washington journal continues. host: the book is called "d-day girls: the spies who armed the resistance, sabotaged the nazis, and helped win world war ii." the author is joining us from new york, sarah rose.

thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: how did you come across the story of these re-women. guest: i was interested in women in war. i was looking for a story about women in warfare. . there was always a feeling for the first person crossing the finish line. i thought i would get someone in iraq or in iran and i thought it was the story behind it and the book open up to me these are the first women in organized combat who were given the answered the command and they were soldiers and we have not heard about them.

host: the invasion took place 77 years ago today and we see the images but what role did these three women play in terms of that operation? guest: france was occupied and there was not an allied soldier on the continent fighting back. at dunkirk, we take everyone away and we don't return for four years. churchill had the idea and it was a vague idea that even if we couldn't go face-to-face against hitler's, the anger is something that could be militarized.

what did he have to lose? why not term a force -- why not arm a force that would weaken the enemy and on that day rise up and really attack the enemy, and it worked. we don't hear about that. we hear about the beaches and landings and they are dramatic. to all of these units underground. this is what we have been training you for and organizing. in the morning, this was

isolated. this matters. we hear a lot about the push off of the beaches to get into the cities. it took three weeks because the french resistance had thoroughly damaged the infrastructure that they needed to get to the beaches. it wasn't the critical determining factor, but it did help. host: i am reminded what dwight eisenhower said in his address, saying they were part of a great crusade. the letter is available through the world war ii museum that we are showing on our screen area and did these three -- screen. did these three women understand what it was all about? guest: they did. let's get some background into these three women. they were recruited in 1942. this was the lowest moment of

the war. it is the height of the japanese empire. no one had won about they were getting bound in britain. everybody who can be put to war has been put to war. they need native french speakers, because you have to send in people. they are going to drop in and they need to be deeply under cover. and they also have to be able to fully french. there is a manpower shortage, so they start recruiting women in each of these women were affected by the war. the mother of three girls, her

husband is away. she has a british passport and she is called. and they said you have a skill we need. she says yes. she is not enjoying her life. she says, what happens to my girls, my daughter's if written falls -- if britain falls? if that happens, what life do these little girls have die will do everything to protect them and their future. a woman was young and had worked getting pilots out of france, a kind of underground railroad. she was good at it and an asset to the allies until someone blew her network. she got out and then said let me

go back to war. she did not think she had done enough for france and could be useful to france. a british colonial, a french speaking colony captured in the napoleonic wars. she is french speaking with a british passport. she is a fashionable, smart. the date hitler's roles in she becomes an enemy alien. each has a personal motivation for joining the war and they were intensely patriotic. nobody liked what was happening in france. host: you tell incredible stories about how they were literally able to get past the nazi soldiers. explain. guest: one thing that was fascinating was the demographics of occupation territory are

almost entirely female. none had been killed in the battle. in world war ii, they were working in histories fact -- hitler's factories. all of the officers were kept throughout the war. french officers were not allowed to repatriate. the men are gone. when you send a woman behind enemy lines in an occupation, it draws attention. what are you doing here? all the men are gone. they had a natural advantage from being female. they became really good at their jobs. they were the first female paratroopers, sanitize -- sabotage agents. they are also building networks that will be on the normandy coast for the day, whenever it

comes, the allied armies return. every single one of those pockets of resistance were armed and trained by these women and their colleagues. host: we are dividing our phone lines for this segment. if you are a world war ii veteran or had a family member who fought in world war ii, (202) 748-8000 for all others, (202) 748-8001. it began in june and continued to august. here are details on exactly what happened 77 years ago as the allied troops landed. 156 thousand total, 73,000 american soldiers. the ramada had landing ships and aircraft. just over 11,000 planes. the casualties on d-day alone were 10,000 injured in the death toll was 4000. from june to august, those

killed or missing among the allies, nearly 73,000. among the french civilian deaths, nearly 20,000. sarah rose, how did you go about researching this book and where did you travel? guest: there were different phases. the first thing i had to do was learn how to get around. i can get around and archive but not good at speaking. these women were all ordinary women. they were ordinary women who happen to be french. they were recruited. there was a span of womanhood considered. there one skill was french. they were mothers, one was about to become a grandmother. they were nothing special in terms of the other skills they

