and saturday, the depiction of slavery in movies. sunday at 4:00 p.m., an interview with president herbert hoover. let us know what you think about the programs you're watching. call us at 202-626-3400 or e-mail us at comments@c-span.org. like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. now, stories from three army veterans who served on the front lines during world war ii. they reflect on their experience as part of the d-day invasion of nazi occupied france. this was one of several events hosted by the dwight d. eisenhower presidential library in kansas. it's about 1 hour 10 minutes. good afternoon. and welcome to the eisenhower presidential library museum and boyhood home for our panel on the battlefield. our second panel this afternoon. i'm tim rives. i would like to start with the quote we used last hour that i think really puts the war in perspective. it's by the late distinguished military historian john keegan who wrote that the second world war is the largest single event in human history. fought across six of the world's seven continents and all its oceans. it killed 50 million human beings, left hundreds of millions of others 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 here 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. and next to mr. ford is mr. ray lambert. ray was a staff sergeant with the 16th infantry regiment on d-day. at the outset of the war, the 16th regiment was one of the first mobilized for overseas duty. we'll see mr. lambert's experience was more than just normandy. we had a wonderful moment right before the panel. i always like showing off the holdings here at the eisenhower presidential museum. i like to show the journal from june 6, 1944, and asked him if he had read it. he said he had read it. and he had lived it. and to mr. lambert's right, we have dr. guy stern, who many of us were fortunate to see in programs yesterday. and dr. stern 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 and sent to camp richie where he became one of the richie boys. the richie boys were largely european, jewish refugees who then returned to europe and worked in psychological warfare and other intelligence aspects during the war. and there was a recent dumtary which we also fortunate enough to exhibit yesterday that i hope you all have a chance to see at another time. and following the war, dr. stern became a professor of literature, i believe most recently at wayne state university in detroit, michigan. i'd like to start with the same question we did a few moments ago with our home front panel. that's to start with that key date of december 7th, 1941. where were you on that date, mr. ford? what were you doing? what was your first reaction? i was asking about perhaps your reaction on december 7th, 1941, when you learned that the japanese involved pearl harbor. i was asking about the japanese bombing of pearl harbor. >> yes. >> and where you were on that day. and perhaps what your first reaction to that news was. >> i remember where i learned it. >> i'll get you the microphone here. let's 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. and when we went in, the golf pro was there, and he told us that the japanese -- he was listening to it on the radio, and he told us that the japanese had bombed pearl harbor. be real long, that i was going to be in the army. and i was. pretty quick. anything else? >> we'll move on to hear mr. lambert's remembrance of that date as well. yes, thank you. >> can you hear me there? good. i was in ft. evan, massachusetts. i was in the army. we had been training in 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's where we were at the time. and after that, we were quarantined until we went overseas. >> i was in bristol, england. and i remember every moment of that. that moment when we had already been given our orders, our team of six personnel members were divided into three sections. one of us was to go in with the parachutes. the second one on d-plus 1, and the third one d-plus 3. and i was -- we had been prepar prepared, we waterproofed our jeeps, and so i went that afternoon to a movie shown in a movie -- in a large tent built outside of headquarters of the first army. and so i will remember a movie that doesn't deserve to be remembered. it was called "shine on harvest moon" and starred unforgettable grace moore. 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 yet 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 sunday and 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, fellows, turn right back. i will not open my restaurant today. something terrible has happened. >> i'd kind of like to, 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. just talk about when you were inducted into the army and the training you gained as a tanker, and perhaps moving over to england and getting ready. >> you want me to go up -- >> if you could take us up to the invasion date. just from the time you entered the army, up until about june 6th. >> talk about d-day, too? >> yes, sir, go ahead and talk about d-day as well. >> you want to talk about when i was drafted? >> yes, sir. >> and d-day? >> we could start with when you were drafted and take it all the way up through d-day, if you like. >> this is going to take a while. >> we've got time. whatever you'd like to tell us about. there's the mic. thank you. >> well, i'll give it as quick as i can. i don't remember the exact date, but i was drafted in october of 1942. went to ft. leavenworth, kansas, for my physical. i got my draft notice. i was up there two days. wasn't much of a physical. i