>> what more powerful manslaughter fesation of human freedom than the sight of wave after wave of wave of young men boarding the boats to libber ate people. >> 70 years ago took part in the

biggest invasion in history. it was a turning point in the war. it is a place where more than 4500 soldiers paid the ultimate price. >> it was 70 years ago today, june 6, 1944, 160,000 allied troops embarked on the biggest military assault ever. >> they crossed the english channel to storm the beaches of france. the invasion served as a catalyst that toppled the regime and changed the course of history. >> here are live pictures of normandy, france. many of the world leaders are on

hand, including president obama. >> the ceremonies are cull min nating with an international tribute, on the eastern most beach of the five that the allies attacked 70 years ago today. >> welcome to al jazeera america. >> today we are remembering what is known as the longest day, 17 heeds of state and joined by the world war two veterans, and most in their 90s now. >> providing the context as we mark the anniversary, retired army major, and david fellow from the ros rosevelt institute. thank you both for being with us. i want to start with getting the idea of the significance of the 70th anniversary and why so much

attention is drawn to this particular day. >> well, as you know, this generation is often referred to as the jagreatest generation an fought for the second world war to secure a world based on what he said were four fundamental freedoms, freedom of speech, worship and freedom from want, and freedom from fear, so we don't have to go through this conflict again. and so the men that hit the beaches were there for that purpose and to end this terrible war and in a sense launch the beginning of the end to a new period in world history. >> mike, the ceremonies that we are looking at this morning, they are happening on the beach, where the third british infantry made the landing and very few casualties compared to the other

a beaches and looking at the ceremony at a place that is not associated with the incredible death toll on that day. >> i think it is a classic example of allies standing shoulder to shoulder in a pivotal day june 6, 1944, and a repelling the german threat at that time and putting the mission together and the courage any soldier that was in one of the boats that was storming that shore that morning you can't imagine what was going through their minds and all the trains, the equipment, their prayers, all the things they carried with them that day and when the ramp closed and what were they thinking. >> it didn't initially go well on that beach. the first couple of hours going very poorly.

how much did the individual soldiers' courage matter? >> yes, the commander thought about withdrawing them. that is a what the commander has to determine what is going on. the division fought like they never fought before. it is coming back, fights this battle and progresses forward into the beach. >> the reason it went badly there, the cloud cover, so the bombers missed the targets and the air troopers dropped in the wrong place and actually more german resistance than they had anticipated. >> one division in particular reenforced there. across the front not the type of resistance they thought. the general had taken the leave. we used as a principle of war, surprise o dasty and that part

of the beech there were a lot of germans. >> they thought that the allied invasion going to the north. >> they tried to deceive the germans. lots of radio traffic, they had the general visit there and make a formal visit to the area as if visiting the troops. that deception was successful. let's not forget too the german communication lines were cut, so a lot of difficulty on the german part to figure out what was going on in the initial hours. >> i love surrounded by three world war two buffs on this day. i want to go live to dana lewis, draw us a picture, what is the

mood like there today. >> the mood up and down this 50 mile stretch of beach has been incredible this week. a lot of the veterans are coming back and billing the tours as the last reunion. the last trip, these guys are in the 90s and who by the way despite what people are saying otherwise, they have chris cal clear memories on what happened and the tragic events that occurred around them and fighting their way on to the beach 70 years ago. we flew in a transport plane yesterday and actual plane in the first wave of the aircraft dropping the paratroopers on the beaches on the very early morning hours, and in a plane the pilot that flew the plane on

d-day and a paratrooper that jumped from it. >> lying up against the wall like woodpiled on top of each other, if you can imagine it, two, three layers of soldiers, leaderless, they have been landed in the wrong spot and department know where to go, what to do, and they just decided the best way to protect my life is lie up here against the sea wall. >> we should tell you that was john ron who was a soldier who came with the ranger battalion on d-day and came upon the shores and that interview as you listen to it, he said, we were being shot at and could pt hear the bullets. crouched under the five feet of the shoreline wall and stacked on one another as he said there, and john, how in the world did

you motivate the men, he was a captain to go ahead and attack the cliffs above them and take out the german guns, how'd you drive them up there. we led them. but in most cases it wasn't necessarily officers, just a young soldier, maybe not necessarily a ranked soldier and stood up and started to move and showed incredible courage, their lives clearly on the line, as so many soldiers were dying around them. incredible stories here. >> incredible stories, dana, and there are vivid memories when i have spoken to world war two veterans, i imagine in the aftermath of the war it is difficult to talk about. i want to go live now to see that the french president has just arrived for the ceremony. the internarnl ceremonies are

