france at the crash site commemorating his sacrifice and bravery for going ahead with you -- he could have gone home but volunteering for one last mission in support of the cause for which he had to give his life. the key to this gallery is that starting in march of 1944, we begin to wrestle control of the air away from the luftwaffe, and only if we can gain control of the air can we launch the normandy invasion on d-day. we do not know what that day will be yet in the plans, but it is going to turn out to be three months to the day after march 6, 1944. >> [indiscernible] march 6, 1944.

>> each week, american artifacts visits museums and historic places. next, in the second of a two-part program, we travel to new orleans to visit the national world war ii museum's "road to berlin" exhibit. this continues the experience in the european theater beginning with the d-day invasion. >> we are in the normandy landings gallery, a very special gallery because our museum was originally founded in the 1990's as the national d-day museum by a congressional charter. we were charged with telling the story of the entire american ,xperience in world war ii

white was thought, how it was one, what it means today. get to thelery we big moment where the united states and her allies had to win d-day,.ticular day, the hind us is our film narrated by tom brokaw which gives our visitors the overarching story of d-day at normandy. but next to me, over here on the exhibit a very special this is an exhibit case long,ted to ernie pyle's thin line of anguish column. ernie pyle actually walked the beaches at normandy where the american forces landed. items ofw all of the

four left ashore by the troops on the beach. we have in this case is actual artifacts and sand from utah and omaha beaches. pyle writes about what he found. you can see he talks about she polished, diaries, bibles, hand grenades toothbrushes, razors. he particularly singles out in his column writing paper. he talks about how young men who gave their lives at normandy, intended to write a lot of letters back home. the other thing that they had an awful lot of was cigarettes. he said that packs of cigarettes had been handed out to the troops before the landings began, and he made the comment that a line of cigarettes up and down the beach, marked the high water of this sacrifice there at normandy. it is a moment for our audiences

after the film to pause and reflect about what was going on in the world d-day june 6, 1944 , was the day that hitler could have driven our forces back into the waters of the english channel. he failed and from that point forward, we were on our way to the road to berlin and ending the third reich. >> 200 yards away. -- iles down the beach >> on this wall we have the civilian, military, and political leadership's reaction to the normandy landings starting with ann frank, of course. young jewish girl hiding in an attic in holland where she writes in her diary, could it be true that forces have landed and we would be liberated. dwight eisenhower weighs in, the supreme commander, saying we

have landed and the hour of liberation is approaching. but winston churchill the prime , minster of great britain, as the sobering note that although we had a successful landing, in fact, we had a very long way to go. we are better than 700 miles away from berlin itself. as you can see by this map here, we have managed to achieve a total -- toehold on the peninsula in france. we are along the beaches, but we are also bottled up facing a very hard, serious fight to try to move through northern france before we can get traction on defeating nazi germany. we are now in the race across france galleries in which we tell the story of the allied advance across northern france up to operation cobra in july of

1945. we were bottled up in the hedgerows. behind me, you can see how these across francews held up our military advancement. were so thick, there for thousands of years that you could have a german , soldier on one side of a hedgerow three feet away, the two wouldn't know that they were there. tanks, in fact, could not go through these hedgerows until we built some clippers on to the front of the tanks. american ingenuity. bustingowed us to start through towards the liberation of france. the liberation of paris is the second chapter in the race across france. then at the end of the gallery, we tell the story of operation market garden. our daring attempt to try and end the war before christmas of 1944 through a parachute drop

that comes up one bridge too short in holland. to my right over here as we move through the gallery, we have some artifacts very interesting. marie louise, a young french woman in normandy was a member of the french resistance. she was spying on the germans. and so, here we have a german typewriter that she used to write notes to send information to the allies as well as a crystal radio receiver next to it. which she used to send out illegal messages i should say rather than send out listen to , the bbc, legal radio -- illegal radio broadcast, illegal under the nazi machine. we have an interesting piece in here as well. you may notice this pink and red liberation sash. this was given to an american

lieutenant in september of 1944 . on the back is written "viva liberation." it symbolizes the outpouring of joy that the french people had at the allies began to move through their country and liberate them from nazi rule. but, down here on the end is a special artifact that we have. it is the medal of honor that was awarded to walter eelers. he was a friend of this museum. he passed away by a year ago. he was the last, at the time, medal of honor recipient from the normandy landing. he received his medal of honor for actions that took place about three days after the initial landings. and then, besides the medal of honor, is a photograph of his mother that he carried in his

backpack. walt ehler came from a very religious family in kansas. he promised his mother he would not drink or curse while he was over here. he is going to be moving through france a day after he had been involved in a terrible incident when one of his comrades was shot and to protect him, walt is going to go and try and rescue him. the germans shot at him and the bullet went through the portrait of his mother that he was carrying in his backpack. despite this, he was able to fight off the germans and basically carry his comrades to safety. so, for those actions, quality -- walter ehlers was given the medal of honor opinion however, i need to mention that walt had a brother named roland ehlers

