>> in the fourth of a five-part look at hollywood directors that made movies for the u.s. during world war ii, we feature william wyler and "thunderbolt." it is about a squadron of fighter planes stationed in italy. he also directed the popular world war ii documentary, "the memphis belle." we speak to author and film historian mark harris. >> a new book out, "five came back: a story of hollywood and the second world war," by mark harris.

among the directors featured as william wyler. mark harris joins us to explains his book and this director during world war ii. enter being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> who was william wyler? >> of the five directors about whom i write, he was the only jew. he was an immigrant from a small town in a region of france, when he was a boy and a teenager, had been either french or under german occupation. when he came to hollywood and worked his way up and he for the war, it became known as one of the most sophisticated and meticulous and mature craftsman in hollywood, he was also very conscious of his status as an

immigrant and a jew who is trying to get family members and friends out of europe before the war crashed down. >> as an immigrant, you featured frank capra in your book. take us back to the mindset of the late 1930's and early 1940's. and how this might have affected the psyche of directors like william wyler. >> one thing that it is hard to recapture now is the idea that before the war, the relationship between hollywood and washington, d.c., and between hollywood and much of america was very suspicious. there were many isolationists in america and in congress.

there were certainly many anti-semites in america at a considerable overlap between isolationism and anti-semitism. the way that played out in the way washington and america related to hollywood was the suspicion that this kind of grubby business, where there was mob infiltration of the unions, where most of the men who ran the studios were first or second generation immigrants. much of them were jewish. a suspicion that these people were not real americans. they were fomenting an appetite for war that they were creating, interventionist propaganda in

their entertainment movies with an eye towards dragging america into war to protect their financial interest and to protect their relatives in the old country. that is the level of paranoia and suspicion and contempt with which many in hollywood were viewed by many in america and by many in congress. the heat was on people like william wyler, who were jewish and under pressure to assert their american identity above all. they would get pressured by warner bros. to make a contribution to the hollywood community chest, a local charity. he said, i can't all of my money , is tied up in trying to get people out of europe.

warner said, i sympathize, but i don't care. it is important for us to show that we care about not just our relatives, but our community here. great pressure to assimilate and -- there was great pressure to assimilate and to be american and great pressure to mute once jewishness or foreignness. >> he became a u.s. citizen back in 1928. he served as a major in the u.s. army air forces at 31945. -- between 1942-1945 and he put together three documentaries. including "thunderbolt." >> he made a really powerful documentary called "the memphis belle." it was the first major wartime documentaries to show what it was like to fly missions in a bomber over france and occupied germany.

unlike many documentaries, there was no restaging. wyler and his men trained to fly. they went over to europe. they flew five missions. they were shot at. all of that commitment led to this documentary, which paid great attention -- he wanted to -- it was made with great attention to verisimilitude area and he wanted to create a you are there experience. >> one of the most important instruments -- >> 1:00 high. >> they are coming around. >> 6:00 up. >> an engine on fire.

>> b-17 out of control at 3:00. >> bailout. >> i see them. >> watch out. keep your eye on them, bill. >> do you see any parachutes? >> that movie and the acclaim for it led to william wyler wanting to make a different movie about another kind of bomber called "thunderbolt." it was during the filming of extra footage, a little bit more footage that he wanted to get of the italian coastline, that he experienced this personal tragedy. he got out of the plane and had gone deaf in the air.

he was shooting in unpressurized cabins and it was freezing cold. the noise from the engines was eardrum shattering and he lost his hearing. overnight, his army service was over. in this unexpected way. the completion of "thunderbolt" became terribly important to him. even though by the time he was , recovered enough to finish the movie, the war was over and there was no use for this kind of propaganda film anymore about u.s. military might. that is why you have the anomaly of a movie like "thunderbolt," which was intended for wartime consumption, not being shown until 1947.

and even then, being barely seen. when he showed it to army brats, -- two army brass, the the general said, what is this movie for? he really had no answer because the timeline of world war ii had outraced him. >> it is a 42 minute film from director william wyler. mark harris, thank you for being with us. now a chance to see the film in its entirety. ♪ ♪ >> this picture was photographed in combat zones by pilots of the