was warm, and that's about all you had to be. so they sent me home for ten days, to take care of any unfinished business i had. which was to tell my employer that i had a government job now. so i wouldn't be working for him. when i got back to the ft. leavenworth, i went to camp funson, which is on the eastern edge of the ft. riley reservation. there i took my basic training. i should pack up a little bit and tell you, when we got there, i went in on the train. i saw a motor pool full of tanks. and i thought, well, that's pretty good. you didn't have to walk. i went from my placement interview, and the officer that interviewed me asked me if i had any preference on where i served in the army. and i said, i told him, i said, i don't know anything about the army, but i saw the tanks coming in on the train, and wouldn't mind that. well, when i said tanks, he just started writing, and stamping my papers. i found out later that not very many people -- some people didn't like serving tanks. they called them death traps. but we went to california then on the maneuvers out at the desert training center. these were light tanks, the m-5s. 15-ton tanks that i was in at that time. and we went to the mojave desert. it was a desert training center for the armored force. while i was there, sometime -- i think it was in september, i got transferred to the 743rd tank battalion, which was gearing up to go to africa. and they transferred me down there as a tank driver. and i found out when i got there, that they had the sherman tank instead of the m-5 tank. i'd never seen a sherman tank. but i remember when they -- we went by truck. and i remember when we got there, the sergeant called out my name, and told me to follow him. and he took me to a tent. and we walked in, and told the tank commander, he said, here's your driver. that was it. and we were there -- i can't recall. we left the first part of -- the first part of november we left and went to camp shanks, new york. and then we got on the boat in novemb november. we was on that boat seven days to scotland. we got there the day before thanksgiving. the night before thanksgiving. but to get back to getting on that boat, i was on that thing seven days, and i was sick seven days, so i knew i wasn't a sailor. so we went down to camp shank, new york. we got there thanksgiving day. and to our surprise, our cooks had already arrived. and 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, b company went to a la lake, in the interior of england. when i got there, i found out that we were going to train in floating tanks. and i thought, i don't know who came up with this. the english said it was going to be a secret weapon. and i wished at the time that they would have kept the secret to themselves and just left us out of it. but we trained there. and they had a large canvas screen that went up, oh, i can't remember how tall that screen w was. and two propellers on the rear of the tank. i was a driver. and being the driver, i had to control all these controls. when we'd drive off into that lake, when it got to floating, and let the propellers down, put the tank in first gear, and just take off. it had a high periscope where i could see where i was going, where i wanted to go. i didn't get there all the time, but that's where i wanted to go. but we were there a while, trained on the balan tine tank. the tank had a crew of five. then we transferred them to the south part of england. and got a sherman tank. called dd tanks. and we trained there until 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, landing craft tank. it would accommodate four sherman tanks. we loaded right then. my tank was the first one on, so i would be the first one -- or the last one off. and the company commander's tank was the last one off. we was on the landing craft with him. and i guess i should tell you that d-day was supposed to be the 5th of june. the weather was pretty well controlling when it was going to be. because of the high water, the rough water in the english channel. but we went out on the night of the 4th of june, and we got partway 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, and i thought that -- hoping anyway, i guess, that they would take a couple of days to repair it. but the navy went to work on it, seabees, i guess they were, and by midafternoon, they packed up and told us that we were ready to go. and we went that night. and when we got out in the channel, the water was still rough. and sloshing up over the lct. it was a flat-bottom boat. and it was pretty bumpy riding, even with the 30-ton tanks on it. usually when you get a bunch of gis together, they're usually talking and laughing and carrying on. but that night, everybody was pretty well confined to himself. and i know i was, because i didn't know what was going to happen. i was just 22 at that time. and i really felt like i was really getting to live the last day of my life. and we had had briefings on omaha beach, about being the easy yiiest of the five beaches. the least defended. we were told that the navy would take out some of the guns off of the high ground above the beach. the air force would also take out some of the bunkers on there and everything. we had a general that came down when we were getting briefed. and he even told us that he hoped that we didn't just walk in on that beach and not have to fire a shot. but anyhow, the night we sailed, i finally, i got up, being the driver, i got up in the driver's seat and tried to get some sleep. but all i could think of was my family back home, wondering if i'd ever get