getting underway. 17 world leaders of the nations that participated in the allied effort will be at this ceremony. he's one of them. so is president putin. >> dana, looking at the live pictures of him arriving there on the red carpet, have you seen symbolism they are putting in this or more perhaps simply a gathering to remember? >> well, it is very choreographied. you are going to see acts and actors that are participating and personalities and i think that the first part you will see that they go back and talk about auk pags. this land was occupied feignfully, brutally by the nazi's and then you have this

joyous event, liberation, the town was obliterated in the war and taking 30 years to rebuild that and funded by the germans and 70,000 people there had to move out and many died in the bombings and yet rejoiced for theal lies to bring them libber ration and that is the theme here over and over again. it is a sad event for the veterans that come back, but for the people in the towns and villages up this 50 mile coast where the landings occurred in the small towns, they are partying this week and out in u.s. army uniforms and recreated the jeeps and the vehicles and there are american flags on every single store you go through. the british flags, the canadian flags and people want to just

say thank you. that is what the ceremony is about today. >> so amazing to watch the pictures and expressions on the faces of the veterans as they meet the french president and the leaders to come. to the point, we think of normandy and d-day as a one day battle, in fact, mike, over the first three months of the battle of normandy, 52,000 people were killed. >> very difficult, the breakout not taking for months after that, into july and establishing a beach head and launch the major allied attack. but they accomplished the first day objectives and taking weems to get them moving. >> to logistics of this is intraordinary. you had 800,000 men crammed into the beach and thousands of vehicles. the allies laid a cross channel pipeline to supply oil and of

course, they towed these two harbors, the mullberries, the cursor to the oil rigs. >> you hear about the superiority playing a role. taking us to the present day and the gratitude that people express on a day like this. the president paid tribute to the u.s. veterans, let's hear what he had to say earlier. >> what more powerful manifestation to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave after wave of the men boarding the boats to liberate people they have never met. >> it is a pilgrimage. why has it become so significant for presidents to go for the anniversary? >> well, i mean, i think in a

sense what you are seeing is that it is sort after hallowed ground. it is a place where the soldiers and the veterans risked their lives for the human values that we talked about earlier. rosevelt said that day for these men are lightly drawn from the waves of peace they fight to end the conquest and liberate and justice arise and tolerance and good will among all thy people. for the people of europe and living under the oppression of the nazi's, this was just an incredibly important moment where they can finally see the possibility of liberation from this terrible journey they were living under. >> oar you just saw the president elect of ukraine being

greeted by the french president. that was a last minute invitation. he's being sworn in and inaugurated on saturday as the president. >> for the viewers just joining us, these are live pictures of the international ceremony to mark d-day and the international leaders are arriving one by one and greeted by children, local children, to walk along the red carpet and past the french honor guard and greeted by french president and at that point they are each making their way and talking with the veterans that served on that day and waiting for them and taking their seat and the ceremony is going to begin. there you see the french president stepping up and greeting the leader of ukraine. >> that is tony, the australian prime minister there and shaking

hands there. going back to what you were saying about the importance of fdr about how the world we live in today is really fdr's world. >> that is very true. d-day is very important to that. this is the moment we projected the u.s. military might and power to that continent. it is important to remember about the second world war, we forget that the united states was in isolation. we had an arm ranked 19th in the world. the american build up for the second world war is a story in and of itself. rosevelt it was important to stay engaged.

>> here is the controversial question and this was a war that couldn't have been won without americans coming out of their shell. do the americans today determine the world order in the way they did in world war two? '>>the world has changed since world war two and the fall and rise of the soviet union, and that changed in the last 20 years and different foreign policy now and a president now aligned to a foreign policy like eisenhower in the 50s, here is the guy that ran the war for world war two, he saw the great destruction that took place and wanted to shift that a little back wards. >> canadian prime minister arriving and they experience d-day a little differently, they were part of the 1942 effort, that was a failure for theal lies. that shaped some of the plans to get to the beaches a few years