who also landed at normandy on june 6, 1944. while he waso walt performing these wrote actions his brother never made it to the , beach at normandy. his brother was killed when his boat was coming in was hit by a shell fire. walt did not know that at the time. he found this out some days later and so, this was of course, terrible experience for him. very bittersweet. over here in this case, we have items that are dedicated to the average g.i. experience in france and the european theater. some of this is material that i think the public would expect to see such as gun cleaning kits, oils and so on. when you are out in the field moving with an army, when you think about it, there's all

kinds of other things that you need. such as selling kits, prayer books, razors, old spikes, matches, cigarettes, all are in here. what do you do for entertainment? we have things that are simple as tickets for hot coffee, free hot coffee. the officer's club. you can see as well in this case something that's a little interesting. item number 26 is a can opener. unlike most can openers most people have probably seen this , is something specifically designed for the field. you can see in the case, of course, cooking equipment that troops would use as they move d through advancing against the nazis. in the race across france, after operation cobra, the united states and allied forces are

going to liberate paris in august of 1944. this was a high point for a lot of people who thought that the industry war might be drawing near. maybe we would be able to get all the way to berlin by christmas time. however in this case over here, we have a little artifact that reminds us that things get lost along the way. dog tag of john mack. an african-american man, was from centreville, louisiana. not too far from us near in new orleans. he was a member of the red ball express. the red ball express basically was a convoy of supply trucks. you've got a moving army, george patton think about him racing across france. you need to be able to keep up with them food and gasoline. keeping your troops moving. john mack lost his dog tags on the beaches of normandy when he came ashore as part of the red ball express. over 70 years later, just a couple of years ago, his dog tags were rediscovered by a

farmer in france who then sent them to the secretary of state's office here in louisiana. he presented us with the dog tag. so, in a sense, john mack and his dog tags came home 70 years later. here in the case as well you can , see the red ball express is badge is what they wore on their uniforms. we are now moving into a bunker. a bunker that is supposed to be a german bunker. basically, after the failure of market garden, september of 1944 where we famously came up one bridge too far, too short from being able to invade in northern germany, people still hope that the war might be over if not by christmas, maybe a little later. some of these people included omar bradley and dwight eisenhower. unfortunately, this was a

terrible misjudgment. as we got closer to the german border, basically, resistance stiffened. in this german bunker, we learn the story of the battle of forest. a brutal nasty affair that held us up and should have let us know that things were not going swimmingly. on top of the bunker, concrete here, you can see a fabrication of church steeples and buildings. what the germans used to do from the bunkers was actually use chalk and markers to write out the distances of these various landmarks in the landscape around them. this is how they would zero in and use their artillery and weapons to fire on advancing

forces. over here in the bunker, we have a map used by the third armor ed division. so, this particular map was the property of lieutenant belton cooper who went on to write a memoir about what it was like to fight in tanks. his memory was entitled "death traps." you get an idea of the terrain and fast-moving advancement that the allied forces were making with tanks and through the war up until this point. as i mentioned, we were slowing up on the german boarder at this point, and things were about to get a lot worse. in december of 1944, adolph hitler is going to launch a last

ditch effort to try and win the war for nazi germany. his strategy was to launch an offensive against the american and british forces on the western front. this map depicts that attack. hitler thought what he could do would be to divide the british forces to the north from the american forces to the south. you can see the goal of this offensive by the dotted red line and the fort of antwerp all the way to the north. if hitler could break up into the english channel, he thought that the americans and the british would be forced to come to a political solution, a political agreement to end the war. in this battle, the largest that has ever been fought by the united states army in its history, better than 600,000 americans were engaged. you can see our lines famously

bulged, but they did not break. however, you have the story of the siege of bastogne that is going to be depicted here most famously. george patton is going to come up and say bastogne from the south after it has been surrendered. this is what americans recognize "patton," where terry was asked by the germans to surrender and he famously said to them, one word, nuts. so, in this case here, you get a sense of how logistics are so important in war. particularly with things like gasoline. up here we have a german gas , tank where you can see the sf -- ss markings on the side. germans were running out of gasoline.

we, however, we not only have to deal with moving mechanical vehicles, tanks and trucks around, but also more importantly, probably, men, troops. and you can see in this case as well, tankers boots. these were worn by major corbyn during the battle of the bulge in belgium. in the end, we are going to prevail. as i mentioned, our lines balls -- bulged but they do not break. however, it comes at a tremendous cost in blood. over 19,000 americans are killed in this fighting that goes on for six weeks. so, one last item i thought i would point out in this case here is a souvenir nazi flag that was captured by members of the 101st airborne division.

some of the airborne members signed their names to it. you can see in particular sam jewel on here from kennett, missouri, and other members where they managed to hold out. patton is going to be able to come in and provide them relief. and we are going to push the germans back towards germany. we're now headed into the heart of the battle of the bulge gallery here at the national world war ii museum. you can see around me, we have an environment once again it's very hostile to our forces. 30 degrees below is the weather. snow all over in this forest. one of the things that made fighting in the forest rather dangerous was that the germans would shoot artillery into the trees. not aiming for american troops

which they knew were under the trees, but to create shrapnel. the tree branches would shatter and come down. if you were unfortunate enough to not be close enough to the tree, well then, you would probably be killed by pieces of wood, splinters flying around. in the battle of the bulge as we present this story in various video screens, we tell the stages of the battle. a surprise german attack has broken through the american lines. casualties are mounting in the thousands. our boys have been taken prisoner. >> one of the thing we show is americans being captured. we haven't mentioned p.o.w.'s. i want to point this out. here is the prisoner of war i.d. tag of benjamin cohen. who with the 423rd infantry regiment.

