Who and where were those who once had said the american was no soldier, that he would not fight . World, events were swiftly gaining momentum. Army dropped armydays later, the first occupied cologne. That, 300 of our fortresses of our forces lasted tokyo. Blasted tokyo. By the 17th of the same month, general Pattons Third Army had taken. The next day, and half a world away, our troops invaded the island in the central philippines. That, the third army crossed the rhine. Four days later, the eighth army was landing in the philippines. [explosions] less than a week after that, on april 1, 1945, the u. S. 10th army invaded okinawa. On the 11th of the same month, the Second Armored Division of the night army reached 63 miles from berlin. Thir on the 12th of april, president Franklin Delano roosevelt had yet to see the triumphant advances of american arms but fate denied him the satisfaction the final victory would bring. Afterhan a month president roosevelts death, germany surrendered. Was dead by his own hand. Only a few days before, mussolini had been killed by italian partisans. Shores, general eisenhower returned in triumph. [explosions] in the pacific, a war was still going on, a big and bitterly fought war with the and not yet in sight. Okinawa was a bloody battleground as our 10th army was finding out. [explosions] it took us 82 days of continuous fighting to take okinawa. The attacks on our navy took a heavy toll but we thought back, never letting up. Back, never letting up. [explosions] [explosions] all the military might of the United States would now be concentrated on the japanese homeland. A top job a tough job lay ahead. A job that would take men and equipment. Our entire military strength was now aimed at the one remaining axis partner. Our military planners estimated that in an all out assault on japan itself, or invasion forces would probably suffer 1. 5 million casualties. But a new and terrifying force had come into the world, which was to prevent those 1. 5 million casualties, the atomic bomb. On of these weapons dropped hiroshima and nagasaki brought japan to its knees. On the second of september, 1945, japanese officials signed the articles of formal surrender on the battleship missouri in tokyo bay. The formal surrender by the japanese on the second of september, 1945, marked the end of the shooting in world war ii. It was a momentous historic event. But there was one other that followed, which might not have been as historic to the world at large but it was probably the most rewarding moment in the life of a fine soldier. Wainwright hadn been rescued by u. S. Army paratroopers from a prisoner of war camp. And flown back to be present at the formal surrender on the battleship missouri. That, he wasafter present at the surrender of the remnants of the Japanese Army in the philippines. It must have been a great day for jonathan wainwright, west point class of 1906. You can watch films on Public Affairs in their entirety on our america,ries reel saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. You are watching American History tv, covering history cspan style with event coverage, eyewitness accounts, archival films, lectures in college classrooms, and visits to museums and historic places. All weekend, every weekend, on cspan 3. You archival films on Public Affairs each week on our series on American History tv. Here is a quick look at one of our recent programs. Each week, American History tvs reel america rings you archival films that provide Historical Context for Public Policy issues of the 21st century. [explosions] our naval barrage swept the dawn,beaches and by ready to take on their cargoes of infantry. [explosions] while the big guns fought it out our firstn nazis, wave moved in. Hundreds of planes provided air cover. Operating in short, rocket boats showered the enemy. [explosions] close to the obstacle barricade. [explosions] the troops waded through deep water to the shore, many never reached it. [gunfire] the larger came shouldering in with more infantry to hard won foothold. Coast guard rescue cutters were already going about their grim business of picking up the wounded and the dead. You can watch archival films on Public Affairs in their entirety on our weekly series, reel america. Saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern, here on American History tv. Each week, American History tvs american artifacts visits museums and historic places. Up next, in the second of a twopart program, we traveled to new orleans to visit the National World war ii museums road to berlin exhibit. It continues the story of the American Experience in the european theater, beginning with the 1940 four dday invasion. [indiscernible] we are actually in the normandy landings gallery, dday at normandy, a special gallery for us here because our museum was originally founded back in 1990s at the National Dday museum by a congressional charter. We were charged with telling the story of the entire American Experience in world war ii, why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today, and so, in this gallery, we get to the big moment where the united wines and her allies had to this particular day. Dday, june 6, 1944. Meritede is our film, by tom brokaw narrated by tom brokaw, which gives our visitors the overarching story of dday at normandy, but next to me, over here on the left, a very special exhibit. This is an exhibit case that is long, thin line of english. Bernie pyle walked the beach is where the American Forces landed dd he saw all of the the beach. War at what we have in this case is actual artifacts and sand from utah and omaha beaches. He writes about what he found. You can see he talks about shoe polish, showing kids diaries, bibles, hand grenades, toothbrushes, razors, and he particularly singles out in his column writing paper. He talks about how the young men who gave their lives at normandy intended to write an awful lot of letters back home and the other thing they had an awful lot of was cigarettes. He said that packs of cigarettes had been handed out to the troops before the landings began and he made the comment that the line of cigarettes up and down the beach marked the high water of this sacrifice at normandy. It is a moment for our audiences after the film to pause and reflect about what was going on in the world. Dday, 1944, was the day hitlers could have driven our forces back into the waters of the english channel. He failed. From that point forward, we were on our way to the road to berlin and ending the third right. On this wall, we have the civilian, military, and political leaderships reactions dy library,an starting with anne frank, a young jewish girl hiding in an attic in holland, where she writes in her diary, could it be true that forces had landed and that we would be liberated . Dwight eisenhower weighs in, the supreme commander, saying that we have landed, and the hour of liberation is approaching, but winston churchill, the Prime Minister of great britain, adds the sobering note that although we have had a successful landing at normandy, in fact, we have a very long way to go. We are better than 700 miles away from berlin itself. As you can see by this map here, we have managed to achieve a toehold on the peninsula in france. But wealong the beaches, are also bottled up and facing a very hard, serious fight to try and move through northern france before we can start to really get some traction on defeating nazi germany. Race acrossn the france galleries, in which we tell the