The World War Ii Alliance between Winston ChurchillsGreat Britain and the leaders of european nations who fled to london following the nazi occupation of their countries. She details how the british and their exiled allies helped one another to combat the germans prior to u. S. Entry into the war. The National WorldWar Ii Museum hosted and recorded this event in may 2017. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here. I am president and ceo of the National Civil war museum. I think a lot of familiar people are out there. Fors great to see you all our distinguished speaker. Share her latest work with us. Before we get started, is always our tradition to recognize any world war ii veterans who may be with us. If there are, stand or wave. Anyone from working on the home front . Dont be bashful. [applause] i saw them earlier. Any survivors of the holocaust to might be here . We like to recognize them as well. Veterans of any time, will you still stand. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you all for your service. And thank you for being here. Ofthe Early Morning hours , world war ii officially came to end in europe. With the surrender of a German Military commander and the signing of surrender documents. Yesterday, may 8, is the anniversary date of ve day. It celebrates the allied defeat of the nazis. 72 years ago, the west was facing a new beginning. A Herculean Task to ensure that another war but not break out on the european continent. Aspects of world war ii that we celebrate and honor museum areplore this the legacies of world war ii. One of them is to celebrate the fact that peace has been maintained. Century old rivals such as the germans, the french, and the british. This can be attributed in some part to the formation of the European Union. We are watching it closely these days with brexit and the recent french president ial elections. They give us some hope that perhaps things are not moving in the wrong direction. It also raises questions about unionture of the european and whether america will continue to support nato, the eu , and the principles of freedom and democracy that we have advanced since 1945 as major champions of freedom in the world. Legacy. A major one that is very important to us today. Week we were the host of an event here sponsored by the french consulate featuring the European Unions ambassador to the u. S. In his speech, he spoke of this union as the Key Partnership with the u. S. As being a primary reason that another continental war has not erupted since 1945. Will bes speaker discussing just how those european leaders whose territory was overrun or threatened by germany came together in a britain during the very darkest days, forging bonds that would prove critical to securing a lasting peace. During those years learned to live and work together. They helped to advance the cause of freedom and the postwar world we have come to know and study. She really needs little introduction. For those of you who are close followers of her books and even our programming here on previous occasions. Her books have been bestsellers. Very popular. Im sure many of you are here im sure many of you are here because you are avid readers of. Er books the book she will be speaking about tonight, if you have not get it, you will be able to a signed copy. She was born in hawaii and graduated magna come loudly from university of arizona before cloudy magna laude from university of arizona. She left the Associated Press to join the Washington Bureau of the Baltimore Sun where she covered National Politics and eventually the white house. Not only has she appeared here at the museum as a featured speaker of our churchill symposium, but she has also served as our lead consulting scholar for our permanent exhibit that will be opening in june, just about a month from now, entitled the arsenal democracy the hermann and george brown salute to the home front. It is an extraordinary exhibit on par with our road to berlin and road to tokyo exhibits, and has been helping us for several years as we refine the story and narrative that you will find mesmerizing when you come after that permanent exhibit opens here in a month. She is also going to join us as one of our featured tour historians on board the 75th anniversary cruise to normandy in 2019. A long way off, but believe it or not, without any advertising, we already have about 1 3 of the ship sold out or committed. Lynne will be with us on that cruise, and if you have not signed up, better get your name on the list soon. