Of people help the end of the war in europe. It is five years and more since hitler march into poland. Here is full of suffering and death and sacrifice. Now, the war against germany is one. A grateful nation gift thanks for victory. Hundreds of thousands crowd into american churches to give thanks to god. President trump announced the official surrender. This is a solemn but glorious hour. I wish that franklin the roosevelt had lived to see this day. General eisenhower informed me that the forces of germany have surrendered to the united nations, the flags of freedom fly all over europe. For this victory, we join in offering our thanks to the providence, which had guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity and into light. Much remains to be done. The victory one in the west must now be one in the east. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been free. United, the peace loving nations have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger by far, and the might of dictators or the tyranny of military that once called us weak. The power of our people to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the pacific war as it was proved in europe. Historic pictures of the last days of the war in europe show american and Russian Troops as they joined on the river, splitting german armies into. United states general ryan hart, meets a general that spelled out certain german defeat. Inside germany itself, the alliance seems nuremburg, with the capture of this famous german city, the American Flag clouds out the swastikas. And a symbolic gesture, american troops destroyed the nazi party emblem. American history tv and washington journal are marking the end of world war ii, on the european theater. Victory in europe day, we welcome author and historian rick atkinson, whose final book andy liberation trilogy is the guns at last light the war in western europe, 19441945, published an 2013. The final three books focusing on the years 1945 and 1944. Rick atkinson, to get our conversation started, just a quick timeline of where things were and how they came from the day on june 6th in late august, the liberation of paris and august 25th, 1944. The battle of the bulge in december of that year into january of 1945 and then two ve day. Take us back to may 7th and eighth of 1945. How did the war end in europe . Well, the war ended with the germans basically deciding hitler having killed himself more than a week earlier that there was no profit in dragging it out with the rushes in berlin, the russians murdering civilians, killing soldiers, german soldiers by the hundreds of thousands. So the germans decided that trying to make peace with the western allies, the americans in particular was the best that. They could not get a better deal from the western allies than they were going to get from the soviets. Eisenhower had his forward headquarters in the french champagne town of and they sent a delegation, lots of clever about what the delegation will be about a conversation. They were told that Unconditional Surrender where the only terms in which the war would end. So the operations chief of the German Armed Forces showed up at hitlers eisenhowers headquarters, which was an informer technical college, a red brick building. Reporters and photographers were there. It was two in the morning on may 7th, 1945. The articles of surrender had been boiled down to barely 200 words. The whole ceremony with cameras rolling lasted only about ten minutes. The order was signed, eisenhower told him that he would be personally held responsible in ensuring that the terms of the capitulation were honored and that was that. It was going to go into effect the next day, may 8th, in order to give time to old german cruise in the atlantic and the german detachments and norway. The soviets felt that it was important to have a surrender ceremony on german soil. They did not want the germans to be able to say, as they hadnt world war i, that they had never been actually defeated and never capitulated in germany proper. So, they defeated that there will be another surrender ceremony in a suburb of berlin, which happened on may 9th. So the soviet, now the russians considered that to be ve day, but for the rest of the world the surrender went into effect on may 8th. And that was the end of the world war in europe. Now, there was still a war in the pacific, and that certainly had a moderating effect on the other jubilation that would have taken place otherwise. No one knew how long that war was going to go. From that timeline on the day, june six, 1940 40, the final victory in europe based on your research of u. S. Forces and british forces, did that happen sooner than they thought, order to take longer than they thought . It took longer in the sense that after the battle of the bulge at the end of january, 1945, there was widespread understanding that the germans could not recover from this catastrophe. They had lost the war. What no one in the west could understand is why they would not give up. Why they continued to fight. Why one little town, one medium sized city, even big cities continue to resist. There were 10,400 american soldiers killed in action in april, 1945 in germany. That is almost as many as were killed in june of 1944, the month of invasion. So