Which well get to later, i should mention, madison called it freedom of the use of the press and it is the freedom to print things and publish things, it is not a freedom for now what we refer to institutionally as the press. Lectures in history, on American History tv on cspan3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lectures in history is also available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. My name is greg henesy. Im one of the people who give the school tours through the weeks, im in charge of the world war ii section. And this area, the world war ii section that we have set up, represents the type of buildings that we quickly put up at the start of world war ii, and the reason we to quickly put them up was because we were not prepared for war. The u. S. Milt had a less than 350,000 shoulders, that is army, navy and marines combined, no air force yet. They were part of the Army Air Corps. By the he said, we had 17 Million People in the service so we have to build Training Centers and expand the forts that we have. We had to build Training Centers and these are the type of buildings that are represented. Now, if you notice, this is a friend of mine. His name is richard fouly. This is him in september of 1942 when he started his training in georgia. If you notice, im wearing boots, coveralls and overseas cap just the way they did to train. Now, one reason why they issued coveralls to train with was world war ii was truly a global war. We were fighting the pacific, the islands, we were in africa, we were also in europe and so you werent quite sure where youre going to go so they issued coveralls and when you got through to your combat zones or heading to your combat zones, you would then switch into uniforms that fit for that. So,fortunately this weekend, you see just like the barracks would look like in world war ii when the guys were training. This is what they would have been doing to prepare to go out for dday, getting their gear and training and equipment set out and cleaned and worked on. These buildings were very simple and if you notice here on the inside, it is very warm. A couple of reasons why it is very warm. First off, no insulation. Because these buildings were quickly put up, they didnt spend a whole lot of time. They put black tar paper on top. Of course, sunlight, black tarpaper heats these buildings up and it gets very warm. On the flip side, when it is cold outside, it is pretty cold in here. With these buildings being on stilts, they didnt waste time to build foundations and air gets underneath the buildings and it makes it colder in here at night on the inside than the outside. Some type of effect. Now these guys are preparing as if they are paratroopers. You see the different equipment. We have parachutes laid out as well as lots of weapons. One thing that people notice and comment on all of the time is the head positions of the beds. If you notice, head to feet, head to feet. The reason for that, illness. They were worried about illness and if you turned and coughed, youre coughing at somebodys feet on either side of you and prevent the spread of illness. Here is a typical footlocker from world war ii. This is where you kept your personal effects. Not a lot of room for things. But you would have your socks rolled up, you would have your shoe shine gear, your lock, maybe some extra patches, your tie, your towel and washcloth, as well as your shaving cream, your toothpaste, as they called it dental cream, soap, everyone was issued a bible that wanted one, your shaving kit, the shaving brush and some other personal effects. A lot of guys put letters from home and they pend them, their favorite letters from home, as well as very popular world war ii guys relied on those pinups to keep moral up. That is one of the favorite things. You couldnt see a footlocker without some sort of beautiful woman on the inside. That motivated our troops always. Now typically you would not have the weapons inside of the barrac barracks, the grenades, but this is a layout as they prepared to go out to battle. They would have their web gear, their cartridge belt, which they kept the animal inside and their musette back where they kept personal effects, extra underwear, socks, shaving equipment, soap, and insect powder to keep the insects out. Extra bandaliers and grenades, they needed grenades because they worked at night and the muzzle flash would give you off as well as the sound of the it would definitely let the enemy know where you were at and so they would rely on grenades at night. Different mines to take out their enemy tanks or tracks and gas masks and ammunition. They would carry extra ammunition for machine guns. They could carry mortar rounds. Basically paratroopers had to create a supply line and they were jumping behind enemy lines, if they didnt take it with them, they didnt have it. So they have 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, if you think of a vehicle from world war ii, you are thinking of a jeep. Here is a great example of a 1945 jeep. This is a willies and restored nearly to the condition that it rolled off the factory floor with. These things were outstanding designed. It was designed by bantum, which later willies got the contract, and ford made these as well. They were designed for an 18yearold out of high school with hand tools using only a manual in the field. So these things were very simple. Most mowers today, my zero turn mower at home is more complicated than this jeep here. It is very simple to work on, and that is why theyre still popular today. These engines and this design was built up until the early 70s. Willies of france made these for the french army. So this is a popular design. And you could still buy every single part for this, and people just love these. This is always a huge attraction to have a jeep around. Me personally, i drive mine around town just to different places to keep it running. People are always glad to see you and waving. These things are incredible. And it is an incredible design that bantum had come up with. 