Your task will not be an easy one. Youre in the me as welltrained, wellequipped, and battlehardened. He will fight savagely. But this is the year, 1944. Much has happened since the nazi tramps of 1940 and 1941. There was great defeat in open airle, man to man, and our offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and capacity to wage war on the ground. Our homefront has given us an overwhelming superiority in and place at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The freemen of the world are marching together in victory. I have full confidence in your devotion to duty, skill, and battle, and we will accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck, and let us all beseech the blessing of almighty god upon this great and noble bedford, virginia, gave more than any other allied community on dday, and that is why the memorial is here. When americans, british, french, and canadian slanted on dday, gave countess millions hope that the barbarism and
Good morning everybody i am jeff urban the education director. On behalf of the library i would like to welcome you to the 16th annual reading festival fdr planned for the library to become the premier Research Institution for setting the entire era. In this years groups. I would encourage you to become a Roosevelt Library member. And if you have not already please make time to see the fdr mighty endeavor. It is dedicated to the special relationship between fdr and churchill leading up. Let me quickly go over the format. You will have as hes been here with us today. In order for us to capture the questions so they can be seen and heard we asked that if you have a question for the author that you please make your way to the microphone and begin the question there. You can purchase your books and have the authors assign them. At the top of the hour the processors pizza itself. It is my pleasure to introduce this sessions author. The author of the girls next door. An officer common nurse
We have driven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. And company with the brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the german war machine. The elimination of nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of europe and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is welltrained, wellequipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely. This is the year, 1944. Much has happened since the triumphs of 1940 and 41. The United Nations has inflicted upon the germans in open battle. Mantoman. Our air offensive has seriously reduced strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Has homefront has given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and ammunitions of war. And plaisted our disposal, great reserved fighting men. The freeman of the world are marching together to victory. I have full confidence
Anniversary of the normandy invasion, which is taking place this summer, and we thought it certainly fitting to commemorate that event and us putting on these old uniforms, wearing old equipment, it certainly gives us a better perspective and appreciation of what the greatest generation went through. And if we can impart even a small inkling of that to passers by and families who come visit this place, then we feel that weve done a fairly good job. The unit that we portray is the Fourth Infantry Division, and its a unit thats sometimes overshadowed in the realm of world war ii history, but nonetheless, it was one of the spearhead units that was involved in the normandy invasion. It was some of the first amphibious troops who were ashore, and they waded ashore on utah beach. Unbeknown unbeknownst to many of them at that time they had actually landed on the wrong sector. They had landed about a half a mile offcourse and there was a little bit of uncertainty, perhaps hesitation as to what
Tim gray of the world were to foundation will have an interview and we will have a question and answer after that. Rick, we are incredibly honored to have you here tonight sharing your dday insights with us. We know you are in tour with another book so hopefully this is a nice intermezzo for you. Rick is a prizewinning author for history in journalism. He is the author of seven books including narratives of five different american wars. All of these are known for their Extensive Research and histories. They include the liberation trilogy, the first volume of this trilogy won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for history. All three copies are available so, available for sale in the back. He will also be signing copies later tonight of his latest book, the british are coming the war for america. Lexington to princeton. Again, multiple copies are available in the back. Rick and tim we are extremely privileged to have you here with us tonight and we are looking forward to a wonderful evening. It