it was awful, virtually to the last gunshot. And as a consequence, it was a great consternation about whether they were going to surrender, whether every last german soldier was going to have to be killed, whether more german civilians were going to have to the high, and more allied soldiers would have to tie. There had been hope that the war would end sooner, may eighth turned out to be the day. Our guest is rick atkinson, its the 75th anniversary, and we like to hear your questions and comments. Heres how the lines are broken up if your parents served in world war ii, we ask you to call in on 2027878002. In your book, at the guns that last light, you have an alarming to read the death tolls and in one story, you write about the training, just the training for dday alone, it killed 700 soldiers and that training accident. And looking at the statistics of how many people died, and military deaths and world war ii 417,000 u. S. Deaths, on the soviet side 8. 8 million to 10. 7 million soviet soldiers, that is not just civilian deaths. No, and the soviet union did not have 190 million people, and the total soviet deaths were 26 million, that is a staggering percentage, 13 or 14 of the total population. Our losses were bad enough, we had 291,000 killed in action, a little more than 400, 000, as you mention, all deaths including accidents and disease and so on. Thats about one third of 1 of the American Population of 130 million during world war ii. So, a staggering at those numbers are for us they are monumental for the soviet and particular. The germans lose about 7 million people. About 60 Million Deaths worldwide in world war two. That is a death every three seconds for three years, that gives you the magnitude of this. So that is the greatest catastrophe, self inflicted kept testifying in human history. The war ending three weeks or so after the death of fdr in warm springs, georgia, on april 12th of 1945. Harry truman, the president on ve day. But was the effect stateside when that news came . Well, it was a great shock, even though anyone who was looking at the newsreel footage can see that president roosevelt was not a healthy man. He had been dying for some months. He had a very arduous trip tumult for a conference with churchill, and then they flew to yalta on the black sea for a conference with stalin, and even one who looks at those pictures can tell that there is a man who is dying. His Blood Pressure was in the stratosphere, he had all kinds of health problems. So he suffers a cerebral hemorrhage while he is at his cottage in warm springs, georgia, april 12th, 1945. Thats right after lunch, the word spread through the country very quickly. By late afternoon, virtually all americans were aware of it. Its a shocked. Its a shock to everyone. He had been president for more than 12 years. He is our war president. He is the president through the darkest days of the depression. There were young men in uniform who really have very little memory of a time when roosevelt was not their leader, and now the commander in chief. So, no one knew who harry truman was for the most part, just a senator from missouri. Captain in the artillery in world war one, hes a bit of a cipher and the eyes of most americans. The notion that he is going to fill these very large issues that roosevelt has left behind is something that a lot of people have difficulty comprehending. We have lots of calls waiting for you, rick atkinson, lets go to larry in gallup, new mexico. Larry . Yes, good morning. My father was in the South Pacific and, in addition on your research, i just want you to know how much, what the role of the American Indian and how much on your research have youve gone on them, and what was their role during the war. Thank you very much. Thank you for your call, thank you to your dad. The American Indians were important. They were, first of all, they had the tradition of being warriors. That was critical when youre putting together an army. There were cotalk urged, and others who had their own language and it was assumed, correctly that if a navajo was talking, and even if the japanese could eavesdrop and hear that conversation, which they could, they were not going to be able to decode it, because very few japanese spoke navajo. So the code talkers were important for operational security, i think there was also a sense that, with American Indians, with American Indians, it was a comprehensive american force, in the same way that we wanted all ethnicities to be represented by 1945. It is a painful process getting there, to acknowledge that there is a rightful role in combat unit for black americans, that black americans can be excellent Fighter Pilots as they showed to the test tiki airman and for the native americans, it was a feeling that, there is some practical skills that are useful and second that it is an affirmation that this is a pan american war. Welcome. Yes, my dad fought in world war ii in the pacific, he has Four Brothers who are also fighting in world war ii, a couple in europe, and another who fought in the pacific in the navy, a couple of question, my dad was a Second Generation american. The president against italian americans was less than against japanese americans. Im wondering why. Im glad that was true, im wondering why. And the second