message to troops as they prepare for >> soldiers, sailors and airmen of the allied expeditionary force, you are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. the eyes of the world are upon

you. the hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. you will our brothers and allies on many fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the german war machine and security for ourselves in the free world. your task will not be an easy one, your enemy is well trained, well-equipped and battle hardened. he will fight savagely. .ut this is the year 1944 much has happened since the 1941.riumphs of 1940, the united nations have inflicted upon the germans great defeat in open battle, man-to-man. of their offensive have seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. our homefront have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and missions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting

men. the tide has turned. the freemen of the world are marching together to victory. i have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. we will accept nothing less than full victory. good luck. and let us all receive the blessing of almighty god upon this great and noble undertaking. on "washington journal" and "american history tv" we are the national d-day memorial and started seeing the film reporting of d-day. alexng the film reporting of d-day. started seeing the film reporting of d-day. started seeing the film reporting of d-day. alexwe are now back here life appeared what is the significance of you being there in bedford and the memorial you are sitting near? host: this is one place in

asrica that gave more to me a european -- i am 63 years old, and i spent 53 years in europe and have enjoyed enormous prosperity in unity, and this one community here, bedford, virginia, saved more lives and sacrifice more than anyone else in america on d-day, june 6, 1944. 19 guys from this community of 3000 in 1944 died in the first wave on omaha beach. bedford, virginia, gave more than any other allied community on d-day, and that is why the memorial is here. i have very happy to be sitting right in front of it. guest: i have always heard that bedford gave more than any other american town, but you said more than any other allied community. host: yes, that is what the national d-day memorial proclaims, and that is true, yeah.

company-a a d-day, from the 116 infantry regiment, national guard in the 1930's, we can warriors, they never envisioned that by 1944, they would be in the very first wave of the most critical assault of u.s. history. 180 guys who landed on omaha beach, and we believe 102 were killed in about half an hour. of those, 19 were from bedford, virginia. but there were 34 guy still in the company-a on d-day from this community here. guest: your book focuses on the individual stories, personal stories come of that first wave of soldiers, airmen, and marines, you write early in the book that it was 12:15 am, june 6, 19 44, the most important day of the 20 century, the first americans had arrived in france.

was theou think d-day most important day of the 20th century? host: because it led to a europe you see today, civilization, human rights, democracy, the foundation of atlanta schism -- the foundation of the relationship between the u.s. and europe, the most important relationship in the modern world history. it led to the freedom of millions and millions of europeans in western europe. 19 million civilians died in europe in world war ii. when americans, british, french, and canadian slanted on d-day, gave countess millions hope that ,he barbarism and nazism the terrible genocide, would finally end. guest: our guest is alex kershaw. we welcome your calls and comments ahead of the 75th

anniversary of d-day. for (202) 748-8001 -- (202) 748-8001 eastern and western time zones per mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8001. world war ii veterans and family, (202) 748-8002. we will get to your calls shortly. i want to start with a photo most all of us have seen at some point or another in our lives, the famous jaws of death photo, what is the significance of this photo that you have included in a similar version on the front of your book? is --it host: it is probably the best photo you can find what it was like for the first wave of troops at omaha beach. craft approaching one of eight centers on omaha, the second deadliest sector, and guys of that boat would be killed. it is a very atmospheric shot of what it was like to approach bloody omaha. over 900 americans would be

killed on that beach, far more than any other allied soldiers and any other beach on d-day. it is a moment anticipating eminence of violence and slaughter and death. guest: alex kershaw, we have callers waiting period first to ralph in kentucky. served in world war ii, but he was part of the occupation force after combat. but i was wondering, how many men did we actually lose on omaha beach that day? --t: well over: well, we know it was 900. over 900 on omaha beach. compare that with the other american beach at utah, you had less than 200 casualties killed, wounded, taken prisoner. over 2000 killed,

thousand casualties, so very different stories. utah beach was a huge success. omaha was a bloody disaster. host: joseph next in plano, texas. good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: fine, go ahead with your comment. guest: great, thanks. caller: one of the other callers said it was inappropriate to talk about the president on this memorial day. first of all come the sacrifices of the greatest generation has little to do about it. you have to remember, the president did his recruitment and his bone spur controversy, and somebody had to take his place. host: thanks. we have kind of moved on that topic. talking about d-day with alex guest, andr

