[captioning performed by national captioning institute] monday night on the communicators, three members of congress talk about their technology legislation. and internet without government intervention. future, this is all being done. wanty would the chief not tens ofam exposed to thousands of people? the ftc took the first move. i will vote, finally, at the end of this year. is that a bill which tries to address concerns over re-commission consent? basically, giving people less putting. to negotiate with the providers and the people trying to deliver that media to the consumer, it puts people on a level playing field when it comes to those kinds of negotiations. >> new york democratic representative brian higgins, and colorado representative. monday night at 8:00 eastern on the communicators on c-span two. >> next, stories from three army veterans who served on the front lines during world war ii. a reflect on their experiences of d-day. this is one of several events hosted by the dwight d eisenhower memorial museum and mark the anniversary of d-day. it is about one hour and 10 minutes. >> good afternoon. the deputyeves, director. i would like to start with this quote. -- thely puts the word war in perspective. it is by john keegan who wrote "the second world war is the largest single event in human history. fought across six of the world seven continents and all of the oceans. it killed 50 million human beings, left hundreds of millions wounded in mind or body and materially devastated much of the heartland of civilization." and of course that largest single event in human history affected the lives of the gentlemen we have assembled here today. i'll begin our introductions with my fellow wichita native, mr. jack ford on my immediate right. jack is a retired police officer in wichita. he arrived on omaha beach on june 6, 1944 with the 743rd tank battalion. next to mr. ford is ray. ray was a staff sergeant. at the outset of the war, the 16th regiment was one of the first mobilized for overseas duty. as we see his experience was more than just normandy. we had a wonderful moment right before the panel. i like showing off the holdings at the eisenhower library and museum. i was very excited to show mr. lambert the journal from june 6, 1944. and asked him if he had read it. he said he read it and let it. -- lived it. to mr. lambert's right, we have dr. guy stern who many of us were fortunate enough to see yesterday. he was born in germany in 1922 and was the only member of his family to have escaped and come to the united states in 1937. he was drafted into the u.s. army where he became one of the richy boys. they were largely european jewish refugees who returned to europe and work in psychological warfare and other intelligence aspects during the war. there was a recent documentary which we are fortunate enough to exhibit yesterday, that i hope you all have the chance to see at another time. following the war, dr. stern became a professor of literature at wayne state university in detroit. i would like to start with the same question we did a few minutes ago with our home front panel. that is to start with december 7, 1941. where were you on that day, mr. ford? what was your first reaction? perhaps your reaction on december 7, 1941, when you learned the japanese had bombed pearl harbor. >> i can't hear him. >> i was asking about the japanese bombing of pearl harbor, and where you were on that day and perhaps what your first reaction to that news was. >> i remember where i learned it. the mic. >> try that one. >> me and three of my friends were out hunting on that day. and we had stopped in at a local golf course north of the city to get something to eat. when we went in, the golf pro was there. he told us that the japanese, he was listening to it on the radio, and he told us the japanese had bombed pearl harbor. i knew then when that happened it was not going to be real long before i was going to be in the army. and it was pretty quick. >> anything else? >> we will move on to hear mr. lambert's remembrance of that date as well. >> can you hear me there? good. i was in fort devin, massachusetts. i was in the army. we had been training in the louisiana and texas, north carolina, and upstate new york. making landings in puerto rico. and we knew that we were getting close to the time that we were going to get involved. so that is where we were at the time. after that, we were quarantined there until we went overseas. >> i was in bristol, england. i will remember every moment of that. that moment when we had already been given our borders, our team of six personnel numbers were divided into three sections. one of us was to go in with the parachutes. the second one on d plus one. and the third one d plus three. and i was, we were, had been prepared to fare thee well. we had waterproofed our jeeps. so i went that afternoon to a movie shown in a large tent built outside of headquarters of first army. so i will remember a movie that does not deserve to be remembered. it was called "shine on harvest moon" and starred an unforgettable grace moore. and all of a sudden the lights went on. the following personnel report to your billets immediately to get final preparations. d day has happened. >> dr. stern, how about your memory of when you first learned that the united states would enter the war after the japanese bombed pearl harbor? were you in the army at that time? >> no. i was, i was, it was a sunday that pearl harbor happened. and i had, i was studying at st. louis university and had a weekend job as a busboy in south st. louis. we were hitchhiking. with another busboy to our place of employment in south st. louis. we arrived there and the owner of the