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming back to americas National World war ii olson. Lynne [applause] thank you so much. Im doing a fairly extensive tour for this book, but there was one place i was so excited to come to and definitely wanted to come to. Touring can get exhausting, but this is one place that i was absolutely determined to come to, the world War Ii Museum. I said before that i feel like this is my home away from home these days. I have been and nick got a hold of me about two and a half years ago, i think, and asked about the possibility of my working on this, the redesign of this wonderful exhibit, and i said yes, and i did not realize how much fun i was going to have and how close i feel to this museum and to the people who work in it. I have never seen such. Ommitment, skill, intelligence it has just been a joy to come down here. Geteart lifts every time i off the plane in new orleans. I thank you for giving me that opportunity, and i want to thank everybody that i have worked with at this museum. The mostone of wonderful museums in the world. It really is fantastic. [applause] and i mean every word of that. To talk to young about my latest book called last hope island. Id like to take you back to june 1940, which was one of the darkest moments, if not the darkest moment in british history. Months, nazif germany had conquered czechoslovakia, poland, norway, denmark, belgium, holland, luxembourg, and then, to everyones shock, the biggest prize of all france. Great britain was now left is the only hope of freedom and democracy in all of europe. Yet, although britains future looked impossibly bleak at that point, many people who live were lived there relieved and even exhilarated that they now stood alone. For much of its history, their country had done its best to stay clear of europe and its entanglements. As an island people, the british had never been comfortable with oriances, european otherwise. One person who felt that way was king george vi, who rode to his mother, queen mary, personally, i feel happier now that we have no allies to be polite to or to pamper wrote to his mother. Winston churchill, the british Prime Minister, was much more a realist. He knew that if britain wanted allies or not, it desperately needed them. You have to remember that in 1940, obviously, the u. S. Was still neutral and nowhere close to getting into the war. So what did churchill do . To the dismay of many officials in his government, he threw open politicaldoors to the leaders and armed forces of occupied europe. On june 18, 1940, just before , polands new Prime Minister and commanderinchief , wanted and forces urgent meeting with churchill. He asked written help rescue the thousands of polish troops then fighting in france so they could continue the battle against germany. Churchill immediately replied, tell your army that we are their comrades in life and death. We shall conquer together or we shall die together. The Prime Minister then ordered his government to rescue as many former foreign troops and airmen who were fighting in france as possible, regardless of their politics or nationality. Thanks to churchill, london quickly became the wartime refuge for the government and military of six occupied European Countries czechoslovakia, poland, norway, holland, belgium, and luxembourg. The selfappointed representative of free france, general charles de gaulle, also re. D thei most of these exiled leaders had initially resisted leaving their country, feeling the same way about britain that did about them. They were horrified by britains earlier refusal to confront hitlers end come to their countries aid. That occurred under the leadership of Neville Chamberlain, churchills predecessor. At that point, what alternative did they have . Energized in the nick of time by churchill, britain was the only nation in europe Still Holding out against germany. Only there could allied governments join forces and continue the fight. It is important to note that while churchills hospitality was unquestionably heartfelt, it involved strong elements of national selfinterest. The british, who were about to experience the full fury of german power, would have to rely on those foreigners they had so disdained to help them survive in the desperate struggle to come. Last hope island focuses on this Unlikely Partnership between britain and occupied europe during the war. This is the first book ever to be written about the ever to be written about the subject, believe it or not. Most of the countries who did provide substantial support for dossiers ofin those 1940 and 1941 helped save it from defeat and in the latter part of the war proved to be a great benefit to the overall allied victory. Let me give you just a few examples. Pilotsalmost 20 of the who flew in the battle of britain were, in fact, from occupied europe, particularly from poland. In the opinion of numerous british officials, the contributions of the polish pilots, more than 100 in all, made the difference between victory and defeat in the battle. Second, most of you many of you anyway have probably seen the movie imitation game, right . It was a big hit movie a couple of years ago. According to conventional wisdom, alan turing and the code breaking operation was solely responsible for breaking the germans enigma code. Britains code breaking success was due in large part to previous work by the french and, es. Ve all, by the pol the ultra code breaking operation would never have gotten off the ground if we had not learned from the poles in the nick of time the details of the enigma machine and how it was used. Another one concerns norway. Way is a Little Country its not a Little Country geographically. It is quite huge geographically, but in the beginning of the war, it only had 3 million in population, but it also has the fourth largest merchant marine fleet