his new book "the first wave." next call. caller: thank you. i was privileged to be at the memorial a couple years ago unmemorable day, and they brought the schoolchildren next to that landing craft. those children went by, and there must've been 100 veterans there from various campaigns, and it was fantastic to see those children think those veterans in person. it is a great thing. it is a shame that it took so long to get that memorial built there. what do you think the difficulty was, mr. kershaw? guest: i think there is a difficulty with many memorials. the national world war ii memorial in d.c. was built far too late as far as most people are concerned. i think it took a long time for people to realize we needed to memorialize the second world war. it is a shame that we have to remember it is here. it has been open since 2001,

opened by president bush in 2001, and we now have beautiful national memorials all over the americanin europe to sacrifice and loss in world war ii. host: in general, how are the men selected to be part of this first wave? were they looking for specific experience, character traits, or did they just need raw numbers? guest: a mixture of both. it is a great question. for omaha beach, it was a mixture of two divisions. the first division had been in combat before. some guys that landed in the first wave of omaha were in that -- had been in north africa and sicily and into omaha beach. other divisions included a division that was completely green, a national guard division, and not one of those guys had seen combat before. the problem was we only had so many men we could put in the battle that had actually seen,

before. two thirds of the americans on d-day had never had a shot fired at them. it was a combination. the third key objective was difficult and challenging. we used elite troops, rangers. 101st airborne were elite trips, but most of those guys had never seen combat before. the vast majority of americans on d-day had never been in combat before. host: one of the green troops was a man you write a great deal about, lieutenant john spalding, leader of the 16th infantry regiment, the first division of the first wave of men on the beach. you write about lieutenant spalding and his second-in-command, a surgeon of the first infantry division, the big red one. what was their relationship? describe those first couple of moments when they stepped off

the boat, lieutenant spalding stepping off that higgins boat into the water. guest: you have to remember that when they came in towards the bombinghe american would have been affected and all they had to worry about was the germans counterattacking. so when they dared to look over the edge of that landed craft about 200 yards from the beach, their hearts fell. they were utterly dismayed to see that nothing had been touched by preinvasion bombing. the ramp came down. spalding was at the front of the landing craft, and 28-year-old guy who had never seen combat before, from kentucky, had been a sportswriter before the war. he had to shout at his men that he was going to go first. noise level was absolutely extraordinary. veterans have described it to me as a constant wall of noise. every now and again you would cloth being torn

by a machine gun, which would kill an entire platoon and could have killed spalding's landing craft in seconds. he goes into the water, and it is cold, a jolt. he goes under the water. he tries to get rid of his pack. comes back up and manages somehow to get to the beach. he then crawls across a foam shingle beach and finds protection finally by the ruins that had beenla heavily shelled. tok about an hour and a half get off the landing craft and lead his men 300 or 400 yards to flat sands and then across shingles and up a minefield that was part of a blood, and finally

emerged at about 8:00 in the morning, becoming the first american officer to lead americans off the bloodiest beach on d-day. host: taking calls for alex kershaw as we look at the 75th anniversary of d-day here on "washington journal" and "american history tv." our call is from winston-salem, north carolina. yes, i had a granddaddy in world war ii, but they cannot find him because they locked him up. this happened to american people all over. [indiscernible] war,people missing in the and they were keeping them in jail. what happened to my granddaddy. they had him.

and people saying something about donald trump. don't you know donald trump was a corporation men? new: walter next from albany, indiana. you are here with alex kershaw. caller: for everybody paying attention to this broadcast, no one thing,- know when it comes to losing a war or winning a war, that is a geopolitical matter. when it comes to the man on the ground eating the fire, it is more simple than that. when it comes to winning or losing a war, the winners walk out and the losers don't. a combat veteran. thank you for your time. host: alex kershaw, your thoughts on walter's perspective of what it took. was a well, there critical moment on omaha beach for the entire invasion. so many men had been wounded and killed, there was very little communication.

