normandy france on june 6, 1944. next, pulitzer prize winner rick atkinson describes d-day's legacy. he's the author of "the guns at last light, the war in western europe from 1944 to 1945," the final book of his world war ii trilogy. the atlantic history center and the world war ii foundation hosted this event. >> tim gray of the world war ii foundation will interview rick and we will have a question and answer period, with written questions, after what promises to be a lighting discussion. we are honored to have you here tonight sharing your d-day insights with us. hopefully this is a nice intermezzo for you. [laughter] a little more about rick. rick is a pulitzer prize-winning author for history and journalism. he is the author of seven books, including narrative accounts of five different american wars. all of these are known for their

extensive research and histories vivid narrative histories, including the liberation trilogy, the history of america's role in liberating europe. the first volume of this trilogy won the pulitzer prize in 2003 for history. all three copies are available for sale in the back. he will also be signing copies later tonight of his latest book, the british are coming, the war for america. lexington to princeton. again, multiple copies are available in the back. [laughter] rick and tim, we are privileged to have you here tonight and we are looking forward to a wonderful evening. all yours. [applause] tim: thank you. thank you so much. when i walk into a room like this, i always spot the first couple of world war ii veterans . we have these guys in the front row here. i'm always drawn to them and

want to know what their story was, where they were, what theater they served in, their personal stories. and they are so humble, they don't want to get into it too deep, but i think we owe them a round of applause before we begin tonight. [applause] both these guys served in europe and one just said to the other, that is for us. the applause. if there was any doubt. so here we are. this is an incredible crowd, and we are in an incredible place. i'm with one of the greatest authors, one of those guys they mention in the same breath as cornelius ryan and the other most famous authors who have

written about american history, rick atkinson is one of my favorite authors. i'm extremely happy to be with you tonight. d-day is right around the corner and that is why we are here tonight. on june 4, d-day was supposed to be june 5, but because of the weather it was postponed. june 4, there were men all over calledncampments, they them sausages. they couldn't go anywhere, could not talk to anyone. what is going through their mind as they think d-day will be the next day, june 5, and what you think their anxiety level is at that point? mr. atkinson: thank you for having me here. it is good to be in atlanta and thank you, i am grateful for the conversation. i think the anxiety level is about as high as it could possibly be. put yourself in their shoes. they don't know where they are going, with few exceptions. they just referred to the destination as the far shore because they know they are

probably going across the english channel somewhere but they are not sure where. they trained a lot, but in some cases they had only recently arrived in england. they are pouring into britain by the tens of thousands every week in the spring of 1944. arriving 15,000 at a time on the two queens, the queen mary and the queen elizabeth, ocean liners that could carry an entire division and outrun german submarines to make the crossing from new york to britain in five days. so i think as we get into june, they know something is happening. ships have been loaded since early may because there is a lot to get on those ships. you need 7000 combat necessities , from bazooka rockets to tourniquets, on the beaches in the first four hours. all of those things have been

loading into 22 different british ports. the individual soldiers continue their training, they continue to prepare for an amphibious landing of some sort or an airborne assault, if they are in the airborne units. they don't know when d-day will be. and it is a moving target because of the weather. and the letters that they write, just in case letters and some -- in some cases, are very poignant. they are poetic in some instances. so all of this is a great churn of emotion. some of them had been in combat before. the first infantry division has been in north africa and sicily. so these are combat veterans and they will land on omaha beach -- they do not know it yet, but that is where they are going. others are really quite green. some have never heard a shot fired in anger. you have a mixture of leaders at

all levels, lieutenants leading platoons all the way up to eisenhower. they all have their melange of emotions going through them. it does not take much imagination to recognize this is a moment moment, that is one of those hinges of history. and they know that. they know this is a big deal. even if you are a 19-year-old private who has never seen anything other than your hometown until you get to england, you know you are part of something grand and important and critical. so i think this is all happening as we get closer and closer toward h hour. tim: when you look at the chief stag, theain james chief meteorologist on eisenhower staff, we like to yell at our local meteorologist

when our daughter's softball game gets canceled. the weight of this entire invasion hinges on him getting this forecast right, that there is going to be a break. on june 5, it is raining and windy, the shutters at the house where ike is, they are rattling. and you have this meteorologist who has to give eisenhower the word. can you imagine the pressure hanging over him, to be able to look in eisenhower's eyes and say i can guarantee you 48 hours , otherwise this invasion will have to be called off for a month. what kind of pressure was the under? mr. atkinson: i think you described it pretty well. the weather is just about as bad as it gets in the english channel in the early summer. it was a very unusual storm that was blowing through. they are watching millibars, and barometric pressure.

