Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts The Road To Berlin Part 1 20240713

We are standing in the road to berlin, permanent gallery exhibits which open and december 2014, after several years of development. Our mission here at the National World War Ii Museum is telling the American Experience in world war ii. How it was fought and won and what it means today. The building we are in tells what i call, the war part of the story. How it was one. Here we are in the first gallery of the road to berlin and behind me you will see the large portraits of political leaders of the allying powers that line up if you will, of the two sides that well engage in this great struggle. When our visitors arrive in this gallery, we believe that they will know that pearl harbor has already occurred due to exhibits on the other side of the street in our museum, so with the country already at war, we have a video that introduces them to five major Strategic Elements with the United States and our allies which ones must master in order to win world war ii. These five key Strategic Elements include arsenal of democracy, building a greater war machine, technology, it is not enough just to outproduce our enemies. We have to make better equipment and weapons. Control of the ceilings. Control of the air, and then the last or teaching element, mastery of amphibious landings which was highly debated going into world war ii as a successful military strategy. All of these things combined in to the eventual invasion of europe and the normandy landings and june of 1944 as the high point of the allied effort. Roosevelt and british Prime Minister Winston Churchill are in top secret meetings code named American Military strategists including army chief of staff George Marshall and eisenhower foreign immediate invasion of invasion of france. When the United States entered world war ii at pearl harbor december 1941, we were faced with a strategic choice. Who to fight first . Japan or nazi germany . Franklin wars availed and Winston Churchill believed that hitler and nazi germany were our chief enemy. The problem was that we were not ready to fight the nazis on the continent of europe. We did look into plans to perhaps invade across an English Channel into normandy in 1942 or 1943 but realized we did not have the material, resources, or the army built up that would be necessary for victory. In the meantime, the soviet union was taking a terrible pounding on Eastern Front and so, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill realize they had to do something to meet Joseph Stalins pleading for a second front, of which is going to be in france. Where do we fight . They decided we would land in north africa and so, to tell the story in this north african farmhouse that we are standing in of that decision and its consequences. Problem that we are going to face after we decide to go into north africa is, can our troops breed young citizen soldiers, actually fight the vital hardened nazi army and win . We are now entering the north african gallery here at the museum. Behind me over here is our weapons case. Featured in this weapon are handguns, rifles, shotguns, mortars, other weapons that we are going to use to fight in europe, included in this case is the and one rifle which became the standard rifle for and infantry men in the United States army. We also have the am 11 a one pistol in this case. It was designed by john brown and it will become the standard issue very popular pistol that is going to be issued to many u. S. Army personnel. In the museum, we try to build in an environmental challenge that the u. S. Faced, our forces faced around the world and world war ii and so, in north africa of course, the desert is as big of a challenge as the enemy at times. What we have here in the gallery is an environmental treatment that not only shows the rocky desert that we are going to be fighting in, but also catherine paths, battle february 1943 where the United States is on fortunately going to be very battle whipped by the germans in the desert many must remember the famous scene in the movie paton, where george patents brought in trying to reorganize American Forces, a fight in the desert and beat the germans. In this case here, we have a try color french flag. Many americans and alert others dont realize that when we landed in north africa, the french government was allied with nazi germany. So we actually did have to do some fighting against the french with the initial landings. Included in this case is a ss cap. You can see the deaf head on it. This one is a little unique because it is a tropical issue that the germans are going to give the ss part of their elite troops, part of their elite forces i should say, the ss of course is going to be in charge of carrying out the holocaust in europe. One other thing i thought i would point out here. You have life magazines issued, war hits red oak iowa. At catherine pass, 45 men from red oak iowa and local National Guard units are going to be killed or captured by the germans. So this was the point where the reality of war and north africa and the european theater is going to start to come home to americans with these losses and such a small so many boys in one single battle. Behind me is 105 millimeter holidays or how it sir. The howitzers was originally designed to shoot at aircraft but in north africa, we discovered that this was an ideal anti tank weapon where the gun could be lower and fired at tanks across the deserts of north africa. It was a very effective weapon. This map introduces visitors to a situation when the allies landed in north africa and november of 1942. You can see on the map that the allies are represented in blue. The access powers of the territories they control are represented in red. You get a sense of the scale of adolf hitlers power where he and mussolini have an empire that stretches all the way across europe and north africa, a sea of red. We have a long way to go in this war. This jeep actually plays an audio track that minute mimics what it was like to be in the treat at cazarene pass, the United States is going to organize its forces. General george paton is going to come in and we are going to drive forward to victory in north africa when in may 1943, we win against the germans of the battle of the tar l guitar. Unfortunately it was not complete victory because the germans are going to escape with a lot of men and equipment into sicily and italy to continue on the fight. So, sicily is the next stop on the road to berlin. We are now entering the sicily gallery here at the National World War Ii Museum. Here you can see on this map the initial landings were allied forces are going to drop parachute and also come in with amphibious landings in july of 1943. Sicily is going to prove a very quick campaign. Only 38 days long but it was filled with a lot of drama that included