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Training centers all over the country and expand what we had. We had to build Training Centers all of the country and these are the types of buildings that are represented. Now, if you notice this is a friend of mine. His name is richard. This is him in september of 1942, when he started his training in toccoa, georgia. Im wearing boots, coveralls, and overseas cap just the way they did to train. One reason they issued coveralls to train with was world war ii was truly a global war. We were fighting in the pacific in the islands, we were in africa, we were also in europe. So you were not quite sure where you are going to go. Therefore you were issued coveralls and when you were heading into combat zones, you would switch into the uniform that fit for that. So, fortunately this weekend, you see, just like the barracks would look like in world war ii when these guys were training. This is what they would have been doing if they were preparing to go out for dday, getting their gear, training. All of their equipment set out, clean, worked on. These buildings were very simple. If you notice here on the inside, it is very warm. A couple reasons why it is very warm. First off, no insulation. Because these buildings were quickly put up, they did not spend a lot of time. They just put black tarpaper on the top. , heatst, lack tarpaper these buildings up and it gets very warm. When it is cold outside it gets pretty cold in here. These buildings were on stilts. They did not waste time building foundations. Air gets underneath the buildings and makes it a little colder at night on the inside than the outside. These guys are preparing to be paratroopers. You can see the different equipment. We have some parachutes laid out, as well as a lot of weapons. One thing that people notice, and they comment on all the time, is the head positions of these beds. If you notice, head to feet, head to feet. The reason for that, illness. They were worried about illness. If you turned and coughed, we were coughing at someones feet on either side of you, and that way that helped prevent the spread of illness. Here is a typical footlocker for world war ii. This is where you kept your personal effects. Obviously not a lot of room for things, but you would have your socks rolled up, you would have gear, your lock, maybe extra patches, your tie, towel, washcloths, as well as shaving cream, your toothpaste, as they called it dental cream, soap. Everyone was issued a bible that wanted one. Your shaving kit, along with a shaving brush, and some other personal effects. A lot of guys had letters from home, different things, along with, very popular in world war up pinups to keep morale youd up. That was one of the favorite things. You pretty much could not see a footlocker without some sort of beautiful woman on the inside. That motivated our troops, always. Typically you would not have the weapons inside the barracks with a grenade, but this is a layout as they prepared to go out to battle. They would have their web gear, the cartridge belt, which they kept their ammunition. Their back where they kept personal effects, extra underwear, socks, shaving equipment, soap, a lot of insect powder to keep off the insects. Extra bandoliers here, grenades. Paratroopers needed a lot of grenades, because they worked at night and the muzzle flash would definitely give you off, as well as the sound of the gun going off. It would definitely let the enemy know where you were at, so they relied on hand grenades at night. Different mines they would have carried with them to take out enemy tanks, or basically take out their track. Gas masks and ammunitions. They would carry extra ammunition for machine guns, they could carry mortar rounds. Basically paratroopers had to create a supply line. When they were jumping behind enemy lines, if they did not take it with them, they did not have it. So they had to become a supply line for their mission. If you bring up any type of vehicle from world war ii, everyone is going to mention the jeep. They became the standard that everybody, you think of a vehicle from world war ii, you are thinking of a jeep. Here is a great example of a 1945 jeep that has been restored nearly to the condition that it rolled off the factory floor with. These things were outstanding design. Bantam,e designed by which later got the contract. Ford made them as well. They were designed for an 18yearold out of high school to fix with hand tools using only a manual in the field. So they were very simple. My mower at home is more complicated than this jeep. It is very simple to work on. That is why they are still popular today. These engines and this design were built up until the early 1970s. Willies in france made these for the french army. This is a popular design. You can still buy every single part for this, and people love these. It is always a huge attraction to have a jeep around. Me, personally, i drive mine around town to different places to keep it running. People are always glad to see it, people are always waving. They are incredible. It is an incredible design that bantam came up with. [video clip] they tried to drown my motor. My ignition was set too high for that. They tried to break my back on roller coaster roads. When i held together, it looked as if the army and i might somehow get along because they gave me a nickname. From the words generalpurpose, they took the g and the p, and they called me jeep. Sounded more like a noise than a name. Mr. Henesy jeeps were definitely used on dday. There were two ways they came in. The airborne have them, they were brought in by glider. After the parachutists got out, they were brought in on gliders. Gliders brought in the heavy equipment for dday. They brought in artillery, jeeps. Naturally it was a little hairy, because when you add that much weight to a glider. There were a lot of accidents with those. But, they also came in