in the world and the most modern. The norwegians at the beginning of the war, at least after they had been invaded, leased more than 1500 ships to the british, which helped keep open supply lines to north america, to keep the lines british from being strangled. You never hear about the norwegians and what they contributed. I could go on and on, but one final contribution virtually all the intelligence about German Military operations in occupied europe came from european intelligence services, rather than britains famed mi six, which nevertheless took all the credit. Mi 6, which i said in the book, is still regarded to this day is still regarded as the ultimate all seeing, allknowing intelligence service. That was certainly true at the beginning of world war ii. Winston churchill thought that. So did adolf hitler. For some reason i blank on his name because he was such a bad guy, i think. Anyway, the two top guys in the ss revered mi6. They considered it to be thats what they wanted to be. Hitler signed some of his letters with the c, which is signed hisad of mi6 letters with. The reason for this is because britishrilliance of a spy novelist around the turn of severalury who wrote wonderful spy novels that talked about these intrepid british gentlemen spies, who, you know, dated beautiful women, married beautiful women, eight at the finest were at the finest clubs and occasionally would go off and dabble in intelligence work and would come back and save written and go back to their lives going backhounds and to the club would come back and save britain. So mi6 has this reputation. During world war ii, there was no reason for that reputation except for the fact that they were given that they took credit for the work that european services, who were , andng basically for them the enigma code is a perfect example. I talked about what the poles did, and i could go into great detail. There are many examples of such aid provided by the europeans, but interestingly and ironically, these contributions have been basically ignored by most historians, who generally portray the allied victory in what what you as an americanbritishsoviet triumph the allied victory in world war ii. Thats one of the reasons i rode the book, to give credit where credit is due, but i also have to make clear the occupied countries received enormous amount an enormous amount from the british in return. The first major gift, of course, is that britain gave european leaders a safe haven when they needed it most, but it also provided hope and inspiration for the millions of people in captive europe. For europeans, the mayor fact that britains continued was aance to hitlers sign that not everything was lost the mere fact that britain continued resistance to hitler. They took out radio sets which had been outlawed by germans, from wherever they had hidden them, and turned them onto hear the chiming of big ben and the magical words, this is london calling. During and after the war, theseans described secretive moments listening to as a lifelineams to freedom. Hows impossible to explain much we depended on the bbc. In the beginning, it was everything. Another escapee, a belgian journalist, who managed to flee from a nazi concentration camp, said,d in london, as he drunk with happiness. Do you know i have been dreaming of this moment for months, he exclaimed to a british friend, adding, millions of people across the continent are thinking this moment of britain. A Freedom Fighter declared that getting to london was like adding to heaven. Pilots who flew with the raf lasted to britain as hope island, which is where i got the title of my book. Another reason i wrote the book is that like previous books of rich it is an amazing, human story with a an enormous cast of wonderful largerthanlife characters. Some are wellknown like charles de gaulle, but most are not. They range from kings and queens to scientists, spies, and saboteurs. One of the major characters, for example, is the king of norway who showed extraordinary courage during the war and became the focal point of his countrys resistance movement. Another major one is one of my favorites the earl of suffolk. He was a swashbuckling young english aristocrat who rescued two Nuclear Scientists from france just before it fell. Those scientists later played a crucial role in developing the first atomic bomb in the manhattan project. And then there is a beautiful young french spy who flirted with german officers in paris to find out their secrets about. Itlers new terror weapons i also write about some really interesting bit players, including a teenaged audrey hepburn, who, before she became a movie star, served as a courier for the dutch resistance. And the daughter of a czech Government Official in london who survived the blitz and grew up to become u. S. Secretary of state madeleine albright. Finally, theres Queen Wilhelmina of holland. Shes my favorite character of the book, and im going to spend a little more time talking about her. At that point, when the war when holland was invaded, she had been queen for 49 years. She assumed the throne at the age of 10. Her life up to that point had been extremely frustrating. She grew up in what she despairingly