were going to invade normandy. to do that, you had to have control of the air over those beaches before any invasion could succeed. host: we will learn more about the origins of the world war ii museum, located in new orleans, 'sd stephen ambrose influence there. with usxen will be back in about half an hour. we will continue with the road to berlin exhibit on display in new orleans. mr. huxen: we are actually in the normandy landings gallery. a very special gallery for us here. because our museum was originally founded back in the 1990's as the national d-day museum. by a congressional charter, we would charge telling the story

of the entire american experience. in this gallery we get to the big moment where united states and allies had to win this particular day. d-day june 6, 1944. behind me is our film, narrated by tom brokaw, which gives the overarching story of d-day. next to me, over to the left, is a very special exhibit. this is an exhibit case that is the long thin line anguish.

he saw all of the war left over by troops who had been killed coming ashore at the beach. what we have in this case is actual artifacts and sand from utah and omaha beaches. he writes about what he found. you can see he talk about shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, bibles, hand grenades, toothbrushes razors. he particularly singles out in his column writing paper. he talk 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.

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 date 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 it. on this wall we have the civilian, military political leadership reaction to the normandy landings starting with ann frank, of course. a 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. winston churchill the prime minster of great britain, that,he sobering note 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 hole on the peninsula in france. we are along the beaches, but also bottled up and facing a very hard and serious fight trying to face 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. behind me you can see how these wooded hedgerows across fields of france held up our military advancement. these hedgerows were so thick, that you could have a german soldier on one side of a headro three feet away, the two wouldn't know that they were there. tanks, in fact, could not go through these headro's until we built some clippers on to the front of the tanks. american ingenuity. it allowed us to start busting 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. 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 listen to the bbc, legal 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 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. 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 he would not drink or curse while he was over here. he was 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 comrad to safety. so, for those actions, quality -- walt 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. i'm pronounced to walt -- walt, hist to 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 bitter sweet. 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 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 sowing kit. things such as 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 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 through advancing against the nazis. in the race across france, after operation cobra, united states and allied forces are going to

liberate paris august of 1944. this was a high point for a lot of people who thought that the end of the war might be drawing near. maybe we would be able to get all the way to berlin by christmas time. in this case over here, we have a little artifacts 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. he 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. 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 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 learned 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 swimming. 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 division.

he thought that the americans and british would be forced to come to a political agreement to end the war. in this battle, the largest that has been fought by the united

states army in its history, better than 600,000 americans were engaged. you can see our lines famously bold but they did not break. however, you have the story of the siege going to be depicted here most famously. george patton is going to come up and save bastone from the south. this is what americans recognize from the film 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. particular with things like gasoline, up here we have a german gas tank where you can see the sf marks 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. in the end, we are going to prevail. as i mentioned, line bold but they do not break. however, it comes at a tremendous cost in blood. about 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.

they were nicknamed the where some bastone , 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. if you were unfortunate enough to not be close enough to the tree, well then, you would probably be killed by pieces of woods, 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. mr. huxen: 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 prison of war i.d. tag of benjamin cohen. who with the 423rd infantry

regimen. he will 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. whereas, the germans, who were concerned that the ally will give treatment top their own pows, would follow 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. so, over here one thing to point out of the famous prayer card

that general george patton asked kaplan 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 written the prayer some time before the battle. this prayer card was delivered to all of the troops and it became part affirm 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 front. here you can see all of the

camouflage that they used in these type of winter conditions with branches and things like that. to try and blend. we're now entering our last gallery into the german heart. -- heartland. as you can see, by this map, by early 1945 after the battle of the bulge, united states and her ally, french forces and british forces, flanking american forces in the west as well as forces from the soviet union, basically crushing germany 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 a tariff hat. -- terra-cotta hat. 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. fact going, are in to 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 public. you can see condolence letters,

that are going to be written to his family from various sympathizers, neighbors and friends and family member 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 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. basically the allies raised about 60 german cities on the way into berlin and the germans

refuse to give up. in the end, adolf hitler inmitted suicide in a bunker berlin. on may 7, nazi germany formally surrendered to the allies. in this case here, we have with itre in the teapot off hitler's initials -- atul initials on's it, captured by american troops in munich where hitler had begun his political career found in nazi headquarters buildings. basically, with the elimination of atul hitler, we had the opportunity to some up what this war in europe meant. we do so with a film that tells what the cost 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 community, 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 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 cost 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 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. eisenhower, this is what the war was about. this was his great achievement as a general and military reader. later on, it made him the president of the united states and leader of the free world. ♪

host: the road to berlin is one of exhibits on display at the world war ii museum. the c-span bus is located outside of the world war ii pavilion. you can also learn about th d-day, the road to tokyo, and life on the home front. we are joined by keith huxen. thanks again for being with us. what concerns -- you were talking about general eisenhower , what concerns keith: could you repeat the

question? host: what concerns did eisenhower have prior to d-day? keith: he was concerned they were going to fail. a lot of things could have gone wrong. we were at the whim of the weather. we were supposed to launch the d-day invasion on june 5 and eisenhower showed leadership in that he was calculating the chances for success. if you can imagine being in his position with hundreds of thousands of men and plans ready to be sent into motion on his word, there was pressure but he delayed it because of the weather. he thought it would not succeed for 24 hours. this was difficult for the men who were loaded up into the seas and were on the