restaurant stood at the door and he said, "fellas, turn right back. i will not open my restaurant today. something terrible has happened." >> i'd like, if we could do a synopsis of your military service perhaps for all of us up to the time of the d day invasion. mr. ford, if we could start with you. perhaps about your induction in the army and then your training in the tanks. if we could -- get you talk about -- the induction in the army and then the training you went with, as a tanker, and perhaps about moving over to england and getting ready? >> you want me to go up? >> up to the invasion date. from the time you enter the army. >> talk about d day, too. >> yes, sir. talk about d day as well. >> talk about how the, when i was drafted. >> yes, sir. we could start with when you are drafted and take it all away up through d day. >> that is going to take a while. [laughter] >> we got time. whatever you would like. there's the mic. >> well, i'll make this as quick as i can. i don't remember the exact date but i was drafted in october, 1942. went to fort leavenworth kansas for my physical. when i got my draft notice. i was up there two days. was not much of a physical. i was warm. that is about all you had to be. [laughter] they sent me home for 10 days. take care of any unfinished business i had. which was to tell my employer that i had a government job now. so i would not be working for him. when i got back to the fort leavenworth, then i went to a camp on the eastern edge of the fort riley reservation. there i took my basic training. but i should back up a bit and tell you that when we got there, went in on the train, i saw a motor pool full of tanks. that looks pretty good. you did not have to walk. i went for my placement interview, and the officer that interviewed me asked me if i had any preference of where i served in the army. i told him, i said, i don't know anything about the army but i saw the tanks coming in on the train and would not mind that. when i said tanks, he just started writing and stamping my paper. i found out later that not many people -- some people do not like serving in tanks. they call them deathtraps. but we went to california then on maneuvers out in the desert training center. these were light tanks, the m-5's, 15 ton tanks that i was in at that time. we went to the mojave desert for camp ibus. a desert training center for the armored force. while i was there, sometime i think in september, i got transferred to the 743rd tank battalion gearing up to go to they transferred me down there as a driver. i found out when i got there, they had the sherman tank instead of the m-5. i've never seen a sherman tank. i remember -- we went by truck. i remember when we got there, the sergeant called out my name. and told me to follow him. he took me to a tent. we walked in and told the tank commander, here is your driver. that was it. and we were there -- i can't recall. we left the first part -- sometime in november. we left and went to new york. and then we got on the boat. in november. i was on that boat seven days to scotland. we got there a day before thanksgiving, the night before thanksgiving, but getting back to that boat. i was 67 days -- i was sick for seven days, so i knew i was not a sailor. to our surprise, our cooks had already arrived. we had a full thanksgiving dinner. after the first of the year, the battalion broke up and each company went a different way for different training. my company, the company, went to a lake in the interior of england, great yarmouth. when i got there, we were going to train in floating tanks. i thought, i don't know who came up with this. the england dutch english said it was going to be a secret weapon. i wished at the time that they had cap the secret to themselves and left us out of it. [laughter] we trained there. the tanks have a large canvas screen that went up -- i can are about all that screen was. -- i can't remember how tall that screen was. i was the driver, and being the driver, i had to control all these controls. when we drove off into that lake, when it got to floating and they let the propellers down and put the tank in first gear and just take off. it had a high periscope so i could see where i was going, where i wanted to go. i didn't get there all the time, but it was where i wanted to go. [laughter] we were there a while, trained on the balentine tank. we just had a crew of four and a sherman tank has a crew of five. we transferred down to the south part of england and got a sherman tank which was called add tank -- a dd tank. to the latter part of may. i don't know the dates. then we drove up to, i think it was plymouth port. when we got there, they loaded us on the lct, a landing craft tank, which accommodated for sherman tanks. we loaded right then. my tank was the first one on, so i would be the first -- i would be the last one off. the company commanders tank was the last one off. we were on the landing craft with him. and, i guess i should tell you that d-day was supposed to be the fifth of june. the weather was pretty well controlling when it was going to be, because of the high and rough water of the english channel. we went out the night of the fourth of june and got part way out and they got orders to turn around and go back. in the process of turning around, our lct ran into the battleship arkansas. but we got back. i was hoping that it would take a couple of days to repair it. but the navy went to work on the seabees. by midafternoon, they packed up and told us we were ready to go. and we went that night. when we got out in the channel, the water was still rough. it was sloshing up over the lct. it was a flat bottomed boat. it was a pretty bumpy ride, even