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 get along because they gave me a nickname. From the words general purpose, they took the g and p and they called me jeep. It sounded more like a noise than a name. The jeeps were definitely used on dday. They came in, there was two ways. The airborne this them brought in by glider. So after the parachuters came in, gliders came in and brought in heavy equipment for dday. They brought in artillery and jeeps. Naturally it was a little hairy because you add that much weight to a glider, so there was 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 heavy equipment. It had a hitch. You could add a trailer to it which you could tow ammunition. This is a bandam trailer that goes on the back. It has a heavyduty hitch here on the back. It could tow artillery or trailers. Just about anything. This is a doitall vehicle. Absolutely excellent vehicle. Over here, we have a basically a tract 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 to teach them running. But just an outstanding vehicle. It is a lot of fun. A lot of times they were used to transport troops out. For instance, in bastion and the bulge where there was heavy snow, these things were vital. They would run these up to the front lines and run ammunition up and bring wounded out and this is the only way they could quickly get the wounded out of the battlefield because the snow was so deep at the time. 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, youre asking for a ducky. On a level road it has a top speed of about 36 Miles Per Hour for steady cruising, however, it shouldnt be given at more than 25. This extra power also comes in handy when youre pulling through very heavy mud, swamp, or marshland. In terrain like this, proceed slowly. Not bad for 75 years old, is it . Wait until your car is 75 years old and try that and see how far you get. Now this one is absolutely a rare item. This is a cushman scooter. And it was used by the airborne. If you notice it has the hook setup and this was dropped from the airplane and floated down. Made by cushman who makes golf carts still today. Very simple but effective. Because it easy to get to the ground. They push these hand carts out. In fact, there is a funny story of one of the 101st airborne trying to push this hand cart out and they were pushing out of 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 try to get it out. Once they got it out, they were miles over their drop zone because this got stuck in the 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. And this is it. This was an easy way to quickly carry things like the machine gun and towed by a cushman scooter. Or this handle comes off on the end and two guys would push it right along. And ill take that off for you right here. This handle comes off and it would go right here on the end and plug in. So two guys would hold it and pick up and carry and carry things. Medical supplies, radios, bazooka rounds, mortars, machine guns, you name it, these guys used this cart to transfer it around quickly because the paratroopers were way overloaded. For instance, the gentleman we saw earlier, who i talked about, richard, he was 56 and weighed 145 pounds and he had over 130 pounds worth of gear on. Just a few planes over, there was a gentleman posing for the newspapers at the time, the media, and he got on the scale and weighed 136 pounds. He geared up for his mission before he parachutes into normandy. When he got back on the scale, he weighed 315 pounds. So they were weigh overloaded and then parachuting in ammunition and 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 throw some gear on and bring more gear into the battlefield. This is an airborne bicycle. Now, this is where the british really enjoyed these. The american troops also brought some of these in. But this folds up, and you could jump with this. Hey, mike. This is a british one, right. This is made by bsa, birmingham small arms. And if you look at the sprocket, you see the bsa insignia right there. That is their trademark. That was a British Company that took a civilian bicycle and modified it to suit the needs of a pair paratrooper. The deal was that 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 jumped out of the plane with it like this, with a leg strap on so as he was coming down he would let it go and it would fall about 20 feet, hit the ground in a splitsecond before him. So the folding, all it is about is that it fits through the door of the plane. It is that simple. But it is 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 wasnt just for luxury or comfort, it was for that purpose. Okay, excellent. Thank you, mike. Youre welcome. The heavy equipment, radios, ammunition, you couldnt jump with all of that stuff. So these bags would be attached to the bottom of the airplane. They could be cut loose with parachutes on them, and then you have to go look for your bags. Now the bags all these dull flashlights on them and were color coded so you would know what was in the bag. This could have a blue cap with a green, they had all different types, red, yellow, all meant different things. They had a whole chart that explained what each light meant. So if guys were looking for radios, that may be blue and green. So theyre looking a bag