called the cage, which was her name for the oppressive, formal, strict atmosphere of the dutch royal court. She was raised with almost no friends or companions her own age. When she went ice skating in the winter, the canals in amsterdam were cleared of all people, and she was forced to skate alone. She was once overheard scolding one of her dolls, if you are not he, i shall make you into a queen and then you wont have any other little children to play with if you are naughty. Her dream from childhood was to perform what she called great deeds, like those of her famed. Ncestors of she saw no possibility fulfilling that dream. As her government ministers repeatedly made clear to her, she no longer possessed the orange andlliam of her other famed predecessors. Since the middle of the 19th century, holland had been a constitutional monarchy, which meant that wilhelmina, to her great frustration, had almost no power. Encouragee right to and warn her government and the right to be consulted and informed, but the leader of the Coalition Governments that presided over the country during her rule did not consult her, and when she gave them unsolicited advice, like the possibility that hitlers might indeed invade holland, that they mpf, liked mein ka she had, they usually paid little or no attention. This really made her angry. She had a real temper. Later in the war, Winston Churchill would say he actually did say this i fear no man but Queen Wilhelmina. She had a real temper, but there was not much she could do about it until her country was invaded by germany in world war ii. From london, she became the center and the soul of hollands resistance. She delivered passionate, fiery, antinazi countrymen. O her the dutch found it almost impossible to believe this was the same remote, aloof queen who had ruled them for over 40 years. Her first broadcast, made the day after she arrived in england from holland, she made it clear she would never compromise with hitlers, whom she called the arch enemy of mankind she would never compromise with hitler. During the war, a joke made the rounds in holland that wilhelminas young granddaughters were for britain to listen to her on the radio she used such subtle language when she talked about the nazis. When German Authorities confiscated her palaces and other possessions in retaliation for those antinazi attacks, wilhelmina in her next broadcast vented her anger and what german translators later called amazingly heated swearwords. But she did more than speak. Early in the war, several members of the dutch government in exile in london, including the Prime Minister, wanted to approach pitlick to seek a separate piece approach to seek a separate peace. In the netherlands, as i said, she had no real authority, and the cabinet and parliament ruled, but in london, there was no parliament. The cabinet now had to take her views into account. For wilhelmina, exile meant power, and she took full advantage of it. In the process, she achieved her greatest childhood ambition to perform great deeds. Just as with Winston Churchill and the british, world war ii was her finest hour. She stopped her defeatist government from capitulating, and inspired and united her people. In doing all this, as one dutch historian said, she won a place in dutch history second to none. Thanks to that wartime stay in london, wilhelmina and the other european leaders were able to continue their fight against hitlers, but those five years together gave the europeans Something Else an unprecedented opportunity, as nick mentioned, to form close, personal, and official connections with one another. Most of them had met each other occasionally, but they really had nothing in common, and they thoseasically forced for five years to actually talk to each other. Not only talk to each other, but work with each other. Using those connections, several exiled governments began to explore the idea of gaining greater security and strength for europe through a possible European Union. Ifhistorian later wrote, the European Community is referred to a house, those wartime talks are part of the foundation. That foundation, thanks to the hospitality of churchill and britain, was already being raised. The ironic thing is at the end of the war, those countries in europe that were working toward actually wanted the british to continue leading. They were incredibly grateful to churchill and britain forgiving them a refuge and allowing them to continue to fight, and they want to churchill and the british to take the lead in fighting for a united europe and then to lead once that union came about. But the british reverted to their insular inclinations, and they had no interest in participating in that campaign for european integration. When the European Economic created in 1950 eight, britain declined to join, although it did finally become a member in 1973. It did so very reluctantly. It was equally skittish about its later membership in the European Union itself. Throughout most of its history, britain has never been comfortable with the idea that it is part of europe. We saw that last year when the british voted in a referendum to leave the eu. I would be happy to answer questions and