thend 10:30, 11:00 in there was serious consideration of pulling american troops off of omaha beach. done, i believe d-day would have been a great disaster and it would have been a great defeat, not a great victory, for allied forces. the difference was made by individual americans, young officers getting their guys to stand up, walk into the line of fire, and have the courage to sacrifice their lives and lead others into enemy fire. it came down to individuals, maybe four or five dozen young officers on omaha beach. that made the difference between victory and defeat on d-day in omaha and for the entire battle. yes, we can reduce this massive invasion. two critical moments, and you can say key americans, american guts and courage, made the difference. host: i was amazed in lieutenant

spalding's case and a couple other figures, how much gear was lost right away. spalding was waiting in the water, they tell him to ditch the machine gun and all sorts of gear, and they wind up on the beach with barely any equipment at all. does it surprise you that they were able to continue to fight was so much of their gear in the water or lost or elsewhere? one of the problems is that on omaha beach, there was very high surf. the night of june 5, there had been a storm, so when the guys came in, some had been in the water for three or four hours. some had circled several times. one landing craft, one veterans wereve out of six guys there for six hours before even landing on the beach. they did not care how many bullets were coming at them, they just wanted to get their feet on dry ground or on the beach. they should have gone in lightly

armed. carryangers that did not massive equipment because the job was to get there fast and effectively and with minimum armament, minimum weight. when you jump into water with a 70-pound back, a rifle, and radio on your back and that gets as, that equipment gets wet, a spalding said, his uniform felt like lead weight. it slowed them down, the fact that the uniforms were very wet. spalding said when he looked to his left on omaha beach during the first wave, he saw guys staggering as if they were walking into a very heavy wind that morning because of the weight of their packs and of their wet uniforms. host: the book is "the first wave: the d-day warriors who led the way to victory in world war ii." alex kershaw's argus joining us from the d-day memorial in bedford, virginia, welcoming your calls and comments.

we showed earlier the comments of do dwight d. eisenhower, his letter to the troops just before the invasion. a famous photo of him speaking with the 101st airborne. he was looking confident, but you write that he was quite concerned afterwards. and you said, afterwards he broke into tears after he wrote this. there was a womanr-old anglo-irish who he got into the jeep with after he paid farewell to everyone, and she said he had tears in his eyes. he said to her that it was very hard to look the americans in the eyes and no he is sending that guy to his death. it is a famous cliche, but i love him, the front he showed, the charm, when you look at the original film, the blue eyes, and the smile, not a moment of

fear or intimidation that he shows to these young americans. he was a great leader and showed great confidence, but he was not confident at all. that were so many orders he had to use a lead pencil. he had a constant ring in his right ear. many cigarettes a day, very little sleep, basically a nervous wreck. but he was stoic for the generals and the men that were about to fight and die for him. needed to show confidence because it was a very, very risky operation. for the02) 748-8000 eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001, mountain and pacific. for those of you with world war ii relatives or world war ii veterans, (202) 748-8002. david from pennsylvania, good morning. caller: good morning.

thanks for taking my call. i would like to remark about d-day. my father went in on utah beach, a sense itlucky in was utah beach. people focus on omaha, which rightly they should, but let's look at the whole picture and look at the canadians, the british, and utah and omaha. and everyone that stepped off the landing craft were as brave as anybody else. thein the a private war, look of the draw makes a big difference. it does not matter what happens. i mean, you can be lucky or you can be brave and you can be unlucky. it should be all those guys that stepped off that thing. i am a vietnam veteran, and my son served as a ranger during

iraq and afghanistan. so i appreciate all those forward that stepped and did their bit. thebad we have someone in white house that don't. thank you for taking my call. host: alex kershaw? guest: yes, we have to remember that utah and omaha dominate the american narrative, but juno beach for the canadians, 900 americans killed, more than 900 in omaha, but over 300 canadians were killed at juno beach, the second deadliest beach on d-day. and we have to remember something very important about the canadians, our neighbors, great allies, very strong allies, they were all volunteers. every single guy, every single canadian that stepped out of a landing craft onto juno beach, every canadian that jumped out of a dakota on d-day was a volunteer. they do not have to be there, so

that makes their courage special, i think, and unique. allieds a story of cooperation, superb ally cooperation, the pinnacle, you could argue, of allied operation. it was a joint effort. we fought side-by-side and died virginia, and he said he came in on the second wave for the interruption with alex kershaw. your biggest full of first-hand accounts from veterans. what was your primary source, alex kershaw, letters home, personal diaries, interviews with surviving veterans? guest: a combination of many things. interviews with veterans, of course. unfortunately there are not many alive today. there were several guys during the five years when i was working during the book. but we were lucky in the u.s., britain, and canada. we have interviewed world war ii veterans at great length there is the national world war ii