brought. i thought, i'm an ordinary woman. if they were picked off the street and taught to be a paramilitary, i could. i jumped out of a plane. i tried to learn worse code. i built a radio -- i tried to learn morse code. i built a radio. it gave me respect for how they lived. i wanted to walk there footsteps. there was a commander in normandy throughout the summer of 1944. she was commander on d-day of the french resistance in normandy behind the lines. she bicycled everywhere. i knew where she lived. i bicycled the entire part of normandy to see what she felt. i spent a lot of time in the archives. host: as you travel through normandy, you really do get a

sense of going back. it so much of it remains today. you can still see, every day someone has yet another of exploded parts were found. host: are there descendants of these three women? were you able to talk to any of them in researching this book? guest: some were receptive and some weren't. i talked to families of other members. there was an organization that had 400 behind enemy lines. there is always a balance when you are researching, the feeling that if you are doing it on behalf of someone, where you can have a more 360 view.

very few normandy veterans are alive. i didn't have the opportunity to really build up relationships, but i could. i found that an advantage as well. host: from your perspective, why do you think so often those from this generation do not talk about -- did not talk about their experiences when they came back home? guest: one family member said we are english paired we don't talk about these things. all countries were traumatized after the war and were in bad shape.

so it was traumatic. everyone just wanted a job and to move forward. host: charles in white plains, maryland calling on our line for familymembers of world war ii veterans. caller: good morning, steve, and to your guest. i wanted to commend and praise and salute to the women who were the backstop and acted with great valor and contributions to the soldiers and the nation in world war ii. but i also would like to offer an addendum. my father was african-american and he was killed at the battle of the bulge in patton's third

army during world war ii. as an african-american, i often read women reminiscing about the things of how the black soldiers were treated in world war ii and how they had to go through heinous things and all kinds of derogatory names, inflammatory statements that were passed on from there fellow white american soldiers. i also want to mention that he fought for the so-called freedoms for all americans, including myself, his son, and his other children to have the freedoms here in america to vote

and to express themselves and to ensure democracy. these promises were not delivered and have not been delivered to this day as we have confederates fighting against those tenets we all love and treasure. host: thank you for sharing the story of your father and for his ultimate sacrifice for this country. sarah rose, your reaction and comment? guest: i am with you. one part of the way we talk about war and tell war stories needs to take into account that nations aren't getting their needs met. so charles de gaulle did not give credit to women and certainly didn't give credit to black african soldiers are

african-american soldiers from the west. he wouldn't allow himself to be filmed beside black soldiers who did a lot of the work in beating back hitler's. that is -- beating back hitler's. . 75,000 of its own citizens sent to concentration camps to die. that is not the nation that charles de gaulle wants to build after the war. he is trying to build a strong nation. he thought they only met the cookie-cutter definition and it was white and male. so in part, because of the needs of the winners, we don't get a full picture. they are telling a story they need to tell to cast the narrative of where they want to go in the future. i think you are right.

it continues to shock me how we hear so many of the same refrains that we heard in the nazi era right now that we aren't talking about this as history but it is current events. host: you can follow the work of our guest at sarah rose.com. this is from communist dog saying, did any of these women receive any metals of honor for their work -- medals for their work? guest: one woman who was incredibly hard-core said i don't want the queen to order me in a civil way. what i did was not civil. nothing i did behind enemy lines was civil. they were converted to military honors 50 years after the war. so they created a brand-new medal for civilians.

the young mother of three who was among the first women to receive the highest medal for valor available to any citizen. they were on her but not given the same as men. host: the book is titled "d-day girls: the spies who armed the resistance, sabotaged the nazis, and helped win world war ii." our guest is sarah rose. this is from eric and menlo park, california. he says, my mother was a linguist for general eisenhower during world war ii. she spoke nine languages and spoke about women in uniform and their ability to ignore the male criticism. it still amazes me that we have so much sexual abuse in the military today and adding thank you for highlighting the history of both sexes serving in world war ii. guest: that is extraordinary.

the women were hard-core. there was a lot of objections to sending women behind enemy lines. the argument was the enemy will rate them and use it as a -- will rape them and used it as against us. we want to send women into battle? every military has taboo about keeping women and children out of war. what we have learned is that women will be much more likely to be raped by their own military. jim in -- host: jim is the next caller. caller: back to one of the callers who called about the promises broken p there is a

great quote is that those who can make you leave in absurdities can also make you commit atrocities. it is sad that we as athe knowu >> i read a book that was -- but the same thing. it was a great book and i'm going to read your book. it's that a lot of them. how she smuggled the jewish children out of the warsaw

ghetto. that was after world war ii when the russians came in. how she was beaten and abused by them. i think she died when she was about 94. i appreciate what you've done. i will go ahead and definitely read your book. host: thank you for the comment. sarah rose. guest: there are number of good fiction books. a number of great fiction books that are out there right now. the nightingale, other things that touch on these moments. having spent a couple of years in archives, i have to say the things that went on behind enemy lines. the stuff that happened is so much more interesting. i read nonfiction when it comes to world war ii and i write it. host: here's another tweet.