question, the dropping of the atomic bomb, obviously the reason im talking to you today and wondering how that impact on the outcome of the war and the ability of more american soldiers to survive. Thank you. Well thanks for the call and the question. I think its fair to say that the president says against italian americans were considerably less than they were against japanese americans. The italians, of course, were our adversary, at least until 1945 when they switch sides and became our ally. But the italians had not launched the kind of attack that had occurred at pearl harbor that the japanese struck in december of 1941. I think theres also a racial component to it, frankly. I think it was easier to dislike asians and the japanese specifically. So, of course, they were treated dreadfully. And we were just talking about native americans, well there were japanese americans who fought valiantly in italy and in france during the war two. Hundreds of thousands of american lives. Win the day occurs on may 9th 1945, one of the reasons that the jubilation is not even more frenetic than it was was that the battle for okinawa is occurring precisely then. It is a cave by cave blood letting and this foreshadows what the toll is going to be in attacking the japanese รท dire. There were estimates that american casualties could rise as much as 1 million if that were required. Of course, the atomic bombs and win ve day occurs in may of 1945, no one knows about the atomic bombs except a small group of businesses in new mexico. But no one knows if it will work. Those bombs, as horrible as they were, brings the war to an absolute, truncated and, appropriately it saved Many American lives. It saves even more japanese lives. The russians were ready to come in, the war was going to expand because they had agreed to be part of it, so the atomic bombs saved a lot of heartache. We are talking about the end of world war ii, the 75th anniversary for ve day, and joining us on our world war ii veterans line is heath, from davidson, oklahoma. Hello . Good morning, youre on the air. Well, thank you. Yes, i was over there on may the 6th, 1945 and we got on a ship on may 15th, heading for the pacific. And we stopped by the United States, we were training on be 24 as, we were gonna train on the 29th for a couple of weeks and go with the pacific. During that period of time is when they dropped the bomb that ended the war in the pacific, but we bombed all of europe from ap 24 base in italy. Heath, great to have you with us, thanks for your story. And rick atkinson, how quickly was the military able to prove it . The commanders in europe and the civilian masters have been thinking about how to take a good portion of that force and move it to the pacific would do that and where would go, was it fair for those who have been fighting from north africa and then in italy and then in the pacific, there were plans that had been put together, there were in fact units that were being shifted as you just said in may of 1945, getting ready to retrain for the assault on the japanese homeland and the b 29 he mentioned was the newest of the bombers that had been doing extraordinarily work and devastating japan. They were used to drop those two atomic bombs. So it was a belief that they would have to take a good portion of that european force, leaving some behind as an army of occupation but the majority of it was going to end up in the pacific and one form or the other. There is a photo of general eisenhower flashing the v for victory pin at the signing ceremony. What are your early interviews in 2002 on your first book, army of don. You said that in a different photograph, theres a certain buoyancy of spirit that i think served him well. You write in your final book their guns at last night that this commanders was not confident that it would be the commander. Type well, there are frictions, no doubt about it. And the british in particular had doubts and there were difficulties for the entire final year who was the senior british commander, a very difficult commander it must be said. There were those that had doubts about eisenhower, those that have doubts about him when he became the theater commander in the mediterranean in late 1942. He never heard a shot fire either. He and his wealth point classmate has boast missed world war i, they have not been deployed. So there was a feeling of, who is this guy . And why is he the one who is the Supreme Commander . My feeling is that i lived with Dwight Eisenhower for 15 years and my admiration for him through every year during that span. He was an extraordinarily capable war leader, extremely capable political general in that his primary job was to hold together this fractious allied coalition, and there were more than 50 countries in what Franklin Roosevelt called the united nations, biting with the United States and eisenhower was brilliant and Holding Together that coalition against all of the Central Forces that try to pull apart every coalition, every wartime coalition. So eisenhowers morals at the end of the war are fairly earned. He showed himself to be a capable allied commander, a war winning commander, and that a big smile of his, which his subordinates said it was worth an army corps in moral terms was fairly earned when we get to may day. Lets