Georges Paton and bernard montgomery, the british commander. Something i wanted to point out that is of special significance in this gallery, we want our visitors to understand is that war is as a very messy, dirty and often unfair business. In those landings, at sicily we are going to see the worst fire incident that American Forces suffer in world war ii. Better than 300 american paratroopers are going to be shot down by allied forces as they approach southern italy early in the invasion. This is something that came about because of inexperience and green troops and fear. It is part of war. It is not an easy, glorious march to victory in world war ii, like a lot of people think it was today when we call it the good war. Very bad things happened in that good war. Here we have an airmans map of italy and tunisia, when our paratroopers and the war would drop into unknown territories and have these maps dive into scarves that they would wear and this is how they would try and maneuver the territories around. In the space here, you can see taking polemical, polemical is the first European Capital to fall during the allies general path and raised up the western side of sicily to take palermo and then headed to the east across the northern border of sicily, combining with bernard montgomery, push against the germans and italian forces, eventually driving them off of the sicilian island across the streets of sicily into the southern boot of italy there. You get a sense of campaign and how it moved to this very rapid conclusion and 38 days after the landings. We are now leaving the sicily gallery and entering the Italian Campaign here in the National World War Ii Museum. You can see on the map to my right, the situation with the allies and what they faced in september of 1943 as we begin the invasion of southern italy. The Italian Campaign had been urged by Winston Churchill to be a soft underbelly of europe, that it could drive up the peninsula and possibly get that nazi germany and win the war. It is not going to turn out that way at all. Instead, the telling campaign is going to be a long bloody slog. It starts from the very beginning. The allies are going to face great challenges with the amphibious landings that we must perform to win. It is always important as we walk through these galleries to remember, the ultimate fight we are going to have to have, which is the invasion of normandy. We are having trouble making amphibious landings in italy and other places, well, that for boats ill for the normandy landings that we know are coming at some point. So, in this italian gallery, we have an environment like italian villa. Our video here tells the story of this Overall Campaign that goes to the very end of the war, all the way to may of 1945, with bitter fighting that occurs. In this gallery, you will find out stories of americans who are often marginalized at the edges of American Society at this time. Japanese americans and African Americans in particular are featured in this gallery. We are committed to telling divers stories of americans here at the museum. But we try to tell those stories within context of the overarching narrative of the American Experience in world war ii. In italy, visitors will find out stories about African Americans who fought with the 92nd iv. They will find out about stories about japanese americans fighting the 442nd are ct Regimental Combat Team. They are going to find out how tough it was to fight against the elements. Once again, the environment and nature plays a terrible role in this campaign. They are fighting up mountains, trying to drive towards rome. We are standing next to a panel involving john foxes story. John fox was an African American fighting with the segregated 92nd infantry division. He ordered a mortar fire to come down on his position in the midst of a german attack where thankfully the germans were about to when fox was discovered a couple of days later, he was surrounded by over 100 germans. In 1998, he was awarded the medal of honor. The germans were dead. In this case over here, we have a congressional gold medal that was awarded to koji touchy hashish who is a member of the 400 Regimental Combat Team which was segregated unit, japanese americans, who fought in italy in world war ii. This man had actually been turned at eight camp in arizona before he was allowed to fight for his country. For 42nd put up the most impressive record of combat a virtually any unit in world war ii and were eventually awarded 21 medals of honor, including one that went to daniel who later became longtime senator from hawaii. Ernie pyle had columns detailing what life was for an average american soldier. Here you can see a couple of his books from the war. Here is your war and brave men. I want to point out this artifact and between the books. You can see his zippo lighter. This lighter was given to a young gee i named read switch her from ernie pyle which sort of exemplified the spirit of what the troops had and how they identified with him. You identified with them, average americans out on the battlefields having a fight. One other artifact that i would want to point out here that brings home the reality of what these young men and women were facing, young men on the battle lines of course. We can see next to ernie pyle and his book, a cigarette case and a purple heart medal. The cigarette case belonged to andrew 16 he was a medic. He was basically shot and the bullet went through the cigarette case, and it was stopped on the other side. It fell into the case. He letter created this with saving his life. But if you can imagine when experience like that which must be like. Certainly, it brings home a reality of life and death, that these young men and women were facing and that ernie pile understood so well. We have here in the italian gallery, a 4. 2 inch this is going to turn out to be an extremely effective weapon for allied troops. It weighs 330 pounds. It had a maximum range of about 4400 yards. The minimum range was about 650 yards. It could fire about 20 rounds a minute for a short duration of firing. You could of course fiery for much longer but it changed the rate of fire the longer you went. If you follow me, over here, you can see one of the shelves that that 4. 2 inch mortar would have fired in this exhibit case over here. We have in this case a number of items that are interesting, but up top i thought i would point out, we have a couple of guns that are dummy guns. These were taken from italians, kind of interesting when you think about it, that these are toy guns, captured by the americans, but toy guns, once again, the reality is, everybody is shooting with live rounds most of the time. That reality is brought home very dramatically in this case as well. We have another purple heart and we have below it a coffin casket. A title tag. It belonged to anthony sconza, a private entry fifth infantry man serving in italy. He had a brother who said he feared he might not make it home and beg his brother not to say anything to his parents. Because of these fears. Indeed, he was killed in september of 1944 while fighting in italy. One other element that i thought i would point out in this case here is, zero five, you can see the firing table. It is a slide rule for a 4. 