Dec 24, 2017 3 min read

Believe it or not, there are uncanny similarities between George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River this week in 1776 to attack Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, N.J., and the Dwight Eisenhower-led crossing of the English Channel to invade France’s Normandy beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944, although Eisenhower, unlike Washington, didn’t physically lead his troops.

Both invasions were commanded by generals who became war heroes and, as a result, would later become U.S. presidents. Both attacks were against Germans – granted, the German Hessians were hired mercenaries, while the Germans at D-Day were the real enemy of Britain and America, but nearly as many Hessians fought for Britain in the American Revolution as did Brits.

Both attacks began as naval exercises that demanded coordination and planning. On D-Day, 165,000 soldiers were transported across the English Channel in 5,000 ships, plus landing craft, while an additional 24,000 airborne troops were dropped behind enemy lines. To cross the Delaware, nearly 2,500 men boarded tightly packed Durham boats, while horses, field artillery, ammunition and light cannon were also ferried across, and the march to Trenton was designed to be a synchronized three-pronged attack.

The weather was initially so bad during both attacks that both generals thought briefly about aborting them. And in both cases the horrible weather turned out to be a blessing, because both the German Hessians and the German Nazis were so sure the inclement weather would prevent an attack, they relaxed their guard. On June 5, 1944, the weather over the English Channel included gale-force winds, pouring rain and choppy waters, prompting the German officer in charge of France’s coastline defenses, Gen. Irwin Rommel, to fly from France to Berlin to attend his wife’s birthday party. On December 25 – 26, 1776, the weather over the Delaware River was similar – high winds, freezing rain and snow, plus chunks of ice floating in the river – causing the Hessians in Trenton to stand down (many then “hitting the bottle”), and causing their commander, who had received multiple reports of an imminent American surprise attack, to dismiss those reports as fabrications.

Both attacks were victories and crucial to the war’s outcome. Trenton was Washington’s first victory after a string of defeats and was a huge morale booster. Normandy was the first successful breach of Germany’s defenses on the Western front since the war began.

And finally, the experience both men gained as military leaders served them well as presidents – not in fighting subsequent wars, but in avoiding them. In 1794, Washington bucked popular sentiment and successfully avoided another – almost certainly unwinnable – war against Britain. Ditto Eisenhower in 1953, when he unilaterally ended a stalemated war in Korea.