hear from tom next. Same petersburg florida. Tom, youre on the air hello, my name is tom. And my reason for calling is i often wondered who engineered the end of the war. Was it admiral garners, and secondly, did he honestly believe throughout his entire career that his losses in the atlantic were not caused by the anemic machine and, thirdly, whatever happened to him . Well, thats a lot of questions. He was the commander of the german navy at the end of the war, there wasnt much of a german left in command at that point. The german submarine force had been almost completely destroyed by may of 1945. In terms of who engineered the end of the war. Well, there were conversations among those who are still surviving in berlin, i dont know if that to the northwest of berlin about how to go about contacting the allies and how to go about bringing that catastrophe to a close and hitler having killed himself on april 30th had essentially tried to pull this down around him as he perished and not everybody was willing to take that route not everyone was suicidal so there had been basically an agreement that they would send the delegation to allied headquarters. First, they want to montgomery. Then, they end up at eisenhowers theater. It all is catch offender, making it up as they go along. They are very aware that every day that passes there are more germans who fall under soviet control. And this, they are determined to avoid. They are trying to stall as long as they can to allow germans to flee westward, and they are fleeing westward by the hundreds of thousands. Eventually, by the millions, in order to avoid being under soviet control. So, when the final decision is made that, okay, were going to give up and said to the Unconditional Surrender. At that point, is a faith. Well hear from steve, calling from providence, rhode island. Hello. Hi, good morning. I just think to make a comment. This gentleman knows it, i know that the war was decided on the eastern front. The western front was like a little skirmish compared to the eastern front. And if the germans prevailed on the eastern front, there would not have been any western front. There wouldve been a settlement. But the most important issue i want to state is the russian cry when they entered berlin and over 2 million german women were raped by those communist animals. Im a german american, and my father is a german american who shared in the campaign. But my grandfather okay, lets get a response from rick atkinson. Okay, thanks for the call. Yes, there were war crimes of the first order committed by the soviets, not only in berlin but through all of Eastern Europe as they overran poland and pushed into the eastern precincts of what was then the german empire. And the reason the soviets were doing that, besides the fatal lack of discipline was a feeling that the premise that they had visited on the United States, beginning with the invasion in 1931, and extending through the end of the german advance. It was to be repaid in kind. So war spirals out of control and ways that no one can perceive, and this is a example of the atrocities that the german committed, repaid with interest by the russians. I agree that the russians certainly carried the weight of the war for all of the allies, the the guns at last light the war in western europe, 19441945, the three books series and the war on european theater. More of your calls and comments coming up momentarily, we are joined next by senator pat roberts of kansas, who was chair of the eisenhower memorial commission, senator from kansas, we saw you yesterday on the floor with your eye like mike button on the senate floor. You were a youngster when ve day happened. Tell us your memories of that. I was nine. The button says i still like ike. We handed them out at the congressional launch as of yesterday and they were a hot item. I think most of my memories came when i was about 16 and got to go to the Republican Convention in 1952, or eisenhower one on the first ballot. As opposed to robert taft. Again, during the inaugural. Those are the only times that i personally met the man. Obviously, at nine, i was back in kansas. I remember that day because i was swinging on the porch and my mom came in with tears in her eyes and she said that we have defeated hitler. Ike defeated hitler and i asked her, does that mean that dad can come home . Not at that particular time, he was in the pacific. He was a marine on okinawa, he was jima and all of that effort. And the one thing i remembered about ike, you knew he came into the room even though your back was to him. He had that presence, that charisma, he had a very ready face. A wonderful smile and everybody like ike and that just stuck. We are talking about the role in the victory in europe, im talking to you about the eisenhower memorial. General eisenhower read the allies to victory in europe, he served two ties, and why did takes so long to create a memorial . Its amazing how many groups to go through the commission, the fine arts council, etc, etc. Secondly, you have to raise money for it and then you have to have federal funds. He have to have all members of the family on board. There were changes, i was the second chairman way back, but the medal of honor winner from hawaii, and then ted stephens, to world war ii