c-span.org. >> earlier today american history we featured museum exhibits and took calls from historians and curators. this is about four hours. >> hello. i am the senior director of research and history of the national board were to -- world nash -- national will work -- ii museum.rld war our mission here at the national world war ii museum is to tell the american experience in world war ii while it was fought, how it was one, and what it means today. in the warg we are part of the story.

behind me you will see the large portraits of the political leaders of the axis and allied powers, a lineup of the two sides engaged in this great struggle. when our visitors arrived in we believe they will know that pearl harbor has already occurred due to exhibits on the other side of the street in our museum. with the country already at war, we have a video that introduces them to the five major strategic that the united states and our allies must master in order to win world war ii. these five key strategic elements include arsenal of democracy, building a greater warm a sheen than our enemies, we have make better equipment and weapons. control of the sea lane, control

of the air. and then the last strategic element, mastery of amphibious landings, which was highly debated going into world war ii as a successful military strategy. all of these things combined into the eventual invasion of europe, and the normandy landings in june of 1944, at the high point of the allied effort. roosevelt and winston churchill huddled in a series of meetings. american military strategists, including the army chief of met. and brigadier general when the united states entered world war ii after the in 1941, pearl harbor

we were faced with the strategic first, who to fight japan or nazi germany. fragment roosevelt and winston churchill believe that hitler and nazi germany were our chief enemies. the problem was that we weren't ready to fight the not seize on the continent of europe. nazis on the continent of europe. we realized we would not have the material resources or the bey ill top that would necessary for victory. in the meantime, the soviet union was taking a terrible pounding on the eastern front. franklin roosevelt and winston churchill realized they had to do something to meet joseph stalin, pleading for a different front. where do we fight? we decided we would land in north africa.

and so we tell the story in this north african farm house that we are spending in of that decision and its consequences. the problem we are greater face after we decide to go into north africa is: can our troops actually fight the battle hardened nazi army and win? behind me over here is our weapons case. featured are handguns, rifles, shotguns, mortars, other weapons that we are going to use to fight in europe. included in this case is the m-1 garand rifle. we also have the m-11 a1 pistol in this case. it was designed by john browning, and it is going to become the standard issue, very popular pistol that is going to be issued to many u.s. army personnel.

in the museum, we try to build in environmental challenges that the u.s. faced, our forces faced around the world and world war ii. and so in north africa, of course, the desert is as big of a challenge as the enemy at times. and so, what we have here in the gallery's environmental treatment that not only shows the rocky deserts that we are going to be fighting in, but also the battle in february of 1943 where the united states is, unfortunately, going to be very, very badly whipped by the germans in the desert. many of our viewers may remember the famous scene in the movie,

"patton," where george patton is brought to be organized the forces in the desert and beat the germans. in this case here, we have a tricolor french flag. many americans and others don't realize that when we landed in north africa, the french government was allied with nazi germany. and so we actually did have to do some fighting against the french with the initial landing. included in this case is a sf cap. -- s.s. cap. you can see the death head on it. this one is unique because it was a tropical wear issue. the germans going to give it to their elite troops, part of their elite forces, i should say. the ss is going to be in charge of carrying out the holocaust in europe. one other thing i thought i would point out here, you have

"life" magazine issue, war hits red oak. 45 men from red oak, iowa are going to be killed or captured by the germans. and so, this was the point where the reality of war in north africa and the european theater is going to start to come home to americans with these losses in such a small town, so many boys, and one single battle. behind me is a 105 millimeter howitzer. the howitzer was originally designed to shoot at aircraft, but in north africa, we discovered that this was in an -- was an ideal antitank gun. -- antitank weapon.

it was a very effective weapon. this map introduces visitors to the situation when the allies landed in north africa in november of 1942. you can see on the map that the allies are represented in blue. but the axis powers and the territories they controlled are represented in red. to get a sense of the scale of adolf hitler's power -- of adolf hitler's power, where he and mussolini have an empire that stretches all the way across europe and north africa, a sea of red. we have a long ways to go in this war. this jeep actually plays an audio track that mimicks what it was like to be in the retreat.

we are going to drive forward to victory in north africa when in may, 1943, we went against the germans. -- win against the germans, driving germany out of north africa. unfortunately, it wasn't a complete victory because the germans are going to escape with a lot of men and equipment into sicily and italy, and continue on the fight. and so, sicily is the next up on the road to berlin. -- next stop on the road to berlin. we are now entering the sicily gallery here at the national world war ii museum. here you can see on this map the the initial landings where allied forces are going to drop parachutes and then also come in with amphibious landings in july of 1943. now, sicily is going to prove to be a very quick campaign all told. only 38 days long, but it was

filled with a lot of drama, and included the rivalry between general patton and bernard montgomery, the british commander. however, something i wanted to point out that is of special significance in this gallery that we want our visitors to understand is that war is a very messy, dirty, and often unfair business. and in those landings, at sicily, we are going to see the worst friendly fire incident that american forces suffer in world war ii. better than 300 american paratroopers are going to be shot down by allied forces as they approach southern italy early in the invasion. this is something that came about because of inexperience and green troops and fear. it is a part of war, and it is not an easy, glorious march to victory in world war ii like a