later, what are your thoughts as you look at the canadian prime minister and the canadian experience on that day? >> they stood shoulder to shoulder with us on the battle and learned a lesson in blood, we learned that, and unfortunately we learned the hard way with youth and they returned and were critical in gaining the beach head there for that day. >> as far as arrivals, david, your thoughts on the german leader that is here. germany of course tens of thousands of their troops as well. they were soldiers and fighting for the nazi regime, what is going through the minds of the germans on this day? >> it is interesting she's there. it is indicating the change that came through the end of the

second world war. not to return to this kind of violence struggle among the nations and rather draw together and unify the continent. not only economically but also in terms of their political and moral beliefs. so it is a very important fact that the german leader is on the beach this morning. >> you just saw the exhibiti commissioner there as well. this is in commemoration of this events. this is highly politicalized in the prior weeks. especially with president putin. some are saying this is a

distraction. >> you have to remember it is all part of the process. you have to take the good with the bad and understand that had the second front not opened up, germany was forced to reallocate the reforces. >> between 1941 and 44, the bulk of the fighting was handled by the red army. 2 f thousand russians lost their lives. >> what was the relationship between rosevelt and stallin? >> there is a lot of politics there as well. rosevelt is operating on two fronts, one is the reality of the soviet power. soviet power is there to stay. so you know, there's a lot of hard hitting political

negotiations going on, the reality of the events into eastern europe. these are things that rosevelt couldn't change. on the other hand he's working with them in the hope over time that relationship would e meal yat. the hope is long term peace. you won't have peace in the world if the russians and the americans are fighting over earn europe. knowing full well it is not perfect. >> we have the belgium leader here. >> i won't try to say his name. >> this is the belgium representative. this is from normandy, france,

on the beach, 70 years ago today. the leaders are arriving there and the ceremony is going e be gin. 26,000 russians lost their lives and fair to say it could have been more if not for d-day, if the germans stopped the d-day, they could have slowed the russian advancement. >> that is the case. we were not supposed to fight two wars simultaneously. the american part in this war is equally important and equally enormous, when it came to fighting the actual german army that happened in large part on the eastern front all those years. >> fascinating conversation. we are taking a quick break before we continue with our

coverage of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of d-day. we have a time line here at 2:00 a.m. on this day. first dom -- bombers take off to atash the beach head.

>> welcome back to the continuing coverage of the 70th anniversary of d-day. we are looking at the time line right now.

nazi admiral orders shore batteries to prepare for the invasion. let's take a live look now at the international ceremony that is set to get underway at sword beach. the international leaders are starting to arrive. they are greeted by the french president and seated for the ceremony here. we are going live now to mike who is on, i believe, at the american cemetery in normandy, mike, what can you tell us about what you have seen and heard, what the vibe has been like in the past few days there? >> well, i will tell you i have been travelling with the president across europe, this is the third and final stop for the president and now to the ceremony. it is a brilliant day here in normandy. for a los of folks and americans

across the generations a little younger, the point of reference for all of this is the first 20 minutes of saving private ryan and the scenes there, the appalling scenes there, and some of us over a certain age the compelling point of reference is ronald reagan's address in 1984 and sort of turned that into a morality play about the soviet union and the role that the role that the soviet union played and the sacrifices that the russian people had made. president obama appeared here today at the 70th anniversary. his second time here. he was here five years ago in 2009 and talked about the sacrifices that many had made and what is interesting about president obama, when he talks in personal tones about his personal family history, that's when he becomes the most notable

moments in his speeches and talked about his grandfather and flying in and marine one coming down the coast and seeing the english channel behind me and coming in over a tremendous crowd stretching back a quarter mile beyond the stage and many folks and many veterans and their families and many with great grandchildren here. i wish my grandfather were here. he fought in patton's army and seeing the crowd and the stark remind they are -- reminder of the sacrifices that the americans made. he wished his grandfather was here to share this with him. those with relatives or friends and folks we know that share in this experience, and dana is

sharing in the experience at sword beach, when you see how proud these old folks now, it is a dwindling number of individuals, are to be here -- >> mike, mike, i just want to cut you off for a second. we have been talking all week that president putin is attending the ceremony and he's walking in now on the red carpet. so i want to talk a little bit about that with you, mike, because the president -- >> we have news there. >> he's had meetings with david and merckel and talk about the significance of the presence at this ceremony. >> well, well, we have a little news. there is a group of reporters that travels with the president.