thank you for honoring the spies of world war ii. without them the were would have -- the war would have different. did these three women communicate often? how did they get their information? what was it like? guest: these three women were part of networks that communicated with london daily. they were communicating back and forth. we need these many canisters of weapons on this field on this night. or send us more agents. whatever it was, they are having a conversation back and forth. at the same time, the germans are hunting for them by triangulating. it's a real cat and mouse game between these networks and learner and london.

getting the information, getting the supplies behind enemy lines and not getting caught. host: if you go to the website, they have a broadcast. how they got the information the night before the invasion and why they didn't tip off nazi germany? guest: part of the propaganda efforts was every night there would be a broadcast on the bbc to all of the people who sympathized with hitler's and people who were against. they delivered the news. they had poetry are little skits and place. it was a little pr efforts every night. there will be these fortune cookie gibberish. the rainbow gives rise to hope. things like that.

it in these -- of these networks, one would say i heard this corsica. that would mean let's strike this railroad on this night. you're going to go after the trains here. you're going to blow up that communications cable over there. it was also a general poem that was written and the nazis knew. lurking on the radio they knew this was the night -- working on the radio they knew this was the night. there have been so many false calls that anybody thought they just cried wolf. one was at his wife's birthday party. one said you kidding me. there's no way general eisenhower would announce his attack over the radio. they weren't prepared. they weren't ready. they've gotten a ton of flak.

host: is very important, and world war ii. our guest is sarah rose. this is a tweet from diane lake talking about her own experiences. my mom was a kid then, but she told us stories about her town being under nazi control read she would hear her parents discussing escape plans if anyone ever told on my grandfather. more of your calls. our line for world war ii veterans and family members. caller: i just wanted to make a comment. my father was a platoon sergeant . survived the war without a scratch and i just want to confirm he did not want to talk about the horrors that he must've seen.

he just would not talk about the war. on his papers it said three stars. he said three stars is three stars. that's just the way they were. they did not want to discuss it. to this day, i still don't know. three stars means three major battles, but i don't know what three major battles. the woman on the bicycle and the wax and how important they were to the war effort. thank. can't wait to read your book. guest: this brings up something interesting. war stories get told by men. war stories get told by men about men. if you censor the women, if they look at it with a woman's eye

you start to see certain patterns. if i were to pick one pivotal thing that changed the course of the war, it is obvious i might actually pick operational draft. more than anything, that allows our convoys to cross the ocean. it allows us to attack on d-day. i would go for the code, cracking that as the most important thing that allows us to win. that was worked on i women. 80% by women. overwhelmingly women. we have the same kind of thing in the u.s.. again, a female workforce. if you look at it that way, women won the war. women were the most important contributing decided. and i don't think it's a

competition. i don't think anyone should play this game. i want to remind everyone that those hidden figures are there. women are the hidden of d-day. women are the hidden figures of world war ii. host: the headline is the female who that's the female spies who helped liberate world war ii. -- the female spies who helped liberate world war ii. if you could ask them a question, what would it be? guest: wow. what would it be? that's a good question. i mean, i'm always interested in that moment of decision. she knew when she was being recruited that she would go to france. if she was even the opportunity, she was going to do it. i would want her to tell me that story again. it's a story she told her whole life. she is kind of the designated representative and i would still want to hear the moment she went

from being a mother who protected her chosen in the countryside to a mother who loved her children in the convent school and went off to war. i would want to hear that story again. host: diane is joining us from fayetteville, new york. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about both my parents and my mother was a young woman. her and her best friend in munitions and weapons warehouse in the current air force base. there were very proud. they did not get a lot of recognition. a lot of women did this because their husbands were at war and my dad was an airman. he was from oklahoma, one room schoolhouse. with the war and get tested. it was found that he had high