veterans push very hard on this. If you take a look at many memorials, not many are built on a very rapid basis. It just is taken stepbystep, but the process basically its just simple. We got selection, the design approval, the construction and its a monumental undertaken, pardon the pun. We are thrilled now, finally to see the hardware come to fruition, its done. And all we have to do is wait until september, when social distancing will not be that much of a problem, we hope. If it still is, we will have the dedication according way. He was supposed to be today, on the 75th anniversary of ve day. What were you going to say in that dedication . Well, i think i had four minutes. The president had accepted the invitation to speak. We had a fly over. Basically the eisenhower family would have spoken, we had a number of world war ii veterans, including bob dole, but really helped raising money on the private side of it. I think this memorial honors not only a very extraordinary man and favorite son of kansas but serves as a symbol for all generations of the promise of america and what our values are here and around the world. I think he was the president that basically was president when we entered on the world stage and more importantly, when he was the supreme allied commander in europe. Cinder pat roberts, senior senator from kansas, we look forward to the dedication when that happens. Thank you for joining us this morning on the 75th anniversary. Back to our guests. Rick atkinson, the honor of the james is in sturgis, south dakota. Do i was an iraqi war veteran and post 9 11, saudi arabia, ground zero. I served a year in korea. And i did a fund raiser with my dad, a world war ii veteran, graduated may, 1945. And he delivered coffins. There were a lot of them he went to florida, portland oregon, in may of 45 he graduated. Anyway, im just calling to thank all the veterans and hopefully share a little history. Thanks, james. Really i can send, your dad served in world war ii, and you yourself, an army brat. Your dad a career military veteran. Tell us with that experience what was a particular of ve day when that would come up with your dad . My dad was from new jersey. He enlisted in the army right after he turned 18 in late 1942. He went to officer candidate school, became a Second Lieutenant and got to europe right after the war ended. He was in the constabulary, which was an occupation force in bavaria with Extraordinary Police because germany was in ruins and there was a big threat and bavaria, and everywhere else. He came home in 1946 and went to paint state, and then went back to the army. He made a career and served for 30 years. He died about 18 months ago at the age of 94. Ve day was not anything particular in his worldview. He marked veterans day, memorial day fourth of july, these were very important holidays for him, as they are for me. And he was worried about whether we can end up with specifics, fortunately for me and for him, that was not necessary. And as a lieutenant, having gone back into the army went back to europe and it was part of the army of occupation insoles burke, the American Army hospital had to be in munich, not far away. At that point, austria was still partitioned. And he was part of the occupation force in austria until 1945 when the russians and the americans both left austria. So the residual effects of the war we have persisted in many ways and even ten years after the war, we still had occupational forces in austria and, to this day, we have American Forces in germany but not occupation forces, because there are allies now and the consequences of the war in the military talker fee were profound and affected me personally and certainly my father. Next up is robert from portsmouth, virginia. Good evening. I have a comment. My grandfather served in both theaters and the european conflict, and when they said they were going to call it quits, he transferred over to the United States marine corps so we could go to what he called the Pacific Theater. And he actually had seen action. Thank god he came home to us. He served in two different branches of service, and to theaters of war. Okay, robert, any specific question or comment . My question for him, is it true that during the second world war, they had a secret group of nazis to make a force right after the war . What was the question . Oh, a fourth reich. Well, there were certainly good nazis who got away, who escaped either the hangman or prison, or some sort of accountability. Some of them famously went to south america. And there were a few that had ambitions of somehow either reconstituting german reich or keeping alive the spirit of the rug in the spirit of adolf hitler. This is a fringe group. They are not really to be taken serious. I think of greater concern is not those who escaped justice, those who may have had ambitions to pull together the tattered remnants of the german empire, and reconstitute it in some fashion. But those in germany and elsewhere in europe, its not just germans who feel that the spirit of the third reich somehow should be honored and you cannot be legally a nazi in germany. The germans have been extraordinarily capable in the past 75 years, first of educating all germans, particularly younger germans about what had happened and who was