to see them again. i don't mind telling you, i was just a kid, being 90 now, but i was just a kid. 92 now, i should say. but i just thought about my folks. i couldn't sleep. i was scared. i didn't know what was going to happen. so the next day, when it got daylight, we were supposed to land about 15 or 20 minutes ahead of the main force with the elements of the 29th infantry. the infantry division regiment. and the first infantry. and the combat engineers battalion. and they were going to clear out a lot of the obstacles off the beach to make a landing lane for the troops who had come in to get on the beach. we were all briefed about a sand bar in front of the -- about, oh, 200, 300 yards -- or feet off the main beach. at high tide we're talking about. we approached the coastline. then the germans opened fire. and that shocked us all. because we didn't think they was going to have those guns there. we were told they weren't going to be there. the closer we got, then we got in range. they really opened up on us. when we hit that sand bar, the old ct skipper dropped the ramp, and our company commander went off. he had to know what was on that sand bar, but when he went off of 9 lcd, the rest of us followed. and my tank being the last one off when we grounded down on the bottom of the water, we were setting in water. the assistant driver and myself were sitting in water up to our waist. and i tried to raise the tank commander on the radio, but i couldn't get anybody. and so i told the tank commander -- or 9 assistant driver, i said, we've got to get out of this thing. it's going to be underwater before long, with the tide coming in. and we were both wearing may west jackets, but the water was too rough. we didn't launch the d tanks. when your screen was down, it was just a regular tank. so that's what we were in. but i told him we had to get out of there because it was going to be under water. i'll never forget, he looked over at me and he said, well, ÷0; we got out. we inflated our jackets. you could inflate them by pulling a cord on each side, and then punctured a little vial of gas. so we made our way from one tank -- the three tanks in front of us, we made our way from one to the other until we got to the last one in the captain's tank. he wanted to get in that one. i said, we can't do it. i said, it's going to be under water, too, when it reaches the high tide mark. so he looked at me and he said, well, what are we going to do now? i said, what do you think we're going to do? we're going to swim. so -- and luckily, i had been swimming practically all my life. well, not all my life, but a lot. i was an excellent swimmer. but i'd never had to swim with all my clothes on. and a mae west jacket strapped to my chest. and a pair of high boots on to kick with. but we took off. and it seemed like i would take about four or five strokes forward, and go back about two or three. finally, i was getting winded out, so i hung on to -- found one of those bunk eers, or obstacles on the beach that we called them hedgehogs. they were crisscrossed steel. i held on to that thing for a while. and i looked up, and heck, that thing had a mine on top of it. a land mine. i didn't want to hang around on that thing, so i took off again. and finally, i got in water shallow enough i could stand up and wade. i got rid of that orange jacket just as quick as i could. when i finally got out of the water, i ran across an overhang on the high ground above, and that's where i went. i swallowed so much saltwater, my stomach felt like it was on fire. it hurt. so winded, i couldn't talk. i was there about a minute. and this assistant driver's name was murray orr, and he made it, too. and that's where we ended up until both of us were so winded and tired, we couldn't talk for a few minutes. and when we finally could, he asked me what i thought we was going to do. and i said, well, i'm going to stay right here. nothing i can do. i don't think we can fight any of them with our bare hands. and get out and fist fight or anything. so that's where i spent d-day. and i had a panoramic view of the entire -- i guess -- i don't know how you'd phrase it. it was a bloody mess. there were troops stacking up against the beach, but they couldn't get -- there was only two xs on the omaha beach that they could get off on. and the engineers were having a difficult time. and we had one of our tanks that had a bulldozer blade on the front of it. we called it a tank dozer. it was helping. but i've got some material with me out in the car that i wanted to bring to show it. we received the presidential unit citation, our battalion did that day. and it said we were on that beach 16 hours before we got off of it. i think the infantry got off of it a little sooner than that. maybe these gentlemen can tell you more about that than i can. >> it's a good time to go to our next veteran, mr. lambert, who was also on that beach that day. >> what did he say? >> he's talking to me. >> i'll let mr. lambert recount his service. which i know extended far beyond d-day. if we could move the microphone over to you, sir. >> you want me to go back -- how far back do you want me to go on d-day? >> wherever you'd like to start. >> well, i think we will -- i'll just tell you that i enlisted in the service in 1940. during the depression, my parents lost everything that they had. and after high school, there was no money for further education. i had a job that i had gotten in the summertime working with a vet nerinarian in chilton count alabama. i was assistant veterinarian. so when i went to enlist in