Message to troops as they prepare for the assault at normandy. [video clip] soldiers, sailors and airmen of the allied expeditionary force, you are about to embark on the great crusade. Eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In companies with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the german war machine, elimination of snazzy and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped in battle hardened and he will fight savagely but this is the year 1944, much has happened since the nazi triumphs since 19401941. They inflicted upon the germans great defeats in open battle man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced them in the air and those to wage war on the ground. Our home front have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war and placed at our disposal great fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confident in your courage, devotion and skill in battle. Well accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck and let us all be seen the blessing of almighty god upon this great and noble undertaking. This morning on washington journalnd a American History tv, we are the National Dday memorial in bedford virginia joined by alex kershaw, the author of nine books including his latest, the first wave, the dday warriors who led the way to victory in world war ii. What is the significance of yeah being there in bedford and the memorial youre sitting near . This is the one place in america that gave more to me as a european, im 53 years old. I have spent 53 years at peace and enjoyed unity. This here saved more lives sacrificed anywhere else in america. On dday june 6, 1944, 19 guys from this community of 3,000 in 1944 died in the first wave on omaha beach so per capita they gave more than any other allied community on dday and that is why the memorial is here and im very happy to be sitting right in front of it. It is interesting. I have always heard that bedford gave more than any other american town, but you said more than any other allied community. Yes. That is what the National Dday memorial proclaims and that is true, yes. Actually on dday, company a from the 116th it was a National Guard unit. They joined it 1930s. They were weekend warriors and never envisioned in 1937,38 that by 1944 they would be in the first wave of the most critical assault in history so out of company a80 were there and 102 were killed. 19 were killed from bedford, vish vir but there were 34 guys still in companies a on dday for from this company here that fought on june 6, 1944. You have the stories of the first wave of soldiers, airmen and marines and you write early in the book it was 12 15 0 0 a. M. June 6, 1944. The most important day of the 20th century, the First Americans had arrived in france. Why do you think dday was the most important day of the 20th century . Because it let rest led to a europe you see today. It led to the civilization of human right, of democracy, and the relationship between the u. S. And europe. It has been the most important relationship in World History and it led to the freedom of millions of europeans in western europe. 19million civilians died in europe in world war ii. When americans, british and french and americans landed on dday it gave count less millions hope that bar borism and the world of not zeaism that their terrible oppression would finally end. Our guest, we welcome your calls and comments ahead of the anniversary of dday. 2027488 mountain and 2027488000 mountain and pacific. Those with world war ii veterans in your family, that line is 202 7488002. Well get to your calls shortly. I want to start with a photo we have all seen at some point. The jaws of death photo. What is the significance of this photo that you have included in a similar version that is on the front of your book . It is probably the best photo you can find what it was like for firstwave troops approaching the deadliest beach of five beaches on dday, omaha beach. That Landing Crafts is approaching one of the eight guys will be killed. It is a 101st airborne were elite troops but most of them had not seen it before. The 82nd had, but the vast majority had never been in combat before. The green troops was a man you write a great deal about, john spalding, leader of the e company 16th regiment, the first officer and first wave of men on the beach. You talk about lis second in command Sergeant Phil struck of the big red one. What was their relationship and describe him stepping off the higgins boat into the water. Well, first you have to remember that when they came in towards the beach, they words told it would be flat as a pancake and all they had to worry about was the germans count attack. When they dared to look over the edge of the Landing Craft, 200, 300 yards they were dismayed to see nothing had been touched by preinvasion bombing. The ramp came down, spalding was right at the front of the Landing Craft, the 28yearold by never seen a combat before from kentucky, sport the writer before the war and he had to shout at his men that he was going to go first and test the depth of the water. The noise level was actually extraordinary. They described it as a constant wall of noise. You would hear every now and again of a rip of a piece of cloth being torn to a machine gun that could kill an entire platoon and could have killed them in seconds. He goes into the water. It is cold. There is a jolt. Machine