with 43010 tanks on it. usually, when you get a bunch of gis together, always talking, laughing and carrying on, but that night, everybody was pretty well confined to himself. i know i was, because i didn't know what was going to happen. i was just 22 at that time. i really felt like i was getting ready to live the last day of my life. we had had briefings on omaha beach, it being the easiest of the five beaches, the least defended. we were told the navy would take out some of the guns off the high ground above the beach. the air force would also take out some of the bunkers on there. we had a general that came down. we getting briefed and he even told us he hoped that we didn't just walk in on that beach and not have to fire a shot. anyhow, tonight we sailed, being a driver, i got up in the drivers seat and tried to get some sleep. all i could think of was my family back home, wondering if i would ever get to see them again. i don't mind telling you, i was just a kid. being 90 now, i was just a kid. 92, i should say. i just thought about my folks. i could not sleep. i was scared. i didn't know what was going to happen. the next day, when it got daylight, we were supposed to land about 15 or 20 minutes ahead of the main force with elements of the 29th infantry division, and the first infantry. the combat engineers battalion. they were going to clear out a lot of the obstacles off the beach to make a landing lane for the troops to come in and get on the beach. we also had been briefed about a sandbar -- i'm just guessing now, it was off the main beach at high tide, we were talking about. we approached the coastline and the germans opened fire. that shocked us all because we didn't think they were going to have those guns. we were told they weren't going to be there. the closer he got, when we got in range, they really opened up on us. when we hit that sandbar, the lct skipper dropped the ramp and our company commander went off. he had to know what was on that sandbar, but when he went off the lct, the rest of us followed. my tank being the last one off, we grounded out on the bottom of the water. we were setting in water. the assistant driver and myself were sitting in water up to our waists. i tried to raise the tank commander on the radio, but i couldn't get anybody. so i told the tank commander or the assistant driver that we have to get out of this thing. it is going to be underwater before long with the tide coming in. we were both worrying -- the water was too rough. we launched the dd tanks. when the screen was down it was just a regular tank. that was what we were in. i told him we had to get out of there because it was going to be underwater. i'll never forget. he looked over at me and he said well doggone the lock anyhow. -- the luck anyhow. we made our way from one to the other until we got to the last one. he wanted to get in that one. i said we can't do it. it is going to be underwater, too when it reaches high tide. so he looked at me and he said what are we going to do now? i said what you think we're going to do? we are going to swim. luckily, i'd been swimming practically all of my life. i was in a country where. i never had to swim with all my close on. i had of a second judgment just in a pair of high boots on the could kick with. with my boots off i could take four or five strokes forward and go back to her three. finally, i was getting winded, so i found one of those bunkers, obstacles on the beach. we called them hedgehogs. they were crisscrossed steel. i held onto that thing for a while and i look up and heck, that thing had a mine on top of it. i did want to hang around on that thing, so i took off again and finally i got into water shallow enough that i could stand up and waited. i got rid of that orange jacket as quick as i could. when i finally got out of the water, i ran across, there is an overhang on the high ground above. that's where i went. i swallowed so much salt water, my stomach felt like it was on fire, it hurt. i was so winded i couldn't talk. i was her about a minute and this assistant driver's name was murray. he made it too. that's where we ended up until both of us were so winded and tired we couldn't talk for a few minutes. when we finally could, he asked me what i thought we were going to do. i said well, i'm going to stay right here. that nothing i can do. i don't think we can fight any of them with our bare hands or get out and fistfight or anything. that is where i spent d-day. [laughter] i had a panoramic view of the entire, how to phrase it, it was a bloody mass. -- mess. that -- the troops first act upon the beach and there were only two axes to get off on and engineers are having a difficult time. one of our tanks had a bulldozer blade on the front of it and recall that a tank dozer. it was helping, but i had some material with me on the car that i wanted to bring. we received a presidential unit citation, our battalion did. it said we were on that beach 16 hours before we got off of it. the infantry got off of it sooner than that. maybe some of these gentlemen can tell you more about that than i can. >> is a good time to go to our next veteran, mr. lambert, who was also on that beach that day. i know his service extended far beyond before d-day. if we can move the microphone over to you, sir. >> you are me to go back, how far back to me to go? [laughter] wherever you would like to start. >> i will just tell you that i am listed in the service in 1940. during the depression, my parents lost everything that they had. after high school there was no money for further education. i had a job that i had gotten in the summer time working with a veterinarian in chilton county, alabama. i was the assistant