omaha beach. the next day this week and on american history to the on c- span three. john mcmanus talks about his book "the dead and those about to die lowe's. he tells the story the first infantry division nicknamed the big red one. and how they were the first combat soldiers to storm the normandy bases beaches.

doctor min manus is the first ever faculty member in the humanities to be named a distinguished professor is one of the leading historians and the author of 12 well-known books on the topic. he is a frequent in dan demand speaker. in addition to local radio shows and programming he has appeared on cnn, fox news, c- span, the military channel, the discovery channel, the national geographic channel, the history channel, and cbs. you have probably seen him. he served as the historic advisor for the documentary salinger. which appeared nationwide in

the american master series. during the 2018 academic year he is in residence at the u.s. naval academy in the military history, distinguished visiting professor. his forthcoming book, fire and fortitude the u.s. army in the pacific war will be out on july 30. you can look for that one. today his talk will be based on his recent book "the dead, and those about to die. d-day. ". he will speak about the unforgettable story, the big red one 19 hours of help and the ultimate triumph on june 6 1944. while the role of officers are part of the story he will share

the infantry soldiers experienced during the d-day landing. as a reader of history i am sure that dwight eisenhower would've appreciated his work. he said the real hero of world war ii is g.i. joe. to tell us about some of those gis i'm pleased to introduce john mcmanus. >> thank you. and anybody hear me okay? i will try to keep those microphones on the proper level. thank you for that wonderful introduction. i like to think all the people who made this possible. the host here at gettysburg college, the eisenhower institute, thank you for making time. it's pretty nice day out there. thank you for coming to listen to these brilliant scholars

that preceded me. i will do my best. what struck me when dr. simon was talking about eisenhower's weather-related decision, it always struck me, that before he made that decision you could argue that he is the most powerful man on the planet. one of them. he has all this airpower, naval power, technological power and the ground power. he has this prodigious military might pick a coiled spring. and he makes that decision and that it is out of his hand and it's in the hands of not just really the generals that ranked below him or the admirals or the lieutenant colonel's are the majors, it is in the hands of the average soldier, sailor, and air man.

what i want to give you a sense of today is something of the combat experience for the average allied soldier. looking at the first infantry division and omaha beach. i wouldn't argue that this is a representative for any soldier. i think we could build a strong argument. i think it's on the bloodiest battles for the soldiers to experience. again i'm not necessarily saying that the representative sample, but it certainly is an illustrious example. the first thing how i came to the story, where it comes from paraguay another book on omaha beach there's been so much done on d-day. of course we have brilliant works in books.

but the thing that made it credible for me after studying the battle normandy and omaha beach for about a quarter of a century from when the child until i was a graduate student, got dissipated in a program called the normandy scholars, which was remarkable opportunity to immerse ourselves in normandy for about a month. not just invasion, the whole culture, the battle, and the clinical aspects of it. later on it was as a battlefield historian and author it was incredible to me that there was still more to say. specifically the story of the big red one. which it certainly been covered to some extent, but i didn't necessarily believe in the depth that it warranted. it was a convergent for historian, something that has been relatively undercovered. underappreciated, yet has an

availability of resources of a prodigious quantities. after action reports and letters and diaries and unit journals. historian writings of the time, the morning reports that the units kept at the company level that told something about what happened to these various companies when they hit the omaha beach and what happened to the individual's coming and going. the memoirs, people that i knew corresponded with. all this comes together. what i hoped it would allow me to tell the story in an immersion sense of maybe this is something you can get a sense of reading, what the soldier might have experienced and what the mindset and the challenges were that day. the first thing to grasp is something of the unique personality and culture, and

feel of the first infantry division. which is nicknamed "the big red one". it was dated back to world war i, the division still exists, celebrated its centennial founding this year. the big red one had a great sense for omaha beach. it had a history of tradition, pride, heritage and a sense of being very special. it had fought in north africa and sicily. we learned a great deal about that earlier today. north africa it was a major component they learned some hard knocks lessons there. and they have a reputation as being a unit that was really reliable and combat. it was a go to unit, when they were off the line they were