story of the allies advance across northern france, up to operation bottled up in the hedgerows. Behind me, you can see how these acrossedgerows fields of france held up our military advancement. These hedgerows were so thick, for thousands of years, that you could have a german soldier on one side of a hedgerow, three feet away from an allied soldier, and the two would not even know they were there. Tanks could not go through these hedgerows until we built some clippers, if you will, onto the front of these tanks. American ingenuity that allowed us to start busting through towards the liberation of france. The liberation of paris in particular is the Second Chapter in the race across france, and then, at the end of the gallery, we tell the story of operation Market Garden, our daring attempt to try and end the war before christmas of 1944 through a parachute drop that comes up one bridge to short in holland. To my right over year, as we move through the gallery, we have some artifacts, very interesting. Marie louise, a young french woman in normandy, was a member of the french resistance, and she was spying on the germans, so here we have a german typewriter that she used to write notes to send information to the allies. A german hermes typewriter as well as a crystal radio receiver makes to it which she used to to the bbc,listened the legal radio broadcast, illegal under the nazi regime. We have an interesting piece in here as well. You may notice this pink and red sash. Iberation this was given to an american lieutenant in september of 1944. On the back of it is written viva la grande liberation. It symbolizes the outpouring of joy the french people had as the allies began to move through their country and liberate them from nazi rule, but down here on the end is a special artifact that we have. It is the medal of honor that was awarded to walter uhlers. He passed away a year ago. Time, the last, at the medal of honor recipient from the normandy landing. He received his medal of honor for actions that took place about three days after the initial landings, and then besides the medal of honor is a photograph of his mother that he carried in his backpack. He came from a very religious family in kansas. He promised his mother he would not drink or swear or curse or smoke while he was over here. He is going to be moving through france a day after he had been involved in a terrible incident, when one of his comrades was shot, and to protect him, walt is going to go and try and rescue him. The germans shot at him and the bullet went through the portrait of his mother that he was carrying in his backpack. And despite this, he was able to andt off the germans basically carry his comrade to safety. Actions, while taylors was given the medal of honor. However, i need to mention that walt had a brother named roland healers, who all roman who landed at normandy with walt, and unbeknownst to walt, while he was performing these heroic actions, his brother never made it to the beach at normandy. His brother was killed when his boat coming into the beaches was hit by shell fire. Walt did not know that at the time. He found this out some days later, and so, this was of course a terrible experience for him. Very bittersweet. Case, we havehis items that are dedicated to the average gis experience in france and the european theater. Some of this is materials that i think the public would expect to see, such as gun cleaning kits, oils, such and so on, but when you are out in the field, moving with an army, as an infantry, theres all kinds of you need such as sewing kits, such as prayer books, razors, old spice, matches, cigarettes. All are in here. What do you do for entertainment . We have things that are as simple as tickets for free hot coffee, the officers club. You can see as well, in this case, something that is a little interesting. Item number 26 is a can opener. Unlike most can openers that most people have probably seen, this is some specifically designed for the field and you can see in the case, of course, cooking equipment that people, troops would use as they moved through, advancing against the nazis. France, afterross operation cobra, the United States and her allied forces are going to liberate paris in august of 1944. This was a high point for a lot of people who thought that the end of the war might be drawing near, and maybe we would be able to get all the way to berlin by christmas time. However, in this case over here, we have a little artifact that reminds us that things get lost along the way. A dogtags of john mack. John mack, an africanamerican centerville, louisiana. He was a member of the red ball expressed. The red ball express basically was a convoy of supply trucks. A moving army. George patton, think about him racing across france. You need to be able to keep up with them with food and gasoline. John mack lost his dogtags on the beaches of normandy when he came ashore as part of the red ball express. Aer 70 years later, just couple of years ago, his dogtags were rediscovered by a farmer in france who then sent them to the secretary of States Office here in louisiana and he presented us with the dogtags. And hissense, john mack dogtags came home 70 years later. Here in the case as well, you can see the red ball expresss badge that they were on their uniforms. Wore on their uniforms. We are now moving into a bunker. A bunker that is supposed to be a german bunker. Failure ofafter the Market Garden in september of 1944, where we famously came up one bridge too far, too short from being able to invade into northern germany, people still hope that the war might be over, if not by christmas, maybe a little later. Some of these people included omar bradley and dwight eisenhower. However, unfortunately, this was a terrible misjudgment. As we got closer to the german resistanceically, stiffened. In this german bunker that we are standing in, we learn the story of the battle of a brutal, nasty affair that held us up and should have let us know that things in fact were not going swimmingly. On top of the bunker, concrete here, you can see a fabrication of Church Steeples and buildings. What the germans used to do from the bunkers was actually used talk and markers to write out the distances of these various landmarks in the landscape around them, and this was how theirould zero in and use artillery and weapons to fire on advancing forces. Over here in the bunker, we have a map used by the third armored division, and so, this particular map was the property of lieutenant cooper, who later went on to write a memoir about what it was like to fight in tanks. His memoir was entitled death traps. Terrainan idea of the and the fastmoving advancement that the allied forces were making with tanks and through the war up until this point. However, as i mentioned, we were slowing up on the german border at this point and things were about to get a lot worse. In december of 1944, at off a letter is going to adolf hitler is going to launch a lastditch effort to win the war for nazi germany. His strategy was to launch an offensive against the american and British Forces on the western front. This map depicts that attack. Hitlers thought that what he could do would be to divide the British Forces to the north from the American Forces to the south. You can see the goal of this offensive by the dotted red line and the port of antwerp, all the way to the north. Hitlers could break all the way up to antwerp and the english channel. He thought the americans and the brith