they have a pretty sophisticated weather system that has been set up and they are tracking fronts coming across the north atlantic and they know what the weather is like south of greenland and there are planes out doing the kind of weather testing that is required at the time. but still, it is a fairly primitive art in 1944. you don't have satellites that we have today, and they still miss things today. so decision has been made correctly that the conditions are just too harsh for the invasion to go forward on june 5. there are certain parameters that are required. the wind can't be too high for the paratroopers, otherwise it could be catastrophic for men jumping out of airplanes with parachutes on. the waves have to be below a certain level, the seas have to be calm enough for the landing

craft flotillas to go in. there are a lot of moving pieces to try to understand what the weather conditions are and how conducive they are to launching a very complex invasion. you are right, the weather window is quite narrow, the moon has to be at a certain position. you have to have enough light to do this but not enough light to be revealed. that narrows the window. he goes to eisenhower and a enior staff that is there on the south coast of england and says, i think we have a slot. i think the weather will break enough to allow you to do it. it is marginal and it will still be nasty on the english channel. you will have a lot of seasick oldiers. it is going to be tough on the airborne guys. it is going to be very tough on

pilots because there is probably going to be substantial cloud cover. i think we can do it. then it shifts from stag's shoulders to eisenhower's shoulders. and the pressure, he is accustomed at this point to ordering young men to their deaths, to the extent you can ever get accustomed to that. not everybody in the world is built to do that kind of thing. here, he has got this incredibly difficult decision to make about whether or not to gamble, to roll the dice. and he does it and makes the decision and says, "let's go." that's the right decision. the trait that napoleon appreciated most in his generals was luck. [laughter]

>> good trait. >> it is never to be underestimated and life or in war. eisenhower is lucky. patton who had a complex relationship with him claimed his initials stood for divine destiny. we see eisenhower's luck holding. he makes a hard decision. it is the right decision as it turns out and a lucky decision. that is what you want in your commander-in-chief. you want and guide that has luck on his side and the fortitude to make that kind of hard decision, but also providence on his side. george washington would call the providence. he has got providence. we're the better for it. tim: he smoked a lot of cigarettes. >> four packs a day. >> four packs. he was a nervous guy. he had the weight of the world on his soldier and he wrote a note if the invasion failed, he took responsibility personally

that it was his call to make. rick: he is smoking four packs of camels and his blood pressure is 176/100, stage two ypertension. of course, he feels constrained not to show it. you do not want your subordinates to know you are a bundle of nerves. it makes everybody a bundle of nerves. he does a good job of concealing it and allow his emotions to be bottled up. he is 54 years old at the time. he is rocketing. he goes through lieutenant colonel told five-star general. he was going to be promoted to five-star in months. it is a six month period before promotion and it is unheard of in american military history.

here is -- and you have to say, here is a guy when he first took over the theater command in the mediterranean, he never heard a shot fired in anger and late 1942. he missed world war i. he was not deployed overseas. he has certain characteristics. he doesn't see the battlefield spatially and temporally like napoleon does. that is not his job. his primary job is to make decisions and to hold together this rambunctious coalition. and he is brilliant at that. absolutely brilliant. franklin roosevelt says he has made him the commander-in-chief of the european expeditionary force because he is the best politician among the generals. eisenhower does not think it is a slur. he knows it is important.