on the beach once they started to establish a flow to the beach. Definitely the jeeps were the way to go. They were used in multiple, multiple different aspects, including towing equipment. It had a hitch. You could add a trailer to it, where you could tow ammunition. This is a bantam trailer that goes right on the back. It has a heavy duty hitch here on the back that could tow artillery. It could tow trailers. Just about anything. This was a do it all vehicle. Absolutely excellent vehicle. Over here we have basically a tracked jeep. Studebaker made these. We called these a weasel. These were great for snow. These actually were amphibious. You could plug it and it would actually swim. This one has been pretty well restored, but there is still plenty of work to do on it. The owner of this one has three of these, in which he said he needs three of them to keep them running. Just an outstanding vehicle. It is a lot of fun. A lot of times they were used to transport troops out. For instance, in bastogne and the bulge, where there was heavy snow, these things were vital. They would run these up to the front lines, they would run ammunition up, and they would start bringing wounded out. It was the only way they could quickly get the wounded out of the battlefield because the snow was so deep at that time. [video clip] even deep water is no obstacle. This baby can swim. But one word of caution. The weasel is not a surf vehicle. If you try to operate it in choppy water, you are asking for a dunking. On a level road, it has a top speed of about 36 miles per hour. Four study for steady cruising, however, it should not be driven and more than 25. This extra power also comes in handy when you are pulling through very heavy mud, swamp, or marshland. In terrain like this, proceed slowly. [gunfire] not bad for 75 years old, is it . Wait until your car is 75 years old and try that, see how far you get. Mr. Henesy now this one is absolutely a rare item. This is a scooter used by the airborne. If you notice it has the hook set up. This was dropped from the airplane and floated down. Made by cushman, who makes a lot of golf carts today. A very simple but effective, because it was easy to get to the ground. They push these handcarts out. Theres a funny story, one of the 101st airborne troopers who was trying to push this handcart out they were pushing , out the door before they jumped and it got wedged in the door, and the whole stick was stuck in the plane and they were punching and kicking to get it out. By the time they got out they were miles over there drop zone, because this got stuck in their door. But this was famous because if you remember the movie the longest day, i believe it was john wayne got pulled around in one of these. This was it. This was an easy way to quickly carry things like a machine gun. You could either be towed by a scooter, or this handle comes off and goes on the end and two guys would push it right along. I will take that off for you right here. This handle comes off and it would go right here on the end and plug in. Two guys would then hold it, pick it up and carry it. You could carry a lot of things. Medical supplies, radios. Bazooka rounds, mortar rounds, mortars, machine guns. You name it, these guys used the cart to transport around quickly, because these guys especially, especially the paratroopers, were way overloaded. For instance, the gentleman we richard, he was 56 and weighed 135 pounds. When he boarded the airplane, he had over 130 pounds of gear on. A few planes over there was a gentleman posing for the media, the newspapers at the time. He got on the scale and weighed 136 pounds. He then gearing up for his mission before he parachuted into normandy and when he got back on the scale, he weighed 315 pounds. So, these guys were way overloaded. Once we got to the ground, we were dropping, parachuting in ammunition, parachuting in all sorts of things, machine guns. With that much weight plus the other things you had to carry, these carts were a godsend. Two man team, you could bring more gear onto the battlefield. This is an airborne bicycle. Now, this was the british really enjoyed these. The american troops also brought some of these in. This folds up and you can actually jump with this. Hey, mike, this was a british one, right . This is made by birmingham small arms. If you look at this rocket et, you see the bsa insignia there. That is their trademark. That was a British Company that took a civilian bicycle and modified it to suit the needs of a paratrooper. And the deal was the paratrooper had to go out of the plane, and he literally had to carry this thing out. So the bicycle folds up, and the paratrooper actually jumps out of the plane with it like this, with a leg strap on. As he was coming down he would let it go and it would fall about 20 feet, hit the ground a second before him. So the folding, it fits through the door of the plane. It is that simple. Its an example of the civilian stuff getting converted for military use. Very clever. Thats it. And it was used primarily for communication purposes, for message delivery, for runners, to help them get around a little easier. It was not for luxury or comfort, it was for that purpose. Mr. Henesy excellent. Thank you. The heavy equipment. Radios, ammunition. You could not jump with all that stuff. These bags would be attached to the bottom of the airplane. They would be cut loose with parachutes on them, but then you would have to look for your bag. These bags all had these flashlights on them. They were colorcoded so that way you would know what was in the bag. This could have a blue cap, green, red, yellow, all meant different things. They had a chart that explains what each light meant. If guys are looking for radios, that may be blue and green. They are looking for a bag with blue and green on them. These radios are large. I always joke with the kids, i call these iphones. These were the iphones for 1944 right