grand. they loved to fight, drink, and beat up on people that they thought were lower form of life. they didn't call themselves grants, they call themselves doughboys they tended to get in trouble. they had a surly attitude about authority, they didn't always listen to officers that were not part of their unit. what you matter your not the captain i follow. that kind of thing. they had a reputation of being a handful. it was so popular and it gives you a sense, they said the united states army is the 'the big red one' and million replacements. a lot of faceless replacement out there. it was troubling in some other ways.

troubling to general eisenhower and his subordinates general patton and bradley. and the division manner is responsible. and his second in command bridget or general theater roosevelt. they had allowed the discipline to slack off. they were good fighters, they led the division well, it wasn't necessarily a healthy thing for the army to have this kind of thinking. they were relieved not for competence or cause but for disciplinary reasons. both allen and roosevelt were too valuable to send home for good. allen commands the hundred and fourth infantry division very well in northwest europe in 1944. roosevelt famously earns the medal of honor for his actions there.

he is about to get his own division level command and died of a heart attack. this was during the battle of normandy. they just felt that the division needed a new culture. knowing what you know about the 'the big red one' their insularity and resentment against outsiders, imagine how happy they are going to be about these two really popular commanders. people you would've known and seen quite a bit throughout north africa and sicily. people you would've felt a connection with. at the very same time when you have received this momentous mission of leaving the invasion of france, which they deeply resented because they thought we done enough, were supposed to go home and train new people do this stuff. we've done plenty, combat soldiers always think once they've done their battle let's abeles carry the load. a lot was riding on who the successor would be, and major general clarence comes to 'the

big red one' late summer, early fall. he could be more different than alan. allen didn't necessarily worry about whether your uniform was rumpled or you saluted properly , all that matters is that you're a good combat soldier. the soldiers initially hated the knee replacement. he made them salute, he's making us lace up our leggings and do all this kind of stuff. we are combat soldiers, while it did deal with this nonsense that is a rear echelon, basic training stuff. the rumor went around that he was just a desk jockey, he did not know any better, he is coming in to tell them what to do. what they didn't know was his background. humid air was 55 years old in 1944, had joined the army as a private soldier initially in

the early 20th century. he fought in world war i, worked his way through the and ceilings, he got a commission, was a commander world war i, is as a lieutenant colonel and his badly wounded and decorated with the distinguished service cross. what division did you serve in? first division. you guessed it. hardly anybody knew that. they just knew this guy is here to change our lives in a bad way. what was indisputable as they started to watch and once they got to england during the run up was to prepare for the invasion, what was indisputable was that he definitely knew his stuff. his nickname throughout the army was coach he was an athletic coach. he was a teacher as a young man and the coach. and he brought that sentiment to leadership. i have always thought that the instances of allan and cuban are is a really good example of how excellent leadership can come in completely different ways. it couldn't be more opposite so

when hubner dresses you down is not personal, it's constructive. this is why were doing this and this is why i'm going to be on you. he was an expert rifleman, he had a cancer scare during the run ups to the normandy invasion. and unfortunately he was fine. he told his staff, explaining why he came in with such a hard attitude and he said it very well. he said he start by being in slb and you become a good guy. you never start by being a good guy becoming slb. a lot of good lessons there. by late 1943, 1944. a division that is taking heavy casualties in the mediterranean. a lot of have a new guys coming in, i would say probably one

into who hit omaha beach on d- day is a new guy seen combat for the first time. there melting with the veterans and their getting implicated into this 'the big red one' culture. with his unyielding training standard of having to have proficiency in all sorts of things that are relevant to the invasion. not just that, this is one of the few divisions that did urban combat training. that's going to come in handy fighting in normandy. so hubner is thinking ahead , by the time they are in the position of going to shore people have been cross trained. you are mortar gunner and now you know the loaders job. your squad leader you know the platoon leaders job. would and if they become a casualty. or maybe into different leaders job. all these things are in play.