intelligence for morse code. he was dropped with fellow airmen behind enemy lines in philippines to set up radar so the rest of our wonderful veterans and fighting men could be safe. couldn't be more proud of him. also my dad, his parents. host: thank you for sharing your story. guest: they are all moving. at that moment in history where every single day we lose more and more of the veterans and survivors and memories. if you have the chance, if someone is still around i learned so much just by talking to my own mother who was a kid on d-day. she told me that what she remembers is a bunch of people surrounding her father's car

with the doors open. it didn't quite make sense to me, but she remembers listening to the radio. everyone huddled around the radio. everyone wondering what happened next. host: this is a tweet they came in. i sat down with my dad and recorded several hours of tapes. he was a premed student when we declared war. he joined the navy, served as an aircraft carrier, you talked about carolina training. caller: good morning. i would like to mention about my father-in-law, robert o'connell. he had two girls and was drafted and went to europe. he had the grim task of burying

the dead. they did not have, or understand what was going on with the scores of war the didn't necessarily come from bullets. it affected them greatly. after the war, he was a hard-working guy. he was a weekend warrior and eventually that took him down. that's my greatest recollection of my bride's father who suffered the scars of war from the battle and burying the dead at that time. host: thank you. guest: we've learned so much more about ptsd and battle feed fatigue -- battlefield fatigue. we need to pay more attention to what people ring back from war and the scars that we don't see.

in the jewish community we hear about what happens to the children of survivors and how they inherit that children. i think there's something to be said for that. host: you mentioned that you parachuted, hopped on a bike and tried to relive the path of some of these women. what did you see and what did you hear? guest: that's a wonderful question. i wanted to see it through their eyes. i knew where these women lived. i knew where their enemies lived. i wanted to walk in the area. she second-in-command in normandy on d-day. she set up next to the nazi headquarters. her reasoning was they were my neighbors. i said hi. it they said hi. they didn't think of me as anything special. i was just the lady next door.

she thought if it was a lot of coming and going, they wouldn't notice when an agent would come to town and leave and never be heard from again. i wanted to see the headquarters. i wanted to see where she lived. i wanted to imagine that exchange. i wanted to have this book which is 100% fact read like you were immersed in the story. host: as you know there were more defeats from 1941 until 1943. 1940 four did prove to be a turning point, -- 1944 did prove to be a turning point for the u.s. and her allies. guest: this is why the pr effort was such a big deal. it was a way of speaking to the

people and saying we remember you. remember the ideals of liberty. if you are -- if you were in a neighborhood where the bridge went down, that means a few days before getting equipment to the front. you would hear that explosion. that would keep you going. those were ways in which they tried to raise the spirits of the occupied people until we could come back and have a decisive victory. host: your book came out two years ago. what kind of reaction has received? host: we have -- guest: we have crossed the 100,000 copy mark but you should still keep buying. my favorite thing is when a 12-year-old girl says i couldn't put it down because that is the ballgame for me. host: before we returned to

calls, you are wearing a poppy which symbolizes what? guest: remembrance. it comes from the world war i, but growing up in the midwest all veterans would hand these out on memorial day and veterans day. if you gave -- it symbolizes remembrance of the fallen. i have spent my entire life recognizing that so it seems like an appropriate thing to where. host: we enjoy hearing from those veterans. it thinking you for your service. ron is joining us on that line. caller: hello. my dad was in world war ii and korea. he fought for macarthur and the

specific. he was already aboard a ship several weeks in pearl harbor when pearl harbor got hit. he was on the way to australia. besides his brothers being in the navy, they, it's hard to say what they really tell you about what happened. the invasion of the philippines. the guards toward the korean war. his intelligence he was getting they were cia, but the fellow in charge was britt. he did not know what was going on. obviously, he wasn't giving them, the guards had a lot of yes-men working for them in japan. that's what caused a lot of

fiascoes. he wanted to get home and be elected president so he sold his hat and shipped it home early. dad never stop -- dad never talked about stuff like that. i know he saw a lot of things because the refugees were storming down out of north korea. he went up to the border. he was one of the people that had to go up and he saw no chinese. he went clear up and they came back and it had been two days earlier he would not have made it. he would have been killed with everyone that was wiped out at the chosen reservoir. host: again, some compelling stories.

