first of all, cornelius ryan. how many of you -- i am sure you have all seen "the longest day," right? how many of you have read the book? have you also read his other books like "a bridge too the far," "the last battle." he was originally, he was born in ireland in 1920. this is very significant because ireland was neutral in world war ii. he did not have to be involved. he chose to be involved. as a young journalist, he moved to the united kingdom, he took a job with the daily telegraph which was interested in young men who did not have an obligation to fight in the armed forces. and he particularly had a coverage in the air war. his training was not a formal academic training. we knew he trained as a violinist at a music academy in dublin. and had not been to university or anything. he came to know his craft the hard way, through experience. he only deployed to the continent after d-day. he was assigned to general patton's army and wrote about that. at the end of the war, he joined time magazine and became a bu

my question comes out of looking through cornelius ryan's account, he talks a lot about alcohol use and what the germans are drinking immediately before or on the night before d-day. they get drunk on brandy and so they all got terrible hang over it is next morning. he does not mention amphetamines. i wonder can you talk, robert, about the german use of amphetamines and i know that the miniature submarine crews were living off of them. but where does alcohol and drug use play into the story of d- day and the chemistry of -- or the pharmacology of this situation really been understood and or is this a dimension we are trying to figure out what was going on in terms of both alcohol and am met means and other thing. >> no doubt that -- first alcohol. there's no doubt that service and occupied france was seen -- it is hard for an army to keep a fighting edge on occupation duty, in france. because things that were cars in -- scarce in germany, like good brandy, was still in abundance in france. when they retreat out of france, they are going -- they are smashed on brandy and look like some s

but my question comes out of looking through cornelius ryan's account, he talks a lot about alcohol use. and what the germans are drinking immediately before, on the night before d-day, they get drunk on brandy, and so they all have terrible hangovers the next morning. he doesn't mention amphetamines. i wonder if you can talk a little bit about the german use of amphetamines, and i know that the submarines, the miniature submarine crews were basically living off amphetamines. where does alcohol and drug use play into the story of d-day, and has the kind of the chemistry of all the pharmacology of this situation really been understood and really -- or is this a dimension we're still trying to figure out what was going on in terms of both alcohol, amphetamines and oefrk things? >> sure, no doubt that, first of all, i'll talk about alcohol. my two favorite subjects. there is no doubt that service in occupied france was seen as cushy service for many members. in fact, it was hard for an army to keep its fighting edge when it's on occupation duty, especially when it's on occupation duty in f

but my question comes out of looking through cornelius ryan's account he talks a lot about alcohol use and what the germans are drinking immediately before, on the night before d-day, get drunk on brandy and so they all have terrible hangovers the next morning. he doesn't mention amphetamines. i wonder if you can talk a little bit about the germ enuse of amphetamines. where does alcohol and drug use play in? will the chemistry or the pharmacology of the situation, has it really been understood or is this a dimension that we are still trying to figure out what was going on in terms of both alcohol, amphetamines and other things? >> there is no doubt that -- i will talk about alcohol. there is no doubt that service in occupied france was seen as cushy service. it is hard for an army to keep fighting edge on occupation duty. things that were scarce in germany because germany had been in full time war production since 1935 like good brandy was still in abundance in france. when germans retreat out of france they are smashed on looted brandy and they look like a scene out of the 30 years wa

i think there's great value today in cornelius ryan's reporting. i wish more stories were told from all sides and i hope that at some point in the future people will go back to his perspective and more historical movies will have this kind of multi-contributor perspective. to me to anticipate a question about the best d-day movie, to be honest it's the one in my head when i'm reading "the longest day." that has everything. it has the color, it has the realism and i find it terribly moving. thank you for your attention, i look forward to a discussion. [ applause ] >> thank you both, marsha and nick. i will be wandering the pavilion floor to serve as the moderator from the floor. before we get to rick with a question here in the front, there is a question from online and it's for nick. torah, torah, torah, 12:00 high, "the longest day," those are all darryl zanak films, i guess either one of you could answer, this is specifically for nick. differences, favorites, your own personal favorite. can you elaborate on these three classics? >> i like "the lo