lights on the. video on demand. mind broadcasts and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question. it's now at three thirty on a sunday afternoon here in moscow you with r.t. as we run down the weekly week's top stories russia mourns the forty six victims of monday's plane crash in the northwest of the country the aircraft caught fire after a crash landing on a major road just a kilometer from its final destination pilot error and the poor weather conditions are believed to have been the main causes of the tragedy that libya is seen a surge in the number of civilian casualties from nato airstrikes on the country

with the latest bombing reported to be killing fifteen libyan officials say over eight hundred civilians have died since the operation began in march. and the e.u. demands for greece to impose a tough budget cuts to secure a fresh bailout spot massive protests at home and alfredo yet another rescue plan within the block it's all meant predictions that the euro is on the brink of collapse. right after sampling off their week's top headlines here at sea but next the emotional crusade of an eighty nine year old u.s. a world war two veteran outraged by what he believes is the indifference of his country towards the memories of former soldiers to stay with us.

in the fold making forty three america began a major campaign against the japanese differences in the central pacific. over thirty five thousand u.s. marines and naval forces were assembled for an invasion. on nov twentieth america launched an infamous assault against one of the most heavily fortified japanese islands in the world to. the on board a higgins landing craft ensign leon cooper who was responsible for the lives of hundreds of men. for the thousands of marines riding to the shores that morning no one could imagine the ferocity of the battle to come or the death and destruction thanks. in february of two thousand and eight the on cooper a navy veteran of the tower and a film crew left los angeles on

a journey that took sixty five years. to. be. on. while doing research for my recent book the war in the pacific of retrospect. i happened across mosul she had a press report that said in effect. where hundreds of marines died there are now millions of plastic bags crumpled paper boxes and when i saw that of course. since i had been a party. or a witness to all of the killings that took place i felt especially. and i need to do something about this. i was. in my parents' apartment building in chicago remember soul well. that

dramatic announcement. really shook me up as well as practically all of america including all the big shots and launching that i magine a tiny country like japan. attacking. our pacific fleet and pearl harbor but and indeed for all intents and purposes making america the giant a people major in. the world both. all of sudden the. night. of the. law. and the japanese not at the law and my brother. my brother said. he was trying to decide whether to order me to get out of the country

. or to find a safer occupation than being in a an infantry man joy it was his thought that i should become an officer rather than i don't face. the person i have known of the time my father a good ole made me officer training program called piece about it so i volunteered for it. within ninety days civilian me on cooper would become navy instantly up and begin training as an interview spot command. tara was a series of coral reef atolls in the cupboard on group strategically located halfway between the foregoing arms in the philippines. the covert islands had been under the jurisdiction of the british government to december ninth nine hundred forty one two days after the attack on pearl harbor japanese soldiers came ashore the governing island that told of tower one and proclaimed it for the emperor. both

sides understood incessantly to control arms across the city. the american commands tactical approach dated back to teddy roosevelt's assessment of world c. diplomacy devised for the late nineteenth century roosevelt always believed that if the u.s. was to contain japanese expansion they would need to command strategic island bases across the pacific. the basic strategy first of all i tell you her childhood signaling allopathy decided the best course of action for the five states are set up here calling and calling action and hosting a polling station dog barking up the spanish mosque at that marking the stumbling block at the family in fact that madness record that.

the japanese conscripted over forty one hundred korean slave laborers to build up a show's defenses as well as a small airstrip. they sent in over twenty six hundred crack japanese imperial marines to defend her. massive fortifications were built including giant pill boxes some over seven hundred feet in height ten large eight inch gun emplacements field artillery and anti-aircraft guns. the war in the pacific was commanded by two key figures general douglas macarthur and admiral nimitz. after the japanese lost the battle for broad canal in the south pacific macarthur and his troops focused on recapturing new guinea nimitz and of a central pacific region and plans were drawn up to send forces against the japanese strongholds in the gilbert and martial lot of groups mark no one is a u.p.s.