with blue green. Because the radios are large, i always joke with the kids, he call these iphones. Those were the iphones for 944. Theyre about 30 pounds. Takes about 10 pounds of batteries to run this for two hours. So that meant two things, bring a lot of batteries to you or you had to be hooked up to a generator. And if you see over there, we have the small gas generators that they parachuted in, if you see over here. They had these. They also had the type of generators done by hand. We also have one of those. Im not sure where the hand generator is but basically they would have to wiped it so they could transmit. Its called pathfinder gear that we have. So i know he has that. It was in the field out there earlier. Okay. Im here with my two group members, ryan and dawson. Ryan is going to go through a jump load for guys who are jumping into normandy. Brian, take it away. So here we already have a paratrooper gear. But ill take you through a display real quick before we start to put the parachute on top of him, and ill run you through everything and well go from there. They have had camouflage kit and a backpack, store raincoats, k rations, food, items, stuff like that. There was also first aid kit, which a lot of guys would tie anywhere they could. You have a grand belt which held the ammunition for the rifle. They were given a bayonet and a canteen an a canteen cup. They also were given an m3 fighting knife, which guys tied to their legs, tied to their wrist, anywhere they could get it. And this is a gas mask bag and a lot of guys found it useless, the gas mask. But it was a rubberized waterproof bag and they put papers in them, paper and cigarettes and stuff like that. Here is an m1 ammunition bag which carried ammunition, anything else they could really fit in there. You have a letdown rope, if they got stuck in a tree or needed a rope, you would help them get out of the tree. Or lift things or pull things. A lot of guys tossed those quickly. You wore given a shovel to dig fox holes and other necessary needs. They have jump gloves as well. Which in early they were considered an essential part of protection. They were also given a mine and grenade. This was meant to blow tracks off tanks. A lot of guys didnt find it really useful. So a lot would take a few together an set them off all at once to actually do some damage. They were given one day supplies of k rations. They would break them apart and stuff them in their pockets and in their bags. Also here bandaliers, which carries more ammunition just like the grand belt and they would spinning them over the top of the gear and it was ready and easily accessible. 6 if youre an officer, youll be given a map case, which held maps and pencils and stuff like that, essential information. They were also given something special. This is called a cricket. It is a childrens toy and they have little ones that look like frogs and it is one click for a call and the response is two clicks. Also they had audible responses. It was flash and thunder. And you have something here called a may west. The may west for the Airborne Troops was metty much useless because after this you put your parachute on top and it is secured over top so when it goes to inflate it is not going to inflate. But it is Army Air Corp rules that any trooper goeg over body of water had to have a life belt. Put the mae west on, and then the parachute. It is a 15 foot static line that would extend, and this would pop out as you left the plane, as you continued to fall, this would extend and it would break the packing tray tie which was attached to the main canopy and as you continued to pull the tension and that would break and the canopy would 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. And the idea is to hold it and hold and release and throw away and get behind the parachute and throw it into clean air. This is a griswold bag with an m1 garand and it was most commonly issued weapon to the troopers themselves. It broke down into three main parts. This, the stock, and the third part is the trigger assembly. And it would go inside of this bag, and there was a metal rod that would run through the holes and grommets. On the back side there was a snap j hook which ill show you. This is a british leg bag. So it is very similar to the modern rucksack. But at last minute they were sprung on the paratroopers so the british leg bag was commonly lost in the jump mostly because this was supposed to run through the harness itself on the british parachutes, so the harness would actually run through, and it would be sewn shut. So when it dropped, it would tug on the harners, not the human body. A lot of guys would have to tie it to their bodies in some way, shape, or form. So when they are jumping at higher speeds, the prop would just rip this bag right off and with the loose weight that the tie, it just went right with the wind as well. Okay. So, we have dawson plume here. He pretty much has all of the gear that youve seen here on top. Now it varied from trooper to trooper, depending on your job. Here is also something very iconic with dday. These are called with the paratroopers. Very common with paratroopers. These are called rigor pouches. Basically you could fit basically the same amount of ammunition from this garand belt in the space of these two. Two, three, four. Most guys have four. But you could fit more ammunition in a smaller space. So, again, it is always about bringing more for this big invasion. All right. So he would next put on his mae west. Would help strap that in. And it would run around his back, through one loop and then it would hook up on the other side. The way the mae west worked was there