the service, they asked me, of course, what i'd been doing. i said i had been assistant veterinarian in chilton county, alabama. so the guy said, good, you're going into the medics. you know that sounds kind of funny to say that. but at that time, in 1940, we still had the horse cavalry, and the -- they had to be treated the same as any other soldier. if a horse got wounded or hurt or sick, we also had to take care of them. i took my basic training in ft. bening, georgia. i asked to be in a fighting unit. but i never knew i would be in 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 there being a surgical technician. and we -- i skipped through some things, that i don't think is too important for you. we were -- as i told you, after we had maneuvers all over the united states, we went into quarantine. i was sent with an advanced detail to england. i was on a british ship called the bedford of england. bedford of -- yeah, bedford. and all we had to eat on there, as you know at that time, the british were having a very difficult time. and we had mutton and cabbage for breakfast. now, i have to admit that they told us they'd give us a different menu at night. we only had two meals a day. so they didn't give us mutton and cabbage, they gave us cabbage and mutton. so we went to -- we landed in liverpool. and we went by train from there to tidsworth, england. it was an old calgary barracks that the british had used for many years. and the advanced detail was made up of myself, of course, with the medics, and two men from each company. and one commanding officer from the regiment. so we got there. 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 waks, but it was british, ats they called them, they were in those barracks. and 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, i said, look, now, make sure you get a bed check tonight. i had a separate room in the place. and so the next morning, when we came -- we all got up, and he came to me and i said, how did the bed check go? and he said, no one was in their beds. so that was bound to happen, i guess. but anyway, the ats moved out of there pretty soon, got the place ready. we met the rest of the division in scotland. we did landings in scotland. the rest of the division came over on the queen mary. and we did our training up there in scotland. after that, we went back to england, and we did live fire training. you had barbed wire, you crawled under the barbed wire when they were firing live ammunition over you. so we trained in that for a while. and then left there, and we made the invasion of north africa at arzoo. our first mission was to capture orren, which we did. that was our first getting into really fighting. and we had been taught all our lives to do the right thing, and you don't murder, you don't kill, you don't do this. so our commanding officer was general allen, terry allen. and he got us all together of 9 first few days. and he said, you're going to have to kill the enemy. if you don't, they're going to kill you. we had about seven, eight casualties going into orran. it wasn't really too bad. we stayed in orran for a while, and then left there. and went on into -- further into north africa. we had terrible battles, and many other battles there where we lost sometimes as many as 70 and 80 guys in an hour. all the the evacuating of the casualties was done by little barren. we had the eight stations sitting as close to the front lines as possible because of that reason. so that the little barrens wouldn't have to carry the guys so far. we were fighting on a hill, 609, just beyond kasarein pass. i went to check on my men, and while i was there, there was a lot of big, big boulders on top of the mountain. we'll call it a hill. it was a small mountain. and i heard this kind of scraping noise over my head. and i looked up, and a german came down with a bayonet. went right through the fleshy part here, took my light field jacket and fell on the ground in front of me. we had been told that the germans were picking medics off with our snipers. and we had lost about six of our medics. and they were shooting the guys right in the head. so we were -- we were given permission to arm ourselves. i wore a .45. and we took our red cross, geneva crosses off, over our helmets, so they couldn't see us. if you killed a medic, the morale goes down, and the line troops then know that they don't have anyone to take care of them. so if the situation that you really don't want to get into. so this guy fell on the ground in front of me. he got up, and came at me with a bayonet. and i reached to catch the end of the gun. he pulled it back. and his finger was almost cut off. the scar is still here. so he pulled back again. when he did, i was able to get my pistol out and shoot him. i wasn't scared. you re act -- you react to your training in that situation. when he was dead, i was standing there looking at him and i started shaking. and sweating. and just a weird, weird feeling. you know, i'd never killed a person before, and never did after that. i looked in his pockets to get identification, so we could report through to the -- both sides would do that. so they'd have records. i found a photograph, about two-inch square or so. and it was a picture of him and two young ladies on there. and german writing on the back. i learned later that was his sister and his girlfriend. i kept that picture. and i still have it someplace. and i used to look at it often to remind me how terrible war is. two young guys out there trying to kill each other in the battles. but anyway, we continued