veterinarian. when i went to enlist in the service, they asked me what i had been doing. i said that i'd been the assistant veterinarian in chilton county, alabama. the guy said good, you're going into medics. [laughter] that sounds kind of funny to say that, but at that time, in 1940, we still had the horse cavalry. they had to be treated the same as any other soldier. a for scott wounded are hurt or sick, we also had to take care of them. i took my basic training at fort benning georgia. i was asked to be in a fighting unit, but i never knew when asked the question, i would be in the fighting first division, the big red one. that's where i ended up, in the 16th infantry. i was sent to medical school in denver, colorado. i ended up being a surgical technician. i skipped through some things that i don't think is too important for you. we were in the inner 10 cap after maneuvers in the united states. we were quarantines of there. i was set with an advanced detail to england. i was on a british ship called the bedford. all we had to eat on their, the british were having a very difficult time. we had mutton and cabbage for breakfast. i will have to admit, that they told us they would give us a different menu at night. we only had two meals a day. so they didn't give us mutton and cabbage, they give us cabbage and mutton. [laughter] so, we landed in liverpool and went by train from there to kids worth england -- two tidsworth, england. the advanced detail is made up of myself, of course, with a medics. two men from each company, and one commanding officer from the regiment. we got there and we had to get the barracks ready. when we got into that area, we found out that the auxiliary land service, the same as our wacs, but british. atf, they called it. they were in those barracks. they were going to stay there and help clean up the barracks and stuff the mattress covers with new hay and all that stuff. the first night there, i told my corporal, look, make sure you get a bed check tonight. i had a separate room in the place. the next morning, when we all got up and came there. i said how is a bed check. he said no one was in their bed. that was bound to happen, i guess. the ats moved out of there pretty soon. we met the rest of the division of scotland. we did landings at scotland. the rest of the division came over on the queen mary. we did our training up there in scotland. after that, we went back to england and it live fire training. we had barb wire and you would crawl under the barb wire while they were firing live ammunition over you. -- barbed wire while they fired live ammunition over you. our first mission was to capture -- we did. that was our first getting into real fighting. we had been taught all allies to do the right thing. you don't murder, you don't kill, you don't do this. our commanding officer was terry allen. he got us all together after the first few days and he said, you're going to have to kill the enemy. if you don't, they will kill you. we had about seven or eight casualties going into iran. it wasn't too bad. we stayed in oran and went on into north africa. we had terrible battles where we lost sometimes as many as 70 and 80 guys in an hour. all the evacuating of casualties -- we had settings as close to the frontline line is possible because of that reason. the little barracks would not have to carry the guys so far. we were fighting on a hill, 609, just beyond cassaline pass. there are a lot of big boulders on the mountain. i heard the scraping noise over my head. i looked up in a german came down with a bayonet. it fell on the ground in front of me. we had been told that the germans were picking medics off with their snipers. we have lost about six of our medics. they were shooting guys right in the head. we were given permission to arm ourselves. i had a 45. we took our red cross geneva crosses off over helmet so they can see us. if you kill the medic, and they know they don't have anyone to take care of them. it is a situation you really don't want to get into. this guy fell on the ground in front of me and he got up and came at me with a bayonet. i reached to touch the end of the gun and he called back and his fingers almost cut off. the scar is still here. he pulled back again and when he did i was able to get my pistol out and shoot him. i wasn't scared. your training is for the can of situation. when he was dead and i was standing there looking at him, i started shaking and sweating and just a weird, weird feeling. i'd never kill the person before and never did after that. i looked in his pockets to get identification so we could report to both sides. they did that so they would have records. i found a photograph about two inches square. was a picture of him and two young ladies with german writing on the back. i found out that was his sister and his girlfriend. i kept that little picture and i still have it someplace. i used to look at it often to remind me how terrible warriors, two young guys out there trying to kill each other in a battle. anyway, we continued fighting to north africa. we naturally want a battle there. we were fighting some of the germans'best troops out there. general rommel was one of the best commanders. they had been fighting in the desert and pushing up the coast. our job was to keep them from breaking out. is why we had so many really bad, bad battles there. we continued on until we won the battle in tunisia and that area. then, they told us to take our first division patches off and have no marks for the first division at all. we went back to algiers and we were camped there for a while around algiers. then we went on a troop ship and when we got offshore, they told us to put them back