part of the world war two military historian he heads the nonprofit organization history flights they're working to locate the over seventy eight thousand missing in action from the second world war right way saying here is a good deed to intelligence maps that the u.s. marine corps put together for what they called helen island which was the code name for a base you know atoll and the tar well island region and they built this very complex map with all of the difference and information that they gleaned from a number of overflights from the twenty four craft taking photographs of the island and it has pictures of all different and machine gun positions and the different types of large caliber weapons that would be used in a just shoot landing craft that has pictures of the tank traps the roads the airstrip. and june of one thousand nine hundred three american recognizance flights discovered that they had been transformed into a heavily defended outpost and now included

a four thousand foot are still capable of supporting japanese bombers this dramatically extended their pacific sphere of office. after hearing this news nimitz in the pacific fleet command decided to invade tower. upon his arrival at fiji liam was interviewed by reporters for a fiji sun article on his visit to the nation of care my job was to bring us all production and my boat. during many trips into the red beach. so. a three days of savage or a. lot of the japanese how to kill more americans. and taught us. how to kill more stupid thing. but i know that me. leone's first official meeting with american authorities would

be with deputy assistant to the u.s. ambassador and carol ted me. first of all we're here to meet with the ambassador as staff ambassador danger. especially wanted to have. meet with him before we want to. he promised he would do his best to join us and taro and introduce us to. the president of care of the country that includes. hey i need my driver's license back stuff maybe to get that i know there's no guarantee and. thanks to ambassador in a staff again i feel very confident it will be on the road to achieving something even minimal objectives at least we'll get an action program going underway. with ted man a company leon boarded a jet for the highlight of his journey a return to tower. as the

fortifications of pace you are told the tower will continue the japanese commander admiral sort of socking boasted to his troops that one million americans could not take the island in a hundred years. however american naval and marine forces would soon test that claim on november twentieth nine hundred forty three the united states launched a major in five years offensive against. a massive naval bombardment the place starting at dawn. by nine am as wave after wave of marines were launched from the ships the logistics of the battle took a bad turn. the tide is not as deep as what they had projected a project that would be about six to seven feet above the fringing reef it would land and there was a lot of confusion between the naval bombardment they were supposed to cease fire and there was one of the eighty asian detachment of a bomber a craft

a fighter aircraft to bomb the island and there was some confusion and they actually had a cease fire there was about thirty minutes when there was no firing. and it enabled the japanese to take a lot of their soldiers from the south side of the heavily defended part and move them up to the north side of the eye. and in doing so they were able to bring considerable devastating fire on the marines as they entered the lagoon. the japanese applied to the fence strategy that covered every inch of the island. hundreds of marines were killed by the accurate mortar and heavy gunfire at the research many had to disembark offshore and slog through withering machine gun fire dangers small and deep bomb craters and hope to make a short. among the first waves of many hero saved the day one was a young lieutenant alexander bonnie bell it is meant to push him and be on the pier

to the sea world. after sixty five years leon cooper finally returned to play a faithful stretch of sand that had shaped his destiny. ironically his first encounter with the airport would be descendants of his former us. i'm from the united states. well of course all bets are off. i was here sixty five years ago. i was a member of they both got attacked the japanese for here defending this island.

and we were not very friendly toward each other. we were angry toward each other and a lot of people got killed including over four thousand of your of your your people are you here and i want to honor your country men what died in the battle of carolina. they all the sudden i see things happening. and i feel like. i'm not really here and on. the first item of business was for me on a test to meet with the assistant to the president of care about in the hopes that they could access the president of the police chief in the first indiana we have the short list of what entitled to businesses but if you a little to live with the person with least two percent to the ministers despite the fact that because of what happened sixty five years guy had no desire

whatsoever to return but after giving a great deal of thought to the matter i felt i could do something that would be of benefit goes to the citizens of your country as well as to honor the memory of all those guys. died and a war in a battle that really was the beginning point of the defeat of japan. i had a small part to play in that victory. and i'm glad i had the opportunity all that time i didn't think very much of my participation i wanted to be somewhere else. i know that's pretty sure what they're facing i recognize it from here leon drove to the beach that haunted him for many years and we came in from here we came from here. i know damn well we.

i smell the stench of all those bodies running in the sun sills comes back to me. all that stink of guys decomposing. and i came ashore about here. and i know what a bed the beach master is i member motioned to me come on the shore and i was to go to the pier you see what sticking up there is the remains of the pier i came ashore about here between here and the pier and i crouched behind the sea well . and the chaps were shooting at me from up there somewhere. they were shooting at me for every angle there was you see they had the whole thing and plated and designed so that all the approaching boats came in under murderous crossfire so there wasn't any we're going to get out of the line of fire they were shooting at from here from there and from there every goddamn angle was covered and we own will

and stumble right into wallace. slaughter. by the end of the day the marine second battalion was holding on to a seventy to three hundred foot stretch of sand and fifteen hundred of the five thousand americans at the beach and read the dead. i'm just. i can't stand it. look to look at this sand here i couldn't get anywhere near the sand i was going up on the reef. there was a tank right about here half in the time i'm. gone. we