was two co2 cartridges on either side and when he pulled, the co2 would go and inflate and for whatever reason the mae west did not work, he has two manual ways of blowing air into the may west. So hes got his mae west on. Next, at this point he would have his jump helmet on. So he has a big weather cup. They had special liners with egg yokes and chin cups that were riveted into the liner which was tight. The idea is you dont want this helmet to go anywhere. From there, at this point, he would lean forward and significanting his arms out and sticking his arms out. I would throw it up on him and continue to lean forward while i have to feed gear, such as a shovel see how the shovel, and it is tough to get through and you have to feed that through. So even like this, this is something you have to try to feed through this actual harness, because youve got so much stuff. This is kind of like a game. You figure out where this stuff is going to feed through. All right. And lets say on this side, the harness is fighting with his canteen. So get that on. You get it up and high and square with his shoulders. And then you would start to help him put the parachute on. Left leg strap. And he would then find the proper snap hook, right leg strap. No, its this one. Okay. Now stand up. And you would then do his chest connector. I dont know if youve noticed but besides my sweat, the uniform compared to his is a darkish color, a darker color and there is kind of white residue to it. As well as you see here something called a gas bizarre. Now the uniform was dunked in cc 2 antigas paint just before normandy for fear of gas. It gave the uniform a darker appearance and left, because there was wax in the actual formula, it left a white flaky residue. The chemicals were cancerous, the details of that was darker color, white flaky rescue. It smelled and was a very stiff uniform. So it was pretty gross to begin with. Also, when it turned, if it detected gas, it would turn a pink color. Now, they went a little bit of overkill and gave them it is a paper gas and painted with a paint that would turn pink as well if it detected gas. This is a big difference between guys losing their weapons and not, and so were going to rig him up in a scenario where he wouldnt lose his weapon. So they have sewn on this extra ring here on this harness and put it across the stomach. From here, best you can, well try to fit this reserve on him. Well get a sense of how much gear and how much of a hassle it really was with all of this stuff. Hear the click. Try to lift it up. Tight squeeze. Okay. So then you would make a quick release. You never wanted to go back through both. It is called a dead mans knot. You wont be able to get out of it. The harder you pull, the tighter it will go. And when he gets on the ground he could quickly pull that and start to take his parachute off. So basically, the average paratrooper was about 57, 58, 150 pounds. Theyre 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 there is a cutout on the bottom, or at least the way it is constructed to, it will go on top of his foot. Not every guy got these but the first guy in the door. Climbing into the ship, some of us were loaded so heavy that he 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. So you could be weighing up to an additional 150 pounds. And that is basically it from head to toe. You could see that the guys really packed on with gear and weight and he probably cant breathe. The way that this british leg bag would work if he still had it, theres hvt here, this webbing. Pull it, and it would actually release from them and go all the way to the ground. And it would catch on his harness in some way and wouldnt hurt his body. But as we said earlier, a lot of these were just ripped right off their bodies. So that would drop to the ground and they would drop this low in altitude. But the thing was they were dropping at about 500 feet, and there are accounts of guys dropping as low as 250, 200 feet. Youre not youre never going to get to your reserve. And by the time the opening shock happened and the parachute was open, very few seconds before you got to the ground. The idea was to keep them low to the ground until they didnt know they were coming and reducing time in the air to possibly get injured or killed. A lot of this is original. A lot of the gear is original. Some of the stuff that is way too expensive, you could buy repurpose such as the uniforms. These are original. This is original. These are repo. This is from the 70s. But this is original. So yeah, we do like to incorporate as much original stuff as we can. This was pieced together with original parts and very high quality reproduction parts. So you could 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, so basically he would come up and check him head to toe, make sure nothing is twisted, nothing broken, and everything is going to work. So you would start from head to toe. You make sure that his chinstrap is good, that his webbing is good. His chin cup is on, it is on tight. And you basically work head to toe. Check his chest connector, and come up to your reverse and make sure it is hooked up, check all of the elastic bands. Make sure it is not in travel mode. Squat and hold. So basically here im making sure that his leg straps are connected and not twisted. And nothing is in the way. Youre good. So here packing tray tie is properly routed and it will break and it is probably tied so it wont come undone from jumping from the plane. Make sure his static line zigzags, and theyre not going to get caught up on anything. And make sure that theyre not around here because it will probably rip off or youll have a cast