he is going to be captured early on in the battle of the bulge. one thing i will mention of general interest, it was better to be prisoner of war of the nazis than it was of the japanese. better than 40% of american p.o.w.'s of the japanese per -- perished in these camps. germans were concerned that the allies would give good treatment to their own p.o.w.'s tended to respect the rules of the geneva convention which the japanese refused to sign. i wanted to point that out. that not everything in war is necessarily victorious. sometimes you wind up on not just the losing side but in the enemy's hand. over here, one other thing i wanted to point out was the famous prayer card that general

george patton asked his chaplain to come up with to basically guarantee good weather during the battle of the bulge. basically, when chaplain made the prayer, the weather cleared up, patton credited this. patton credited this with having an influence on the battle. written thetton had prayer some time before the battle. this prayer card was delivered to all of the troops and it became part of the legend of the battle of the bulge. here in our battle of the bulge gallery, we do have a german sedan. this was one of the cars used by the german officers to go back and forth and transport themselves back and forth to the fronts. here you can see all of the camouflage that they used in

these types of winter conditions with branches and things like that to try and blend into a scape when they might run into a dangerous situation. we're now entering our last gallery, "into the german heartland." map, then see by this early 1945 after the battle of the bulge, the united states and her allies, french forces and british forces, flanking american forces in the west as well as forces from the soviet union, basically crushing germany from the east. the war is in its end game stages as we are converging on berlin. now, in this gallery, we have

basically the story of how berlin falls even though, american troops never actually quite make it to berlin itself. however, people can see the handwriting on the wall by april 25th. in this gallery up here, we have gahat.x -- cossack this was a hat worn by one of the soviet troops when those troops met with the americans in april 25, 1945. this hat was given to a lieutenant by the name of george tolby. from that point forward berlin , was surrounded. the soviets are going to go ahead and crush hitler and the forces in berlin over the next week or so. by may 2, the battle of berlin

is over. in this gallery, what we want to remind people of, even as we move into germany and are getting closer and closer to our goal of victory, the violence continues to escalate and it has real human costs. we tell the story of curtis ritter. he was a private in the american army. here, you can see a letter he wrote to his wife ellen in 1944. he was killed in late 1944 on the way into germany. you can see in the case that the hometown newspaper, the berlin post, is going to bring news of his death to his hometown in -- and public. you can see condolence letters, about half a dozen that are

, going to be written to his family from various sympathizers, neighbors and friends and family members, who knew curtis ritter. down here in the corner we have his combat infantry badge. blue background and the rifle on it. a badge that was an honor. it was given only to those who had faced the enemy in direct combat. in this conclusion gallery to the road to berlin, what we want to show the public is the immense devastation that went on as we move towards berlin. you can see our representations of hamburg, dresden. allies razede about 1000 german cities and the

germans refused to give up. germany formally surrendered to the allies. silverwaree, we have and the teapot with adolf hitler's initials on them that were captured by american troops in munich, where hitler had begun his political career found , in nazi headquarters buildings nazi administration , buildings there in munich. basically, with the elimination of adolph hitler, we then have the opportunity to try and sum up what this war in europe meant. we do so with a film that tells what the entire cost, summation

of hitler's nazi germany meant , to the world. in terms of death, it was something that had never been seen before. in terms of destruction, culture , entire communities, the holocaust jews as well as others, political prisoners, so on. many others perished in hitler's concentration camp system. we try and give people what a sense of what the allied troops were fighting for. what it meant to extinguish that from the world. the end of the road to berlin , after we try and summarize the costs of the war for our public, we have an ending quote by general dwight d. eisenhower. this came from a letter that the supreme commander of the allied forces wrote in april of 1943 to his son john.

he tried to put the meaning of a conflict that he was so central in trying to prosecute. he said, no other war in history has so definitely lined up the forces of arbitrary oppression and dictatorship against those of human rights and individual liberty. two eisenhower, this is what the war was about. this was his great achievement as a general and military leader. later on, it made him the president of the united states and leader of the free world. >> they cannot believe their eyes. the deal with patton halts the tour, unable to witness anymore. when a german soldier asks an american g.i. why he is fighting, the g.i. replies we

are fighting to free them from the idea that you are the master race. join american history tv on saturday, november 7, for tours and live interviews from the national world war ii museum in new orleans. we will explore the submarine experience, the road to berlin, and the african american story. we will take your questions for historians joining us from new orleans throughout the door. world war ii 70 years later, live from the national world war ii museum, saturday, november 7 beginning at 11:00 eastern here on american history tv on cspan3 . >> next on american history tv, university of pennsylvania history professor, kathy peiss , examines the history of library science during world war ii. she outlines what she argues was a shift in the 1940's from librns