fighting through north africa. we naturally won the battle there. we were fighting some of the germans' best troops there. general roman was one of the best generals. he was then fighting the germans in the desert, and was pushing them up the coast. and our job was to keep them from breaking out. and so that's why we had so many, really, bad, bad battles there. we continued on until we won the battle in tunisia, in that area. and then they told us to take our first division patches off, and have no marks of first division at all. we went back to algiers. and we were camped there for a while around algiers. and then we loaded on the troop ship. and when we got on the troop ship and got off shore a ways, they told us to put them back on. so we put all our first division patches back on, and we made the invasion of sicily at gelid. and that was a little tougher than north africa invasion. the germans had kind of a horseshoe shape. they had panzer tanks in front of us, and hfs almost like we had our heel in the water and toe on the beach. but we continued fighting for it. guys were putting dynamite patches on the tanks. fighting the tanks with bazookas. and the battleships, we had two battleships that were fighting the tanks. they knocked out three tanks. by that time, we got c company in. and they set their guns up and knocked out four tanks. the rest of the tanks left. now, what saved us there on that beach was, the germans made a mistake that time. had they had foot soldiers, with those tanks, i'm not sure we would have made it in. but anyway, we did. when the tanks left, very shortly after that, they brought in 50 loads of foot troops. germans. we had to fight our way on through. but we made it on through sic y sicily, losing a lot of men, and continuing on through until we got to crowina. it was very heavily defended. there was a lot of big boulders and rocks. the germans were all in those. and they had the high ground. so any casualties we had had to be carried eight miles through a dry riverbed, so the germans could see down. we had taken some german prisoners. so we used the prisoners also as little bearers, with a guard with them. it got to a point -- the battle really was not going our way as it should be going. general mcnamara, who was the general back in the states then of the army, came over and he was there. he came up to the eighth station, slightly wounded. i don't know if he did it with his fingernail or not. but anyway, we patched him up and he got a purple heart for it. so when he was there, he asked general allen, are you going to be able to take crowina? general allen said i'm going to take the 16th infantry up. they have what it takes. they'll take that town. we moved up ahead of the 16th to take care of the troops that were fighting there at the time. so he moved the 16th up. and they went in to attack. they had to get in from miles around, because the germans really had it sealed off in the front. so the commanding officer requisitioned 100 mules. and they brought the mules in, took us a while to get them up there, because if the guy that had the mules wouldn't let us have them until he got paid. so we got cash to pay the guy. we got the mules and packed in the machine guns, and the ammunition, all that, in around a ways, around crowina. and attacked the germans. there was really a fight going on there. and major denholm who was setting up the second battalion, had his men up there. and he told them to fix their bayonets. they fixed the bayonets and they charged the germans, and it was a bayonet fight. and we took the town. soon after that, the germans had been trying to get out of sicily, to get as many of their people to sicily, because they wanted to keep their fighting in. just a short time after that, we had 225,000 prisoners give up. so we didn't have food for them. we had no way of -- we put up signs that said prisoners in here. we had a couple of mps. the germans came in, threw their guns and would walk in and sit down in that area. after sicily, we went back to england. and we had to get the replacements there. we lost a lot of men. and some of our best men. and while we were in england, we were doing 50-mile marches, and also making lands in the sands. while we were doing the lands at saps and sands, we had some u-boats. the german u-boats got into that area and sunk two of ourn;umñ s. we lost 700 really good experienced guys there. at that time, the general put out an order that anyone who mentioned 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 them away after that, we continued our training. and we did -- we continued to do more landings. we had a fake army in england that would look from the air exactly like an army should look. they had cardboard tanks, plywood tanks. everything they had looked like big balloons there. they also let the word out, and we had double agents working. and one of the agents was a german agent. but he was really working for us. so they let the word out that patton was going to lead that army on the invasion. and of course, that didn't happen. on d-day, as jack has said, we stayed on the ships the night of the 5th. in the convoy, when we started the convoy in, we had 5,000 vessels of different sorts. the first ones going out in the convoy were the mine sweepers. the germans had mined the channel. and so the mine sweepers were ahead. we went out, we anchored the -- about 3:00 in the morning, ten miles off the shore. and mine was in the first wave. and we were to land on the beach at 6:30. they had 28 tanks that they had on the lcts. and they were supposed