as you might expect, many the veterans resented getting the honor of going in so why is the big red one shows him? is a successful unit with a lot of combat experience. is one of two divisions that general bradley, the american ground commander that had any combat experience at his disposal. the first of the night. in the night had just gotten to england. he would later say i cannot spare the first division. they knew going in that omaha beach is going to be at tough nut to crack. because of the terrain, and the minds and obstacles. on the 29th roll is a more culturally famous because it's what is pretrade in saving private ryan. and it's near where the rangers had the longest day and

whatnot. the first division felt it would've been nice to have someone else have the honor of doing this. but it is what it is. there's a little sad back story to this there was a captain in the unit who once told me in an interview, he said this is not necessarily for attribution of record. although i am telling you, in the weeks leading up to d-day there were two ncos in this regiment he didn't say who who committed suicide rather than put themselves through that responsibility of leading people into combat, and being responsible for their lives. the resentment wasn't just the side of where to get this job again. it was people who couldn't handle it anymore. so what are they up against? this is the first division side of omaha beach. would like to point out some things, don't like to get too far away from the microphone.

my german is terrible, my apologies. these are basically strong points. the whole purpose, in order for an invader to do anything productive was to get off the beat. there are no roads at omaha beach. there's no obvious ways of doing this. so the files have been created, both the files, the circular fortifications, they are designed to prevent the invaders from getting off the beach. once they do, that is opposite going to lead to problems for the germans. that is the various objective you want to take if you're part of the big red one. you can see there are three subsectors to 'the big red one'

omaha beach is about 4.5 miles long, roughly. its crescent shape which is good for the defender, so you can have interlocking fire from either side. you have to have those beach exits. you simply have to. you can see the planners further subdivide, the three portions of the big red onto one beach. fox red, fox green, the most famous of them all, easy read. you can see those defenses. what's within those? it's primarily concrete whole structures with machine guns and mortars, often called murder holes by allied soldiers pick for good reason. those concrete bunkers and pillboxes that you associate with the normandy invasion. some the most deadly weapons are 15 military guns that are coming in. you have plenty of rifleman,

you have mortars, you have grenades. i would argue the most formidable defenses that the german have in the big run sector is the inland artillery. in some ways that your deadliest adversary as you go ashore that day is the forward observer for the german artillery. he is the eyes on, calling in the heaviest, deadliest and worst firepower. they have 24, 105 millimeter artillery pieces inland from the beaches pick everyone set up, all completely useless against inland air and sea, they all survive in with the communication lines intact. that's important. you have observers in those bonkers calling down firepower. the valid soldiers had a screaming mimi's. there like rocket launchers. it was just saturated with fire.

that is what you're up against. this is what it looks like later on. there's more foliage than you would have seen. what is your perspective. you're looking from w and 60. the eastern most extreme of all of omaha beach. you have to link up with the british you heard about mulberry harbor there earlier today. you have to hear that. the obvious reason is from one glance at that picture, any german on top of that ground could sweep omaha beach with fire. you also have the other extreme, that crested. you looking at almost omaha beach to the 29th division, this is what you're up against pick someone with high ground is shooting down like a fish in a

barrel. why was this different from 1944? you didn't have a parking lot. that's one thing. he did have tourist on the beach, you had much more foliage. the germans cut down almost all the foliage to have better fields of fire. you don't want trees. it still gives you a sense of what you have got. galleys plan this minutely. we heard about that, it's remarkable plan. it is predicated on surprise. you are not going to hit omaha beach over and over again, telegraphing the date and time of your vision. that means you're talking about a quick in aerial bombardment. you're asking bombers, that are lucky to get their bomb within a mile of their target in that day and age, you ask them to bomb within a 1000 yard window