12 air force. they operated automatic cameras in their planes. behind the pilot, shooting forward and back, under the wing, in the wing, it in the wheel well, in the instrument panel photographing the pilot himself. >> the commanding general has asked me to tell you something about this picture. thunderbolt was made in 1944, ancient history. it was made about one fighter bomber group in the italian campaign. the same story could well be

told of the royal air force groups which were dissipated so gallantly in the same offensive. -- which participated so gallantly in the same offensive. it's an american plane. the story belongs to all men who fought for freedom. and it of long way from home. thank you. >> for the italian man in the street or what is left of the street, this is the fulfillment of a promise. the promise of the fascists to build date 20th century roman empire conceived in tyranny and dedicated that some men were meant to be slaves of other men. special victims were the children.

they saw things not meant for children's eyes. from the air, italy is more remote. the airman never sees the face of the people, only the face of the country. he looked down at the mountain and wonder how our men on the ground ever got through. a lot of american blood. volcanos and rivers, of natural barriers made other campaign stuff, too. -- made other campaign stuff,

too. for the airmen, the ground war is remote. the only war you really understand is the air war. you can see a pattern to it. lots of the country has never been touched. little towns who walk the ridges. this one did not matter. when something did matter, that was another story. ♪ this is how we change the face of italy from the air. ♪ they boasted italian trains ran on time. not these. this is what we did to the face of italy. there is a story behind why we did it and how we did it.

the story starts on an island the island of corsica. corsica, rugged, primitive, mountainous, malaria. here they still remember a local boy who put corsica on a map 150 years ago. this island part of france is liberated by the french in september 1943, but can still find a few left on the wayside where they fell. alto airbase, sunday morning. sunday is like monday and monday is like every other day of the week. a working day.

♪ the engines wake you at dawn. getting them ready for the days missions. you can hear the crew chiefs. this is how you live when you are an airplane driver fighting and air war. 20 minutes from the germans in italy. get used to it. you have been washing out of your helmet since july 42. from the holy land to africa, across the desert, or egypt, libya, tunisia. you moved when the infantry moved. 1300 miles. sicily and italy. now corsica.

58 moves into years. this is the best deal you've ever had. call it the country club. when you talk about air power, this is what you mean. it means squadron operations officer. not a desk job area over 170 missions. working toward he is 22. 200. captain howard of iowa. he is a flight leader. he is 23. or gil wyman from louisville, kentucky.

he is boss of the squadron. he hardly looks old enough to vote. lieutenant colonel, commanding. he signed his letterslieutenant colonel, commanding. the old man, he is 24. sunday morning, for the 57th fighter group, three squadrons and a thousand men, another day begins. you could close your eyes and see it this way, spread out like a diagram. home, sweet home, for some time. good steel mat runway. 150 by 6000 feet. the tower callsign is breakneck. there are jokes about that. we share the view with a french -- we shared a few with a french fighter group. we do not speak the same language, but we fly the same airplanes against the same enemy.

we each lost men yesterday. we get along. group commander, lieutenant general archie knight west , point, 1940. he is 27. the first mission today, a briefing right after breakfast. short, to the point. get your escape kit. instructions to get you back. n/a may money. just in case. they tell you about your target. you do this every day. sometimes two or three times a day. gil wyman will lead the show. he lays out the job. that is a nurse's hat, his girl's, he wears it for luck. upstairs, they plan the war.

i want something done, they pick up the phone, you do it. you know there is a reason, it a good one. today, the missions are going out because in italy, the armies have been stopped cold. across the narrowest part of the peninsula. stopped for five months. 100,000 men sweating it out. we could not move, stalemate. march 15, we bombed cassino. our immediate objective. it was a good job of bombing but it didn't work. our infantry did not advance. it was the wrong use of air power. wrong because we were not taking advantage of the airplane's greatest asset, its ability to

get behind the enemy. that is what the air planners wanted to do. get behind him. major general john cannon, uncle joe. brigadier general, the brass upstairs. they said, let's not hit them here. look at them here. let's isolate the battlefield. let's weaken the entire german front by depriving it of supplies, fuel, food, ammunition, reinforcements. they called the plan operation: strangle. this is what we want to do with airplanes. lots of railroads in italy.

keep the trains from getting through. a lot of rivers in italy and lots of bridges. we figured if a train came to one and it was not there, it was tough to get across. the bombers got many important ones, the bridges are long and narrow targets. it took a lot of trips, bombs, planes, men. we started to use a special weapon. a fighter bomber. the p 47 thunderbolt. one engine, one man, one bomb on each wing, extra fuel tanks. they taxi from the dispersal point. line up the squadron. all the pilots have to do is take them away.

