s stormed the beaches at sicily, salerno, anzio.divisions like the fighting 36th brawled their way through italy, fighting through the mud for months, marching through towns past waving children before opening the gates to rome. as the "dogfaces" marched to victory in europe, the devil dogs -- the marines -- clawed their way from island to island in the pacific, in some of the war's fiercest fighting. and back home, an army of women -- including my grandmother -- rolled up their sleeves to help build a mighty arsenal of democracy. but it was here, on these shores, that the tide was turned in that common struggle for freedom. what more powerful manifestation of america's commitment to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave after wave of young men boarding those boats to liberate people they had never met? we say it now as if it couldn't be any other way. but in the annals of history, the world had never seen anything like it. and when the war was won, we claimed no spoils of victory -- we helped europe rebuild. we claimed no

s stormed the beaches at sicily, salerno, anzio.divisions like the fighting 36th brawled their way through italy, fighting through the mud for months, marching through towns past waving children before opening the gates to rome. as the "dogfaces" marched to victory in europe, the devil dogs -- the marines -- clawed their way from island to island in the pacific, in some of the war's fiercest fighting. and back home, an army of women -- including my grandmother -- rolled up their sleeves to help build a mighty arsenal of democracy. but it was here, on these shores, that the tide was turned in that common struggle for freedom. what more powerful manifestation of america's commitment to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave after wave of young men boarding those boats to liberate people they had never met? we say it now as if it couldn't be any other way. but in the annals of history, the world had never seen anything like it. and when the war was won, we claimed no spoils of victory -- we helped europe rebuild. we claimed no

we linked up with the beachhead at anzio and in three weeks, we were in rome. ♪ ♪ the men on the groundand as they moved up from they saw what was done to help them. 10,000 enemy vehicles destroyed or damaged. in every town -- they took the marshaling yard. how many german tanks went out of business because of the gasoline these trains never carried? they advanced and they saw the bridges. how many german shells because they could not get across the river? the ground forces exploited the breakthrough. in plain language they shot and , killed germans. and they ate up the country, almost 250 miles in one nonstop offensive. the ground forces won a battle, but they still had a war to fight. we were still flying missions. up from first light to last light. only the coming of darkness would stop you. only the coming of darkness would bring the last missions home. then the long work day would end. some in hit the sack early. ♪ and some spent another quiet evening at the club. colonel wyman's country club prayer print drivers -- for airplane drivers. ♪ >> from william wyler, the film released i

three times before d-day, our gis stormed the beaches at sicily, salerno, anzio. divisions like the fighting 36th brawled their way through italy, fighting through the mud for months, marching through towns, past waving children before opening the gates to rome. as the dog faces marched to victory in europe, the devil dogs, the marines clawed their way from island to island in the pacific in some of the war's fiercest fighting. and back home, an army of women, including my grandmother, rolled up their sleeves to help build a mighty arsenal of democracy. but it was here on these shores that the tide was turned in that common struggle for freedom. what more powerful manifestation of america's commitment to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave after wave of young men boarding those boats to liberate people they had never met? we say it now as if it couldn't be any other way, but in the anals of history, the world had never seen anything like it. and when the war was won, we claimed no spoils of victory. we helped europe rebuild. we claim no land other than

s stormed the beaches at sicily, salerno, anzio.divisions like the fighting 36th brawled their way through italy, fighting through the mud for months, marching through towns past waving children before opening the gates to rome. as the "dogfaces" marched to victory in europe, the devil dogs -- the marines -- clawed their way from island to island in the pacific, in some of the war's fiercest fighting. and back home, an army of women -- including my grandmother -- rolled up their sleeves to help build a mighty arsenal of democracy. but it was here, on these shores, that the tide was turned in that common struggle for freedom. what more powerful manifestation of america's commitment to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave after wave of young men boarding those boats to liberate people they had never met? we say it now as if it couldn't be any other way. but in the annals of history, the world had never seen anything like it. and when the war was won, we claimed no spoils of victory -- we helped europe rebuild. we claimed no