gun violence everywhere. He goes under the water. He has a pack on his back and tries to get rid of the pack. Comes back up. Then manages to wade to the beach and then crawls across astonishing el beach and finds protection finally by the ruins of a small, small villa there that has been heavily shed. It took him about an hour and a half. He landed at 6 32 00 a. M. Then about 8 00 in the morning he managed to cross and get off the Landing Craft and lead them to flat sand and then across shingles but then a mine field which was part of the bluff and finally emerged, finally took the german strong point about 8 00 in the morning and therefore became the First American officer to lead americans off the bloodiest beach on dday. Calls for alex kershaw as we look at the 76th anniversary of dday. This issa lean in winston, salem, north carolina. Yes. I had a granddaddy that was in world war ii but they couldnt find him no more because they locked him up. I wondered do we how we can get, some people are missing in the war and they keep them until so that is what my granddaddy was, they had him and i am saying why did i hear something about it. Dont you know don was a Corporation Man . Well hear from walter next. Youre with alex kershaw. Go ahead. Okay. I want everybody out therapying attention to this broadcast to know one thing. That when it comes to losing a war or winning a war, that is ago oh political matter. When it comes to the man on the ground eating the fire, it is more simple than that. That is when it comes to winning or losing a war, the winners walk out and the losers dont. That is the perspective of a combat veteran. Thank you for your time. Thank you walter. What ale lex kershaw your thoughts on walters perspective of what it took. Well, there was a critical moment on omaha beach, a critical moment for the entire invasion actually. So many men had been wounded and killed and there was little communication. Around 10 30, 11 00 in the morning, bradley five miles out at sea rest sea seriously considered pulling troops off omaha beach. If he would have, i believe that dday would have been a disaster, a great defeat, not a great victory for allied forces but the difference was made as bradley said the difference was made by individual americans young officers getting their guys to stand up, walk into the line of fire and have the courage to sacrifice their lives and lead others into enemy fire. It came down to individuals. Maybe four or five dozen young officers on omaha beach. That made the difference between victory and defeat on dday and during the entire battle so yes we can get it down to critical moments and we can see key individuals, key americans got some courage and made the difference on dday. In lieutenant spaulding case and how much gear was lost right away . Installings case they were wading in the water. They tell them to ditch the machine gun and he barely winds up on the beach with any equipment at all. Did that surprise you they could fight with so much of their gear in the water or lost or else where . Well, one of the problems is that omaha beach we had very high surf. The night of the fifth had been a storm in the English Channel so when they came in, they were in the water three, four hours. Some had circled several times. In one landing calf i talked to one veteran, he said five out of six guys were puke ing up for several hours before they landed on the beach. In fact, he retested and they said they didnt care how many bullets, they just wanted to get their feet on dry ground or on a beach. They should have gone in lightly. It should have been they didnt carry equipment. They were to get it fast and effectively with minimum arm ma melts and minimum weights. When yeah jump into the water and you have a radio on your back and that gets wet, that equipment gets wet, as spaulding said his uniform felt like lead weight and they were slowed down, because of the equipment and theyre union forms were very wet. To end up spaulding said when he looked to his left on omaha beach in the first wave, he saw guys staggering as if walking into a heavy wind that morning because of the weight of their packs and weight of their wet uniforms. The book is the first wave, the dday warriors who led the way to victory in world war ii. Alex kershaw joining us from the dday memorial in bedford, virginia. We showed the comments of dwight d. Eisenhower to the troops, a photo in your book, of him speaking with the 101st airborne paratroopers looking very confident but you write that he was quite concerned afterwards and actually you said afterwards that he broke into tears after he left this. Yes. He set his driver she was very attractive indeed. He got into the jeep with her after he made farewell to the airborne and she said that he had tears in his eyes. He said to her it is very hard to look a Young American in the eyes and you know youre sending him to his death. I love him. There is a front he shows, the charm. When you look at the original film, the blue eyes, the smile. Not a moment of fear or hesitation he shows to these Young Americans. He is a great leader but he wasnt confident at all. He signed so many orders, that he had to use a lead pencil. He had a constant ringing in his rate ear and smoked a lot of cigarettes a day. But he didnt show it to his senior generals or men who were about to fight and die for him. A class act. The guy that could hide that tension and emotion and Show Confidence because we need today Show Confidence because it was a very, very risky operation, very ricky indeed. Dday. David, pennsylvania. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I would like to remark about the dday. My father went in on utah beach and he is lucky in a sense that it was utah beach, and people focus on omaha which rightly they should but lets look at the whole picture and look at the canadians, british and the rest utah and omaha and everyone that stepped off the Landing Craft were as brave as anybody else and as in the war, the luck of the draw makes a big difference and it doesnt matter what happens. I mean, you can be lucky or you can be brave and you can be unlucky. I credit all those guys. I appreciate all those veterans that stepped forward and didnt do their bit. It is too bad we have someone in the white house that dont, so thank you for taking my call. Alex kershaw. Well, yes, we have to remember that the utah and omaha was for the americans but there were 900 americans killed in omaha but over 300 killed of canadians at juno beach which was the second deadliest. We have to remember the canadians our neighbors, very strong allies. They were all volunteers. Every single guy, every single canadian that stepped on to the beach, everyone that jumped out of a c4 7 dakota on dday was a volunteer so that made the courage special and unique certainly on dday. Dday is a story of allied cooperation, superb allied cooperation in world war ii, the pinnacle. It was a joint effort that we fought side by side and we died side by side and the victory was one that was brought by several nations, not just one. Your book is full of stories, firsthand accounts from veterans. What was your primary source alex kershaw, letters home, their diaries, interviews with surviving veterans . It was a combination of many things. Interviews with veterans of course. Unfortunately there are not many alive today. Several died during the five years i was working on the book but we would be very lucky in the u. S. And britain and canada. We interviewed world war ii veterans at great, great length, the National World war ii museum, imperial war museum, we interviewed veterans at great length. I was able to delve into a treasure trove of all histories, hundreds and hundreds of hours of old histories so we have done a good job of preserving the memories of these great warriors. Let me ask you about the son and Teddy Roosevelt jr. And the invasion. Incredibly 56 years old, the oldest general officer on dday. He begged to go in with the Fourth Division in the first wave on utah. Actually he did arrive in the first wave on utah beach 6 28 was the time of the First Americans to shore. The captain schroeder and he remembered looking over to his right and seeing this 56yearold guy who had arthritis with a Walking Stick hopping and puffing away in the first wave on dday. An extraordinary guy. I think he had a sort of fatherson complex. He wanted to prove he was as courageous as his famous father and that day he did. He became one of four americans to receive the medal of hon for for actions on june 6, 1944. Extraordinary courage and leader on dday at utah. Correct me if im bron. That is tedly roosevelt jr. And his son in the invasion as well, yes. Amazingly, the father is on utah, the son wit the big red one on omaha. The father died on the 12 of july, 1944 from heart failure. I think the combat the stress savage combat they endured after dday basically killed him. But the son just a couple hours before his father died, he was able to see his father and check with him how he was doing. Lets go back to calls for alex kershaw. This is janice, in plymouth, michigan. Good morning. Good morning. Mr. Kershaw, my dad was a sea center in the Army Air Corps and dday was his 24th birthday. And he had met my mom, a scottish girl in a pub in manchester, england and they got married in43. He put her on the queen mary when they learned she was pregnant with me so his first child would be born in the u. S. But i have always been curious about the second wave because my dad, sandy blakeman, was a photographer and he went in on the second wave and through rest after the war, he published a book called over there which was a collection of photographs he took, what happened there. And it is out of print of course, but i was just wondering what happened in the second wave . We have heard stories about the first wave and i look forward to reading your book but what did people do in the second wave if you can tell me about that . Thanks. First of all it is great to talk to a fellow someone related to a british lady, put it that way. The americans that came over stole our beautiful young roses. The queen mary took 7,000 or 8,000 back to the u. S. In 1945. The second wave, it depended where you were. Omaha beach. Im in bedford, virginia and when i was writing the bedford boys that the boys here who died on omaha beach, i interviewed a guy in the second wave, he was trom company b from lynchburg virginia 20 miles to the north of me. He said he came in on the second wave and he landed on omaha beach after the boys and all he could see was dead bodies. You were as likely to die in the second, third, fourth wave because by the time the second and third waves arrived, the germans knew we were coming and it was target practice often and the most lethal sectors. It was literally