lot of people think it was today when we call it the good work. -- good war. very bad things happened in that good war. here we have an airman's cloth map of italy and tunisia. when the paratroopers would drop into unknown territories, they would have the maps dyed into scarves that they would wear, and this is how they would try to maneuver the territories. in this space here, you can see taking palermo. palermo was the first european capital to fall to the allies. general george patton raced up the western side of sicily, takes palermo, and then headed to the east across the northern border of sicily, combining with bernard montgomery to push

against the germans and the italian forces, eventually driving them off of the sicilian island across the straits of sicily into the southern boot of italy there. so you get a sense of the campaign and how it moved to this paragraph in conclusion only 38 days after the landing. we are now leaving the sicily gallery and entering the italian campaign here in the national world war ii museum. you can see on the map to my right the situation the allies faced in september of 1943 as we begin the invasion of southern italy. now, the italian campaign had been urged by winston churchill to be a soft underbelly of europe that we could drive up

the peninsula and possibly get at nazi germany and win the war. it is not going to be that way at all. it starts from the very beginning. the allies are going to face great challenges with the amphibious landings that we must perform to win. and it is always important as you walk through these galleries to remember the ultimate fight we are going to have to have, which is the invasion of normandy. we are having trouble making amphibious landings in italy and other places. well, that forbodes ill for the normandy landing that we know is coming. our video here tells the story of this overall campaign that goes to the very end of the war, all the way to may of 1945, with the bitter fighting that occurs. now, in this gallery, you will

find out stories of americans who are often marginalized at the edges of american society at this time. japanese-americans and african-americans, in particular, are featured in this gallery. we are committed to telling diverse stories of americans here at the museum, but we tried to tell the stories within the context of the overarching narrative of the american experience in world war ii. and so, in italy, visitors will find out stories about african-americans who fought with the 92nd id. they are going to find out stories about japanese-americans fighting with the 442nd rct. and they are going to find out how tough it was to fight against the elements.

once again, the environment and nature play in the -- plays a terrible role in the campaign, where we are fighting up mountains trying to drive towards rome. we are standing next to a panel involving john story. -- john fox's story. john fox was an african-american john fox was an african-american fighting with the segregated 92nd infantry division. he ordered a mortar fire to come down on his position in the mist of a german -- midst of a german attack where, frankly, the germans were about to break a line. when fox was discovered, he was found amongst hundreds of dead germans. in 1998 he was awarded posthumously the medal of honor. in this case over here, we have a congressional gold medal that was awarded to -- , a member of the 442nd regimental combat

team, which was a segregated unit of japanese-americans who fought in italy in world war ii. he had actually been interned at a camp in arizona before he was allowed to fight for his country. 442nd put up the most impressive record of combat of virtually any unit in world war ii. they were eventually awarded 21 medals of honor, including one that went to daniel, who later became the longtime senator from hawaii. ernie pyle starts to become a well-known figure back in the united states with his column detailing what life was like for the average american soldier, the dog faces, as he calls them.

i wanted to point out this artifact in between the books. you can see his zippo lighter. this lighter was given to a young g.i. from ernie pyle. it's sort of exemplifies this -- the spirit the troops have because he identified with them. average americans out on the battlefield having to fight. and one other artifact i thought i would point out here that brings home the reality of what these young men and women were facing, young men on the battle lines, of course, but you can see next to ernie pyle's book a cigarette case and a purple heart medal. the cigarette case belonged to a young private named andrew sexton, a medic, where he was basically shot and the bullet went through the cigarette case, but was stopped on the other side and fell into the case.

he later credited this with saving his life. if you could imagine what an experience like that must be like. certainly, it brings home the reality of life and death these young men and women were facing, and that ernie pyle understood so well. we have here in the italian gallery a 4.2 inch mortar. this is going to turn out to be an extremely effective weapon for allied troops. it weighed about 330 pounds, and it had a maximum range of about 4400 yards. a minimum wage -- range of about 400 to 600 yards. and you could, of course, fire it for much longer, but it changed the rate of fire the longer you went. but if you will follow me --

over here, you can see one of the shelves that that 4.2 inch mortar would have fired in this exhibit case over here. we have in this case a number of items that are interesting, but up top i thought i would point out we have a couple of guns that are dummy guns. these were taken from italians. kind of interesting when you think about it that these are toy guns captured by the americans. but to a guns, once again -- toy guns, once again, the reality is everyone is shooting with live rounds most of the time. and that reality is brought home very dramatically in this case. you have another purple heart, and we have below it a coffin casket title tag. that belonged to anthony sconza, who was a private, an infantry man serving in italy.