with your own friendly fleet with your own troops about come in. predictably it's a cloudy day, bad weather, if you're a bombardier, you're not just going to drop it if you think there's a chance you can hit your fleet of people. they tend to wait a little longer, they bomb inland, and it's next to nothing. the c bombardment is about 45 minutes. the better target, the problem is once you see these explosions, you have all this mess, cloudy weather, you have dust and smoke that make it tougher for the naval observer to see exactly what they are shooting at. they're pretty decent intel, but you are shooting at a fortified enemy that is hunkered down in a bunker. it's going to be difficult. and the big red one sector

slightly wounded to german soldiers. it into a whole lot of damage, and not down a fortified flame thrower. that was one productive thing that i did. other than that, the beach was largely untouched. you have been briefed as a soldier that they're going knock it over it's going be great you're going go straight in. many of these guys being very cynical in ferment and were extremely skeptical and unfortunately had their skepticism confirmed. you would've seen them climbing out around 6:30 am. that happened about two hours before that. years circling around for a couple of hours. people are seasick, you can imagine caesar choppy it's a miserable experience the 16th infantry regiment had the honor of going in first at low tide, why low tide? so you could see the obstacles,

one out of every four soldiers who went ashore were engineers. they're dealing with mine is an obstacles. they had a team of engineers they're supposed to deal with everything underwater. and maybe everything else. they went in with that first assault troupe, the second and third battalion and armor. they had some in the swimming tanks, the duplex drives. the concept is land the mall the same time, prevent the germans from all the targets that will overwhelm them. have mutually supported firepower, and you will take the beach. the problem is? it all goes wrong. captain james parr, the armor commander he was a pseudo-class graduate, and commanded the

first company tank battalion, his look at the choppy seas and wondered if we can launch the swimming tanks or not? besides let's go. it was a bad call because most of the tanks are swamped by the surf. 27 out of 32 of those tanks sank with an average of one crew man lost per tank. there remains are still there. five tanks got a short, three aboard a landing craft, and to swim and pick the two that swam in did tremendous damage to the german defenses and knocked out there only 88 millimeter gun that they had on that part of omaha beach. they had to on omaha beach altogether. they knocked out the one at 61 quickly. it's more damage in the more

tanks came in. it only 16 out of 56 tanks. for you as a tanker, you're presented with a difficult situation. you want to be stationary to provide fire support for gifts only soldiers around you don't want to run them over. dead, and wounded are confusing. if you are a stationary target, german anti-take antitank gutters can pick you off. it was a devastating battle for them as well. the assault troops land haphazardly, the tides were messed up, the confusion, not knowing where they were looking , and the smoke and dust and fear. the seasickness it all leads to a late landing in the wrong spot. unfortunately the two main assault companies e and f, landed in the exact deadliest spot. a kill zone under the flower pyre firepower, and that leads

to a massive loss of life for those two companies. there was a german machine gunner roughly in the vicinity that claims to fired 12,000 rounds a day. i don't doubt that. he picked up other soldiers with rifles and whatnot. gives a little insight into how devastating this was. you come ashore, you're probably susac, wet, scared, tired, confused, you're wearing gas resistant uniforms in case they use poison gas and they stank like sour milk. the soldiers call them skunk suits. you're carrying 70 pounds of stuff, way too much stuff. you're wet, you're staggering around when you need to move like a rabbit you're moving like a tortoise. you're sick, late in and in your skunk suit. this nine-year-old who was in perfect shape, was a perfect specimen. it he said he didn't care if

hitler was waiting for him. 30s landing at low tide, and open beach. kind of like barb wire, antitank stuff. the frustration for them was that they are trying to try to move the tanks and people through. but soldiers are taking cover behind the obstacles. like that was shown in private ryan. you're not going wire them to blow up in your own geyser in the way. pleasure taking casualties, in many cases you have explosive laden craft that are hit immediately and they touch off massive explosions. so there's about a 56 casually rate in the gap assault. a few examples, lieutenant erin

was a brand-new platoon leader, and like all platoon leaders he's the first guy off the landing craft. you will notice that in pictures of d-day. you'll see the image from the back of the landing craft. you'll notice a guy with a vertical #on his helmet he was standing at the front that the officer who is leading the way. the horizontal #, don't think about standing on this landing craft, i am your sergeant and your leader. you need to move. so he gets off her and he's hit in the head by machine gun fire and killed instantly. his mother after the war wrote historians to tell his story, saying that i'm just a proud mother of an only son and i will try to understand. you see that as a historian in your motivated to tell his story. talk about being humbling.

