06/05/2026
A message from the Office of the Chancellor:
As we approach the anniversary of , we reflect on a lesson that remains as relevant today as it was on June 6, 1944:
"The success of depended not only on conventional military power, but also on irregular warfare.
Years before Allied forces landed in Normandy, the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) built networks capable of sabotage, intelligence collection, guerrilla warfare, and resistance operations across occupied Europe. Prior to the invasion, they delivered weapons, radios, explosives, and funding to resistance groups. In the weeks surrounding D-Day, resistance fighters sabotaged rail lines, disrupted communications, ambushed convoys, and slowed the movement of German reinforcements toward Normandy.
We are the inheritors of their legacy – and their irregular warfare mindset is what we attempted to engender in you over the last 10 months."
Read the full reflection from Chancellor Olson on the enduring relevance of D-Day's irregular warfare legacy here:https://cisa.ndu.edu/Portals/76/%7BFINAL%7D%20D-Day%20Write%20Up.pdf