museum, imperial war museum, library of congress. i was able to delve into a history.trove of oral hundreds and hundreds of hours of oral history. we have done a good job of preserving the memories of these great warriors. scentlet me ask about the of theodore roosevelt, teddy hisevelt, jr., and participation in the invasion of normandy. incredibly, 56 years old, the oldest general officer on d-day. he basically begged to go in on the first wave on utah and actually did arrive in the first wave on utah beach. 6:28 was the time the first americans waded. there was a captain who remembered looking to his right

and sing this 50 60 guy with a bad heart and a walking stick huffing and puffing his weight on utah beach on the first day of d-day. an extraordinary guy. i think he had a sort of complex and wanted to prove that he was courageous like his father, and that day he became a what -- one of only four americans who received honors for action on june 6, 1944. extraordinary courage, extraordinary american leader on d-day. host: teddy roosevelt, jr., and his son was actually in the invasion, as well, right? guest: amazingly, the father was in utah and the sun was on omaha. ongically, the father died july 12, 1944 come of heart failure. i think the stress of combat and leadership, the savage combat date injured after d-day, basically killed him. couple hoursjust a

before his father died, was able to see his father and see how he was doing. calls fors go back to alex kershaw. this is janice in michigan. caller: mr. kershaw, my dad was a sergeant in the army air corps. and d-day was his 24th birthday. a scottishmy mom, girl, in a pub in manchester, inland, and they got married 1943. he put her on the queen mary when they learned she was pregnant with me, so his first child would be born in the u.s. but i have always been curious about the second wave. blakeman, was a photographer, and he went in on and published a

book after the were called "over there," which was a collection of photographs he could -- he took. it is out of print, of course. but i was just wondering, what happened in the second wave? we have heard the stories about the first wave, and i look forward to reading your book. but what did the people in the second wave do, if you could please tell me that? thanks. guest: first of all, it is great to be talking to a fellow -- someone related to a british lady, to put it that way. the americans that came to england still an awful lot of our most beautiful young roses. the queen mary took around 7000 or 8000 british women back to the u.s. at one point after the war. the second wave, it depended where you were. let's go back to omaha beach. i am in bedford, virginia, right now, and when i was writing

about the lads here, the boys who died on omaha beach, there was a guy from the second wave from lynchburg, virginia, and he said he came in on the second wave and when he landed on omaha beach after the bedford boys come after the first wave, all he could see was dead bodies. so you were as likely to die in the second, third, and fourth wave as you were in the first wave. by the time to second and third waves arrive, the germans had their machine guns and knew they were coming and it was target practice. and dark green sectors, so it was literally target practice. we have been talking a good deal about the landings on the beaches, and you write a great deal about the paratroopers and the gliders, the aircraft used two lane

soldiers behind enemy lines. and how those gliders many men were delivered that way. guest: you have to imagine that you are in a glider -- say that tookritish spectacularly the first successful operation were let and they loose basically in a wooden and canvas glider at about 6000 feet around midnight on june 6. 30 guys crash landed. they crash landed at 90 miles per hour in the glider. it literally was a suicidal operation, and they knew it. guys got concussions and were injured. there were many casualties in

that operation. in that one case -- [inaudible] -- the first successful operation of d-day. you are crash landing basically in canvas and wooden plane. incredible to think they would volunteer to do that, let alone succeed and live. host: and the british and the americans used these gliders, correct? guest: yes, they did. americans and the british used the gliders. being a glider pilot on d-day was perhaps -- i would argue it was the most dangerous job you had. whatever happens, you are crash landing, and you better make sure that you were a damn good pilot, because you are then under enemy fire. trees.as hedgerows, think about it, you have lives in your hands and you're in a

glider being fired at constantly, and you are landing with 15 feetd polls with barbed wire attached. there was not a more difficult job than being a glider pilot, no more dangerous on d-day. host: let's go back to more calls for alex kershaw. this is spencer in maine. caller: my grandfather was at omaha beach. he joined the navy when he was himself old and found in a little talked about group called the navy six beach battalion. they called them the sailors that looked like soldiers. they were attached to the army for the d-day landing. i believe in the first five seconds of "saving private ryan," the beach battalion is featured in the opening scene.