it says this, president obama and president putin did speak with each other on the margins of the leaders lunch, informal conversation, not a formal bi t bilateral meeting. we are getting more information from the white house staff when some of this is concluded. but there is a lot of speculation on whether they have any kind of interaction at all, even thougher in in the same room twice on this day. we can also report that putin was seen speaking with the new ukraine president elect that is being sworn in tomorrow, that is encouraged by many of the leaders this those bilateral meetings with putin. >> mike, the lunch with the leaders, putin and obama, set

the stage for us. we are looking at the live ceremony at sword beach and it is east of where you are at omaha beach and in the midst of the events, president obama spoke at the beach, and lunches and what are the other events where the leaders are rubbing elbows? >> well, i think that this is a principle thing. what you are seeing at the lunch, closed to the press, we have not gotten pictures of that and the interactions here, these 17 leaders that are gathered at sword beach. that is the extent of it. leading up to that, we had meetings between putin and the other leaders and to the cause of pressures him to reverse the course in ukraine or else. that is what they have been saying since the summit in

march. putin has not changed the course but making gestures and giving ammunition in europe to get the others to ease up and not go forthur in punishing russia. >> you are in normandy, on the beach, where the greatest number of casualties were, it is always so interesting, mike, to talk to the people there ob the topography and what you are seeing and what is standing out and what it was like 70 years ago? >> looking out on a day like today, it is a beautiful spring day, it is a tranquil and beautiful spot. you look to the right, further to the east there, and you see the bluffs that we have seen depicted in the movies and heard the stories time and time again from the veterans and heard

today and others, and the carnage that took place because the germans had a position in the bush. and looking at today, it is beautiful. a beach you would like to take a walk. how is it possible that this scene was the scene of such bloodshed and unspeakable cruelty and savage warfare. >> he's 45 miles to the west of the ceremony now. sword beach is where the event is happening in the next two hours. the d-day stats are staggering. the largest military assault in history. most from the united states, great britain and canada. 11500 aircraft supported the landing, 6939 vessels in the

operations. mike, when we look at the statistics and you have been in the military and understanding the logistics, put into perspective the logistics of this operation. >> given the amount of soldiers that mohhed forward and had to be supplied once there was incredible. it took hundreds of millions of metric tons to stream over from england once the invasion started. that was the key, they had to get more of the beach head and move inland and the logistics had to come from england. if that stopped, the forces wouldn't have the ammunition. >> if you are a soldier about to land on the beach, do you know what you are getting into, do you know that 30,000 german soldiers are lying on the other

side there. >> you have the training, these are soldiers that trained for 18 months to two years prior to this and tried to assimilate the situations. soldiers were killed a month before in a practice invasion in england. 800 soldiers were killed in that accident. again, in that situation in combat you rely on training and leadership and everyone has a job to do and you do the job. >> it is a beautiful day there. but it was pretty bad weather 70 years ago. >> it was. >> we have talked about how they had a small window of time. >> they did. they took a real risk. it is important to remember this was not a done deal. eisenhower penned a letter some time before and taking full responsibility if it was a

disaster. churchhill said to his wife do you realize only 20,000 people could be dead in the morning. but the bravery of the men is int extraordinary. i was part of the launch of the hbo with the launch and those were very, very brave men. >> that is queen elizabeth arriving to the international ceremony there. >> thinking about 70 years ago. each of the individual landing points they were disconnected. there are the beaches. they were disconnected essentially and part of the challenge at the time, in the initial hours and days was try

to connect them and prevent a counter attack from the west and the south. >> within the landing areas they were disconnected. they had challenges within the units fighting side by side and the key aspect is the airborne operation. think of the concept of putting the individuals in gliders and crash landing behind the enemy lines in the dark in order to come out and gain the tactical advantage there. never had been done before and again to the level of combined armed perspective is amazing. >> a lot of the gliders missed the target. >> they drown, think about that, you are in an airplane and jumping and you land in the water and the soldiers drowned in some of the areas. >> one of the military challenges they were not sure of how deep the water was.