e likes the british unlike almost every other general in the american army. he has an affection for them. they reciprocate. he began use words like "petrol." it drives george patton insane. [laughter] he is an extraordinary study in leadership and capability and personal growth. you see great responsibility enlarges him. that is something we want in our leaders, it enlarges him. we are fortunate he is in there. im: he is holding together the coalition of egos. he has patton to deal with. it is almost like being the manager of the yankees where you have $220 million payroll f egos and your goal is to

manage them to a world series win, which was d-day. i found that incredible he was able to deal with these. we ran into susan eisenhower and i said, your grandfather really had some problems with montgomery. she said believe it or not, they were great friends after the war. they really respected each other. after world war ii was over, and to what you said about being fond of the english, was fond of montgomery. after the war. rick: not during the war. montgomery was a difficult subordinates. it was fraught relationship. bygones be bygones after the war. the relationship got more and more intense. montgomery is more insubordinate as we get into that last 11 month period of

the war. if eisenhower had had any hair left, he would have torn it out. tim: montgomery was important for the planning of d-day. he said we need to do some things. from a strategy standpoint, he thought he was going to. looking at the strategy, he had a big impact. rick: he did. a very important combat leader. somebody who has the respect of not only the british army but the entire british nation and that is very important for morale reasons. he sees in eisenhower, despite their frictions, he talks about how eisenhower has a quality that is like a magnet attracting filings of metal in eisenhower can attract the admiration of men the way a magnet attracts metal.

he is perceptive in that respect. tim: you mentioned the infantry division and they had seen action in africa and other places and italy, sicily. there was an attempt on d-day to give the first infantry division that section of omaha each because the other section went to the 29th infantry who were the national guard and they were untested in battle. the first infantry what was going to happen within reason whereas the 29th when they landed, they really didn't have a field for combat. how important it is it for young soldiers, teenagers to be thrown into war who feel invincible? rick: you know, it is a complex question. you wanted them to have some sense of what it is they are getting themselves into so they are not shocked. i do not care how much combat you have seen, you land on

omaha beach, that first 22 minutes gave you intensity of the combat. you want them to have some sense of what they are getting into. you do not want them to be paralyzed with anxiety. you know, some part of every 19-year-old believes he is invulnerable, that he is immortal. i think that is a useful trait. the 29th division had been in a -- the maryland and virginia and district of columbia. they are relatively green unit. there are side-by-side with first infantry division. they have some challenges that the first division does not have in terms of veterans and ranks. my feeling of placing them where they were in retrospect as good.

casualties were tremendous in the 19th division, but i think you can believe in retrospect that having them as t the high level of morale that that division had was one of the keys to success on june 6. tim: when you look at the oldiers and when they land and the colonels are getting killed and the lieutenants are getting killed, it is up to these 17 yols, 18-year-olds to say my commander is dead, what do i do now? i found it is fascinating that e n.c.o.'s who led the men and the corporals and privates who took the initiative on that day. what does it say about american soldiers and even the allied soldiers, the younger soldiers who saw everything going wrong

but was able to rally and move nland? rick: it speaks to the importance of training. these guys have spent a lot of time in various training regiments. the junior officers, the middle level officers have been working with the ranks for quite some time now. in the first division, they have been together since 1942 to the extent it is cohesive. they have lost man in africa and sicily. there is considerable stability. part of training, it is true today, it is to be able to make the necessary adjustments for junior leaders to take the initiative when senior leaders are killed or disabled.

it is for those who do not necessarily have a formal leadership position to find the leadership in themselves when the moment arrives when it is required. i think you see that and there's a terrible sense of shock as you are seeing the man on your left with a bullet through his forehead and the man on your right terribly wounded in the guts and trying to overcome that to get off the beach and move forward to do what you needed to do. you need to get off the beach and be able to figure out how to do it to lead other men to do that. it is something. not every soldier is made it to lead other men in dark of night or in this case, relatively early in the morning. it is situations like omaha beach where you find where you find men who are able to lead other men in the dark of

night metaphorically. im: when we celebrate the 75th anniversary and the last time they will be able to go back for a major anniversary where most of them are in their mid-90's, the 80th anniversary, they probably will not make it ack. they will be there. they will ride their bikes. when you look at them and know here were 16.1 million americans who served in the war what here are 45,000 left, is the legacy when you look at these guys? what have they left us? rick: they are passing at about a rate of 350 a day. sorry to talk about it. >> you guys are fine.