got stuck in the early and i went all the guys on my boat i think i remember saying i was going to let go and i said no because i knew these guys would have drowned because we were over a hundred yards from the sand and they would have gone with their heavy bags to this that and i don't know i think i did i think i had no say in the boat they were trying to climb out of the boat while the janitor shooting i've. had starboard and we found that access through the reef and that's when i landed these guys would be so happy and i don't know i don't know i think i did. however despite the heavy casualties for the disaster was averted a coordinated japanese counterattack might overrun the exhaust arena but there was no communication from the japanese command the japanese admiral in charge of ship a saki decided to move his headquarters from this area to the south part of the

island and when they were doing that they went outside of their bunker and a five and shell exploded right near them and killed them off and in doing that in losing their tactical commander on the first day of the battle the japanese did not mount counter attack in the night which potentially could have driven a range right off the island. i've had my moment of the sun. let's go take a look at those eight inch. the legacy of the battle is still scattered across the sands of beijing. to this day the island is covered with the rusting remains of several of the big guns including the eight inch emplacements. tanks heavily fortified top boxes and the command post. the second day of the invasion was

a precarious one for the americans although they had secured two small beaches the marines still had to fight in spite inch to an airfield that bisected the island. after waiting nearly twenty hours in their boats the first battalion eighth marines attempted to land ashore almost half of them never made it to the beach a large number of the older kids were not out of action in the first day and after that they had to use primarily hagan's bets in the hagans boats were dropping the marines off at the fringing reef because they couldn't make it all the way up to the island and the marines had to go about seven hundred yards across a title flat and in doing so they were basically wading through waist deep water all along this area from red beach three to and one into the face of tremendous japanese fire the battle had many own son heroes in the midst of the landings a young naval officer was on board a higgins boat in the horror calmly rest we wounded marines from the water while

several enemy machine gunners tried to knock him out. that young lieutenant j.g. was a yoke and he was a rising hollywood actor before this thing in the it's stored in several movies and with major headline television shows including the popular series green acres i was sitting out there with a bunch of brains and one of them little who the fuck is that somebody asked me and i said i don't know it looks like he's a little a navy guy of some kind hands that guy's been out there for the last fifteen twenty minutes and the japs are shooting at him and he's hauling the guys out of the water i said this guy is either brave or stupid or both and but he kept doing it tony made several trips back each time with a boat load of went wonderbra wondered marines going back to the transport ship for medical treatment with these guys. he saved the lives of nearly seventy marines that day. i got to know a number of the medical doctors we had eight is there a member aboard. and the senior medical officer of an old guy and i chance

conversation i want to know what especially was he said that my gynecologist and that seemed to me to be about as absurd a thing as i could imagine i said you know just possibly any one of us might be pregnant he says i'll take care of you. but there was another guy among the eight he also and a chance higher chance conversation i want to know what his specialty was he's a path ologist by training and i said you're a natural for this you can be sure and take care of all of us so the medical doctors on my ship as well as on the number of other transports there procurators guys i remark on remember distinctly on my many trips carrying the wounded back to my ship for medical treatment one of them died but how many others died you can only guess but were these guys able to deal with trauma with war

warne's i doubt it. despite the initial casualties at the beach heavy naval bombardment sought to turn the tide. tended alexander monument rallied his marines and singlehandedly launched a major assault on a large bunker filled with over one hundred fifty japanese defenders during the course of this skirmish he was mortally wounded the marines finally worked their way inland and began to push the japanese defenders back from the airfield. just behind the rusting giant eight inch guns that protected the shore leon was shocked by what he saw. now i'm pointing to what seems to me the very symbol of every word thing that represents the need and a reason for my trip you see we are surrounded by garbage everywhere but also there are. august beach which of course is the most appropriate significator and

a symbol of everything that's wrong with our goddamn government allowing not only garbage but to accumulate where so many guys died. today children play war in the old case me. but in june one hundred forty one these walls were the first barrier for the nazi troops on their way to moscow. funders and restless were dying one by one under siege the salt. water. cooler. in the west shelter an unnamed soldier left

a few simple words farewell motherland i'm dying but i'm not surrendering. i was just thinking about my future before the foreign companies came i dreamed of owning a can cutting factory. but we have less garbage now. somebody that are soo come here make fun of me. figure out garbage boy i'm not bad like people think. i'm a good person. it's just the people don't see me. but i feel it was time people like me. that i feel people will start

to appreciate us. if if. if if. if. it was the fourth quarter. of. this street still keeps its secrets a denounced time from feel that if the soviet files an oxy.

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they fixed it this is not a promotion but warned of. the fortunate and the shifts everybody is sure to support the tree seriously they have no idea about the hardships that we would face to. face one is this is a of them to listen for any army of the life somebody using them is the most crucial.