if you are a crew chief, you get your own p 47. sometimes you think of it as your personal airplane. you let him fly around in it. no bullet holes. you expect them to bring it back in good condition. after you have been lending your airplane to one pilot for a long time, you get attached to him, too. if you are a pilot, no matter what your rank, what counts is the combat flying you have done. unless you have done plenty, you're a beginner. after you put few missions behind you, then you are promoted.

you become an old sport. if you have 50 or 60 missions. a veteran. the big shots like gil wyman are called wheels. no one knows exactly why. this fellow is a wheel, too. it says so on his plane. richard of tucson, arizona, has 179 missions. your crew chief cannot go along. you always like to tell them what you're going to do. each section is going after a bridge. same old thing. dive bomb at a left-hand turn about and carry the bombs right on down. maybe we will have a good show.

all set to go, but you don't. you wait. you wait for five minutes. time to settle down. relax. you'll be busy later. if you have any thinking to do, now is the time to do it.

take off is always rough. the thunderbolt is a heavy airplane. you've decorated it like a christmas tree. rockets, guns, 500 pound bombs, cameras. >> we are clear to take the runway for takeoff. >> roger, i you are clear to take off. >> the mile of steel runway will shrink to nothing under you. halfway down, you will be committed.

that means you cannot slam on the brakes and stop. once you are committed, you usually go up. first pair. first pair off. second pair taxies out. made it ok.

smith and atwood. come on, get her up. last pair. welby and hunziker. the squadron is airborne.

over corsica and then out to sea. on the deck. 60 miles east to italy. flying from corsica, you fly only 60 miles to get 150 miles behind the german front. turn again at the castle. now you are heading north. into the mountains.

leaders section, red section, black section. the game of follow the leader, the section leader. formation flying. the squadron leader navigates and makes the decisions. he does not tell you what to do, he does it, and you follow. he turns, you turn. he climbs, you climb. climbing still to 10,000 through the clouds.

getting close, you start looking for the target. all of those ravines look-alike. wing man, he is back, keep the formation spread out. there is a checkpoint. follow it down to the river. the first bridge should be down there somewhere.

there it is. passover at and come back and attack it from the opposite direction, one of the tricks you have learned. leaders section goes into a string formation, one plane behind the other. wyman peels off. the rest of the section follows. at two second intervals. last man goes in. pilot does his own aiming.

no bomb site and the plane. -- in the plane. bombs burst from the planes ahead. a couple of mrs.. a direct hit. hope your aim is good. drop your bombs. pull out. blood drains from your head. it blacks out for a second. you are young so comes back fast. you are all right now. leaders section reforms. top cover. watch the red section bomb. a miss. another miss. a hit.

black section goes down. straddles the target. that should do the trick. no more bombs. still plenty of gas, plenty of ammo. go on the prowl. ease down on the deck and see what you can find.

the railroad tracks, not a bad way to find a train. you spot one. give it a few squirts. press the locomotive first. the train cannot move now. let's see what in those boxcars. everybody takes a few passes. try the cars one at a time. might be something interesting in them, and usually is. got it burning nicely now.

take another pass for luck. a lighthouse out there. the strafing spreads the squadron over the sky with every man his own general. it looks like we are out of train. a lighthouse out there. wonder if i have any ammo left? yes. radio station. blowout a few tubes. somebody in that field, i wonder who they are. no friend of mine.

vehicles parked in that farmyard. more in back. must be a headquarters. it looks kind of suspicious. might be something in them. nothing in that one. nothing in that one. could be wrong. what do you know? no one is sweating out 65 squadron. 66 is taking off. no one will swept them out either. there are too many missions, nine for the day. when you don't fly, you have

things to do. you have to make some sort of life for yourself. you improvise an american community. step off the field, it you are in corsica. step back on, you are in america. this is part of war, too, the endless detail of living. the dust is a problem. the dust is good for the laundry business. community laundry, a three-day service. and for the rugged individualist, the water supply, pump, heating unit, washing machine. the sergeant used to tell us in new orleans. -- sell these in new orleans. he was handy.

the barbershop. and for the next customer, always something to read. never more than a year old. a bus line lunchtime special. , for the intellectually minded, it is time for more serious things like practicing your yo-yo. if there is anything you want, do not ask for it. build it. build as though you will be here forever. nobody says you can't have a house. nobody says your squadron cannot have a beach club.