>> you know, my father, world war ii veteran, career army officer died at 94 in october. we think about the individual legacy. i think about what my father left for me and my family. collectively, the legacy it is incalculable. it is so stupendous, it is difficult to get your arms around it. one of the things they leave us is a sense that no matter how difficult our difficulties today seem, we have faced worse and have had the gumption and the wherewithal and the cleverness to overcome it. and i think that is really important. that is one the reasons we should know our own history. it can be inspiration.

the legacy in some cases are very obvious. you want to make sure every 14-year-old kid knows what these guys did. t is important for those who re longer in the two than 14 years old to ensure they understand our national history. world war ii, first and foremost, but all of it. the good and the bad, it is important. it is who we are and where we came from. we can say for these guys, their generation had to ponder the most difficult question that any people can ask themselves, what are you willing to die for? that is a tough question. that is a question everybody should be prepared to ask and answer. what are you willing to die for? we know what they were willing to die for. e know what they died for.

in some case. 400,000 american deaths in world war ii. 291,000 killed in action, that doesn't begin to talk about 11,000 left blind and all the rest. that is part of the legacy that should outlive them forever. it is important to us. tim: go ahead -- absolutely. [applause] i think you get a sense of that when you travel to europe and do see 12-year-old and 13-year-old boys and girls come up to these men when they are visiting the cemetery and they say "thank you" and they know about patton and eisenhower and montgomery. their countries were liberated by these men. these men are liberating people they do not know, countries they have never been to as teenagers.

that is a pretty magnificent thing when you think about t. and the other part of it is people say they were fighting for america, fighting for the flag. were they fighting for their fellow soldier more? rick: yes. of course, the big picture and so forth. again, since the days of homer, why do they risk their lives? why do they sometimes give their lives? so they are not less than the man on the left or the right or the woman on the left and the man on the right. you do not go to war without the women today. that camaraderie, that intense sense of brotherhood that is forged in combat and under the greatest stress that is imaginable and the human condition, that is really at

the heart of what they are doing. i agree with you, when you go to normandy from one of these anniversaries and you see the french. we ridiculed the french in this country and it is unfair. they have very long memories. there remember what happened on june 6, 1944. as a nation and individually, they are grateful. they come up and kids are born at 50 years after d-day, and they know the history. they know the sacrifice. they know the relationship between america and france in that case. it is true in other western european countries. i lived in berlin for years. i know that the germans really, despite the fact that we destroyed their country with our allies, they recognize we liberated them. we liberated them from a

fascist regime they had empowered and taking control over their country and they permitted it to happen. we allowed the germans, really, i think to turn to the germany that is so admirable today. this is an important ongoing relationship. 75 years ago, it is important that 75 years from now and 75 years after that, we know about this important relationship we built starting on june 6, 944. tim: was d-day when you look at the defining moments in history and we will talk a lot about that. where do you rank d-day in terms of the world changing in the course of one 24 hour period and where it ranks? rick: for sheer drama, it is tough to top.

probably one. let us not forget most of the bleeding and dying happening is the bleeding and dying is being one by the russians. 26 million dead. most of the killing of germans is done by the russians. it is estimated that russian troops, red army troops, killed ine germans for everyone british one killed by and american soldiers together. when we get to june 6, 1944, the handwriting is on the wall. if the invasion fails, the war is not going to and in 1945. it is going to drag on. it means that many more deaths of civilians and allies. it is awful. let us remember in april 1945, the last full month of the war in europe, 11,000 american soldiers were killed in germany.

it was awful virtually to the last gunshot. the longer the war goes on whether because there are mistakes made in prosecuting the campaigns or the invasion has failed and you have to mount another, the more awful it is going to be. it is a singular date. probably not a defining date in the sense of this is the day that the war was one. the history of the war is more complicated than that. boy, it is a date that should be seared in everybody's memory forever. tim: one you look at the lanning that went into d-day and the maps and every hedgerow was marked out and every stream and railroad and everything was prepared for a successful invasion. that all goes out the window

the moment these guys start to land in everything goes wrong. ow were we able to win a d-day when you look at so many things that went broke? -- wrong? rick: no plan survives contact with the enemy. there is no difference in this plan. in this case, things go wrong and it works to your advantage. you have 2 paratrooper divisions scattered across the peninsula and they are scattered across half acre and nobody knows where the 82nd airborne division is for a couple of days. those are two very confused decisions. the german defenders are even more confused because every time they turn around, there eems to be paratroopers. you cannot say this was better

than the plan that had come together as it was drawn p. brute force is an important factor in combat. you get to omaha beach and there are more defenders than you expect. the defenses are tougher than you anticipated and casualties re high. j in, it is tough on gold, uneau, utah, sword. again, here is something that goes wrong and turns out to go right. miscalculated where the division was going to land. that turns out to be good because the german defenses are softer than they would have been where they intended to land. you mentioned that casualties were less than expected, much less than omaha beach.