target practice by the time you got to the second wave. We have been talking a good deal about the landings on the beaches. You also write a great deal about the parrot troopers and grindders enemy lines. Describe those gliders. And how many men were delivered that way . Well say the british fect tacularly took pegasus bridge, the First Successful operation of dday. They were let loose basically in a wooden and canvass glider at 6,000 feet at mild night on june 6, 1944. The pilot had a compass and a stopwatch. That was all. In the case these pegasus bridge, they crashlanded, 30 gase, gripping each other hands crashlanding at 90 Miles Per Hour in a wooden and canvass glider. It was literally a suicidal operation. They knew it. Guys were con cussed, injured, many casualties and within the glider operation on dday. Those guys managed to it was the First Successful operation of dday. Your crashlanding in a canvass and wooden plane. It is incredible to think they would volunteer to do that let alone succeed and live after that experience. The british and the americans used these gliders, correct . Yes, they did. We americans and british used the horse glider and the way co glider. Being a glider pilots on dday was perhaps the i would argue it was the most dangerous job you had because whatever happened, you were crashlanding and yeah better make sure youre a good pilot because where you were crashlanding, you were under enemy fire, there were hedge grows and trees. You have 30 guyslives in your hands and shot at constantly and youre landing in a mine field with asparagus, 15 feet poles with mines and there wasnt a more difficult job and not a more dangerous and scary job than being a glider pilot. This is spencer in maine. Hi, there. Hi. How are you doing . My grand pat was at omaha beach. He joined the navy when he was 18 years old and found himself it will be a little talked about group called the naval of the navy 6 beach battalion. They were they called them the sailors that looked like soldiers attached to the army for the dday landing and i believe in the first five seconds of saving private ryan, the sixth Navy Beach Battalion is featured in the opening scene and i was just wondering if there is anything has been written about the six beach battalion and if anybody is out there from that battalion . I did tweet to the washington journal a picture of my grandfather. He made it. My father, his son, joined the marine corps, went to vietnam and he did lose a leg but he came home like my grandfather did and raised a big family and my grandfather is gone now. Any information on the six would be appreciated. Spencer, if you want to tweet that, that is great. Were at c span wj. Thanks for calling in on that. Alex. It is a great privilege to talk to you, because im in bedford here and as you can see to my left there is a plaza covered with plaques that each of the individual units that served on dday. Your grandfather landed in the most lethal place at the most lethal time on dday of any allied troop could find himself on, that was green sector omaha beach and he came before the first wave. So when you look at the 20 minutes in saving private ryan, of carnage, death and slaughter, your father belonged to those scenes. Your grandfather rather was in those scenes as were the bedford boys so he landed in a very, very dangerous place indeed and it is a miracle that he managed to survive especially as he preceded the the first wave. Extraordinary achievement. He would have seen an enormous amount of trauma and death. You should be extremely, extremely proud. There is a picture in your book of a captain frank, photo looks like it is out of a movie. There he is with the helmet and cigar but youre jumping with the sig girl for the captain was pretty much standards for him. Tell us about his role in the opening invasion, the first wave. Well, captain frank was from upstate, new york, 28 years old on dday. He made 43 practice jumps before dday. Only on one, as he was about to jump out of a c4 3 he was a path finder from the 502nd 101st airborne officially recognized in 1944 as the first to put his boots on the ground in normandy dday. He made many practice jumps not once in combat and on one occasion his men were looking at him as they strapped up and were about to jump out and they saw he didnt have a cigar in his mouth. One of the men looked at him in shock and surprise looking very worried because they were super spacious and lee grabbed one and stuffed it in his mouth and jumped. This guy he jumped from about 500 feet at 12 1 5 00 a. M. Most took 25 seconds to drop about 500 feet. When his parachute boots hit the field, he was still had the cigar in his mouth. Great style, and a great warrior and survived the war. Was at Market Garden and bastogne. He finished the war with many decorations. About how many troops went in on june 6th . About 25,000. We have 101st airborne and 82nd airborne for a americans and then the british and canadians. Lets hear from suzanne next in sacramento, california. Good morning. Go ahead. Good morning. I thought of my mother when the previous woman mentioned the need for documentation of women and my mother was one of the welders in the navy yard. My father went to north africa and to italy and really one of the saddest memories for my father was when he was on troop training. He is a black soldier. Often the black somes were not given seats. They