another example. this one is unpleasant. pfc norman was carrying a satchel charge, something touched it often a bloom to pieces. in every direction. the biggest piece was the size of my fist. the other survivors had to crawl over this as they made their way up the beach. after the book was published, i heard from a french family. it's a custom not just in france but other liberated countries to adopt the graves of americans who were buried overseas, and they adopted norman spickler's grave. and they wondered if i could share how he died and what had happened. it was not a pleasant thing to relate, but at least they had some closure in that sense. proprietary side of knowing.

the survivors are pin down against a stony bank that floats upward giving the illusion of safety and cover but really isn't. it's the sloping rock that is all over. and it's tough for vehicles for motor shells and you can imagine it slippery, wet, it's the first place you might have gotten too. so many are dead and wounded, the medics were risking their lives, and the tides were coming in, medics were going back and trying to drag people forward. it's one of the cu times that medics were dragging them towards the enemy. i think it's a little bit of an insight, including a planning oversight. the allies had a lot of

landmark for shipping, things are ancillary, trucks, artillery pieces, not as much for medical evacuation there is a lot of frustration, the medic with later relate to army historians in their memoirs that they would stabilize the guy can't get into a landing craft, and they would say no we are leaving. it was unfair. the order is to dump off your lewd and get more. they were not to evacuate the wounded. this was a point of frustration. i think it's really cost the lives. now, you see some folks that i'm showing you. that is lieutenant jon's father. so where does this leave, doesn't get off the beach with the all good fortune year presenting them with a lot of targets. and they can get a mall. by my estimate there's only 500- 600 germans guarding 'the big red one'. the americans have massive

advantages , what you're looking at their is lieutenant john spaulding, the commander of the first american boat section to get off the beach. he was 30 years old, he had gotten an ocs commission, he was from kentucky he loved baseball, he was married, he had a young child back home. this was his first day of combat. he has a very seasoned nco, tech sergeant say check, he was from a polish-american family in new jersey, who had to leave school around the eighth grade to help the family survive. he joined the army, he was heavily decorated, and like on the eve of d-day, who is the most sour soldier in the division, he would've gotten the boat. he knows what he's doing.

imagine if you are spaulding, this is uncomfortable. you're brand-new to combat, and you roughly the same age but he's been around the block. regardless of the natural tension between them, their section gets off the beach first. you can see where this happens. right there where it says spaulding. they start to work their way in. they are like knives in the vitals to the germans. they do tremendous damage around 64, 62, they lose two, and eight or would it. 11 men in the section of 32 got the steamer service cross pick another example. captain joe dawson, he was from texas within combat earlier, this is his first company command. he's a geologist from texas, he

was the son of a prominent baptist minister. and a graduate of the baylor ministry. and feel that he has something to prove. is taking over he comes in 20 minutes after spaulding and his group. and starts to make his way up. he takes out a machine gun nest and he leads them towards the town, or you see the prominent church steeple, and they fight bitterly. the tragic thing about dawson's company. they take 50 casualties coming off the beach. the heavy casualties were late in the day because of the coordination between the army and the navy and the confusion

in the circumstance. they had preplanned fire on small ville that killed several of dawson's guys. he also was highly decorated. the governing overload is george taylor. the term the longest day and those about to die comes from him. you saw the man played by robert mitchell. it was at taylor who said and wrote it. he knew as much about and dubious operations as any commander. he wrote two months before d-day , he said in a landing operation there are two classes amended be found on the beach. those who were already dead, and those were about to die. his big message is what happens off the bench. he comes in an hour, his xo was killed