the water was deeper than they thought. >> bad decisions were made. they thought they were close enough to the beach. when you go to combat you find out who paid attention and who did the training, you have to rely on the ten to 12 people surrounding you and if they bail on the mission, unfortunately there are catastrophic results. >> we talked about reagan speech. american soldiers their job was to climb the cliffs 30-40 meters high, a hundred feet, the germans are shooting down on them. >> yes, the rangers, the lure of what the units still have today for these types of missions, they scaled cliffs, 90 degrees from where they were, the men were killed and they continued to press. >> i want to go live to sword

beach, that is where dana lewis is reporting this morning. da dana, you are hearing the guests talk about the blood, the glory, experienced by the thousands of soldiers that stormed that beach, do you get a sense of that as you are standing there 70 years later? >> well, i think we get a sense of that by talking to the veterans who the memories seem like yesterday and this daunting task of coming in. we talk about a landing and a soldier coming off a boat or airplane and some doing that over and over again. we talked to a veteran and he was a boat driver and bringing the soldiers in on the ship and some getting stuck on the sand bars and some hit by ar till ri

and all the men inside of the tanks and he came in and dropped the soldiers to the beach, they were scared, sick, they had been at sea for hours and he would try to take the wounded off and park the boat, run to the beach and take the wounded back to the boat and did that over and over again. it is stunning. when you talk also, we talked with the paratroopers and they tell you the tales. they came in from england early in the morning, ahead of the assault, and went behind the enemy lines and started getting hit by the ground fire. a lot of those airplanes caught on fire. they crash landed. many of them with paratroopers on them. the paratroopers just wanted to get out of there.

president obama mentioned a few veterans today, one we talked to and spoke to a couple of days ago, he was a member of airborne and in the aircraft and set to jump, somebody said to him, look left, look right, one of you is not going to see daylight. not very encouraging thing to hear as you are about to go out the door. he went down -- the aircraft scattered, turn left, turn right. they were miles away from the landing zones and all of these guys, they are not coming at once, suddenly were separated. some of them landing without the packs, without rifles. he crawled into a ditch and waited until the morning. they had clickers at the time and tried to communicate and find other units. he was not reunited with his unit for days.

he was back up on the beach and joined up with the 82nd airborne and faukt on. incredible stories from the men. he's on his 12th trip come bag here. he's 86 years old. he lied to get into the military and came here when he was 16. >> dana, you are there, in sword beach, the eastern part of the invasion 70 years ago today, what strikes you about the beach, about the challenges and of course, not facing as many challenges on sword beach as to the west, what jumps out to you? >> well, i have been up and down the beach at all of the landing

zones with the veterans and you hear about that great run from the water's edge to the cliffs and them trying to take cover. it really depended on how early they were on the beach. the tides going in and quite dramatic. some of the guys were pretty lucky and others had a long stretch of beach to cover and getting to the cliffs, and as you know, a lot of them never got there. the topography was daunting. the paratroopers spread so far and fighting through the towns. it is a battle plan that very quickly unravelled and the only success and victory coming from the individual soldiers that had the courage and doing it any way. this is not what we trained or or described to us, we are taking the guns out and pushing and engaging in the towns and

villages down the coast. so you know, amazing that they were able to burst the topography, remember the germans had set up the sites. they didn't have to fire and adjust. they knew exactly if the americans and the british and the canadians came in here, the guns were set and hitting by cross fire, and the guns were not just on the cliffs and looking back. they were a couple of miles back. they were well inland and set up to hit the beach. it was difficult to get to them and take them out. >> the courage of the soldiers is a continuing theme. and a bit of luck at well. we are taking a break and leaving you with a time line here 4:30 a.m. 70 years ago, first p-47s take off.at we do.

>> al jazeera america. >> looking at live pictures of president obama greeting the veterans at normandy.

we'll see if we can listen to what the president is saying to the veterans. take a listen. >> thank you for the service. good to see you. thank you, sir. thank you, sir. good to see you, sir. thank you so much for your service. very nice to see you. thank you. >> a cut away of president putin, which we found out about 20 minutes ago exchanged words with president obama at the lunch that the world leaders held. we don't know what was said there.

putin also met with the president elect of ukraine. >> stephanie, it is interesting to see the president talking to the veterans. a number of white house officials say that one of the great satisfactions he has is talking to the veterans and the people putting their lives on the line. that is one of the things he's looking forward to most about this ceremony, early this morning meeting the u.s. veterans. you are seeing the french and british and the collection of theal lies that were there. our nation's thanks to the servicemen and women that served 70 years ago. >> there was an editorial in the new york times this morning, he questions whether president

obama em bodies the nation's commitment to the red lines, are the guarantors of global security. he mentions the hesitance to intervene in syria, i want to bring back our guests, senior fellow national security project mike, and david senior fellow of the rosevelt institute. major, let me start with you, this president has gotten criticism over the foreign policy, especially in the recent months with syria, egypt, is it a fair comparison to bring these things up on this day? >> probably not. the focus should be on the soldiers that fell on june 6th. he's going to be open to the criticism especially when getting together with the world leaders. it is highlighted.