talk about that later in the questionandanswer period, but i want to keep the emphasis right now on the war. Despite what happened last year, the vital importance of those wartime years and that crucial alliance between the british and occupied europe could never be erased. The french journalist, daughter of murray and Pierre Pierre murray and rie and pierre curie, the victory belonged to all those insane heroes who defied hitler. Thank you very much. [applause] and i would be happy to take any questions you might have about the subject. Please raise your hand. I will bring the microphone to you. [indiscernible] what was the [indiscernible] was everyone in england for winston to go out and do it, or were there a lot of people that maybe wanted to negotiate with the germans . Mr. Olson thats a good question, what was the feeling in england at the time. Book in which i go into that to some degree. Beingink of britain as peacefully minded, and we think that way primarily because of Neville Chamberlain and his government. I think actually, the british people by the time 1940 arrived were hungry for a leader. They had been growing more and more discontented with the appeasement policies of chamberlain, and what really upset them was the sneak german invasion of norway and denmark in april 1940. Chamberlain had promised peace for our time at munich and then just a few weeks before the invasion of norway and denmark, they missed the boat, talking about the germans, and suddenly, they invade and put the british who responded it was just a pitiful display by the british. By the way, led by none other than Winston Churchill. He was actually responsible for some of the slapdash response of the british. As i said, they were hungry for and leader, and as flawed as churchill was and he was as a naval leader at that point he was really the only person in the British Government who had the resolution who had a warlike spirit resolution to carry the country to victory, and the odds were so totally against britain. It is this tiny Little Country, i mean, really, standing up against this, you know, huge behemoth. Very few people thought that could be pulled off, and thanks resolutionnishing and oratory, Winston Churchill, who rallied his people, but the reason he was able to rally his people is because the people were ready to be rallied. You know, they responded to him instantly. In ways, its kind of like after pearl harbor, you know, the American People rallied behind franklin roosevelt, but the situation was much more dire. Thats one reason i got interested in writing about i write a lot about england and world war ii. One of the main reasons is because it is such a fascinating time. You know, a country that looks like it is about to go under, becomesas, and this guy Prime Minister on the very day that hitlers lunches is the blitzkrieg of western europe launches the blitzkrieg of western europe. You cannot get much more dramatic than that. But alsort churchill, the british people were ready for it. The courage and rub resolution of the british people is quite extraordinarily quite extraordinary. I think we should think about what would happen if there had been no churchill and the british people were not like that. God only knows where we would be. If britain had fallen in the summer of 1940, as many people in the government say they did want churchill to negotiate with the germans. If that had happened, seriously, i dont know where we would be. For a brief, shining moment, britain and churchill saved the world, and i dont think you can overemphasize that fact. Got a question in the back row. How did they finance having all of these people come into their country . Actually, that is an interesting question. When they came over, these european governments were helping to finance the british. For example, the belgians had a lot of gold reserves that they brought, and they lent them to the british so the british could afford to buy arms from the United States. We were selling them arms. We were not giving them at that point. So the British Government was practically bankrupt at this , and it was not until 1941 that that changed, but they relied on belgian gold to be able to buy arms. Length lease pay Lease Program helped for much of the operations of not only the british but also these allied European Countries that were in london. Thank you. We have heard a lot about dday, allies invading, but we whatt heard much about the germans plans were to. Nvade england did they have a plan . Kind of a they had halfbaked plan, operation sea lion in 1940. The hope was that the luftwaffe would be able to defeat the raf. That was really the only way the german army could invade glenn. Tunnel is only 28 miles wide, but it is a ferocious body of water. In order for the germans to be successful, they had to ensure the raf would be wiped out, and they were not able to do it in the battle of britain. As i said, there were halfbaked plans to invade. There were barges and landing craft, but hitlers had no really sophisticated plans for invading england. If, in fact, raf had been defeated, he may well have done it, but the raf held strong. As i said, in some large degree thanks to the european