on. we put our first division patches back on and made the invasion of sicily. that was a little tougher than the north africa invasion. the germans had a horseshoe shape. the 28th panzer tanks in front of us. it was almost like we had our heel in the water and our toe on the beach. we continued fighting. the guys are putting dynamite patches on the tanks, fighting tanks with bazookas. we had two battleships. they were fighting tanks. the knocked out three tanks. by that time, we had see company, canon company. they set their guns up and knocked out for tanks. the rest of the tanks left. what saved us on that beach was the germans made a mistake that time. they had the tanks there but they didn't have any foot soldiers. had they had foot soldiers, i am not sure we would have made it in. anyway, we did. the tanks left for shortly after that. they brought in 50 loads of foot troops, germans. we had to fight our way on through. we made it through sicily, winning our last battle, losing a lot of men, and continuing on through. the next place is very heavily defended. there a lot of fake heavy boulders and rocks. the germans had the high ground. any casualties we had had to be carried eight miles to dash through a dry riverbed that the germans could see down into. we took some german prisoners, so we used the prisoners as litter bearers. got to point their that the battle really was not going our way, as it should be going. general mack lamere came over and he came up to the aid station slightly wounded. anyway, we patch him up and he got a purple heart for it. when he was there, he asked general allen, are you going to be able to take trowena. he said i'm going to bring the 16th infantry. he said they have what it takes, they will take the town. we moved our aid stations ahead of the 16th to take care of the troops that were fighting there at the time. he moved to the 16th out. they had to get in for miles around, because the germans really had it seals off in the front. the commanding officer requisitioned 100 mules. they brought the mules and and it took us a while to get them up there, because the guy that had the mules would not let us have them until he got paid. we had to get cash to pay the guy. so we got the mules and pac-man, the machine guns and ammunition and all that -- we attack the germans and it was really a fight going on there. major denholm had his men up there. he told his men to fix their bayonets. they fix their bayonets and charged the germans heard it was a bayonet fight. he took the town -- we took the town. the germans had been trying to escape out of sicily to get as many of the people to sicily. they wanted to keep their fighting men. the short time after that we had 225,000 prisoners give up. we didn't have food for them, we had -- we put up signs saying prisoners in here and we have it -- and we had a couple of prisoners come in. after sicily, we went back to england. we had to get replacements there. we lost a lot of men. some of our best men. while we were in england, we were doing 50 mile marches and -- while we were doing the landing, we had some german u-boats come into that area and sunk two of our ships. we lost 700 really good experience guys. general eisenhower put out an order that anyone mentioning that would be court-martialed. naturally, we didn't say anything about it, but they did recover a lot of the very important people that were on those ships. some of them were officers that had been involved in planning for d-day, and no one really knew much about d-day. they were frightened to death that the germans might get one of those guys and get him away from there. after that, we continued our training. we continued doing more landings. we had a fake army that would look from the air attack you like an army should look. we had car would -- we had cardboard tanks and plywood tanks. everything looked like big balloons. they let the word out and we had double agents working. one of the agents was a german agent, but he was really working for us. they let the word out that the captain was going to lead that army on an invasion. of course, that didn't happen. on d-day, we stayed on the ship the night of the fifth. when we started the convoy in, we had 5000 vessels of different sorts. the first one going out in the convoy with the minesweepers. the germans had mined the channel. the minesweepers were ahead. we went out and anchored about 3:00 in the morning, 10 miles off the shore. i was in the first wave. we were to land on the beach at 6:30. they had 28 tanks that they had on lct's. they were supposed to get in and start firing at 5:30. the battleships were firing in and we had 540 lanes of are going to come in and bomb the beach. they could not do it because of the low clouds and disability. the guns had to raise their firepower when we started going in at 6:30. they were firing over the beach. they didn't hit them where they should. they did kill quite a few cows back in that area. [laughter] we had to go down the nets on the ship. the waves were about 4-5 feet high. i think they were a little higher. we went down the nets and got to the higgins boats. they were open on the front. we had to be careful getting in there because you could break your legs if you didn't get in at the right time. we loaded without any problems, my group did. may i have a simple water? >> certainly. >> you think i was in the water i wouldn't want any. [laughter] thank you. now if i say something you don't believe, you can look it up on the computer. but anyway, if you ask a question and i don't know the answer, you're just not going to get it, are you? but anyway, as we are going in. we see guys floating in the water. we had orders