he had written his brother a letter in which he said he feared that he might not make it home, but begged his brother not to say anything to his parents because of these fears. and, indeed, he was killed in september of 1944 while fighting in italy. so, one other element that i thought i would point out in this case here is -- you can see the graphical firing table, a slide rule basically for the 4.2 inch mortar that we were viewing in the previous room in the gallery. so if you wanted to make adjustments to hit your enemy, this was how you would calculate that and then make the adjustments and then hopefully hit your target. behind me, you see a sign, a fabricated sign. something that we put throughout the museum in this gallery to

remind people of how far away we often are from victory. here you can see 736 miles to berlin from italy. what we tell, however, the public is that the road to berlin will not go through italy. despite the efforts of the allies to fight of the italian peninsula, the terrain, the nazi armies, all of this is going to combine to bring us short of our goal of ultimate victory against nazi germany. we aren't able to make it over the alps. and so, in order to hit germany directly, we will next visit a gallery that talks about the air war. the one place we were able to strike directly at the heart of hitler's empire.

we are now entering our air war gallery. now, up to this point at the museum, we have had the visitor on kind of a chronological march of action in world war ii. north africa, sicily, italy. the air war was going on throughout 1942 to 1945, and it was the one part of the war where we were constantly trying to hit nazi germany. couldn't strike them from north africa or italy physically, but we could from the air. and you can see this on our maps where we are launching missions from out of north africa, and especially from great britain where the eighth air force was located. now, in this gallery with the air war, the air war went through several stages. you have some initial beginnings, and then, most importantly, by the end of 1943, we are basically losing the air were very badly. -- air war very badly.

we are losing disproportionate amounts of bombers going up, trying to hit the heartland of nazi germany and other industrial facilities throughout europe that the nazis were using. the reason that this is so problematic for us, if you think about it, for example, a b-17 bomber, which was the workhorse of the european bombing campaign, had a trained -- had trained personnel in it where you had 10, 11 men in their that every time -- there that every time one of those were shot down, it was one thing to lose a plane, but it is another thing to lose those trained personnel. the luftwaffe of the germans, the german air force, had trained pilots where this is

going to be a key element of what is eventually going to happen with the air war where it is ultimately about replacing pilots and planes. however, by late 1943, what we want people to understand, we had to have control of the air in order to launch the d-day invasion of normandy. we don't have it in late 1943. in fact, we are getting beaten rather badly in the air. so we tell the story in this video here. and then we are going to bring our visitors into life at the airfield in england, where you are going to have the 8 air force stationed -- the 8th air force stationed. one of the features in this gallery, we do suspend reality a little bit here. you can see up top the animation, which depicts a file

fly-over of thousands of the 17 bombers, b-24s, other aircraft, the massive air force we eventually build up in england. but what we try to tell people about in this story here is the turning point in that air war. what is going to happen in early 1944 is a huge shift. we tell the story of the berlin raid of march 6, 1944, well we -- where we are going to put up better than a thousand planes in the air. the key to this is going to be the fact that in the earlier rains i reference, -- raids i reference, you are looking at 250 aircraft up in the air, 60 of them getting shot down. once we start putting up 800 bombers, it is true, for example, on the berlin raid, we are going to lose about 69 bombers. this was one of the worst in terms of total numbers, but in

terms of percentage terms, we are only losing 6% or 7%. and the key to this was fighter protection. the p 51 aircraft is going to come online in production, and the p 51 is going to be probably the best fighter aircraft of world war ii. the p 51 was fast, it was maneuverable, and most importantly it could find much -- fly much greater distances, accompanying the bombers deeper and deeper into europe. and so they are able to give those bombers protection to do their job and they are going to be able to fight and kill off the lift off the luftwaffe. and instead find themselves being shot down in numbers that nazi germany could not sustain. over here, we have the medal of

honor that was awarded to an aviator by the name of archibald matthews. he had no formal training, and he was aboard the b-17 ten horsepower in 1944 when it was hit by flak and the pilot was killed. archibald and a couple of other crew members tried to land the plane, even though he was not a pilot and had no formal training in this. the pilot was wounded, and he is -- and archibald is going to have the rest of the crew bailout. he attempted to then land the plane in england, but crashed upon landing, killing himself and the pilot aboard. and for his heroism where he could've bailed out himself and left the wounded pilot, he didn't. he is awarded the medal of honor.

what we have in this case is wreckage from first lieutenant gus hamilton's p 47. hamilton actually was set to go home. his bags were packed. he had a wife, he had a newborn child, but his unit then requested a volunteer to do one last mission. he went up, and is going to find himself under severe attack by a bunch of german messerschmitt 190 aircraft, and he is shot down and killed. his remains were not discovered until the crash site was discovered in france in 1993. and so, these are the remnants from that crash site.

his plane had been missing. -- his plane had been named after his wife and son, who he would never meet. there is a monument in france at the crash site commemorating his ultimate sacrifice. and his bravery for going ahead when he could've gone home but volunteering for one last mission, for which she had to give his life great 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 do we launch the normandy invasion on d-day. day ist know what that going to be in the plans but it turns out to be three months to 1944ay after the march 6

.ir raid >> that road to berlin exhibit one of many exhibits on display at the world war ii museum in new orleans. our c-span bus is parked right outside the pavilion at the museum, where historians and curators will be joining us for the next couple of hours to talk war whichend of the occurred 70 years ago, in 1945. joining us live is the gentleman we saw a moment to go in that tape, the museum's senior director of research and history. thank you for being with us. keith: thank you for having me. >>