sometimes confusion can work to your advantage. when it doesn't, you will rely on the kind of courage we talked about in the overwhelming force you have brought to bear. that's a lot that goes wrong. the softening up with the air strikes. they do not hit where they are supposed to hit. there are no craters on the beaches for men to take shelter. here was a slaughterhouse of dairy cows further inland if those bombs. the naval bomb is fierce but does not necessarily penetrate the thick into defenses. what you see is necessity is the mother of invention and necessity requires them to find their way forward which they did. tim: when you talk to these guys and they open up to you

rather than opening up to their own families and a lot of times when we do an interview, a son or daughter will stop us on the way out and said we had no idea he did this or he did that. why didn't these guys share these stories with their family? was it to protect their family? why were they more likely to share it with a perfect stranger like you or me? rick: it's important to romanticize. some of them have never shut up after 1945. [laughter] let us not pretend that were suffering and silence for all these years. [laughter] tim: these guys are laughing. i hear you. rick: it's important for them to have talked about it. t is one of the ways they help to work through the trauma of it.

we know today what ptsd is. it was not well documented in the 1940's. those who talk, good on them. others didn't. my father never talked about vietnam. we can never get a syllable out of him about vietnam. he talked about world war ii. the 1940's as a young officer. for some reason, he would not talk about it. that is just the way some soldiers are. they open up to strangers like you and me. i have to admit, i do not rely on 70-year-old memories. no offense, guys. i believe that the contemporaneous record, the diaries, the letters, the official records, it is so profoundly enormous and rich. some scholars calculate the u.s. records alone weigh 17,000 ons.

all the stuff, all the papers that military bureaucracies can create. along with a fabulous record that soldiers, individual oldiers, have left behind. the poetry of their letters of these unlettered soldiers. in some cases, i know have found this. as the years go by, they worked through it somehow. there want to be remembered and to have somebody record what their experiences were. that is important. it can be extraordinarily powerful. you can get those little brushstrokes that you got a no other way than by hearing the oral history, the story of somebody who was there. tim: we are here because atlanta and georgia have such a rich history in world war ii

and even from -- and everything else. and one of the reasons also is because the managing editor of the atlanta journal-constitution at the time took a leave of absence from the paper and became a tringer for nbc. and filed the first radio report on d-day. he scooped the world. he was an incredible individual and very well known in the community. rick: i would like to tell you nd little bit about him. bryant was the editor from the atlanta journal. from 1946-1954. he was credited with being the first news man to report on the d-day invasion on june 6. he beat more than 600 reporters on the one of the biggest tories of the century. as an old newspaperman myself,

i can only imagine the pain of the 600. tim: a couple of choice words. rick: he received the presidential medal of freedom, the highest civilian award from the dwight d. eisenhower for services as a war correspondent. we're fortunate to have his daughter here with us tonight. thank you for joining us. where are you? [applause] there she is. thank you. tim: the bravery of every correspondent at that time and you are watching the faces of paratroopers who are petrified and you have to give that report. you have to as a journeyist. -- journalist. your job is to sum up the moment and he did that so well. we have used his radio

broadcast in a couple of our films. it is so dramatic and so in the field. not one of those today where it is digitized and they would be able to eliminate all the noise going around. it is a rough broadcast but a rough time. we have an opportunity to listen to that broadcast right now. let us cue that up and listen to that. >> speaking from london, and the first hour of d-day, a little more than an hour before d-day began, forces for the liberation of europe landed by parachute and france. the flight deck of the c-27, i rode across the english channel with a first troop of lanes. i watched from the rear door of

our plane as 17 american paratroopers jumped with their arms intermittent onto german occupied france. our group at the head of the leading wing from the carrier command was met with small arms fire from the fields which was dark and quiet as we entered into enemy territory. s we headed to the english coast, we saw tracers behind us and a steady parade of life planes moving over the course we had navigated. below us, we couldn't see out a few ships but could not be certain whether they were carrying the last soldiers for attacks that were following the first landings of airborne troops. tim: you can hear it in his voice. he was such a professional and that his voice is steady and his describing what he sees.