instantly, getting up off the beach. all the people taking cover. he walks up and down. tony lippett 80 get off the beach. those that are dead and those about to die. that's the title my blood. i think taylor's contributions were twofold. he saved a lot of lives motivating people to get off the beach. you're vulnerable, your target, when you're on that shingle bank your target. once you start to move inland your hunter. he gets this. also, i just mentioned spaulding and dawson. there are other groups that are doing much of the same thing, something we don't know about. there were other guys reinforcing them when they could've been vulnerable to german counterattacks. now they these guys are putting more pressure on the germans, crating that natural manpower advantage of the americans already have and going a long way to help winning the beach.

by the end of the day, what you have? you have a beachhead. by mid-day a lot of it is sorted out, and by the way with the help of accurate excellent naval gunfire from destroyers that come in, and they have spotted targets, they do tremendous damage. come nightfall, it has been costly. there are no lines, dispositions, foxholes, and patrols. i would estimate, it's probably an underestimate. it 1174 casualties in 'the big red one'. including 300 killed. probably an underestimate, probably another 500 casualties from the gap saltines, the engineers, the balloons we talked about earlier. the emotional toll on the survivors, you can only imagine.

spaulding fought throughout much of the rest of the world war. for days in combat. you been mooted many times. and had to be evacuated, spaulding two. both of them went on to lead productive posts where lives, straight ticket took his own life in the 1950s. spaulding was shot to death by his wife in the 1950s. you have to think that the trauma of omaha beach has some sort of relation. dawson on the other hand became a millionaire. that's even better. he lived well into the late 1990s, wrote about it. he wrote his family shortly after d-day saying that what came from it was a belief that it was all worthwhile. and this was shared by the loved ones in those represent our nation. i think culturally that is very true. it might've been hard to see

that in the summer of 1944, with the battle of normandy raging. i think he was anticipating. so where is hubner in all this? there's little insight there. this is been a small unit leaders bal. once everything was taken care of. there only two generals in play throughout most of the day on d- day. hubner second in command , and dutch koda. hubner comes in around dinnertime around 7 pm. when most of the fighting had died down, there still german patrols, artillery and mortars coming in. and the mine. there were thousands and thousands of in there. he comes in and hubner is like a caged lion during the day. he likes to lead by example from the front. he's wanting reports and the

staff tells him general, you can go ashore, but you can be cut off from communication if it's going be kf. you will not be in command of things. you really need to hunker down. he finally gets ashore and he sees the aftermath of this battle. he sees what is guys have done. there is a sense of all. he speaks to a young staff officer who explains to him, here's what we did, here is the toll. the very emotional situation. hubner has tears in his eyes. he says over and over, you did it. with a sense of all. i think it's a moment the probably meant nothing. it is an historian you can extrapolate that to the larger normandy invasion, not just of the guys at omaha beach, but all the soldiers. i don't know how it happened, but somehow you did it. at that moment hubner believed

, and many 'the big red one' soldiers would collaborate that it was a bond solidified between him and that division that never abated. . he became promoted leader and was looked on very lovingly, just like terry on. i think that is a place to close the loop on this. they did it. thank you. i would love to take any questions? there's a lot i just did not include. >> yes, sir. can you expand upon the german division the defendant that they? >> there are parts of two divisions on the big red one side. parts of the 716th division which has a lot of eastern european roster fillers. people were given the choice of

working to death of slave labor or serving in the german army. some of those guys. and the 300 and 52nd infantry division which is mostly german but a better unit. interesting little anecdote, one of the soldiers was polish- american. and he encountered a polish soldier who just shot at him and his guys and he was not pleased he took this guy and kicked him in the pants, he took him prisoner walked him back down omaha beach. i say, i don't blame him. he's angry. but think about the conundrum that that soldiers in. his german ncos ready kill him if he doesn't open far, think about where the war has taken him. now has to open fire at somebody who's one of his countrymen. that is what the war had done