not to stop to pick up anyone. they did have boats that were going around and picking guys up as they could. the boat on our left got hit by artillery, because a germans were firing 155's and everything they could throw at us out there. they held their machine gun fire. 800 yards off the beach, the dry beach where they had the shale rocks, the germans had put in all kinds of obstacles. between his obstacles, they had french gates which are iron gates and things like that out there. these were to try to keep the boats from getting in, our landing craft from getting in. they had a hundred thousand minds in the water -- mines in the water. we had sand walk-up tables. omaha beach was the most heavily defended beach of all. that is why eisenhower wanted the first division to spearhead or make that invasion in the first wave, because we had made three invasions. the germans had 12 bumpers in front -- bunkers in front. those bunkers were six feet thick of concrete with the enforced rods. they had machine guns they could fire at us and they had the 88 said they could fire right on us. coming in, first thing you had to do was get in so they could getting close enough to get out. once they let the ramps down, and you went off, you had to get through more barbed wire. you are then over 300 yards of open beach. they could see us just as plain as i can see you guys. they were up on the side of the hill, doug and with machine guns. across the road, there was a tank trap that the germans had put in, just wide enough that tanks would get in and fill up with water, so the tanks would get into that and be stuck. beyond that, he had more barbed wire. you had to cross that beach of 300 yards, then you had to get to the first barbed wire and then you had to get to the tank traps and then you had to get to the next barbed wire. just beyond that on the hillside with a german machine gunners. like jack had said, they didn't really let us -- let up on us until we got in. when we got close enough to the landing craft, we could hear the machine gun bullets right on the ramps. it sounded just like hail. i had been through two invasions and i knew what to expect, but there is nothing else you can do but try to do your job. so i talked to some of the replacements and said when you go off, go under the water and crawl as far as you can under the water. i knew what they're going to do. they would be firing at the top of the water. we got into the obstacles. when the ramp went down on my boat, my 31 guys, as i said, the machine gun bullets started coming right in on us. i was shot to the arm -- through the arm. there were seven of us that reached the beach. four of us were wounded out of 31. when i went off the boat, i went into the water and for a little distance and came up there by then, there were guys floating. our boat was not the only boat in that wave. the other boats were coming in. at all the men on my boat paramedics. that would've been a big mistake, to get all the medics on that one vote very at i went under the water, even though i had a bullet through my arm. i knew that i had to get the guys out of the water before i could treat them or do anything for them. so i started pulling the guys out of the water. one guy was hung up on barbed wire. i went back and was cutting him off their, because his straps were all tangled and barbed wire. i got his straps cut and was trying to pull him out of there. i had my arm. he got hit with a bullet and killed him right at my hand. i continued on working. i just let go of him because there are so many there. i didn't know whether they were dead or not. they were just floating. i let go of him and went to another fellow. he was alive, but he was drowning. i got him and i was pulling him out. don't forget, we had to go over 300 yards of that to get there. there is nothing to get behind out there, nothing at all. there's one big folder or rock on the beach, but it is where the germans had too much concrete or something and dumped it there. i was trying to hit the guys to that big rock boulder to get them behind their. there was some protection there at the time. it was not full tide. so i got hit again. fragmentation when in behind my left thigh and knocked a hole about 2.5-3 inches, right to the bone. then i had to get out of the water. i went to the beach and put attorney can on it. give myself a shot of morphine and continue trying to help the other guys. i told one of my men that i was getting very weak and i didn't know how much longer i could go. no sooner had i told raymond that then he got a bullet right to the head and fell on me, dead. i just had to continue on. as i said, some of the medics were killed. the company a man were with the companies. there is no way to set up an aid station on omaha beach at all. as a matter of fact, the firepower there was so great that the boats coming in could hardly get in. the waves are pushing them down toward utah beach and that area. i continued on, working, and i was getting weaker and weaker. and the next wave came in. g company's next boat came into the right of where i had come in. all 31 guys on that boat were killed before they got off. none got off. 31 dead right there. that is when things started piling up. as jack said. we were getting so many dead on the beach, that equipment was not able to come in and other boats -- they did get a bulldozer. it might've been jack's tank with a blade on it. they got a bulldozer in and pushed out a ditch, right off the beach area, very near the beach, but off the beach area. all those guys were put in that ditch. and covered up. later on, they were given a proper burial and were put in the american cemetery and some are sent back home. that