that is a mark of any good a journalist wherever they are in the world. you spent a lot of time at "the post" and you do that now. i think it is incredible he is able to be some calm in a crazy situation like that. rick: that's extraordinary dispatch that he asked. he has successors that are reporting today, not quite as dramatic, risking their lives and in some cases, giving their lives. they are not enemies of the people. please remember that. [applause] tim: the staff at the time listening to their boss give this broadcast and they were going crazy saying that his boss delivering the first broadcast of d-day. such an incredible thing. we are under to have the

current editor of ajc. kevin, if you could stand. kevin is over there. that's tradition lives on from edward r. murrow to walter ronkite. lester holt and everybody else. journalists report what they see. and what did they find out and eing a former journalist myself, i have always been one of those people who believe you are held to that standard and no matter what you do, you stick to that standard. we had questions from the audience that they wrote out that they would like to ask you. what is your credit card number and expiration date? [laughter]

just kidding. norm cota is considered a hero of d-day. on monument was once proposed, what's his leadership considered less than that of teddy roosevelt? was his leadership worthy of a medal of honor consideration? let's start with the first art. why did it teddy roosevelt, -- why was his leadership over norm's? rick: they landed on the wrong beach. roosevelt who was with them is long and the tooth for a combat leader and he has been in north africa and sicily in quite a lot of combat he. he takes command on the scene. he improvises. he rallies at the men and says we may be in the wrong place but we are going this way. we're going inland here.

a performance by him and famously is walking around. he has a lamp and he has his ane. sing his caneas a sword. it is extraordinary. he has a heart attack about a month later and dies in normandy, tragically. he is awarded the medal of honor in part for his collective service to the country. specifically for what he had done on june 6 and the days after june 6. norm cota is one of the interesting other general officers in the war. on omaha beach, you talked about how junior officers and n.c.o.'s helped to rally to get them off. norm cota is waving his 45 and has a cigar clamp between his teeth. he is getting them off the beaches and showing them how -- we're going this way, up the

whether you have this way. it is an extraordinary act of combat leadership when cota is on the bluffs. bradley is so anxious that things are going so badly he has thought about pulling the troops which will be hard and redirecting them to utah beach. it is that dire. when he gets word that cota is on the beach and he knows things will be ok. he leads, he becomes commander of the 28th infantry division as part of a reward for his actions on june 6. 28th infantry had been the pennsylvania national guard. they are given the honor of leaving the parade, the victory paraded through paris when paris was liberated in late august of 1944. they were on the postage stamp, he ranks of men.

he gets into the hurkin forest, one of them most ill-conceived battles of world war ii. in november of 1944. cota's division is chewed to pieces. he is within a whisker of being relieved the reason they don't is because replacements have een wounded or killed. to me, cota shows the fickleness of how life turns on dime. we know that, but in cota's case he goes from being a hero to a zero. as a famous picture of eisenhower confronting cota, a very skeptical face, expression on eisenhower's face. cota trying to explain this calamity that is unfolding. he is as complex as people go. tim: and people like george

taylor on omaha beach. there's a trivia question, only one world war veteran at american cemetery in normandy nd a lot of people do not know what is and it is teddy roosevelt junior's brother. ick: his brother's grave was moved. tim: the second question is we know about his involvement of animals, particularly horses and mules, in italy. were there any animals involved n d-day? i have to tell you a quick story about a paratrooper who landed and had a conversation with a cow. he said that cow came up to me and said "what are you doing in my field?" thought he probably hit his head.

were there any animals involved in d-day? rick: the question is whether the cow was speaking rench. my animal history is not too deep. one animal that was there was pigeons. hundreds of carrier pigeons of loading of the ships in the days leading up to the expedition across the english channel. carrier pigeons were important. it was a recognition that radios were going to be balky. and strengthening the wire was -- streaming wire was difficult because wire was often cut by shell fire. there were a fair number of pigeons that went into the beaches.