responsible. But its difficult to snuff out this virus of fascism, and we see it cropping up in hungary. We see it in other places in Eastern Europe. We see sparks of it in portions of germany, very concerning. And we see it wherever there are populous who want to take the route of fascism or neil fascism or portal fascism and try to feather their nests politically with it. Thats a greater concern than any residual nazis from 1945. You write in your last spoke about the discovery of vast troves of gold, art treasures, manuscripts in caves and mines across germany, in the waning days of the war. How did allies forces prevent looting of that, and also of extra violence by troops, revenge violence against germans who may have been prisoners or in pursuit of tormentor oops . The germans were great thieves. Looted artworks and treasures of all sorts, both from individuals and from galleries and museums, all across occupied europe. To discover that stuff and get it back to original owners is a process that goes back to this day, frankly. Revenge killings was a great concern and, in fact, we saw that dark out, where american soldiers liberated the camp and install tens of thousands in the and thousands who have died. Courses around the grounds and the outskirts of the camp. There were soldiers, american soldiers who lost control. The discipline broke down and there are an estimated several dozen german kemp cars, who were murdered, either by the americans who put them against a wall and mowed them down with a machine gun, or were murdered by and mates who got into a frenzy until order was restored. So there was concern about this for the most part about discipline obtained. The number of revenge killings by american troops and western allied troops was very small. The discipline was really quite admirable its fair to say among soviet troops from the east, but that was part of the price and pain of victory. Lets go back to lawrence, st. Paul mississippi. What a great opportunity, thank you. Two questions, i always at mired eisenhower for pulling insistence for the town so that nazis did, but thats not my question. My question is studying world war ii, so impactful for understanding where we are from a political perspective. Particularly in the politics of making the atomic and hydrogen bombs, so thank you for that. Thank you for the call. The consequences of world war ii are extraordinary, socially, politically, militarily. Socially in this country, our views on gender and racial equality are very much shaped by the experiences of world war ii. There were black americans, hundreds of thousands of black americans who served in the war, mostly in the all black unit, it was a segregated military. And many of them had what they called a double the campaign. Victory against fascist opponents overseas, and victories against racism at home. The dignity and the empowerment and the sense of service, the sense of cohesion that that experience brought to black america was really a proposal system for the Civil Rights Movement after the war, and the same for gender equality. In 19 million american women working outside of the home during world war ii, many of them went back to being homemakers after the war, but you dont keep that for a long. It showed women that they had an opportunity to do whatever men could do, that they could do things that man could do as well, if not better. Whether it was living together, or working in a science lab, or teaching at college. Whatever. So these very large social influences that had come out of the world are with us to this day, and shape the culture and the society, the economy in extraordinarily profound ways that you still see 75 years from now. The modernday reflection on ve day, and a wall street journal peace headlines ve day for the world still worth defending. A veteran standing near Grand Central station on may 7th, 1945. Linda, good morning. Yes, thank you for taking my call. I have great aunt and uncle from northern italy who had told a story about resistance by many of the italians and how elated they were on liberation day. Our current family and friends remind us that this week, april 25th was their liberation day and they celebrated and how sad they are that many of their elder survivors have actually passed away due to covid. They feel that they are in a battle again. My question is, what were the italian terms of liberation and where theyre still germans in italy fighting at that time . Yes there were germans in italy till may of 1945. The talons you may know, from Family History in 1943 and decided after making an alliance with the germans, that muscleleaning and hitler had put together the pack. In 1943 there were secret negotiations between the americans and british and italians. In 1943 the tie and space ugly switched. Not all of them switched sides. There was one state that prevailed in northern italy, supported by the germans, the fighting in it early which had begun with our invasion of sicily and july 1943 it was going to continue right to the very end of the war. Lasted almost until this day 75 years ago. The italians eventually surrendered. After the germans had agreed to surrendered the germany occupied italian pseudogovernment who had to throw in the towel. That occurs may seven 1945. The war is awful in italy until the very end. Next and heads within one or, you are on. I hope the fellow from new mexico is still listening. We had a local Radio Station being interviewed and that fellow said the marine corps and navajo. Then back the hair of the back of my neck stood up and i stood at attention. I was a marine in vietnam. My dad was in hiroshima. The question i have, if Franklin Roosevelt still lived in august, would eleanor have let him used the bombs . Thank you for that. Eleanor roosevelt was not directing war policy either before or after Franklin Roosevelt stout death. Roosevelt was keenly interested in the Manhattan Project which was the construction of the atomic bomb. He saw it as a way to shorten the war and save lives. American and an other American Allies and to save japanese lives also. Franklin roosevelt lived beyond well into 12 1945 i have no doubts he wouldve made the same decisions that harry truman did which go ahead and use this terrible thing in hopes that bringing the war a total war to a complete and final and which happens of course with the japanese on tokyo bay and uss missouri on september 2nd 1935. We touched on those briefly at the beginning of the program. Bob from missouri asked this. Who were the germans signing for the german country . I guess he is really freeing to the ve day, he allied signing, not the russian signing. It was generally the operation chief for the german military, he had been designated to be given the authority by the residual german government. Yodel had an appointment after that signing. He was executed for war crimes subsequently after you probably get this asked this question a lot. Your Liberation Church religious about the war you are working now on another trilogy about revolution with your first book coming out on that last year. Have you ever considered a book about the Pacific Theater and world war ii . I thought about it a lot. It is an obvious thing to pivot to the pacific and try to do for that what i did for the military and western europe. I decided not to. This was 2013, the third and final volume of the liberation trilogy. I decided not to i am really on your pianist born in europe. And more importantly my fascination or even a fixation with that earlier war of independence, that gave us the republic that we have to this day. Im working on volume two of the American Revolution trilogy. It will take me a while. I do not anticipate being alive to take up the pacific. Berlin illinois, good morning. Good morning. I have a question. What does he think about the Mexican American latinos during the wars. inaudible thank you for the question. As with the other ethnic contributions that we talked about earlier, native americans, blacks and other hispanic contributions take the Texas National guard. The 36th Infantry Division as it became federalized. Or the 45th division which was the oklahoma Near National guard. You go down the roster of the name of the soldiers and you see lots of fernandez, gonzalez, there are many hispanic and mexican and otherwise. Their contribution is significant. Their role in making those units, fighting units, the 36 and the 45th both fought in italy and some of the worst fighting. Hispanic americans have every reason to be proud in their contributions. To that 16. 1 million men and women force that made the United States military in world war ii. Theres a photograph from bbc today of princes, Queen Elizabeth to lead the 75th Anniversary Event speaking to the nation on television there as an army cheap driver. What was the role of the royal family back then in the war . Their role was to keep the british in the fight and to keep them focused on the ambitions for the entire british nation which was to prevail, withstand the pressures from hitler and his fascist thugs. When ve day occurred, there were huge crowds and also in london. Crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace. They sang hope and glory. People were weeping. They chanted, we want the king. We want the king. The king came out and appeared on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace six times during the day and brought with him the queen and to princesses including elizabeth who was then still a young girl. Now 75 years later, it has been queen for a long time. There is no one better equipped on behalf of britain rick we sure appreciate you joining us for the 75th anniversary of ve day. We always appreciate your appearances on book tv. Good luck for the continuation of your series on the American Revolution. Thank you so much for having me and for remembering the day. This troop will drop his british like pat loaded with supplies just before he lands. But does the teams board the ships that will show the way to enemy territory. 924 troops on navigation aids set up by these pathfinders. This is one minute out of one hour in one day in the worlds history that has rarely been equaled. Already these are the four ships to take off in the airborne invasion of fortress syrup. First pat finders ship is airborne at 20 1 54. 75th Anniversary Program which was first featured on the fence talk of facebook and twitter. We will see wartime film footage and wartorn photographs in here among others world war ii that earns, defense secretary. 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