i was just wondering if there is any -- if anything has been written about the six beach battalion? if there is anybody out there from that battalion, i did tweet to "washington journal" a picture of my grandfather. he made it. my father, his son, join the marine corps and went to vietnam. he did lose a leg, but he came home like my grandfather did and raised a big family. my grandfather is gone now, but any information on that battalion would be appreciated. host: if you want to tweet that, that would be great. we are @c-spanwj. guest: i am in bedford here, and to my left, you can see plaques for each of the individual units on d-day. you grandfather landed in the most lethal place and at the most lethal time on detail that

any allied trip could find himself on at omaha beach. he actually came before the first wave. when you look at the 20 minutes in "saving private ryan," the amazing carnage and death and slaughter, your father belonged to those scenes. your grandfather was in those scenes, as were the bedford boys. he landed in a very dangerous place, indeed, and it is pretty much a miracle he managed to survive, especially since he succeeded the first wave, an extraordinary achievement. he would have seen an enormous amount of trauma and death. you should be extremely proud. host: there is a picture of your book of a captain, and almost looks like it is out of a movie. there he is with the helmet on and the cigar. you write that jumping with a cigar for that captain was pretty much standard for him. tell us about his role in the

opening invasion, the first wave. guest: he was from upstate new york, 28 years old on d-day, and he had made 43 practice jumps before d-day. only on one, as he was about to amp out of the plane, he was pathfinder and he was officially recognized as the very first american, very first cowboy yank, to put his feet on the ground in normandy on d-day. extraordinary achievement. he made many practice jumps, not once in combat. on one occasion his men were looking at him as they were about to jump out, and they so that he did not have a cigar in his mouth. one of his men looked at him in --ck, looking very wordy worried because they were superstitious, and lillyman grabbed the cigar and put it in his mouth and jumped. atjumped from about 500 feet

12: 15 am, first american to land, took about 25 seconds to drop about 500 feet, and when his parachute hit that field in normandy, he still had a cigar in his mouth. style, and a and great warrior. he survived the war but was wounded later on d-day at market garden. he finished the war with many decorations. host: about how many allied in?ps paratroopped guest: about 125,000. you had the americans and also the british and canadian elements. host: suzanne is next in sacramento, california. caller: good morning. i thought of my mother when the previous woman mentioned the

need for documentation of women mother was, and my at the navy yard. my father went to north africa of thely, and what saddest memories for my father was the fact that when he was on troop trains -- he was a black soldier, and they were not given seats. they were made to sit on duffel bags on the floor. when they had events with the uso, they sat behind the defeated of the people. really until president truman stilln, the army was segregated, and they suffered terribly. that story has not really been told, so i hope you might consider that for one of your future studies. guest: definitely. i think one of the great achievements of americans fighting in world war ii was that it transformed american society.

the america we know today was built out of that transformative experience. segregation, for example, started to break down, the first segregation came from the expanses of black soldiers in world war ii, and it showed they deserved to be equal citizens. they were just as brave and competent as any other american fighting in the great conflict. host: we had the caller talk about the navy six beach battalion, and he has tweeted the photo of his granddad. here is a picture of his grandfather. navy six beach battalion at omaha, the sailors that looked like soldiers, my grandfather. york,hear from pennsylvania, next. linda, go ahead. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i have a question or comment for mr. kershaw. every now and then they show a movie on cable tv called

"d-day," and tom selleck stars as eisenhower. i am sure it does not get into all the nitty-gritty, but it shows how much pressure eisenhower had on him to plan this, especially with the rotten weather in england, and he had considering the least loss of possible on these landings. there was one scene that i was whenuite clear on, eisenhower went to talk to the french president at that time, the french president was very difficult and said that he would and theow ike's plan french would do their own plan. i was not sure about that. of the covers the basics pressure faced in this war. i found it a very compelling

movie. i am sure there are more horror stories. but i wonder if mr. kershaw has seen this movie or was aware of it. thank you. movie.i have seen the i am a big fan of tom selleck, but i do not think he has the same dreamy blue eyes as ike did . yes, we did have the british, canadians, and the americans. there were serious problems, and we do not expect him to be the national leader of the french. he was not an official we could negotiate with officially. your point about eisenhower, i do not think any man in the 20th century faces as much pressure as eisenhower did on june 5, 1940 four, when he alone was able to make the decision to go. not churchill, not marshall, washington, roosevelt, not the king of england.