was the first cemetery in france. i was still working. then i was getting back to two and a half hours. i had found one of my men. he was doing a good job and working. i knew that i was not able to go much further. i told him to try to get all those men together behind a rock. so whether it -- when the regimental came in, they could then get those guys to the aid station. i went back in to get another guy out, and i got a fellow that had lost his arm. i got him and the arm was really off and i couldn't do much for that, so i was trying to make a decision whether to let go of the arm and forget about it and try to save his life, but he died before i could do anything like that. i wanted one more time. i got the guy. you have to get him around like this. it is hard to drag him in, especially when bullets are flying all over. i got in and the next wave is coming in. they were both being pushed around. when i came in, i don't know why he came in that position, meteors in his position. i crawled out with a guy. i cut out there and passed out. the next thing i knew, i was in england in the hospital. >> thank you, mr. lambert. dr. stern, our time is running out so rapidly. can you give us a history of the ritchie boys which were such a unique unit? and also your experience of landing on d-day plus three, three days after what mr. ford and mr. lambert have described. >> the stories you have just heard are such proof of heroism that i will just list out some of the incidents in my career in military intelligence and from normandy onward and tell those stories, how we tried to use the way for the troops that were ahead of us. military intelligence is trying to anticipate the effort of the enemy and thereby avoid as much assuming a possible -- as much as humanly possible the casualties you have heard. these are heroic tales. i make observations frequently and tried to put them into a larger context. the gentleman, mr. lambert, who just spoke, he wears a metal here -- a here that is a french legion of honor. it is the highest decoration that france can bestow. i am honored to be sitting next to this gentleman. [applause] a more abstract observation, this is a gift of the french government that our liaison with the french was not always that smooth. one of the things we were informed of is that when the invasion was to come about, that we would use intelligence, a prearranged signal for the french underground, so that they could be inserted into the invasion effort. i still remember the slogan that we used. it was a line from a poem of rimbeau. it had nothing to do with warfare at all. it says now we are striking, help us, strike loose. now about french, german -- french/german and french/american relations, there was general de gaulle who organized some of the french resistance and later the first french army. he was very tough to deal with. he had devised a uniform with a symbol from the part of france, lorraine. so he had the cross of lorraine and churchill had quipped, he said the hardest cross i have to bear is a cross of lorraine. [laughter] now, how did it look for us? we had to get our vehicles and ourselves from bristol to southhampton, which was our launching city. so, the streets of southhampton, every street, every alley was one vehicle within one inch to the next. we were completely taking over one city in england, a fairly large sized. one of the observations i made it myself as well as in fellow soldiers, as you go to face danger, that you try to hold on to as much of your ordinary pattern of life as you can. there was a striking symbol part right behind me was a jeep with a captain as a driver and occupant. he looked spiffy. he had a uniform on which i think was tailor-made. he went into the house in front of which he was parked and came out with a helmet liner. what did he do? he started shaving in the streets of bristol. the owner of that house came out and in a typical british accent, which i will try to imitate, he said, sergeant, you don't think this gentleman was ever dreaming he would be shaving in the streets of bristol, do you? this was the situation for days upon days preceding us and afterwards in a preparatory city of warfare before we hit. i will lift out one part of our intelligence work because it was striking and it was memorable. until 1945, our job was to get strategic information and later on we were told as well to get the goods on war criminals. through a strange coincidence, one of the really big size kang steers fell into our hands -- gangsters fell into her hands. he was a doctor and he had killed only 5000 people by morphine injections. people.0 we were able to get all the evidence, and he was tried and executed. those are some of the parts. the time is really marching onward. if you have questions on our intelligence work, i think you have gotten a wonderful panoramic view of the careers of two heroic fellow soldiers and thank you. >> thank you, dr. stern. [applause] >> we do have a few minutes for questions. i will bring a microphone around. >> if you asked the question and i will repeat your question into the microphone. we are having technical problems. now they have been resolved. does anyone have a question from the audience for any of our panelists? let's see one back here. >> i just wondered if mr. ford had been reunited with his tank at some time? or how he was reunited? >> did you hear, jack? were you ever reunited with the tank you lost or did you go to renew tank? would you like to talk about that? what happened after you lost the first tank. >> all four tanks on the lct that i was on were lost. i had to write a supply truck for a couple of weeks before i

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