were made to sit on the duffel bags on the floor when they had events with the uso, they sat behind the officers of the the seated people and really until president truman came in, the army was still segregated and they suffered terribly. That story has not really been told so i hope you might consider that for one of your future studies. Yes. Definitely. I think one of the great achievements of world war ii of americans fighting in world war ii it transformed american society. The americans today were built out of that experience. I think segregation started to break down in the first big fissure in segregation came through the experiences and encouragement of black soldiers who showed they were equal citizens. They certainly were just as brave and just as competent as any other American Fighting in that conflict. We had a caller awhile ago talking about the navy six beach battalion. He did indeed tweet the photo of his granddad. You said he is at omaha, the sailors that looked like soldiers, my grandfather. Here is from york pennsylvania, linda. Go ahead. Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Can you hear me . We can, go ahead. I have a question or a comment for mr. Kershaw. Every now and then they show a movie on cable tv it is called dday. And tom selleck stars as eisenhower and im sure it doesnt get into all the nittygritty but it shows how much pressure eisenhower had on him to plan this, especially with the rotten weather in england and he had to plan this to consider the least loss of life possible on these landings. And there was one scene that i wasnt quite clear on, when eisenhower went to talk to the french president at that time, the french president was very difficult and said he would not follow ikes plan, the french would do their own plan. And i wasnt quite sure about that, but it only covers the basics of pressure that ike faced in this war. And i found it a very compelling movie. Im sure there is more Horror Stories but i wondered if mr. Kershaw had seen this movie or was aware of it . Thank you. Alex kershaw. Yes, i have seen the movie. Im a big fan of tom selleck but i dont think he has the same dreamy blue eyes as ike, but to answer your questions we did have the british canadians and americans, we didnt accept him as the National Leader of the french. He wasnt an official we could negotiate with officially but to come back to your point about eisenhower, i dont think any man in the 20th century faces as much pressure as he did when he alone was able to give the decision to go and not churchill, not marshall in washington, not roosevelt, not the king of england. No matter how much they would have liked to influence ike, they might have wanted to tell him to go, only ike, 53 years old, only he could give the final position to go and it was a very, very serious decision because when he gave the decision, a storm was blowing. Literally rain was pelting against the building in which he was holding his conference with the overlord commanders. When he looked he looked out the window on the 5th of june, 1944 and given the decision to give final order to go, he was thinking my god, what am i going to do . What am i doing . What am i sending all these soldiers to . He was under enormous crushing strain and lets not forget he was under growing strain since january of 1944 when lee came to london to take control of overlord. I dont think it was a decision of the 20th century that was so important riding on the outcome and there was so much uncertainty. Eisenhower himself told a friend in washington dc, a few weeks before da, this is a huge gamble that in his words we were placing eng on one number. Everything on one number. There was no plan b and i believe he would never go back again so had we failed it would have been the greatest failure in modern history for the u. S. And the allies. Here is debby calling from south dakota. Welcome. Im calling from mitchell, south dakota. I simply want to thank all the veterans of all the wars that the United States soldiers have fought in. I had a dad and an uncle that happened to serve in the u. S. Navy in world war ii and were not directly near the dday invasion, but my uncle harold informed me more of the history than even my own dad did. I have one question. Mr. Kershaw, do you think the fact that they first after pearl harbor every available young man signed up, but they had the draft also. Do you think that helped with the success that we had in world war ii because the young man were from so many varied backgrounds . Yes. I think the draft without the draft we couldnt have won our way to victory in the pacific. And america was waiting, too, very intense wars over 3,000miles away from this country where im speaking today. It was a distant affair to most americans, hardly any americans suffered domestically from i think a handful were victims of japanese bombing on the west coast. Americans didnt experience war as the europeans did, but yes, the draft was essential and americans, all americans from all different backgrounds gave pretty much everything during the Second World War because lets not forget it was a question of national survival. The futures the countrys future was at stake. Were joined by alex kershaw from bedford va. He is joining us from bedford, virginia. The dday memorial in bedford, virginia. The bedford boys one of your prior eight books, a number of your books about world war ii. What