the french president might have wanted to influence ike. allied supreme commander, only he could give that decision to go, and it was a serious decision. when he gave the decision, a storm was brewing. the was pelting against building in which she was holding his conference with the commanders. when he looked out the window at around 4:00 in the morning on june 5, 1944, and was giving the decision of final orders to go, he was thinking, my god, what am i going to do? what am i doing? what am i sending these soldiers to? he was under crushing strain. let's not forget he had been under growing strain since january of 1944 when he came to london to take control. was so important, and so much was riding on the

outcome. eisenhower himself told a friend in washington, d.c., a few weeks before d-day that it was a huge gamble. everything was on one number, no never, and i believe we would have gone back again. had we failed, it would have been the greatest failure in modern history for the u.s. and the allies. host: debbie is calling from south dakota. am calling from mitchell, south dakota. yes, i simply want to thank all the veterans of all the wars that the united states soldiers have fought in. uncle that and happened to have served in the u.s. navy in world war ii and were not directly near the d-day invasion. but my uncle harold informed me

more of the history than even my own dad did. i have one question, mr. kershaw. do you think the fact that they had -- first of all, after pearl harbor, every available young man pretty much signed up, but they had the draft also. do you think that helped with the success that we had in world menii because the young were from so many varied backgrounds? the draft, without the draft we cannot have had victory in the pacific, and do not forget the european theater. american was waging two very intense wars over 3000 miles away from this country, from where i sitting today. hardly any americans suffered domestically. i think a handful were victims

of japanese bombings on the west coast. americans did not experience war as the europeans did. yes, the draft was essential, and all americans from all different backgrounds gave pretty much everything to the second world war. . do not forget, it was a question of survival. host: we are joined this morning by the author of "the first wave." he is joining us from the d-day memorial in bedford, virginia. the bedford boys was one of your devious books. what made you want to focus on d-day, particularly the story of the individual soldiers? honest, they be gave me an amazing life.

i was born in britain 53 years ago. i met my wife in london when i was 28. i have lived in this country for 25 years. my son was born in los angeles. i grew up in a united and peaceful place. we've enjoyed 75 years of peace in europe. that's the longest time in history. there has been killing in war and death through history. i have been extraordinarily lucky. i have benefited from the sacrifice and liberation of western europe. englisher myself american and very much european. i can't say thank you enough. i can't ever say thank you enough for the young men who gave their lives from where i am sitting right now to allow me to enjoy the freedoms that i have

been able to achieve in my life. it's a beautiful gift. host: let's hear from my in colorado. toler: i just wanted congratulate alex on another wonderful book. i wanted to share that my father from ireland was in world war ii. i had five other uncles fight in world war ii. one was killed, one was a pow. the books really hit home for me. i wanted to ask alex about a scene from his book "the bedford boys." what was it like for that western union operator, a female who started to receive the notifications of the boys who were dying in bedford, there were so many. they were people that she knew.

i would love to hear his comments about that. guest: thanks for calling in. was 21viewed her, she years old in 1944. i am going to go to the graveyard not far from where i'm sitting this afternoon. i will visit the graves of many of the bedford boys. in 1944. killed half of them are here. they are not far from where i am sitting. thehe 21st of july, drugstore still open today. she went to the western union telegram office. she told me that it wouldn't stop for at least a couple of hours. these names just kept terming -- coming through, killed in

action, killed in action. there were so many names and all she could remember was it there were a lot of johns. what was so powerful about that moment, the teletype machine spitting out messages of travel tragedy, it was repeated several weeks later by the telegrams spitting out the messages in bedford. it devastated this community. it was a grief stricken, tragic time. you have to remember that people in america knew we had invaded normandy. it was a huge story, the biggest of the war. new that theirrd sons were involved in some way. they had to wait weeks to find out what happened to them. letters didn't come back.

there were rumors. one woman told me that it was like waiting for an earthquake, week after week after week. finally that morning, she turns on the teletype machine and the truth came out. host: was that the late fairly typical? you mentioned mid july when the bed for boys news came to that town. was that typical about notification of kin. guest: it took several weeks for the next of kin to be notified by telegraph. you knew your loved one had done involved in combat. the first telegraphs appeared in the u.s. that's what it was like to be on the sharpened of d-day. on omaha beach.