obviously what russia did in ukraine is unexpected by us. that is part of the criticism to the president, we are reactive on the foreign policy, move tolling the middle east, back, and we have so solve iran and the reactivity is to it. >> i agree today, the president is here representing the united states. he's not necessarily representing the u.s. foreign policy today. having said that, again, so much symbolism here and we appreciate it that, there may be the opportunities whether the lunch or the small talk, but sometimes the decisions are made during the small talk with the little asides and the comments between the leaders. >> that is true. franklin rosevelt was a genius

at that. he was not found on the empire. he add a dinner with the king himself and had the press there. so you know the use of symbolism is not unusual. >> looking up and seeing putin and president obama and cameron, what type of history buffs are there, are they well versed or moderately well versed? >> it is interesting, we are now -- to the question of the 70th anniversary and the significance of this. this generation is really coming to an end. president george h. w. bush was

a part of this. rosevelt was the commander and chief, that generation is ending now. they may be history buffs, they may know the history but don't have the same link that that generation had to the past. so there is a shift. you are starting to see a shift in the way that the past is being treated by these leaders. >> it is not just president obama, putin, french president, none of them served in the military. >> that's right. that's right. so we are moving beyond that generation. even among the american people themselves, the whole crisis over ukraine has strong links to the second world war, and what happened in eastern and western ukraine, these are deep historical questions and very serious questions and sometimes volatile questions. from a russian perspective, if a

veteran of world war two, the issues of what happened to ukraine is important to you. >> as you say, this generation, the greatest generation is leaving us and what should the younger generations remember about this battle and the challenges of warfare? >> first and foremost, they were fighting not for greed or lost of conquest but to bring an end to the horrible conflict and see justice in the world and establish the four freedoms. the message of the second world war but particularly by the american soldiers that thought was the idea of they were essentially fighting for these values, that was the war, we are not trying to conquer people. they were willing to die for those. >> yes, willing to die for those values.

that is the extraordinary message. people of europe have not forgotten that. >> that generation didn't have the luxury of looking over the horizon to see the world they have created. i think, i have stood on the bluffs there on normandy and said to myself the sacrifice to come upon the shore and let the ramp drop and fight as a unit to in order to secure the liberties and freedoms that we have today. that one in particular was the beginning of the end to the great horror. >> that is not an overstatement. that was the beginning of liberalization. >> absolutely. for the young people today, i was with some of the veterans on normandy some years ago and when arriving to the beach, thousands of french school girls were there with clickers and that is

how the airborne identified themselves at night with the clickers. dutch families take care of the american and canadian graves. the children do that. they don't want to forget. it is particularly important to come together and put the differences aside. >> is it more removed from the americans, the war on this front was not fought on our land? >> absolutely. the casualties are much, much less. we lost a tremendous amount of life, no one belittles that. but, you know, if in europe or the east, it was very difficult. >> we have the reason that this particular vehicle is on the red carpet, it has queen elizabeth, he's 88 years old and they have had the vehicle roll in to that

corner where she be greeted. the british gene is 88 years old and laid a wreath last night. listen to the crowd's reaction. [applause] there is a debate about the number of british military commanders who at the time thought d-day was not necessary and bomb the germans into submission and a controversy about the tackics. >> yes, the way it worked was actually bradley was the

commander while on the water, so the speak, when they hit the ground montgomery took over. that command of control was important. >> we'll turn up the audio here and hear what the queen is saying to the veterans. [applause] >> such an amazing picture we are looking at. >> major, i'm actually curious, when you talk about the conventional war, i grew up carrying the military post 9/11 and how different is this for a

soldier? >> the battlefields are cleaner, the technology is incredible, lase and blaze. back then you had to be smart with the weapon, anticipate, good at map reading and all those things are taken out of the hands now, technology has taken place. >> how important was the role of british royalty in terms of great britain and the morale? >> very important. rosevelt invited the queen and king of england to visit the united states. the king laid a wreath at the tomb of george washington.

in june of '39, he was trying to encourage a special relationship between the british and the american people that emerged throughout the war. >> we are taking a quick break and back with the ceremony again. we are looking at live pictures out of normandy, france. we leave you again with a time line. 70 years ago. 70 years ago.