>> i am a history buff. i enjoy seeing the fabric of our country and how things work and how they are made. american artifacts is a fantastic show. >> it's something i really enjoy. tv gives youistory that perspective. >> i'm a c-span fan. >> each week, american history visitserican artifacts historic places. up next, we travel to new orleans to visit the road to berlin exhibit. this begins with a d-day invasion and continues with the story of the european theater through the fall of the third reich.

>> we are actually in the normandy landings gallery. it's a very special gallery for us here. 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 experience in world war ii. 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 narratedded -- narrated by tom brokaw. which gives our visitors the overarching story of d-day at

normandy. is a very on the left special exhibit. case to thexhibit long thin line of anguish column. beachpyle's walked the where the american forces landed everything left by troops who had been killed coming ashore. what we have in this case is sand fromifact and utah and omaha beaches. you can see he talks about shoe polish, showing bibles and hand grenades. he particularly singled out in his column writing paper. he talks about how the young men

who gave their lives at normandy intended to write a lot of letters. the other thing they had an awful lot of west the growth. he said packs of cigarettes had been handed out to the troops before the landings began and made the comments that a line of cigarettes up and down the beach marked the high water of this sacrifice at normandy. there 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 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. 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. winston churchill the prime minster of great britain, 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 in share borg and along the beaches.

we are in a 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 headdrs across fields of fans held up our military advancement. these headros 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. started 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. 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 messages -- i should say listen to the bbc, legal radio broadcast. legal under the nazi machine. -- illegal under the nazi regime. we have an interesting piece in here as well. you may notice this ping and -- pink and red liberation sash. there 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 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 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 was performing, heroic 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 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 as much as cleaning kits, oils and so on. when our 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. 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 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. so, this particular map was the property of lieutenant dalton cooper who went on to write a memoir about what it was like to fight in tanks. his memoir was entitled "death traps." you get an idea of the fast moving advancement that the

allied forces were making through tanks and through the war of up until this point. as i mentioned, we were slowing up on the german border at this point and things were about to get a lot worse. in december of 1944, adolph hitler will launch a last ditch to try and win the war for nazi germany. his strategy was to launch offensive against the american and british forces on the western front. this map depicts that attack. hitler thought that what we 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 the port 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 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 an incident many americans recognize from the "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. these were warned during the battle of the bulge. 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. where some of the airborne members signed their names to it. er 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 and 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. 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. 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 rish -- perished in these camps. they were concerned that the ally will give treatment top 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. 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. 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. 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. berlin was surrounded. the soviets was crush hitler and the forces in berlin over the next week or so. 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. adolf hitler committed suicide in a bunker in berlin and on may 7, nazi germany formally surrendered to the allies. here, we have silverware and a teapot with at all settler's initials on them that were captured by american troops in munich where hitler had begun his medical career found in nazi headquarters

, buildings. nazi administration buildings there in munic. 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 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 and unity, 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 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. which 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 a military reader. later on, it made him the president of the united states and leader of the free world.

>> a can't believe their eyes. unable to witness any more. germangerman shall -- 18 soldier asks an american g.i. why he's fighting, the g.i. replied we are trying to fight the idea that you are a master race. part of aogram was two-part visit to the road to berlin visit. you can view part one and all other american history tv programs online at c-span.org/history. >> all weekend long, american coxory tv is joining our communication partners to showcase the history of las

vegas, nevada. to learn more about the city line our chlorine tour, visit c-span.org. we continue now with our look at the city of las vegas. >> when you talk about the history of the vegas valley, there are two words that define our history. one is water. it is what brought the earliest overland travel through here. the other is transportation. it's in the middle of nowhere and transportation has always been an issue here. water is something that when you are in the desert is more precious than anything else. when you are traveling through the desert, leading pack mules and leading a pack train, you

have to carry enough water for every animal that you have. your animals have to have water, otherwise they would die and you would not get your goods to market and your entire train would not work. here, they found running artesian wells. it was an area that became known to the mexican travelers as vegas. las vegas is the meadows and it got that name as a descriptor door for the location, not because somebody named vegas was here. this was a description of a wonderful spot in the middle of the desert. in 1855t settlement was when the mormon came in to this area. they were sent here by brigham young in order to create a settlement. the idea was to help solidify the area he's as the state of

desert rat, which is not just parts of eastern california, little pieces of new mexico, arizona, colorado and wyoming. this is part of what they were looking at. the problem was the settlement only lasted two years. was857, the settlement unsuccessful and dollars applied to be allowed to go back to salt lake city. the church fathers allowed that and the first settlement here was abandoned. to salt lakeck city and we were unoccupied for a number of years after that. this the mormons were in area, what next happened were prospectors coming into the area, into areas near the valley. in the case of a couple of those

prospectors who were better at wrenching than prospecting, they came up into the vegas valley and by the 1870's and 1880's coming of six ranches in this area for we are only talking 20 or 30 people in this entire valley for the it was not a thatly settled area in time. a fellow named william andrews clark from montana decided was going to build a railroad from 10 pedro to los angeles to salt lake city. you had to have a watering stop in the desert. the only place that had enough water was this valley in the loss they guess rancho. his employees negotiated with helen stewart and thought it and brought the railroad through here. in may of 1905, they had a egg auction sale and las vegas

townsite was created. that is when las vegas gets darted. las vegas is a 20th century town. one of the interesting things in the history of lost big is his most people know las vegas from the movies. they know las vegas as it is today. they think las vegas has always focused on gaming, entertainment and the service industry. and it wasn't. one of the people who did more damage to the history of las vegas was oliver stone when he had these guys show up in the middle of the desert and said let there be flamingo and let everything grow up out of the sand. there was already a community that had been told by a lot of workers who had come in initially with the railroad, later with building a dam in the

1930's. of 1940's, we had a lot federal spending because of magnesium and the gunnery school. onhad lots of things going well before gaming became as big as it was when you look at our history, the real misunderstanding is that there is a history and it is much longer and much different than what we are today. cities tour staff travel to las vegas to learn about it rich history. go to c-span.org/cities tour. >> the first vice president of the united dates, john adams, once said about his position that it was e