guest: i encourage everybody not just to speak to your family and friends who lived through this, but a really great exercise is to say i know my debt was here on these three days at this battle and then go back and read the newspaper for every single one of those days. you get a real feel for not just what happened there but how it would have felt from this side with the information that was available at that time. i read every single newspaper from the summer of 1944 reporting from france. it was great. the international newspaper tells the story and it's exciting. the thing about living history is no one knows how it ends. every single one of the people in that first draft, they too don't know if the allies make it. it's an exercise of a fun time.

they are available online. it's fun. host: let me give you a moment to think about the answer. one fun or interesting fact about the three d-day girls reading can think about that. we go to tim and asheboro, north carolina. caller: good morning. i have recommendations for people who want to read about breaking of the code, particularly the ladies. code girls and fancy dabs -- d ebs. and between silk and cyanide. another book by circo -- another book, piercing of the right. and out shut up and let you

answer. guest: our fascinating unknown facts. the maps and codes would get printed on silk. paper dissolves, but silk you can so into the lining of your clothing. everyone is given their personal codes. they could rip off a little bit of the code and burn it. there will be no trace if they were to find you. in the middle of the war, silk was valuable and hard to get because it was being used for parachutes and other equipment. when this young coal breaker says i'm going to need silk to print these secret codes so that our agents stop dying because the codes are too easy to break. he is told no. he says to the man in charge,

whether or not these people live or die is the choice between silk and cyanide. taking a tablet that every agent was given crushing between your teeth so that they couldn't tortured information out of you. they went with silk. host: women where the hidden fingers on d-day. 80% of the encrypted code breaking were done by women in world war ii. this from david who says my uncle was a lead navigator and desk and a b 24 liberator. he didn't talk much about the war -- navigator and i'll be 24 liberator. he didn't talk much about the war. book become a movie? guest: i wish. if there are producers out there, come on and talk. so far, no movie deals but i'm quite open to it. host: fun facts about the three

women. let's go through each one. what intrigued you the most? guest: the real aha moment, and i think every historian has it. the moment where things come together. it was lisa. when i realized it's not, she helped -- she held the dinner parties. her second mission, she did not like the circuit she was assigned to. she went north where her brother was in command and she became his second in command. a woman was the commanding officer in normandy on d-day. she had rank, uniform, answered the command and control. that to me was mind blowing. that was the day the book just completely changed. we had not heard that story. it's still fascinating to me.

we have not heard that story because men tell that story. also because guys -- spies stories aren't supposed to be told. spies don't leave trace to reconstruct the story. they weren't just there. i had a lot of historians say things to me like women were just messengers. they didn't really do anything. they were in command of man. there were also there behind the beaches at that critical moment in the summer of host: i want to go back to the issue of communication. the bbc would provide codewords at the end of their evening broadcast. in the case of these three women, how did they know what to listen to, or what to look for

and how to decipher what information they were given? guest: this is a conversation going on back and forth between london and france. france is sending information. the details of any mission are being worked out between radio operators on both side of the channel. each woman has different lives in france. she wasn't much of an agent. she did not receive many in -- and she did not get much done. the paris was a hub for all of the networks and her job was to plant that tree so that the branches would be covering the whole normandy coast when d-day came. her communication would be people coming back in and out of paris he did -- she was a unit

of one so she starts recruiting frenchmen and did very little communication. she did not have a radio operator. she got to work independently. d-day of course was june 6. it was much more than a day. it was operation continued into the summer. what role do these women play after the initial invasion as nazi germany was beginning to fall? guest: as hitler's pullback on the beaches, they went back to a territory where the resistance was thick. the troops are looking at the end of the war and they are being -- and it is all losing -- using equipment. he's not just fighting in french -- in france.

they've got so many weapons behind enemy lines. the july 20 assassination plot against hitler's, that used british weaponry. it was in german hands. host: what about nazi sympathizers in france and how do they spot them or be aware that was a real threat? guest: it was a genuine threat. the first years of the war, nazi sympathizers meant you were french. nobody was super happy about hitler's coming through between occupied france and free france. nobody wanted to fight a losing war. hiller was there and he wasn't going anywhere. there was no hope -- hitler's was there and wasn't going anywhere. there was no hope. his right wing catholic

government was something that a lot of people supported. i think it's important to remember. france doesn't turn until stalingrad. once stalin beats back eastern france decisively, it becomes clear that hitler's armies aren't just, they are going to get stop somewhere. in 1942, the las went into north africa and american soldiers weren't -- they went into north africa and american soldiers were not trained. you start to see people actively accepted the state of affairs turn against the state of affairs and join resistance because there was the first moment that it was conceivable that anybody might win, that the allies might win. host: julia child's, probably