to start firing at 5:30. the battleships were firing in, but -- and we had 540-something planes that were going to come over and bomb the beach. they could not do it, because of the low clouds, and visibility. they were afraid they would bomb us, when we were coming in there. and the artillery -- i mean, the battleship artillery, the big guns had to raise their firepower when we started going in at 6:30. and they were firing over the beach. they did kill quite a few cows back in that area. so we had to go down the nets on the ship. the waves were about four to five feet high. some were a little higher. but we went down the nets and got into the higgins boat. they were open on the front. and we had to be very careful getting in there, because you could break your legs if you didn't get in just at the right time. so we loaded without any problems, my group did. we had 31 -- may i have a sip of water? >> certainly. >> thank you. now, if i say something that you don't believe, you look it up on a computer. but anyway, if you ask a question, and i don't know the answer, then you just aren't requesting to get it, are you. but anyway, we went in. as we were going in, we see guys floating in the water. and we had orders not to stop, to pick up anyone. they did have boats that were going around and picking the guys up if they could. the boat on our left got hit by, i would say artillery. the germans were firing 155s. and everything that they could throw at us out there. and -- but they held their machine gunfire. 800 yards off the beach, the dry beach where they had the shales, the rocks about this big around, the germans had put in all kinds of obstacles, as jack mentioned, obstacles. between those obstacles, they had french gates that were iron gates and things out there. these were to try to keep the boats in getting in. our landing cath from getting in. >> the tank would get into that and be stuck, so beyond that, then you had more barbed wire. you had to cross that beach of 300 yards, then you had to get through the first barbed wire. then you had to get through the tank tryout and the next barbed wire. just beyond that on the hillside was the german machine gunners. and like jack had said they didn't let us up until we got in where they could. when we got close enough in with the landing craft, we could hear the machine gun bullets on the raft just like hail. i had been through two invasions and i knew what to expect. i talked to some of the replacements, and said, when you go out, go under the water and crawl as far as you can under the water. the germans -- i knew what they were going to do, they would be firing just at the top of the water so we got in through the obstacles and when the ramp went down on my boat, i had the 31 guys as i said there, the machine gun bullets started coming in on us. i was shot through the arm. there were seven of us that reached the beach, four of us were wounded out of 30. now, when i went off the boat, i went on to the water and for a little bit, and then i came up, by then there were guys exploding. our boat was not the only boat there. not all the men on my boat were medics. that would have been a big mistake to get all the medics on that one boat. i went under the water, i had a bullet through my arm. i knew i had to get the guys out of the water before i could treat them for doing it. i decided to pull the guys out of the water. one guy was hung up on barbed wire. i was cutting him off. the straps were all tangled into the barbed wire, i got him strapped, cut and just about trying to pull him out of there, i had my arm kind of around him, he got hit with a bullet and it killed him right in my hand. so i continued on working. i let go of him, there's so many there, i didn't know if they were dead or just floating. so i let go of him and went to another fellow. and he was alive, 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's nothing to get behind out there. nothing at all. there's one big bolder or rock on the beach. it's where the germans had too much concrete for something, and dunked it there. so i was trying to get the guys to that big rock or boulder to get them behind there. because there was some protection there at the time. because it wasn't pulled tight. i got hit again. i call it fragmentation, went into my left behind my left side and knocked a whole about two, two and a half, three inches in there, right through the bone. then i had to get out of the water, i went to the beach, gave myself a shot of morphine, and continued 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, he got a bullet right through the head and felony dead. so i just had to continue on. now, as i said, some of the medics were killed, and then they come to the aid of company. there's no way to set up an aid station on omaha beach at all. the firepower was so great, that the boats coming in could hardly get in, and the waves were pushing them down, down, down toward that area. and so i was -- continued on, and working and i was getting weaker and weaker. then the next wave come in, g company first boat came in just to the right of where i had come in, and every 31 guys on this boat were killed before they got out. none got off. 31 dead right there. now, that's when things started piling up, jack said, and the guy -- we were getting so many dead on the beach, that they were not able to come in, and the other boats were there. they did get a bulldozer, it might have been jack's tank. but they got a bulldozer in. off the beach area, and all those guys were covered up. later on they were given a