2 inch mortar that we are viewing in the previous room in the gallery. If you wanted to make adjustments to hit your enemy, this was how you would calculate that and then make the adjustments and then hopefully hit your target. Behind me, you see a sign. It is a fabricated sign. It is something we put throughout the museum in these galleries to remind people of how far away we often are from victory. Here, you can see 736 miles to berlin from italy. What we tell however is that the road to berlin will not go through italy. Despite the efforts of the allies to fight up the italian peninsula, the terrain, the nazi armies, all of this is going to combine, to bring a short to bring us short of the goal of ultimate victory against nazi germany. We are not able to make it over the alps so in order to hit nazi germany directly, we are going to visit a gallery that talks about the air war. The one place in these years of 1942 and 43, where we were able to directly strike at the heart of hitlers empire. We are now entering our air war gallery. Up to this point, at the museum, weve had visitors in chronological march of action in world war ii, north africa, sicily, italy. The air war was going on throughout 1942 to 1945. It was the one part of the war where we were constantly trying to hit nazi germany. We could not strike them from north africa or italy physically, but could from the air. You can see this on the map where we are watching missions from out of north africa and especially from great britain, where air force was located. In this gallery with the air war, the air war went through several stages. You have initial beginnings and then most importantly, by the end of 1943, we are basically losing the air war. Very badly. In rains that regions bergh as well as places like policy, other famous raids. We are losing this proportionate amounts of our bombers going up, trying to hit the heartland of nazi germany and other Industrial Facilities throughout europe that nazis were using. The reason this was so problematic for us, if you think about it for example, a b 17 bomber which was the workhorse of the european bombing campaign, had a trained had Trained Personnel in it where you had ten to 11 men in their, that every time one of those was shot done was shot down it was one thing to lose all of those Trained Personnel. That was true of the other side as well. The germans, the German Air Force had trained pilots where this is going to be a key element of what is going to eventually happen with the air war, where it is about ultimately replacing pilots and planes. However, by late 1943, what we want people to understand, we had to have control of the air in order to launch the dday invasion of normandy. We do not have it in the late 1943s, in fact we are getting beaten rather badly in the air. So we tell that story in this video here, and then we are going to bring our visitors into life at fort abbots airfield in england in east and julia where we are going to have the eight air force station. In just like what we fabricated in the gallery. Now, one of the features in this gallery we do suspend reality a little bit here. You can see up top, our animation which takes a flyover of thousands of b17 bombers, and the massive air force we eventually build up in england to continue to fight against the germans. What we try to tell people about in the story here, is the turning point in that air war. What is going to happen in early 1944 is a huge shift. We tell the story of the berlin rate of march the six 1944, where we are going to put a better than 1000 planes in the air. The key to this is going to be the fact that in the earlier rates ive referenced, you are looking at 200 aircraft up in the air, 60 of them getting shot down, well, once we start putting up 800 bombers, it is true for example on the berlin raid, we are going to lose about 69 bombers. This was one of the worst in terms of total numbers that we are going to lose, but in percentage terms we were only losing six or 7 of our bombers at this point. The key to this was fighter protection. The p 51 aircraft is going to come online in production and p 51 is going to be put probably the best Fighter Aircraft of world war ii. P 51 was fast, manoeuvrable and most importantly, you could fly at much greater distances accompanying the bombers deeper and deeper into europe and so they were able to give those bombers protection to do their jobs and they are going to be able to fight and kill off the german Fighter Pilots that the germans had trying to kill the bombers, instead find themselves being shot down in numbers that nazi germany could not sustain. Over here, we have the middle of honor that was awarded to an aviator, our troubled matt had no farmer training. He was a board be 1710 horsepower in february 1944 and was hit and a pilot was killed archibald mathee and a couple of other crew members tried to land the plane even though he was not a pilot and had no formal training. The pilot was wounded and archibald mathees was going to have the rest of the crew bail out attempted to then land the plane in england, but crashed upon landing, killing himself and the pilot aboard. For his heroism, he could have left the wounded pilot, but he did not. He is awarded the medal of honor. What we have in this case is wreckage from First Lieutenant hamilton. P 47 which crashed in july 1944 in france. Augustas hamilton actually was set to go home. His bags were packed and he had a wife and newborn child but his unit then requested to volunteer to do one last mission. He went up and is going to find himself on a severe attack by a bunch of german won 90 aircrafts and he is shot down and killed. His remains were not discovered until the crash site was discovered in france in 1993. These are the remnants from that crash site. His plane had been mrs. Ham little ham, thats what his plane was named after his wife and son who he would never meet. Today there is a monument in france at the crash site commemorating his ultimate sacrifice and his bravery for going ahead when he could have gone home, but volunteered for one last mission and support a cause for which he had to give his life. The key to this gallery is that starting in march of 1944, we begin to wrestle control of the air away from the roof law flew and only if we can gain control of the air can we launch the normandy invasion on dday. We do not know what that there is going to be in the plants but it is going to turn out to be three months to the day after march six, 1944