failure, meaning your main shoot not open. Make sure these are all clean. Bend forward at the waist. Make sure the seat is good enough. Make sure not twisted. Make sure nothing is twisted up here. Everything is clear. After that, believe it or go to second jmpi and do it all over again. Another final check by the jump master before the men go aboard. So inside the plane, sitting down sit down here. Hes inside the plane, sitting there, having a great old time, having fun. So the jump master would then give out these commands to him and he would repeat them back so he understands whats happening. First command is six minutes. Six minutes. Get ready. Get ready. Stand up. Hook up. Inside c47 was another static line that when he would hook up, he would hook it up and actually attach to the static line running through the center of the c47 and now attached on the plane. If you can imagine, this is on the static line. Next command is check your equipment. So at this point hes doing one last himself. Make sure nothing is caught up. Make sure the reserve is on there. The guy behind him is doing the same thing as well. He does the same thing. But he checks for him that his static line isnt twisted up. Its not going to get caught on anything. Sound off for equipment check. So what would happen, the last guy, know his number, start calling that off all the way down the line. If i was the juch jump master. Say three okay. Im one. Hed say all okay jump master. At that point, you strapped there and have your hand there covering your reserve handle. This can be very deadly if that comes undone. So youre coming up on the drop zone as the jump master, ill get the signal approaching the drop zone. Drop zone one minute. Getting closer and closer. Jump master says stand at the door. Hell call them right, established at the door. Standing. The jump master is watching and watching. We come over the drop zone, go, and he would jump out of the plane. In world war ii it was a little different. The jumpmaster would jump first. Thats basically how that all works. We had no idea where we were when we got the order to stand up and hook up. That came so quickly, didnt have time to do much thinking. Before we were over the side and starting that 400 fruit drop into france, thousands of us. Do you did i learn all that . Every since i was a kid, my grandfather was here, hes still around. His 95th birthday is memorial day. So he was my hero growing up. I was at that ripe age when saving private ryan came out. I was about 14 or so. That really piqued my interest. As that went on, i really started asking my grandfather questions. You know, were just kids that never grew up playing army. But those guys, thats our actual heroes. I found this group. I joined the group, and i learned so much more through the group and what we had to offer and all the gear. Ten years later im still doing it. I have no plans on quitting. Part of another group called World War Ii Air demonstration team. They jump at redding. Its basically a it is a round canopy static line parachute team. Highlights the golden era of world war ii. We will wear all that gear with more modern parachutes. Well wear all that gear and jump out for the public. Youll see us at redding. Air shows in michigan, california, like that. The team is going over for the 75th anniversary of dday and jumping as well. Ill be there as well. Thats a separate group for that. But we do events all around eastern pennsylvania. We do it about once a month. We educate the public and encourage anybody thats interested, get involved in the closest group to you. Get in contact with us. We can set you up and you learn some great knowledge. Under the circumstances to ke you get to keep the history of the vets alive. They are my heroes because of what they did and their sacrifices they made for us is why we have what we have today. Honestly, its the trust. As simple an answer as that is or as common, its damn well important. Ive had a love of history since i was high school. Actually there was a history teacher that i had that had brought in some veterans from vietnam and world war ii when i was a freshman in high school and actually made it very real to me. Every since then, i studied, really enjoyed that part of history and settled in on world war ii. Its so broad. Youre learning something new all the time. I was introduced as an expert. I would never claim myself as an expert. Its so broad. Even if you take one day, dday, it was so intricate, so many things happened. Youre never going to know it all. Thats the fun of it. Thats why i enjoy doing it. So much to enjoy. The vehicles, working on the vehicles, spending time on my jeep with my friends. We work on jeeps together and work on different equipment. Thats what makes it fun as well as sharing different stories. My favorite was talking to the vets. For unfortunately they are few and far between anymore. That was a big part of my life, talking to vets. I had several that were very good friends and now they are gone. Were trying to honor their memory and keep the spirit alive. There was something about that time in American History that was just really great. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight at 8 00 eastern, a look at korean war oral histories. Veteran carl house recounts his part in the amphibious landing, a victory for u. N. Forces which turned the tide early in the war. He also talks about the surprise chinese counterattack and intense combat at the battle of cho sin reservoir where he was captured. Watch korean war oral histories tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern on cspan3. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend