Regiments have arrived in harrisburg. The eighth and 71st new York State National guard, put them on cvrr trains, and they head south to shippensburg. With chambersburg cut off, shippensburg is the new Central Organization point for the Pennsylvania State militia. You obviously cant get to chambersburg because it is south of the bridge at scotland which is no longer in existence. So they have to walk from shippensburg down to scotland, and they are going to guard bridge crews that are definitely trying to put cvrrs bridge back into place so that the army can use this if they need to. Jenkins hears about the militia roaring down the tracks heading towards his position. Jenkins withdraws into west virginia. Actually into maryland, sorry. Well, jenkins moves back into pennsylvania on june 22. Fronting the division. The new your curse, no hearing infantry is coming with artillery, abandon ship and head back to harrisburg, now leaving the Cumberland Valley totally unprotected other than a few scattered calvary units, the first new york cavalry, for example. There are some local home guard Cavalry Units floating around there. But most of the calvary in these units are not very experienced, with the exception of the first new yorkers. They thought the rebels are coming into the Cumberland Valley. Jenkins, fronting the infantry, follows the railroad. They go to mechanicsburg, and he will set up shop. The map shows you the Railroad Tracks on the main streets of mechanicsburg, and this is the largest hotel, one of the most Important Hotels in town during the civil war years, the railroad hotel, appropriately named. It was also a ticket office. It had the unheard of powder rooms for women, and an indoor powder room for the men. It had indoor plumbing, at least for a while. They had a very nice hotel there. Jenkins takes over the hotel, makes it his personal headquarters, and starts collecting new york and pennsylvania and other local newspapers that have been brought into the gift shop, if you will, of the railroad. Jenkins puts his feet up on the table and starts getting yankee intelligence, including, we believe from harrisburg. While this is going on, behind them comes the rest of the army of northern virginia, including George Pickett bringing up the rear of the army of northern virginia. Picketts men, many of them which are of course destined to die or be captured in gettysburg, many of them will spend the last weeks or days of their free lives or lives entirely wrecking the Cumberland Valley railroad. They will basically duplicate what stuart was doing in 1862. But they will do it long before shermans neckties, these guys are taking rails and heating them over bonfires and letting the rails droop so they are not valuable anymore. In some cases, they are wrapping bowties around trees like sherman will do in 1864. Picketts men are doing it in 1863 in the Cumberland Valley. Not in georgia, of course. They will show up at chambersburg and burn everything thats been rebuilt. This poor railroad had already rebuilt virtually every one of its facilities bigger and better than they were before jeb stuart hit them, and now George Pickett has arrived, with infantry. These guys do a very, very thorough job on the Cumberland Valley railroad, particularly on july 1. 156 years ago today, while battles are raging at gettysburg, George Pickett is destroying the Cumberland Valley railroad in chambersburg, pennsylvania. On this very day, hence the reason for this talk and its utility as far as anniversary celebrations in gettysburg. Pickett has a jolly old time. I outline a lot of this in the book, what picketts boys are doing in chambersburg is all this is going on. In the harrisburg area, especially the west side of the river, the new york state militia is still guarding what is left of the Cumberland Valley railroad. The yankees pretty much control the railroad from camp hill north. Thats not much. The rebels control the rest of the railroad from mechanicsburg all the way through carlisle, shippensburg, chambersburg, greencastle. 90 of the railroad is in confederate hands. But the new york state militia, this is one of the very few drawings done by soldiers during the Gettysburg Campaign that show the Railroad Tracks of pennsylvania during the campaign. You can see the 22nd new York State National guard camping. Not in the sketch is the susquehanna river. Those would be the bridge abutments. The land on the right, and on the left is the river running into downtown harrisburg. They are going to, the state militia is going to take over many of the railroad buildings, including an engine house near bridgeport, and they will convert it into block houses and try to protect the railroad as best they can. This shows the camp of the new york state militia barely in the background were i have labeled the cvrr. My coauthor did this. You can barely see the train. The Cumberland Valley railroad is still operational, at least in taking troops and refugees who can still make it into unionheld territory. They are still running trains, at least for a little while. All of that is finished up in the battle of gettysburg is over. Herman haupt appears on the scene. There are 31 railroad bridges destroyed in york county alone. Railroad bridges of the gettysburg railroad, running from here to the east, to hanover and hanover junction, that is destroyed as well as the railroad bridges on the spur going to wrightsville, and the Worlds Largest railroad bridge burned by the pennsylvania militia, actually by civilians under orders from the militia. To prevent the confederates from crossing into Lancaster County and potentially marching on harrisburg from the rear. Well, haupts job is to rebuild the railroads. He needed to get ammunition in, get the wounded out of here and get relief supplies brought in. Haupt would spend most of his personal time in york county. He would come to the Cumberland Valley on one or two occasions as well, and they would rebuild the railroads. But watts makes a critical decision. The rebels were supposed to come in 1861 and they didnt. Jeb stuart came in 1862 and destroyed my railroad, particularly much of the chambersburg railroad facilities. I rebuilt it, and gallatin jenkins destroyed it. He makes an interesting decision, not to rebuild the railroad facilities. They rebuild the tracks of course to get the railroad running, but we wont rebuild the turntables, warehouses, ticket offices, oiling stations, the engine houses, any of this until after the war. It is a good decision, because does anybody know what happens in 1864 to chambersburg . John mcconnell and shows up on the scene. He makes yet another incursion into pennsylvania, aimed at chambersburg. The third time in three years chambersburg has been targeted. He is of course coming under the guise of orders from joe worley. He is upset about the destruction in virginia by david hunter and union troops, and he has made the decision that somebody is going to pay for this. He says, you can start ransoming northern towns. They are going to ransom hagerstown. And by the time they get to chambersburg, he asks for 100,000 in gold. In 1863, he has ransomed york, pennsylvania where i live for 100,000 in cash and three days worth of supplies, 2000 pairs of shoes and boots. He gets almost all of that. 28,006 hundred 10 in cash. So he knows that the stunt of ransoming people works. So he tells, ransom chambersburg. The chambersburg citizens are like, they didnt burn york down, they didnt burn down gettysburg, didnt burn down carlisle. And the last two times they were in chambersburg, they only burned down the railroad. We dont have railroad buildings to burn. We are safe. By the way, only 10 miles away is william averills union regular cavalry, not regulars, but volunteer calvary. So the people of chambersburg in effect tell him to pound salt. He responds, i wasnt kidding, and orders the town torched. The confederate officers protest and he ignores them or puts them under arrest in most extreme cases, and the confederates porch chambersburg. They dont have railroad buildings to torch this time, but they have the town itself and they lay waste to it. We have all probably seen the pictures of what chambersburg looks like after this devastating raid. Now, the railroad suffers very little damage, but Railroad Employees are devastated. There are a lot of Railroad Employees who live in and around chambersburg. That is the railroads home before the war. Home of most of the offices, etc. The cvrr is still operational and can still haul refugees out of chambersburg, and they do it. And men and women who have lost their homes, the cvrr at no charge will haul you to harrisburg if you want a fresh start. A lot of chambersburg residents will ride cvrr a final time and never return to chambersburg. Some do, but many start all over somewhere else. The railroad makes its final shipment of troops into chambersburg, bringing the 201st penciling in to police the town pennsylvania in to police the town and restore order. 1865, anticipating the war will still last a while, there are two powerful new locomotives but the war ends before they can use them. April 22, the cvrr makes its final wartime contribution. Watts organizes a special train to bring any mourners from the Cumberland Valley to carlisle,. Remember its the same station as the northern central train that is bringing abraham lincolns body from washington, d. C. So the northern central train arrives at the station and the cvrr has already brought in mourners from the Cumberland Valley. The cvrrs final act is to bring soldiers home from the civil war back to places like chambersburg, some of which the soldiers only know that their homes are gone. They havent seen them and they go back to rebuild homes. On behalf of my publisher, on behalf of the gettysburg heritage center, thank you for your time and attention today and hopefully you know a little more about one of the key railroads in pennsylvania that ran between maryland and the commonwealth during the civil war. Thanks for your time and attention. [applause] scott we have time for a couple of questions. Does anybody have anything . Good. In that case, any questions on the railroad . This was a pretty important railroad, that most people dont realize. How many of you knew that George Picketts men spent time wrecking railroads up here . Not many. Thats one of the revelations, that many people reading the book did not realize that was picketts main role, to wreck the railroads. Thanks very much. I will turn it back over to tammy. Tammy thank you so much. Appreciate it, scott. Thank you. This is American History tv, on cspan3. We feature 48 hours of programs exploring our past. May 8 is known as ve day, or victory in europe day, marking the date 75 years ago when the allies accepted nazi germanys Unconditional Surrender of its armed forces, bringing an end to hostilities in world war iis european theater. Cspan was live to mark the anniversary with Pulitzer Prize winner rick atkinson, author of the guns at last light the war 19441945. Europe, the Program Begins with an archival newsreel from may, 1945, showing the signing of the surrender and a statement from president harry truman. [video clip] [applause] narrator throughout the world, throngs of people hailed the end of the war in europe. Its been five years and more since hitlers march into poland. Now, the war against germany is won. A grateful nation gives thanks for victory. Hundreds of thousands crowd into american churches to give thanks to god. Narrator president truman announced the official surrender. This is a solemn but glorious hour. I wish that franklin d. Roosevelt had lived to see this day. General eisenhower informs me that the forces of germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly all over europe. For this victory, we join in offering our thanks to the providence, which has guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity and into light. Much remains to be done. The victory won in the west must now be won in the east. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been freed. United, the peace loving nations have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger, by far, than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military that once called us salt and wheat. The power of our peoples to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the pacific war as it was proved in europe. Narrator historic pictures of the last days of war in europe show american and Russian Troops as they join on the river elbe. Reinhardt met , a meeting that spelled out certain german defeat. Inside germany itself, the allied sees the sight of countless nazi party rallies. The American Flag now drowns out the swastika. In a symbolic gesture, american troops destroy the nazi party emblem. [explosion] rick American History tv and washington journal are marking the end of world war ii, the 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii in the european theater, ve day, victory in europe day. We welcome author and historian rick atkinson, whose final book in the liberation trilogy is guns at last light. The final of the three books focusing on 1944 and 1945. Rick atkinson, to get our conversation lets start with a quick timeline of where things were and how they came from the day on june 6, 1944 in late august, the liberation of paris on august 25, 1944. The battle of the bulge in december of that year and then thend into january of 1945 to ve day. Take us back, rick atkinson, to may 7 and 8th of 1945. How did the war end in europe . Rick well, the war ended with the germans basically deciding, with hitlers having killed himself more than a week earlier, that there was no profit in dragging it out with the russians in berlin. The russians were murdering civilians, killing german soldiers by the hundreds of thousands. So, the germans decided that trying to make peace with the western allies, the americans in particular, was their best bet. And that they were going to get a better deal from the western allies than they were going to get from the soviets. So, eisenhower had his forward headquarters in the french champagne town in northeastern france. There was a delegation and a lot of palaver about what the conditions would be. They were told in no Uncertain Terms that Unconditional Surrender would be the only terms by which the war would end. And so the general, the operations chief of the german armed forces, showed up at eisenhowers headquarters, which was in a former technical college, red brick building. Reporters and photographers were there. It was 2 00 in the morning on may 7, 1945. And the articles of surrender had been boiled down to barely 200 words. The whole ceremony with the cameras rolling lasted only about 10 minutes. The general signed. Eisenhower told him he would be personally held responsible for ensuring that the terms of the capitulation were honored. And that was that. Now, it was going to go into effect the next day, may 8. Giving them time to alert german uboats in the atlantic and the german detachments in norway. The soviets felt that it was important to have a surrender ceremony on german soil. They didnt want the germans to be able to say, as they had in world war i, that they had never been actually defeated and they had never actually capitulated in germany proper. So, they insisted on yet another surrender ceremony in a suburb of berlin, which happened on may 9. So the soviets, now the russians, consider that to be ve day. But for the rest of the world, the surrender went into effect on may 8 and that was the end of the war in europe. Now, there was still a war in the pacific and that certainly had a moderating effect on the jubilation that wouldve taken place otherwise. Host on that timeline from dday, june 6, 1944, did the final victory in europe, based on your research of u. S. Forces and british forces, did that happen sooner than they thought or did it take longer than they thought . Rick you know, it took longer in the sense that after the battle of the bulge ended at the end of january, 1945, there was widespread understanding that the germans could not recover from this catastrophe, that they had lost the war. What no one in the west could understand is why they wouldnt give up, why they continued to fight. Why one little town, one mediumsized city or even big cities continued to resist. There were 10,400 american soldiers killed in action in april, 1945 in germany. Thats almost as many as were killed in june, 1944, the month of invasion. So, it was awful virtually until the last gunshot. And as a consequence, there was great consternation really about whether they were going to surrender, whether every last german soldier was going to have to be killed, whether more german civilians were going to have to die, and of course, whether more allied soldiers were going to have to die. So i think, you know, there had been hope that the war would end sooner. The day turned out to be the day. Host our guest is rick atkinson, its the 75th anniversary of ve day. We would love to hear from you, your questions and comments. Heres how the lines are broken up. For the eastern and central time zones. And then the mountain and pacific time zones. And for those of you that are world war ii veterans or their families, if your parents served in world war ii, we ask you to call in. In your book, the guns at last light, rick atkinson, its really alarming to read the death tolls. In one story you write about the training, just the training alone, for ve day alone, there was one accident in the training that killed 700 soldiers in that training accident. Looking at the statistics of how many people died, military death come up u. S. Deaths. 8. 8 million, side, over 10 million soldier deaths. Rick no, its estimated that the total soviet deaths were million. Our losses were bad enough. We had 291,000 killed in action and over 400,000 in terms of all deaths including accidents and disease and so on. Thats about one third of 1 of the American Population of 130 million during world war ii. So, staggering as those numbers are for us, theyre monumental for the soviets in particular. The germans lose about 7 million people. About 60 Million Deaths worldwide in world war ii thats a death every three seconds for six years. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of this. Its the greatest catastrophe, selfinflicted catastrophe in u. S. History. Host the war ending three weeks or so after the death of fdr in warm springs, georgia april 12, 1945, harry truman, the president on ve day. What was the effect stateside when that news came . Rick well, it was a great shock. Even though anyone looking at the newsreels could see that president roosevelt was not a healthy man. He had been dying for some months. He had had a very arduous trip first to malta for a conference with churchill. And then he went to the black sea for a meeting with stalin, the soviet leader. And anyone, even today, looking at those pictures can see he is a man thats dying. His Blood Pressure was in the stratosphere and he had all kinds of health problems. He suffers a cerebral hemorrhage while hes at his cottage in georgia, april 12, 1945. Right after lunch. The word spreads through the country very quickly. By late afternoon, virtually all americans are aware of it. Its a shot. Its a shock to everyone. Its a shock. Its a shock to everyone. Hes been president for more than 12 years. Hes our war president. Hes the president through the darkest days of the depression. There were young men in uniform who really had very little memory of a time when roosevelt was not their leader. And now their commander in chief. So, no one knew who harry truman was, for the most part, some obscure senator from missouri. He had been a captain in the artillery in world war i. Hes a bit of a cipher in the eyes of most americans. And the notion that he is going to step in and fill these very large shoes that roosevelt has left behind is something that a lot of people had difficulty comprehending. Host we have a lot of calls waiting for you, rick atkinson. Lets go first to larry in gallup, new mexico. Larry, good morning. Caller yes, good