build nobody says you cannot dam one. up a river and make a swimming hole. this american community had everything. when you come off your shift and someone else is carrying a ball, you try to relax and enjoy yourself. in danger a couple of hours a day. the rest of the time, it you are out of it. the beach club is a busy place. so is the mediterranean. mussolini once called it "our sea," but that was yesterday. the yachtsmen, a few odds and ends make quite a boat. the crew chief scrounge parts. scrounge is polite for steal.

old parachutes for sails. when you get a px ration of beer, you drink it. then you look like this. the best deal you ever had. the country club. a lot of land, a lot of sun. your american community has everything except the things you really want. at times she would rather be flying than waiting around and killing time. when you are flying, you do not have that feeling of the days, weeks, months slipping by and leaving you standing still.

these are your years, years to get started and find yourself. your job, profession, or get married, kids, a home of your own. these are the years that count. so you have your pets to give and receive affection. in affairs of the heart, some have peculiar tastes. 66 squadron heading out. 65 squadron heading home.

a meeting in the air. 65, one plain light. when you reform, you noticed it. nobody saw it coming. you will think about it later. now you are waiting for that first sight of home. that is the airbase. you are on your own street. keep the formation tight. when you fly over those other outfits, you want to look good and show them how it is done.

you come in low and peel up. you peel up to reduce speed. space the planes 20 seconds apart for landing. they will circle back when the first flight is down. drop your gear. second flight peels up. third flight will circle again.

this is all the flying the ground crew sees. they like to give them a kick. sometimes you are tired and you land abrupt. it is embarrassing. the colonel is not happy. how will you explain this? after the interrogation, you relax. wrap some donuts and coffee. jive with the red cross girl that meets every mission and fly the show all over again on the ground. wyman goes back to work at being a colonel. a telegram from the war department has to start somewhere. by mid-april, every rail line in

italy was blocked. no train could move south of it. we drew a line of interdiction across the country. south of it, the railroad system was dead. the germans had to keep the supplies moving. they took to the road, so we took to the road. this is what the germans fear most. we do not blame them. when you clobber a highway, it you burn plenty of ammo. 800 rounds a minute. you have eight guns, 106 bullets a second. rockets. those are not just trucks.

you are stopping ammunition before it is fired and you are doing it 200 miles before. -- behind that front. in the weeks that followed from , corsica to italy, it was like a trip to the corner drugstore. you could do it in your sleep. we averaged eight or nine missions a day. the french about as many. the 79th next door. it was good to look up and watch them go by. there were other things. those pillars of smoke. you never knew when you would see them.

that is correct. the p 47 is cooking and there is a man in it. when they hit like this, there is nothing to do but let them burn. why did it happen? stay clear of the exploding ammo. keep landing. you have to. no place to park up there. why did it happen? cut out for a second. the engine. 200 yards from the runway, 200 yards from home. we will never know for sure. all you know is, for some, the war is expensive. you wish the people back home could at least see it. we kept up the pressure and by the beginning of may, the roads were practically closed.

if one man on a motorcycle appeared on the highway by day, he was a dead pigeon. the germans took to the streets. two months after we started, the strangle was on. the germans had barely enough supplies for two weeks and that is when our ground forces attacked. allied troops took casino. we linked up with the beachhead at anzio and in three weeks, we were in rome. ♪ ♪ the men on the ground pushed north and as they moved up from they saw what was done to help them.

10,000 enemy vehicles destroyed or damaged. in every town -- they took the marshaling yard. how many german tanks went out of business because of the gasoline these trains never carried? they advanced and they saw the bridges. how many german shells because they could not get across the river? the ground forces exploited the breakthrough. in plain language they shot and , killed germans. and they ate up the country,

almost 250 miles in one nonstop offensive. the ground forces won a battle, but they still had a war to fight. we were still flying missions. up from first light to last light. only the coming of darkness would stop you. only the coming of darkness would bring the last missions home. then the long work day would end. some in hit the sack early. ♪ and some spent another quiet evening at the club. colonel wyman's country club prayer print drivers -- for airplane drivers. ♪

>> from william wyler, the film released in 1947 titled "thunderbolt." joining us from new york is author mark harris. as the war came to an end, what was next for the director? >> william wyler, of the five directors, was the only one to come back as a disabled veteran. he received a disability check for the rest of his life. something he was very proud of. he poured all of his experience into what i still think stands as a true american masterpiece

and the greatest movie about the aftermath of the war. "best years of our lives" was the story of soldiers coming home. different classes, different ages, different ranks within the war. it is about their adjustment to an america that had gone on without them. the extraordinary thing about this movie was he put himself, with the aid of his brilliant screenwriter, into all three of these characters. one man was a family man who was middle-aged who left comfortable circumstances and was coming back to a wife and children he really did not know that well anymore and trying to find his place back in his world. another of the soldiers was very angry at seeing horrible things in the war and came back really not knowing what he was going to do.

that tapped into the fact that william wyler had a temper that sometimes got the better of him. he was almost court-martialed during the war from throwing a punch at an anti-semitic civilian. the third soldier lost both of his hands during the war. an actor named harold russell played him. who himself was a veteran who had lost both hands during the war. wyler identified with russell because he, too, was disabled and uncertain about how you would regain his place and his life. it is very hard to convey what a seismic impact "the best years of our lives" had. this was the dawn of a new age

of social realism in america. whether it was alcoholism or nervous breakdowns or something that all america was exposed to, the readjustment issues faced by returning veterans and faced by the people they were returning to. by the end of its run, it was the third or fourth highest grossing movie in hollywood history. and swept the academy awards. he went on to a distinguished career making movies. his career goes all the way up to 1970, when he retired just before making the movie he had hoped to be able to make, which is a movie that became patton.

>> mark harris is the author of "five came back: a story of hollywood and the second world war." and among the directors he featured, william miler. thank you for being with us on american history tv. >> thank you. in 1971i think it was august 15, it was one of those moments when richard nixon appeared on national television after -- during bonanza. it was not really my type. he interrupted the show to say we are not going to allow the dollar do the converted into gold. this in many ways is one of the most significant events, the most significant things that have happened in the history of money. it was a very decisive moment people couldally not simply come into fort knox

metaphorically and say errors $100 and i want to get the gold value. that was the consequence of the big bad problem's the american government had got into with his debt. they were trying to fight the vietnam war and pay for the great society. it just didn't work out. there was a deficit, trade deficit. this author and conservative member of government talks about the history of money and its relation to war and how the to impact worldwide free markets tonight at 10:00 on " afterwords." this month on our online book club, we are discussing" the forgotten man," a new history of the great depression. join others to discuss the book at book tv.org - television for serious readers. >> to the british >> to the british, he was a pirate. to the subjects of america, he was there first and greatest naval hero.

would there be a memorial to john paul jones in washington's park? was his exploits limited to daring attacks of british vessels? the answer is probably not. for the scottish-born jones, a place in history books was assured on a single day in 1779. commanding a ship named by benjamin franklin. at the height of the battle, jones delivered his celebrating fighting cry, i have not at least begun to fight. -- i have not yet begun to fight so recounted one of his officers. these words appear on the back of the memorial along with the depiction of him raising the new american flag on the first time on a vessel in service to the united states.

dedicated in 1912, a 10-foot tall bronze statue of admiral is flanked by skull. -- sculpted dolphins. while jones' heroism and skill is beyond doubt, he certainly never said i have not yet begun to fight. the phrase appeared in 1825, almost 50 years after the battle. more than 30 years since john paul jones died in paris, impoverished, and forgotten. >> we believe that all men are created equal yet many are

denied equal treatment. we believe that all men have certain unalienable rights yet many americans do not enjoy those rights. men areve that all entitled to the blessings of liberty yet millions are being deprived of those blessings. not because of their own failures but because of the color of their skin. are deeply embedded in history and tradition and the nature of man. we can understand without rancor or hatred how this all happened but it cannot continue. , the foundation of our republic, forbids it. the principles of our freedom,

forbid it. morality forbids it. tonightlaw i will sign forbids it. >> this weekend, the 50th anniversary of the 1964 civil rights act with president johnson's address to the nation and the signing ceremony and later, hear from reporters who covered the debate in congress, roger mudd of cbs, and the herald tribune's andy glass sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span3. by 1830, annual alcohol consumption in america reached four gallons per person. most in the history of the nation before or since. discusses whylor americans drink so much in the early republic. he also talks about the consequences of so much drinking