best known for bringing french cuisine into america's mainstream, few knew she had a dynamic career as an intelligence officer before she became a cooking icon. guest: it's critical to make clear these were not primarily intelligence officers. we think about spies, cloak and dagger. these were sabotage agents, paratroopers, people bear to low stuff up. they were doing -- people there to blow stuff up. host: he says my father was born in 1910. he never talked about world war ii read my mother told me he taught people how to sabotage machinery during the war. this is how he would tinker with vehicles and fuel tanks and then cut off the switches. let's go to martha. caller: this is such a wonderful

topic. i like your amazing guest. i'm the daughter of a world war ii hero. my father was army lieutenant joseph gould who was in the oss. office of strategic services which was the precursor of the cia. he was in something called the labor desk in london working under arthur goldberg who became supreme court justice. my father organized the tool missions. what he did come of the video you are showing is so awesome. exactly what he did. he recruited german communist ex-pats who come to london and he ousted them with parachutes and walkie-talkies. the original two-way

transmission walkie-talkies, and airdropped them back into germany. one was able to go in and tell his parents he was there as a spy. the story goes on and on. it's absolutely fascinating. there is a double agent involved named ruth warner a.k.a. sonja. it goes on and on. my father met with ruth warner after she wrote her biography. when he went back to berlin to meet the family members, later on my brother wrote up of monograph. the oss published and available

on amazon. it's so awesome that we are having this second generation of people who live this stuff with their parents. one more thing, i want to put in the plug for the new museum. it's being funded by lockheed. the whole history of intelligence and -- intelligence in our government. i can't member what it's called, but if our guests know please do that. mr. charles pink is the former president of the oss society and he will do a wonderful segment on this new museum which i'm helping -- hoping to participate. host: so good to hear from you, barbara. we will look into all of that.

sarah rose, what do you hear in barbara's story? guest: it's exciting that she was so talkative. as we've learned from some of the children of that's, these stories get lost. it's exciting that you have so many and they are going to be commemorated in the museum because the stories are great. host: another story from steve. caller: i didn't have to wait for long. i'm just so happy to get in. the poppy seeds, i can remember in the 50's my grandfather. i can see him selling buddy poppies. i can remember. my story has to do with my roses. my father-in-law, uncles were all at the same time. none of them were hurt except my father. he has several funny stories he

loves to tell. he was coming off the ship. things are exploding. he's coming off the ship, looks down and there's blood all over his leg. he never felt the thing, but he said he probably have been hit by shrapnel. he said he just turned around and walked back to the ship. that's how he got his purple heart. the interesting story is that my father-in-law and dad were on the same island at the same time 800 miles apart, half a world apart. they never met, but they were probably within. my father, he tracked macarthur from australia to japan. my father finished the war two months after they dropped the bomb in hiroshima.

the one thing he knew no japanese, but the one thing he remembered and felt good about was people were bowing to him. this is two months after the bomb. he said that the one thing that he was so happy about was the word for hello in japanese is old pio -- in japanese is ohio. host: i'm going to jump in because we are short on time. thank you for sharing your insight. we have time for one more color. izzo world war ii -- this is out world war ii veteran. caller: fort payne, alabama. my dad was. his name is tommy the quentin

lloyd -- tommy lloyd. he taught me -- he told me quite a few stories. ever since they come up with the memorial for the world war ii vets, off had -- i have had a great desire to go there where he landed in place for him. it breaks my heart to see most of them are about gone. host: vincent, thank you. what are you hearing from those two callers? guest: i would encourage everybody as soon as it's safe to go visit normandy and the beaches and exams because it really does make history come to life. i think that's the whole point. for any documentary, any movie we watched. these are the sights and sounds

that will preserve this important moment in time. prevent another uprising of fascist movements. i think that the loss of living memories is part of why we are seeing so much. that's for at least while the survivors and veterans were around. it was not socially ok to think hitler's was all right. we are losing more and more day by day. that is why we rca this return. -- that is why we are seeing this return. host: based on your research, if we were in normandy years ago, what would we be seeing? guest: there would be higher

were, the fire mark -- there would be fireworks, the fireworks being ordinance. we would be indoors. it would be a terrifying night. now you are the battleground. your home is the place of the biggest fight the world will ever know. host: 77 years since the d-day invasion, chronicled by our guest, sarah rose. the book is titled " d-day girls" joining us from new