here. They are about 30 pounds. It takes about 10 pounds of batteries to run this for about two hours. That meant you had to bring a lot of batteries with you, or you had to be hooked up to a generator. As you see over there, we have the small gas generators they parachuted in. You see over here. They had these. They also had the type of generators that were done by hand. We also have one of those. I am not sure where the hand generator is, but basically they would have to wind it so they could transmit. He has that with all the pathfinder gear we have. I know he has that, it was in the field out there earlier. Ok, i am here with my two group members. Ryan and dawson. Ryan is going to go through a jump load for guys who were jumping into normandy. Take it away. Here we have a parachutist geared up in loadout. I am going to take you through the display real quick before we start to put the parachute on top of him and i will run you through everything and we will go from there. They had camouflaging scrim and helmet net. They had their musette bag, basically a backpack they would store raincoats down to k that. S, food, things like also a parachutist first aid kit. A lot of guys would tie that anywhere they could. You have a grand belt, which held ammunition for the rifles. They were given a bayonet. Canteen and a canteen cup. They were also given an m3 fighting knife, which guys tied to their legs, wrist, anywhere they could get it. This is a gas mask bag. A lot of guys found it to be useless, the gas mask at least. But it was a rubberized, waterproof bag. They would put things in it they did not want to get ruined. Papers, cigarettes, things like that. Heres an ammunition bag. It carried ammunition and anything else they could fit in there. You have a letdown rope. If you needed to, they got stuck in a tree or needed a rope for anything, this would help them get out of a tree or lift things or pull things. A lot of guys tossed those pretty quickly. They were given an entrenching tool and cover, a shovel to help dig foxholes and other needs. They have jump cloths as well, which in early they were considered an essential part of protection. They were given a hawkins mine and a grenade. This was meant to blow tracks off of tanks. A lot of guys did not find it useful, so they would take a few of them together and set them off at once to do some real damage. They were given one days supplies of k rations, as you can see here. They would mostly break them apart and stuff them in their pockets, in the musette bag as opposed to being in a hard box. You also have here bandoliers, which carried more ammunition, just like the belt. They would swing them across themselves, over on top of the gear and it was ready and easily accessible. If you were an officer, you were given a map case that held maps, pencils, essential information. There were also given something special. This is called a cricket. It was basically a childrens toy. They also had little ones that looked like frogs. They came in like crackerjack boxes. One click for a call. Response, two clicks. They also had audible responses. Flash and thunder. And you have something here called a mae west. The mae west for the Airborne Troops was pretty much useless because after this, you put your parachute on top and its secured over top. When it goes to inflate, it will not inflate. But it was Army Air Corps rules any trooper going over a body of water had to wear a life vest. So you put the mae west on and you have the t5 parachute. It is a 15 foot static line that would extend, it would pop out as you left the plane. As you continue to fall, this would extend. It would break the packing tie, which was attached to the main canopy, and as you continue to pull the tension that would break, and the canopy would already start to be inflating. This was left behind with the plane. You have your reserve. If for whatever reason there is a catastrophic failure, you have a reserve. The idea is to hold it, release, throw away. Get behind the parachute, throw it into cleanair. This is a griswold bag with an m1 grand. This is the main battle rifle used during world war ii for american troops. It was the most commonly issued weapon to the troopers itself. It broke into three main parts. This, stock, and the third part is a trigger assembly. It would go inside this bag with the metal rod, run through these holes. Holes and grommets. Go into the backside, there was a snap hook. This is a british leg bag. So, its very similar to the modern rucksack. But, at the last minute they would spring these bags on the paratroopers themselves. The british leg bag was commonly lost in the jump. Mostly because this was actually supposed to run through the harness itself on the british parachute. The harness would actually run through, and it would be sewn shut down. When it dropped, it would tug on the harness, not the human body. A lot of the guys would just have to tie it to their bodies in some way, shape or form. When they were jumping at the higher speeds that they had to, the latch would rip the bag right off. With that, with the loose way they tied it, and went with the wind as well. Ok. So, we have dawson here. Pretty much all the gear you see here on top. It varied from trooper to trooper depending on your job. Heres also something iconic with dday. I am sorry, with the paratroopers. Very iconic with the paratroopers. Ipper are called re pouches. Basically you can fit the same amount of ammunition from this grand belt in the space of these two. Most guys had four. You could fit more ammunition in a smaller space. It is always about bringing more for this big invasion. All right. I will take that for you. So, he would next put on his mae west. You would help strap that in. This would run around his back. Through one loop, then hook up on the other side. The way the mae west worked was there was two cartridges on either side. When he pulled, the co2 would , and if forte