some of them did good service. others, particularly on the british beaches, writing this critical message with classified information and banding it as a role the patient in the air and he heads to the german lines. tim: the famous line "damn raitor." from "the longest day" movie, the pigeon was a traitor. we have time for one more question. how much do you believe operation fortitude and the first u.s. army played a role in helping the allies successfully take the beaches of normandy? that is a great question. rick: it is a wonderful story and incredibly ingenious, the effort was persuaded the german defenders who knew that something was coming but did not know where or when to persuade them that invasion was coming somewhere other than normandy. particularly to reinforce the

presumption that coming further north would be the probable landing area. this very elaborate process was sent out in which you were trying to persuade german intelligence that the beaches were in fact not where the beaches were going to be. it included rolling up the german intelligence network. they flipped all of them. as of the question is suggested, dummy armies created so that german reconnaissance plans would see these inflated tanks thinking they were real armies? there was an army group created out of whole cloth with patton s the commander. i do not think it mattered at all.

it was the thing they had to o. german intelligence was usually so poor, there were no reconnaissance planes and they cannot penetrate the defenses that were very robust. the germans did not know about these inflated tanks. they did not have to make a decision, they never saw them. i think it is a terrific story and it is an important part of the greater saga. think in terms of confusing the germans, they had confused themselves sufficiently that i don't think that the disinformation that was put out under fortitude necessarily had a particularly critical role to play in that. tim: it did tie up the german 15th army.

hitler still believed that the normandy invasions were still a diversion. it goes back to the german's ntelligence. not necessarily that people walk around with dummy tanks. rick: there was a more robust force to come across the channel. they kept their defenses well into the summer to the great advantage of those who landed at normandy, it is hard enough to fight it through the hedgerows. it is not necessarily because of fortitude. the germans had made calculations that were simply wrong. they do not have the strategic and operational intelligence to tell them this is the main landing. this not a subsequent big anding, and behind it. it worked out quite well for he allies.

tim: german intelligence turned out to be an oxymoron. it is a privilege to speak to you. i have been a fan for many years. just telling the story of world war ii and the individual soldiers, there is nobody better. you are my cornelius ryan. i appreciate everything you do. [applause] and your new book is fabulous and all the reviews have been incredible and you will be signing that. thank you for joining us, it is a pleasure. i would like introduce the ceo of the world war ii foundation, ajor general drew davis. drew? drew: thanks for that extensive introduction. i appreciate that.

tim: and also a great guy. drew: good evening. it is a pleasure to be here in atlanta with all of you celebrating this remarkable 75th anniversary. in the last hour, i have learned a lot and appreciate what you and rick have enlightened us all in the last hour of discussion. what tim did not mention is i am actually a retired marine. [laughter] how many marines in the audience? it is with some regret i have to inform all of you, there were no marines in normandy on d-day. tim: goodbye, everybody. thanks for coming. [laughter] drew: another quick plug for rick's book, which i have started. im asked a good question about

what we were the seminole 24 hour periods in our nation's history? i just finished the first chapter on what may be the first defining 24 hours which was the battle of lexington and concord in the revolution, which opened up the opening shots of our revolutionary war. right? > correct. drew: the world war ii foundation is grateful to be here and to honor all of the soldiers, sailors, coast guardsmen and our allies who landed in normandy almost 75 years ago. what was hinted is that you stop to think about this, in

the entire scope of human history, june 6, 1944 was the largest, most complex human endeavor ever. that is -- i think not hyperbole. would you agree with that? >> yes. drew: not only a moment in our history but human history. i am here to tell you a little bit more about some of your fellow georgians who landed on normandy on that day. before doing so, i would like to take a moment and ask all of you in the audience who have worn the cloth of military service in the united states to stand, please. all veterans, please stand. [applause]

drew: i think the percentage of the audience that stood is also he mark of the commitment of the atlanta area to service to this nation. we are eternally grateful to you and your families for the courage, sacrifice and bravery you displayed. one of the things that both rick and tim are very, very talented in doing, we were chatting earlier, i regret that i did not major in history in college.

it was because history, the joy of history was driven out of my education and probably many of you in this room in high school when it all became of dates and treaties and kings of england. when really what the power of history is his personal stories. that is what tim and risks are so skilled at doing. telling the personal stories. -- that is what tim and rick are so skilled at doing. i will tell five stories about five georgians who landed in normandy on d-day. the first is jim wooters. i believe we have jim's picture? yes? ok. jim was a columbus, georgia ative. he was a sailor who served on the u.s.s. arkansas during the d-day invasion along with 1,200 other sailors. the omaha was anchored more

than 200 miles from omaha beach. the second georgian we will remark on is james mark delong. jim. he grew up in gainesville, georgia and attended the university of georgia. he started flying at the young age of 15 and entered the air force in 1942. he piloted on martin b 26 bomber flying 73 bombing commissions including d-day over normandy. as rick pointed out, the weather was not good. a remarkable photograph in a world war ii magazine that shows what the rudimentary radar image that to these pilots would have seen as that they are trying to line up their targets and it was not ood.