made you want to focus on dday and in particular the story of the individual soldiers . Ill be honest with you, because they gave me an amazing life. I was born in britain 53 years ago. I was a gi groom. I met my wife in london when i was 28 and i lived in this country for 25 years. My son was born in los angeles. I grew up in a europe that was a peaceful place. We have endured 75 years of peace in europe. That is the longest period in that continents history, a place a memorial by killing and war and death. So i have been extraordinarily lucky, very, very lucky to have benefited from the sacrifice and the libration of western europe. I consider myself english american but also european and i cant say thank you enough. I cant say ever thank you enough to the young man who gave their lives from where im sitting right now to allow me to have that life, to have that to enjoy those freedoms and to see what i achieved in my life, because it was a beautiful, beautiful gift. Lets hear from mike next in carbondale, colorado. I just wanted to congratulate alex on another wonderful book, the first wave. My father, an immigrant from ireland in world war ii and i had five other uncles fight in world war ii. One was killed, one was a p. O. W. So alexs books hit home for me. I wanted to ask alex and it is a scene from his book the bedford boys, if he could relate to the audience about what it was like for that Western Union operator, a female who started to receive the notifications of the boys who were dying in bedford. There were so many they were people and families she knew and i would love to hear his comments about that. Thanks for calling in, mike. I interviewed elizabeth tea. She was 21 in july 1944. I will go to a graveyard in bedford not far from where im sitting this afternoon. I will visit the graves of several of the bedford boys brought home. 22 killed in normandy in june and july of 1944. Half of them are in graves in omaha beach and half of them here not far, a couple miles from where im sitting. On the 21st of july, 1944, elizabeth tease went to work at the greens drugstore still open today and she went to Western UnionTelegram Office at the back of the drugstore. Turned on the teletype machine and told me it wouldnt stop for at least a couple of hours and these names kept coming through. Killed in action, killed in action. Missing in action. And unbelievably when i talked to her there were so many names, all she could remember there were a lot of jungs. Spitting out these messages of tragedies. The stutter of the machine in omaha beach that killed these boys was echoed by those teletype machine spitting out the messages that went to the loved ones in bedford and devastated the community. It was a very grief stricken tragic time. You have to remember that people in america knew on june 6th that we invaded normandy. It was a huge story, the biggest of the war for everybody in the allied nations and people in bedford new their sons were involved in some way. They had to wait weeks and weeks to find out what happened to them. Mail was returned. Letters didnt come back. One woman said it was like waiting for a earthquake. What happened to our boys. Then one morning elizabeth tees turns on the teletype machine and the truth came out. Youre mentioning mid july when the bedford boysnews comes to that town, was that typical in terms of moat fix of kin . Yes. Absolutely. It took several weeks at least for the next of kin to be informed by telegram from the war office of what happened to their loved ones. A very long time to wait if you nigh your loved one was involved in very intense combat. The first photograph appeared in the u. S. Of what it was like to be at the sharp end and taken by the great life photographer who landed with the big red one on omaha beach so families opened life magazine on the 19th of june, 1944, and saw these extraordinary images of carnage and death and intense violence and they knew their sons by then had been involved in that come booth on that beach so they still had to wait another month before they found out what happened even though they had seen images of what might have happened to their loved ones. Ten more minutes. Well gel a few more calls here. I would like to say thank you to c span and it is a great wrote a letter in the car about bringing the troops off the shores because of the invent if you want a moment that epitomizes great leadership, from any american in world war ii from i believe one of your greatest president s, eisenhower, it is this. He had a note in his back pocket. The notes have been written before he gave the order to go. He said our men, our troops, sailors and soldiers. Our men have done their very best. That showed the greatest courage. Unfortunately, the invasion has failed. I alone take responsibility. That sense that he would take it on his shoulders, not only giving the decision but if it failed, he would accept responsibility, solely him. It is the sign of a great man, a great, great man. Your joining us from the memorial in bedford. Recently led a tour of normandy. Who joined you. It was a group of americans. I was there two or three weeks ago. All the places i have been talking about. Thread sector where spaulding came ashore. Where the bedford boys came ashore. It is a powerful place to go if you are an american. I always say when i take them to omaha beach, particularly where the bedford boys were