whatever reason the mae west did not work, he has two manual ways of blowing air into the mae west. So he has his mae west on. Next, at this point he would have his jump helmet on. So, he has a big weather cup. They have special liners with 10 cups riveted into the liner, cups riveted into the liner, which was tight. The idea is you do not want the helmet to go anywhere. From there, at this point he would lean forward, sticking his arms out. I would throw it up on him, and he would continue to lean forward, while i have to feed gear such as a shovel. See how the shovel is kind of tough to get through. You have to feed that through. So even like this, this is something you would have to try to feed through his actual harness, because you have so much stuff. It is kind of like a game. Figure out where this stuff is going to feed through. All right. Lets say on this side the harness was fighting with his canteen. So, get that on. You get it up and high, square with his shoulders. Then he would start to help him put the parachute on. Left leg strap. He would then find the proper snap hook. Right leg strap. Its this one. Ok. Now, stand up. What you would then do is chest, connected. Stand up straight. I dont know if you have noticed the size of my sweat. The uniform compared to his is a darker color, and there is white residue to it. As well as you see here something called a gaspathzard. Would dunk in a paste before normandy because of the fear of gas. It gave them a darker appearance was wax in the formula and it left a white, flaky residue. The chemicals were cancerous. Details of that were a darker color, white flaky residue, smelled, and it was a very stiff uniform. It was pretty gross to begin with. Also, if it detected gas, it would turn a pink color. Now, they went a little bit overkill and gave them basically a paper, painted with paint, and it would turn pink as well if it detected gas. This is actually a big difference between a lot of guys losing their weapons and not. We are going to bring him up in a scenario where he did not lose his weapon. So they sewed this extra d ring onto the harness and then put it across their stomach. From here, the best you can, we are going to try to fit this reserve on him. You can get a sense of how much gear and how much of a hassle it really was with all of this stuff. Click. Try to lift it up. Tight squeeze. Ok. So then then you would make this. You never wanted to go back to both. It is called a dead mans knot. He would not be able to get out of it, the harder he pulls, the tighter it goes. I made a Quick Release so when he gets on the ground, he can quickly pull that and start to take his parachute off. So basically, the average paratrooper was about 57, 58, 150 pounds. We are both about that right now. Most guys could be weighing up to an additional 150 pounds. With the british leg bag. So, this british leg bag, how this worked was theres a cutout on the bottom or at least the way it is constructed. It would go on top of his foot. Not every guy got these, but usually the first guy in the door. [video clip] climbing into the ship, some of us were loaded so heavily we had to be shoved on board by the others or we would have never made it. So, being the first guy in the door, since he was the heaviest, at least he got out first. You could be weighing an additional 150 pounds. And that is basically it from head to toe. You can see that the guys really packed all the gear. He probably cannot breathe. The way this british leg bag would work is if he still had it, theres this here, this webbing, and you would pull it. It would actually release from them, it would go all the way to the ground. And it would catch on his harness in some way and would not really hurt his body. As we said earlier, a lot of these were just ripped right off their bodies. So if that drop to the ground, they would drop it pretty low. But the thing was, they were dropping about 500 feet. There are accounts of guys dropping as low as 250, 200 feet. Youre never going to get to your reserve. By the time the opening shock happened and the parachute was opened, very few seconds before you got to the ground. The idea was to keep them low to the ground. One, they did not know they were coming, and two, it reduces time in the air to get injured or killed. A lot of this gear he is wearing is original. Some of the stuff is way too expensive. s such as thepro uniforms. These two are original. I am sorry. These are reproduced. This is original. This is from the 70s. This is original. We do like to incorporate as much original stuff as we can. This parachute was pieced together from original parts. Very high quality reproduction parts. You can bridge that gap where you need to. Helmet is original. Stuff like that. The mae west is original. The life preserver is original. This is a repro. So jmpi, jump master personal inspection. Basically he would come up and he would check him from head to toe. Make sure nothing is twisted. And everything is going to work. You would start from head to toe. He would make sure that his chin strap is good, webbing is good, chin cup on tight. Work had to taupe youd to toe. You check his chest connector. Come up to your reserve. Make sure it is hooked up. Check all these elastic bands. Make sure it is not in travel mode. Squat and hold. Basically here i am making sure that his leg straps are good to go, not twisted and nothing in the way. Are you good . So here, packing trade tie is properly routed and it will not break and it is properly tied so it will not come undone when jumping from the plane. Make sure his static line is zigzagged and they are not going to get caught up on anything. Make sure they are not around here because it will probably rip off. Your main shoot does not deploy. You make sure these are all clean. Then forward at the waist. Make sure the seat is good enough for him. Make sure they are not twisted. Make sure nothing is twisted up here. If