket

Loket is a town of some 3,000 inhabitants in the Sokolov district in the Karlovy Vary region of the Czech Republic.Loket means "elbow" in English....
, Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918 until 1992 . On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia....
" instead. This act brought him great respect in Czechoslovakia.

Taylor retired in 1946 with the rank of Brigadier General.

Director Samuel Fuller

Samuel Fuller

Samuel Fuller was an United States screenwriter and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes....
served under Taylor during the war and mentioned his name in several of his films.

External links

, an official Army report