slaughtered, there is no place on the planet or that any american can go where you will feel more proud to be an american than omaha beach or normandy. That is the place where americans enjoyed their finest hour. The best moment in history is when you kicked us out. The second best was the day, june 6, 1944. You give american lives, over 900 and omaha beach. One beachwear you gave many lives, 20,000 americans killed in the battle of normandy. The old world came, sorry Company World came to liberate the old where american sacrificed their lives so others could enjoy freedom so that i could grow up in freedom. I want to stress one thing, i do this with people that i take to the beaches of normandy. By 1944, june 6, 1944, americans were in no danger of being invaded. American freedom was a short. The americans that served and laid down their lives and stepped out of line craft and jumped out of the 4706, lay down their lives for europeans, not in terms of importance and freedom for americans, they lay down their lives for europeans. I think that is the greatest act of american altruism in history. With you from mike from wheeling, west virginia. Hello. I would like to say, today being memorial day, i am so proud of all the people that have served. Im a veteran myself. My father was in the sixth army rangers. They made a movie about him about 15 years ago called the great raid. My mom lost two brothers, one in germany and one in the death march. If it werent for all those people and all the men that served in world war ii, i wouldnt be here today. Im happy to say my family served and all the people that served makes me feel good today. Thank you. Tell us about one of the many many write about. Lieutenant colonel james rutter. Yet again, one of the Many Americans or combat commanders. Guys that had serious jobs to do. Purnell rutter was in sard in charge of the second major battalion. It was called the most difficult job on the day. They have to scale the hundred foot cliffs. Very famous scenes in the longest day. He had never been in combat. The only guys he had ever led under any kind of stress was a College Football team. He did a wonderful job. There were 225 guys in the second major battalion that vested. He suffered over 60 casualties. Ive been to the spot where he was wounded twice on june 6, 1944. He kept on fighting and leading his men. 48 hours before, they by fellow americans. The second major battalion, many of those had not slept the night of 5 june. They were relieved at midday on 8 june. Imagine that. 72 hours with combat of adrenaline peeking and flowing and losing loved ones and brothers. Guys you treated like your real brothers because they were in combat with you. Very high casualties. An extraordinary job. Went on to become texas a ms greatest ever president. Was a wonderful leader in combat. Much loved by his men. And he was decorated and awarded the after june 6, a couple weeks later, he cried in front of his men and held it up and said this is for you. You did this. One of the guys shouted, you keep it for us. He was a much loved and wonderful combat leader. They never had a shot fired in anger. It is extraordinary how they found their moment. How ordinary workingclass americans, when the mission was right and the task was supreme, they performed miracles. He definitely performed a miracle. Is that the distinguished flying cross . Distinguished service cross. 153 americans received that for actions on omaha beach alone. Only for medal of honor recipients 40 d day. Three of those belonged to the big red one and to john spauldings division on omaha. Quite a few more deserved that on the day. That is history. That is passed. B lets get one more call from mark in kalama, michigan. Hello. My name is mark, my father was at omaha beach on dday. He was in the second wave. They had artie seen what was happening on the beach. They didnt go in front of the ship. They were off the side. There the ranger division. Theyre talking about the beach being bloodied. He had seen the movie that tom hanks made. He said just like being there. Everything else he said, he. He was also at bastogne with the german surrounded and the commander. Final thoughts alex . I think the 75th anniversary of the day is an important event. It is a unifying event for americans. This country needs unity more than it has in a long time. Every american should reflect on what the nation achieved in unity with other nations. What was given with human life. The most precious thing. So that others could be free. That we america consent stand by its founding values of the quality, democracy, justice and human rights. That is something we should remember. As americans we are unified and achieved a great victory because they were together and not divided. The look is the first wave. The dday warriors that led the way to victory in world war ii. Our guest alex kershaw joining us from the dday memorial in bedford, virginia. Take you so much for your time. Thank you. It has been a great honor. Stack our focus at the beginning b of august, we were. What could be concerned was toward the middle of the month. The german started to leave the city. T those were the same germans who assigned 25 year on the past. That on the 14th, police went on site. The next day, plastic. That was the day when a police car opened fire on a german national. After that, it seems the french like what is hanging for everyone to. The