pilots, and therefore, even though that anl kept saying invasion last minute, he basically knew that the germans were not in any shape to invade. And obviously once germany invaded ussr in june 1941, that was off the table, really, too. To invade britain. I met a veteran in the royal navy who said, we really appreciate what the raf and all of our allied pilots did, but there was this little thing called the royal navy that would have had a say in the invasion of england. Question, theres no but the royal navy by that time had suffered a lot in norway and some of the fighting that had gone on before. For were begging the u. S. All destroyers to accompany a merchant ship the atlantic. They were short of everything, including planes and pilots. Thats why the european pilots were so important, but they were also short of ships. Theres no question the royal navy still was a potent force. Great presentation. There has been a lot of writing about the royal family at the time, and i was wondering what the research has shown on royal family influence. Things as the royal family had distant relations with the nazis and members of the royal family married into the nazi body. Did that have any influence on what was going on . Mr. Olson there were certain theers of the royal family, duke of windsor being one of them, and a lot of the british aristocracy before the war a number were progerman. There was a very strong progerman influence. The king himself, king george, by the time the war began, he very antigerman. In fact, he and his wife, the queen, queen elizabeth, took target practice, you know, to fight off the germans if they ever invaded. They were absolutely determined to stay in england if the germans theres a really i mentionedut the king of norway. Incrediblehe interlining of the royal familys, the king of norway was the uncle of george vi. He came over and lived in Buckingham Palace for a while before he moved to another house. He fled from oslo, and the germans tried to track him down and kill him. He fled to the glaciers and mountains of norway with his family and with the government and, seriously, they were sending dive bombers everywhere he went, and they tried very, very hard to get rid of him, so he obviously knew what the germans were capable of, and one day, he was at Buckingham Palace, and he asked his nephew, the british king, what measures they had taken to protect the king and the royal family, and the king said, weve got it under control. Theres a special guard that will come in and take us away as soon as theres any knowledge of an invading attack, and the king of norway asked his nephew to show him, to demonstrate this. So the king of england punched a button, which was supposed to alert this special armed force to come. Nothing happens. And so they waited around for a few minutes, and the king called whoever he was supposed to call, and they said, well, we didnt answer because we know theres no invasion. [laughter] , act as if there is an invasion. So they had all these young , the king said if theythe bushes, as were trying to get at a rabbit or something. The norwegian king was horrified by this and got his nephew to agree to strengthen the security measures at Buckingham Palace. As it turned out, the germans did have a plan that they found after the war of sending in a force of over 100 paratroopers into the grounds of Buckingham Palace in case of an invasion and immediately rounding up the king, the queen, and their two daughters. Its a funny story, but, you know, it could have turned out not that well if they had invaded. Thank god there was no invasion, but he was good. He and Winston Churchill did not like each other at all before Winston Churchill became part minister, but they became like that during the war. Subjects,odel for his king george vi. Question from someone watching online. This may be jumping the gun whats your next project . Mr. Olson [laughter] i love that. People on amazon are like, what are you doing next . Im like, i just spent three years writing this. I do have a project about one of the characters in the book, about a woman who headed the largest spy network in france during the war. Her story is the stuff of movies. Its just a great story. It is not one of these big, sprawling books i usually write. Its focusing on one group of people, but i think it will be really good. I hope anyway. My question where are you going to launch that . Course. N why, here, of [applause] thank you for being here. I have a question about the golf ulle and thegal interplay with the British Government and the role he will the britishing in being partst of the union. [indiscernible] mr. Olson absolutely. That is a really great question. Im sure all of you have read a lot about charles de gaulle. I have and i have written a lot about him, but it is such a human story. An impossible man. Knew he was impossible to get along with. He was arrogant. He was cold. But, quite frankly, without him, friends would not be where it is today. I must say, i have never watched a French Election with as much interest as i watched this past one, and im so happy with the way it turned out. But he had the most interesting relationship with churchill. Churchill