openedin bedford, they life magazine in june and saw these extraordinary images of carnage and death and intense violence. they knew that their sons had been involved in that combat on that beach. they still had to wait another month before they found out what had happened, even though they could seen images of white -- what might have happened. host: we've got 10 more minutes with our guest. bill is in south carolina. caller: good morning. i would just like to say thanks to c-span for a great program. my question to you is supposedly general eisenhower wrote a letter in the car about bringing

troops off the shores because the invasion had failed. can you comment about that? aest: i think if you want moment of grace that the demise is great leadership from any , onican in world war ii his backhad a note in pocket. he found it several weeks later. it had been written by eisenhower before he gave the order to go. , our men haveoops done their very best. they showed the very most courage. unfortunately, the invasion is failed. i alone take responsibility. he was going to take it all in his shoulders. acceptailed, he would

responsibility, solely him. he was a great man and a great president. host: joining us this morning from the d-day memorial in led a tour of normandy. who joined you? guest: it was a group of americans. there with the national world war ii museum a few weeks ago. we visited all the places i've been talking about. sector, thehe red sector where the bedford boys came ashore. powerfult's a very place to go if you are an american. when i take them into omaha place i say there is no that any american can go on the planet where you will feel more proud to be an american than omaha beach war normandy. that's where americans enjoyed

their finest hour. was d-day.best , overve american lives 900 on omaha beach. 20,000 americans were killed. world the new world -- the new world came to liberate the old. sacrificed their lives so others could enjoy freedom. i want to stress one thing. in 1944, by june 6, americans were in no danger of being invaded. american freedom was assured. the americans who laid down their lives, who jumped out of the landing crafts, they lay

down their lives for europeans. not in terms of freedom for americans, they lay down their lives for europeans. it's the greatest act of american all tourism in history. host: this is mike in west virginia. sayer: i would just like to fory being memorial day and the people that have served, i am a veteran myself. my father was in the sixth army rangers. they made a movie about him called "the great raid." mom costs brothers were in germany. i know a lot of people that served in world war ii, we would not be here today. i am so happy to say that my

family served. it makes me feel good today. thank you. host: tell us about one of the many men you write about, james redder. one of the many many americans, combat commanders. they had serious jobs to do on d-day. he was in charge of the second ranger battalion. it was called the most difficult job on d-day. they had to scale eight 100 foot cliff. -- a 100 foot cliff. they did a wonderful job on d-day. guys, they suffered

over 60% casualties. i have been to the top where he was wounded twice on june 6. he kept fighting and leading his men. were 48 hours, his men relieved by fellow americans. battalion,ranger they were relieved midday on the eighth of june. imagine that. 72 hours of combat, peaking and flowing, losing your brothers, guys you treated like your real brothers as they were in combat with you. they did an extraordinary job. a&m's bestwas texas ever president. when he was decorated, when he was awarded a couple of weeks

later, he cried. he said it, this is for you. you did this. back, youm shouted keep it for us. he was a wonderful combat leader. it's extraordinary how men found their moment, how ordinary americans and working-class americans when the task was supreme, they performed miracles. he performed a miracle. host: is that the distinguished flying cross? guest: the distinguished service cross. for omahaved it beach. there were only four medal of honor recipients read three belonged to the big red one division. i think a few more guys deserved

it on d-day. that's passed out. host: let's take one more call from michigan. hello there. caller: hello there. my name is mark. my father was at omaha beach on d-day. he was in the second wave. they had already seen what was happening on the beach. -- they were the ranger division. they were talking about the beach being bloody. he had seen the movie tom hanks made. he said it was just like being there. he was also at bastogne. some final thoughts? the 70ththink

anniversary of d-day is very important. i think it's a unifying event for americans. needs unity country more than has in a long time. every american should reflect on the 70th anniversary of d-day, what this nation achieved. life,as given with human the most precious thing, so america could stand by its founding values. that is something we should remember. americans unified and fight together. they were together, they were not divided. host: the book is "the first wave." our guest alex kershaw is joining us from the d-day memorial in bedford, virginia.