jim was awarded the distinguished flying cross, air medal, purple heart and a european african middle east campaign ribbon. next is private edward e jackson. he grew up in columbus, georgia and listed in the army while studying at emory university. he served as a sherman tank driver for the 70th tank battalion. its motto was strike swiftly. jackson landed with his tank crew on utah beach on june 6. the tank was hit -- let me back up. the tanks were not built to make amphibious landings. they were retrofitted with a pretty extensive system of ventilation and exhaust systems, breathing systems and

waterproofing. not many of those tanks made it across the beaches to land. jackson's tank was hit. private jackson was wounded and taken as a prisoner of war. he managed to escape and was recaptured after three days and spent the rest of the war as a pow. jackson has three sons. two of whom are with us. our board member glenn and clay jackson. [applause] drew: next is willie collins. he was born in macon, georgia. living in the deep south, he was subject to jim crow laws as an african-american citizen. when he enlisted, he was placed

in the transportation corps which was part of the 228th port company. was killed on d-day while unloading cargo onto utah beach. the only reported casualty on d-day from data units. he received his purple heart posthumously recognizing his sacrifice and giving the ultimate sacrifice. next, john e buck a griffin junior. an athens, georgia resident. he served from 1943 until november, 1945. he was a member of the 225 u.s. rangers who attacked the north shore of france and scaled the liffs. it is the subject of our 22nd

to film, most recent film which is narrated by david mccallum home and if you may remember from that movie "the great escape." he is also a veteran of the british army and a loyal citizen of the united states. he does a beautiful job of narrating this film, which will be on the pbs stations. im: now. drew: it is a really powerful ilm. ronald reagan was asked to give a very memorable commemorative speech in 1984 that commemorated the courage and sacrifice of this suicide mission of these rangers.

he called at the most difficult and daring of the invasion. we are honored to have two buck's daughters with us. [applause] drew: these are five georgians who made history. as we pointed out, the passage of years has taken them from us. i would like to take a moment of silence for these five individuals and all of the ther veterans that have served our country on d-day and gave that ultimate sacrifice. a moment of silence, lease.

drew: thank you very much. sheffield. before sheffield closes out, let us give all of these georgians who we mentioned, all of you veterans in this room and all of you who saw fit to give up a moment of your lives in this evening to come and share this moment of history. thank you very much. [applause] thank you for your hospitality. >> i appreciate it. what a powerful night we have had. i would like to say thank you to our sponsors and the world war ii foundation and tim and rick for an incredible evening and i will never forget it. i want to thank all of you for attending tonight's program.

rick will be available to sign books to your left down the hall right after this evening. tonight, it truly set the tone for the upcoming 75th nniversary of d-day. we look forward to honoring the anniversary by sharing the history and relevancy of this day. follow us on social medium where we will share interviews with world war ii veterans and our blog post providing more about d-day. veteran history is very important to us. we have been collecting oral history since 1995 and our founding partner of the library of congress which began in 2005. we have veterans from conflicts and world war ii to the present. 00 interviews, 350 are world war ii oriented are available on our website today.

if any veterans of any era have been inspired to tell the story, we encourage you not to wait 75 years and to inquire about our project. we will believe you. honor all veterans share your stories. thank you again and good night. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019]

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day fast approaching, it makes a great gift. see how historians rank the best and worst chief executives from george washington to barack obama. the charges they faced and legacies they faced behind. is available at c-span.org/thepresidents or wherever books are sold. >> american history tv products are now available at the new c-span online store. go to c-span store.org to see what is new for american history tv. and check out all of the c-span roducts. >> june 6 was the 75th anniversary of the allied d-day nvasion of nazi-occupied normandy france. john raaen was there on d-day

and describes how his company omaha beach and discussed hearing cries of the the wounded.