Time, ten years later in 2020 for the number will be below 100,000 so the generation as generations do is slipping away, theyre passing over and i think we are finding 6 children, grandchildren, even great grandchildren who are keen to understand what their fathers, grandfathers did in part because it is part of their heritage, part of a parsimonious and part of understanding who we are, where we came from, world war ii affects us in very profound ways to this day, the way we think about gender, we are talking at the military academy, the way we think about race, the way we think about our role in the world. We will never be isolationist again the way we were before 1941. All of this do block from world war ii and people are interested in that just as they are interested in their own personal family histories so i think that helps to feed this ongoing fascination with it. Finally it is the greatest catastrophe in human history, sixty million dead. It is on not to watch a train wreck, h
Movie patton that came out in 1970. And so consequently what you see, i think is the benefit of longevity. He managed to help shape our general belief that he was a hero as a general and a very competent general. I dont feel that that is entirely accurate. I certainly right to that effect. At beef in the world war ii, the european theater. What churchill called the american prodigy of organization , 18 million tons of worst of to europe, equivalent to the cargo and 30600 liberty ships or 181,000 railcars. Range from 800,000 military vehicles to footwear and sizes to a to a 22 tripoli. U. S. Munitions plants have turned out 40 billion rounds of small arms ammunition and 56 million grains. From the date of the day, seized by 500 million machinegun bullets, 23 million artillery rounds. I am letting the american taxpayer take this hill one progun a declared. No one disagreed. By 1945 the u. S. Had bill twothirds of all ships afloat and was making half of all manufactured goods in the world
I unleash the bombing again on july 25th knowing the danger this time. He decides to go ahead with it. Then okay well mark it with orange colored smoke which tells us, okay, dont bomb on this side of the orange colored smoke because thats the u. S. Lines. So the crew men are briefed do not do that. None of them want to bomb their own troops. What do you think happens on july 25th. Heres murphys law. Which way do you think the wind is blowing. Towards the u. S. Lines. So orange smoke is coming back towards the american lines, theres confusion by at least one or two groups and thats all it takes, they will unload their bombs over the u. S. Lines and there will be more friendly fire casualties. Ultimately 111 americans killed. Many come from the old hickory division. By july 25th, general hobbs hates the u. S. Air force. The 30th division is going to be told were sorry this happened to you but go ahead and attack. If you ever heard of the great war correspondent ernie pyle he wrote what t
Army commander tells waters, this is the first ever meeting of polish and american soldiers on a battlefield. So the two coordinate to snap trap shut for the germans and they will do so, but the germans have continued trying to attack furiously eastward to get out of there. Collectively this part of the battle of normandy is known as the falasie gap. Its roughly around 1944. The german losses have been terrible. 25,000 to 50,000 men captured, 10,000 dead in the pocket alone. Its a concentrated area so youre talking about enormous destruction by allied artillery, allied air, allied ground force s. Killing of horses, thousands of horses, blood running in the norman lanes as you saw one of them portrayed earlier in our slide show there. The stench like you wouldnt believe. The allied Fighter Pilots that are flying above this, when they open their canopies, theyre hit with the stench of burning flesh immediately. On the ground, the horror is unspeakable for the germans there. Its humbling
Kcanadians coming from the othe direction. Eventually bradley will tell them to halt. This is a controversial decision at normandy because its thought that it allows germans to escape who otherwise might not have. Well, regardless of that, you do end up with an encirclement eventually by about august 18th, 1944. Tens of thousands of germans had escaped. Some tafrnks and vehicles had escaped. The two sides do join hands in a town called shamboa. Whats interesting is that its not a link up of americans and british, its americans and polish. The Company Commander is reconning ahead of his unit on that day and they are under heavy artillery fire. He is go to have orders to move forward and he in thes a guy in a funny looking uniform. He knows hes not a german but hes not sure who he is. It turns out its a polish army commander. You have a polish Armor Division moving from the other direction. The commander tells waters, this is the first ever meeting of polish and american soldiers on a ba