welcomed him. Nobody else in the British Government wanted him. He was an obscure brigadier general. He had just been made a lower member of the french government just a couple of weeks before. Nobody knew who he was, and nobody cared, except for churchill, because he was the only french official who would cross the channel and say, you know, we must rally against the germans. The legal government of france, the vichy government capitulated and then collaborated. Gthink churchill saw in de aulle something of himself, the rebel standing alone against everyone else, so he welcomed him. Ulle was hardly the easiest person to get along with, and the more he felt subordinate to the british, the more he would mock the british. He did not want to be subordinate. He saw himself as the leader of france, and everybody laughed at that, including franklin roosevelt, who could not stand him, having never met him, but he just could not get over that france capitulated. One once france capitulated, that wiped france off the map for him. France would not reemerge, in. Is view, until after the war the war was, for him, a series and byhts by Roosevelt Churchill as well because churchill was following in roosevelts footsteps, even though he felt very strongly wasnthat de gaulle doing. At the same time, the two of them fought like cats and dogs. Some of their fights people thought they were actually trading blows. They would scream at each other behind closed doors. Again, at the same time, charles de gaulle, until the day he died, said if it had not been for Winston Churchill, he would not be here and france would not be here. He always gave credit to Winston Churchill as the one who basically saved him and saved france. To get to the second part of was question, de gaulle furious at the way he was treated by both roosevelt and churchill. Frenchamerican relations and french british relations ever since. Reassumed power in 1958, he personally blocked england finally had decided, ok, well, we better join the common market. He said, no. Not while im president , youre not. And they didnt. Lefts well after de gaulle the presidency. It had tremendous poison effects, the slighting of de of detrimentalt effects afterwards. In the very back to your right. Just a minute, sir. What was the attitude of the french and dutch and other 1940 toward america america,nse that in our most popular person was . Harles lindbergh prior to this time, joe kennedy, sentiments. Onazi mr. Olson i think the attitude was one of love of america. Certainly the british and certainly the europeans were upset that america was not doing anything to help them, and the british particularly got incredibly frustrated by the fact that the United States was dithering while they were close to being defeated, but i think overall, especially in europe, there was a great, great love of america. I have never done that Much Research in that particular regard, but i dont think there was any hostility towards america at that time overall hostility toward america at that time. Frustration and anger at certain people, but not tour the country itself. In the very back to your left. If you look at the breakdown of brexit, it was mainly older voted in support of leave. Do you believe that as a result of the euro skepticism you describe, or a result of the past 10 years in the European Union or Something Else . It is an i think combination. First of all, people tend to forget it has been so many years since the war, and nick alluded to this, but basically, helpedropean unification create almost half a century of peace and prosperity for western europe. It is just extraordinary what happened as a result of historic enemies like france and germany coming together, you know, in the late 1940s, early 1950s. That had never happened before. Extremely important what happened. Traditionalhat insularity, that distrust of foreigners is still very strong, especially among older people. Thatvery interesting how vote broke down. London, i think, overwhelmingly it is muchmain, but more cosmopolitan, younger, and much more diverse city. , think there were people particularly in rural areas, who hated that. Similar to this country in certain ways, so i think there are all sorts of elements. I get the impression everybody that it actually passed. , its onewas saying of those things were just like during the war where the draft in 1941, congress voted to continue the draft, the peacetime draft a few months before we got into the war. Everybody in Congress Said its going to pass, so i dont have to vote for it. I can be a moral coward and not vote for it, but it will pass. I think there might have been some of that. A lot of Younger Voters did not vote because they thought it would pass, they did not have to vote. They found out they were wrong. I know that there was a polish brigade that fought with allies in normandy. Where there any combat troops from the other countries were there any combat troops from the other countries . Mr. Olson oh, yeah, well, the es had not just that one brigade, but they also had everyday in italy. They had more than 200,000 men in british uniform at the end of the war. They were the fourth largest contributor in terms of