anything is caught, you make it clear its way. After that turn. You would give it off to him. And then, believe it or not, he would then go to a second jmpi and do this all over again. [video clip] another final check. This time by the jump master before the men go on board. Inside the plane, he would be sitting down. Lets have him sit down here. Lets say he is inside the plane. Sitting there, having a great old time. He is having fun. The jump master would then give out these commands. He would repeat them back so he understands what is happening. Six minutes. Six minutes. Get ready. Get ready. Stand up. Stand up. Hook up. Hook up. Inside the c 47 was another static line. When he would hook up, it would be attached to the static line running through the center of the c 47. He is now attached to the plane. If you can imagine, this is on the static line. Next command, check your equipment. Check your equipment. He is doing one last check himself to make sure nothing is caught up. I usually like to hit the chest connectors. Leg connectors. Make sure the reserve is on. The guy behind him is doing the same thing but as well, he does the same thing, but he checks for him that his static line is not twisted up. It is not going to get caught on anything. The next command is sound off for equipment check. The last guyppen, will know his number in the stick and number off. And he will start calling his number off. If i was the jump master, i would say three ok. Technically, he is two. I am one, and then he would say all ok, jump master. At that point, you have your hand covering your reserve handle. It can be very deadly if that comes undone. You are coming up on the drop zone. As the jump master, i will signal we are approaching the drop zone. Next command is one minute. One minute. Getting closer and closer, jump master will say stand in the door. He would come and stand in the door. He will be standing. As the jump master, we are watching. Watching. Head up. When we come up over the drop zone, go. He would jump out of the plane. In world war ii, it was a little different. The jump master would jump first. That is basically how all that works. [video clip] [plane engines] we had no idea where we were when we got the order to stand up and hook up. That came so quick we did not have time to do much thinking before we were over the side and starting the 400 foot drop into france. Thousands of us. How did i learn all this . Ever since i was a kid, my grandfather was my hero. He was a world war ii vet. He is still around. His 95th birthday is memorial day. He was my hero growing up. I was at that ripe age when saving private ryan came out. Band of brothers came out. I was about 14 or so. That really piqued my interest. As that went on, i started to ask my grandfather questions. We are just kids who never grew up, playing army. Those guys, that is our actual heroes. I found this group. I joined the group. I learned so much more through the group and what we have to offer and all the gear. 10 years later, i am still doing it. No plans on quitting. I am part of another group is called airborne world war ii demonstration team. They jump at reading. It is a round canopy static line parachute team. It highlights the golden era of airborne, which is world war ii. We will wear all of the gear. With more modern parachutes. But we will wear all of the gear and jump out for the public. You have seen us at reading. There are airshows at michigan and california. The team is going over for the 75th anniversary of dday. I will be there as well. That is a separate group for that. We do events all around eastern pennsylvania. We do it about once a month and educate the public. We encourage anyone if they are interested, get involved. The closest group to you, contact us. We can set you up. You learn some great knowledge, and you get to keep the history of the vets alive. Like i said, they are my heroes. Just because what they did in their sacrifices they made for us is why we have what we have today. Honestly, it is the truth. As a symbol an answer as that is or how common that answer is, it is important. I have loved history since i was in high school. Actually there was a history teacher i had that had brought in some veterans from vietnam and world war ii when i was a freshman in high school. They made it very real to me. Ever since then, i enjoyed that part of history. Really settled in on world war ii because it is so broad. Youre always learning something new. I was introduced earlier today as an expert. I would never claim myself to be an expert. World war ii is so broad. There are so many different things. Even if you pick one day such as dday, it was so intricate. So many things happened. Youre never going to know it all. But that is the fun of it and why i enjoy doing it. There is so much about world war ii to enjoy between the vehicles and working on the vehicles, spending time on my jeep here with some friends. We work on jeeps together. We work on different equipment. That is what makes it fun as well as sharing different stories. My favorite was talking to the vets. Unfortunately, they are few and far between anymore. But that was something that was a big part of my life was talking to vets. I have several who were very good friends. Now they are all gone. We are trying to honor their memory and keep the spirit alive. There was something about that time in American History that was really great. American history tv is on social media. Follow us at cspan history. On august 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on hiroshima, japan instantly killing more than 100,000 of the roughly the hundred thousand resident. Hotries and radiation what the city for decade. Up next, the spirit of hiroshima. This documentary was made to promote the 50th anniversary of the bombing and highlight the survivors. Young family tries to make sense of the tragedy

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