to a lot of people. and the polish being a good example. that's why say that the average german implementation and freeman was not a great example , it is the are telling the other one firepower that is controlled by other folks. >> when and why did they get rid of the entire shingle? >> the shingle bank i mentioned where a lot of people took cover, in a way some of it is still there and the stones. a lot of the stones at omaha beach are exactly what you would've been there. a lot of them are scarred by the ordinance, you can go there today. you can go in see them starting. the engineers are successful landing. they will go in and order to

get that you will talk about the logistics earlier. you get the logistics moving to help start building a road. the engineer mentioned one of incredible complexity. somewhere dealing with minds and barbed wire. and building roads and whatever else they were doing. they had a lot to do.

who are dealing with barbed wire and some who are building roads great question >> and visiting normandy we went to the german cemetery and we were amazed the ages of the people in the cemetery. i suspect -- >> i suspect these guys are not the ones you would have seen in

the cemetery. is a possibility. the guys on the beach tend to be a little older it is a mixture. the german opposition some of them are polish or whatever. the german opposition is really diverse in a sense. i am not aware of all that many teenager soldiers although i think -- was very young. another guy was 18 i think so there were young guys maybe not quite as young as 14. >> we did see gravesites.

>> those may have been from the hitler division which fights the canadians inland from juno beach and basically annihilated so absolutely. i've seen those too. >> i think i had seen a documentary and it was the remnants of a division in the east that had been brought back to the hanover area and it was discovered a fresh draft of 18- year-olds from that area. that is a lot of young guys there. >> exactly. and some eastern european guys filtered in there too. there is a myth that came out about d-day and thereafter that entered pop-culture about the that happened to be on maneuvers at omaha beach that day. the concept was to defend the water line so as of march 1944

he started moving elements of the 3/52 as close to the beach as he could get it. it also -- in a way they figured out some things because they knew omaha beach was getting more and more fortified with obstacles. on the fly that is why they created --. any other questions? >> i have several questions, the -- rated the beaches from overhead and i suspect many of those 2000 killed were a result of those machine guns. could they not have landed

later at night i heard he was not kind to his superiors and i believe his son was killed in vietnam . >> you are correct . his son was killed in vietnam with the 28th infantry in the fall of 1967. terry allen one of the reasons he was loved is that the soldiers figured out quickly that he cared a lot more about them than making himself look good to his superiors. terry allen had a tempestuous relationship with george patton and it's not that they disliked each other but he did not suck up to patent or anything else. you mentioned night, while we are talking terry allen perfect time to visit them. terry allen i believe is a pioneer in armed forces in his advocacy of night attacks. the u.s. army in world war ii and therefore were through the vietnam era almost has a, let's

fight the 9-5 were and shut down at night and shoot at anything that moves. let's use our power fire to destroy anything at night so that was not necessarily a good thing. allen's division was quite different. >> [ inaudible question ] >> they helped liberate a concentration flash labor camp at the end of the war. it was a remarkable unit really. >> [ inaudible question ] >> okay.

it's always the last question. a lot is riding on this. >> story of my life because i will be 89 shortly i couldn't wait to get into the service and went to active-duty. anyone i've ever spoken with has been there and everyone has cried it is an emotional place. >> it is. >> easter pennsylvania put out a series of films on world war ii and in one he had a german

machine gun slaying our people and he ended up crying they kept coming they kept coming they kept coming. that is what made the difference. >> it did. it was overwhelming them with wave after wave of troops. two divisions coming in the course of one day against a couple thousand soldiers on the german side. the emotion of it -- it is what

i hoped to convey not just today but in the book. humanize these guys again as these were flesh and blood people like all of us in this situation. before i finished today i would like to thank you for your service i would like to thank you.

>> skills she brought --