manpower of the allies, but, yes, other countries did as well. Belgians, the czechs. Ive focus on i focus on polish pilots, but i should mention the checks also provided also provided a lot of soldiers during the war. In terms of the troops that went over to the continent after. Day were from occupied europe they went over there with a very different intent. They were basically out for revenge and for taking back their country. I also did not mention the resistance. The resistance in many of those countries france, holland, big roles inayed the invasion and the liberation of their country as well. They did much more than most people think. Many of us are familiar with the movie enemy at the gate. Are you familiar with enemy at the door . The British Television series about the German Occupation of england. Guessstion is and i shame on me because i watched the series for two seasons and ended before they showed how the germans were removed from the island. Do you have any information on that . Mr. Olson i dont. I know it was late in the war. It was not liberated, i think, 1944. Early 1945 or late it was one of the you know holland was the same way, by the way. Been liberated. Belgium had been liberated, and holland was going to be liberated, and then they lost operation market garden, which was a total disaster. It became a total disaster, then theallies pulled out and test most of the netherlands was not liberated until three days before ve day. Main day, they were starving because the germans were starving them on purpose because of what they had done to help the allies, which is a story that very few people know. Tell me your question again. Oh, the Channel Islands. Im not sure, but i know it was very late, and for the same reason. The Channel Islands were not important to the allies, and so they were kind of a last minute, you know, liberation. Use the always whenever anything was asked of them, they said, we will do it only if it helps us win the war. Winning the war, bombing auschwitz i wont get into that, but their idea of but they would do it only if it helped when the war. All these were political though, in the end. Got a question in front and one more in the back. Could you discuss the victory parade and the polish participation in 1945 . To addi could be so rude two anecdotes concerning that situation. Mr. Olson the british held a victory parade in 1946, i believe. They advised all the allies who participated in the efforts, and there were dozens of them brazil and all sorts of places, and they had a huge parade, and ,hey did not invite the poles who had actually fought. In the meantime, the polish government in exile was basically accreditation was taken away from them by the british and france. They took the recognition of the polish government in exile away and awarded it to the communist government that had been set up by stalin. They the government at that time did not invite the poles who had actually flown those planes in the battle of britain and had fought at Monte Cassino they were not allowed to march in the parade. They are in the worst place geographically that you can imagine they are, between germany and russia, and this kind of thing has happened to them over and over and over again. Its really truly one of the ,orst tragedies that the poles who had done so much to win the war, did not realize any of the benefits. Undert, they were thrust soviet subjugation until the late 1980s. I would like to add that over the years on remembrance day, the queen mother, mary, would always ask, where are my poles . She would always spend time with them. The last living portrait was and is on a pole display in london. Also, a celebration victory and many became british citizens or lived in britain led the parade the many polish who became british citizens or lived in britain. Mr. Olson thats good to know. One last question in the very back. A hi, i was just curious from numbers perspective, hearing that six governments were there and x amount of armies. Just kind of on a numbers scale, how many people . Mr. Olson it varies. Well over 100,000 or 150,000. You have to remember a lot of these forces were in Different Countries fighting and training, about its hard to say. Its between 100,000 and 200,000 for the most part. At this time, thats one of the reasons i love writing about this. One of london was the most cosmopolitan city in the world. It must have been so much fun. A lot of people found it fun to live in london because its not only then you have millions of americans coming over later, but you were meeting this is a country that really did not have that many i mean, london was multicultural to some extent, but not anywhere near what it became in world war ii. Exciting,lly an exhilarating time, i think, to be in london. Terrifying at times but overall exciting. Thank you very much. [applause] [indiscernible] prepared to cast off americane watching 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 cspan3. Announcer 1 here is what is coming up on American History tv. Next on lectures in history, jeremi suri teaches a class about president Ronald Reagan and the end of the cold war. Newsreel. M. Eastern, a film on the 1968 columbia university