proper burial, and put in the american cemetery, some were sent back home. that was the first cemetery in france in world war ii. i was still working. getting back to two hours, two and a half hours. and i had found one of my men that he was doing a good job work i working. so i knew that i was not able to go much further. i told him to try to get all those men together wounded behind that rock, so when the regimental came in, at the aid station, they could get those guys and get to the aid station. so i went back in to get another guy out, and i got a fellow that had lost his arm. the way it's coming, in his arm was trying to go out with the waives. every time it did, he would reach for his arm. i got him, and the arm was really off. and couldn't do much with that, so i was trying to make a decision to just let go of the arm and forget about it, and try to save his life. but he died. he died before i could do anything like that. then i went in one more time, i went in to get the guy. and i got the guy, you have to get him around him like this, and try to get the equipment off, and drag them in. it's hard to drag them in, especially when bullets are flying all over. so i got in, and they -- the next wave was coming in, boats were being pushed around, i don't know why he was in that position. maybe i was in his position. anyway, the boat came in and crushed the lower part of my back. i didn't let go of the guy i had. i crawled out with the guy, crawled out to the beach area and got out there and passed out. and the next thing i knew i was in england in the hospital. >> thank you, mr. lambert. dr. stern. our time is running out so ra d rapid rapidly. can you give us a history of the boys that were such a unique unit. and then, also your experience of landing on d-day plus three what you observed three days after what mr. ford, mr. lambert had described? >> yes, you had just heard such proof of heroism, that i will just lift out some of the incidence in normandy onward, tell those stories, how we tried to ease away from the troops that were ahead of us. avoid as much as humanly possible the casualties of which you just heard. these are heroic tales. i make observations frequently and try to put them into the context of which the gentleman just spoke. he was within the french legion of honor. that is the highest decoration that france can bestowe. and i'm honored to be sitting next to this gentleman. [ applause ] >> the abstract observation thinks this is a generous and deserved gift of the french government that our liaison was not all that smooth. now, 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. and i still remember the slogan that we used. it was a line from a poem of rambo. [ speaking foreign language ] which has nothing to do with warfare at all. now, also about french german, french american relations. there was, you know, general de gall had organized some of the french resistance and later the first french army, and he was very tough to deal with so he had devised the uniform with a symbol from the part of france, lorraine, and so he had the cross of lorraine, and churchill had quipped, the hardest cross i have to bear is the cross of lorraine. now, how did it look for us. we -- our -- we had to get our vehicles and ourselves from bristol to south hampton, which was our launching city. and so the streets of southampton, every street, every ally was one vehicle with an interest one inch to the next perpendicular completely taking over one city in new england. a fairly large sized -- one of the observations i made in 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. and there was a striking symbol. right behind me was a jeep with a captain. as a driver and occupant. and he looked spiffy. he had a uniform on which i think was taylor made. so he went into the house in front of which he was parked. and came out with a hotliner of wat water. and what did he do? he started shaving in the streets of bristol. the owner of the house came out, in typical british accent he said, you know, sergeant, you don't think this gentleman was ever dreaming, he would be saving in the streets of bristol, do you? this was the situation for days upon days proceeding us and afterwards in a preparatory city of warfare before we hit. i will let out one part of our intelligence work, because it was striking and memorable. until 1945, our job was to get strategic information. and later on we were told as well to get the goods on war criminal criminals so through a strange coincidence, one of the really big sized gangsters fell into our hands and we unmasked him and his name was dr. sugar, and he had killed 25,000 people by morphine injections and we were able to get all the evidence and he was tried and executed. there were some of the parts, the time is really rushing on ward, if you have questions on our intelligence work. i think you have gotten a wonderful panoramic view of the careers of two heroic soldiers, and thank you. >> thank you, doctor. >> we do have a few minutes for questions. i'll bring the microphone aro d around. >> you ask the question, and i'll repeat the question into the microphone. we're having technical probles.s >> does anyone have a question from the audience for any of our panelist panelists. >> i had just wondered if mr. ford had been united with his tank at some time? or how he was reunited. >> did you hear him? >> no. >> all four tanks that i was on were lost. and so i had to ride a supply truck for about a couple weeks before i got a replacement tank.

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