morning, my father was a code talker in the south pacific. And on your research, i wanted to know how much the role of the American Indian including the sioux, the comanches, and the hopis, how Much Research have you done on them, if any . What was their role during the war . Thank you very much. Rick thank you, larry, for the call and to your dad. American indians were important. First of all, they had a tradition of being warriors which was critical when you were trying to put together an army. As you mentioned, there were code talkers, navajo and others, who had their own language, and it was assumed, correctly, that if a navajo was talking to another navajo on the radio, that even if the japanese, and we were talking about pacific in this case, could eavesdrop and could hear that conversation, which they could, they wouldnt be able to decode it because very few japanese spoke navajo. So, the code talkers were very important for operational security. I think there was also a sense that with American Indians, native americans as part of the force, that it really was a comprehensive American Force in the same way that we wanted all ethnicities to be represented by 1945. And its a painful process getting there, to acknowledging that theres a rightful role in combat units for black americans, that black americans can be excellent Fighter Pilots as the Tuskegee Airmen in alabama, who got into combat in europe, showed. I think for the native americans it was a feeling that first of all, they had some practical skills that were useful and second, that its an affirmation that this is a panamerican war. Host salvatore in annapolis, maryland, welcome. Caller yes, hello, my dad fought in world war ii in the pacific. He had several brothers that fought in world war ii in the pacific. And an uncle that fought in world war ii in the navy. A couple of questions. My dad was a Second Generation italianamerican. It appears the prejudice against italianamericans was much less than against the japaneseamericans. Im wondering why. And second question, the dropping of the atomic bomb obviously the reason im talking about today wondering its impact on the end of the war. Rick thank you for the call and the question, salvatore. Yes, i think its fair to say that the prejudices against italianamericans were considerably less than they were against japaneseamericans. The italians, of course, were our adversary, at least until 1943 when they switched sides and became our ally. But the italians had not launched the kind of attack that occurred up roja harbor in december of 1941. I think theres also a racial component to it, frankly. It was easier to dislike asians. And the japanese specifically. So, of course, they were treated dreadfully. And we were just talking about native americans, of course, and while there were japaneseamericans that fought valiantly in italy and france during world war ii, they were exceptionally capable, ferocious fighters, and they had something to prove. Because back home, there had been tens of thousands of japanese who had been interned in camps, treated as not just secondclass citizens but as noncitizens. With respect to the atomic bomb, yes, i think that the fact that the two atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki in early august 1945 brought an end to the war in the pacific probably saved hundreds of thousands of american lives. When the signing occurs on may 8, 1945, one of the reasons the jubilation wasnt more frenetic than it was was because the battle for okinawa was occurring precisely at that time. It was a cave by cave bloodletting. And this foreshadows what the toll is going to be in attacking the japanese home islands directly. There were estimates that american casualties could rise as much as one million if that were required to. And, of course, the atomic bombs when ve day occurs in 1945, no one knows about the atomic bombs except for those in new mexico, but no one knows whether its going to work. So, those bombs, horrible as they were, in my estimation, brings the war to an absolute, truncated end. Appropriately, it saves Many American lives. It saves even more japanese lives. The russians were ready to come in. The war was going to expand in the pacific because the russians had agreed to be part of it so the atomic bombs saved a lot of heartache. Host were talking about the end of world war ii in the european theater, the 75th anniversary of ve day, and joining us is our caller from oklahoma. Caller hello. Host good morning. Youre on the air. Caller thank you. I was over there on may the sixth, 1945, and we got on a ship on may the 15th heading for the pacific. And we stopped by the United States. We were training on flying b24s and were training on b29s for a couple of weeks to go to the pacific. And during that period of time was when they dropped the bomb that ended the war in the pacific. But we bombed all of europe from a b24 base in italy. Host great to have you with us this morning. Thank you for that story. Rick atkinson, how quickly was the u. S. Army able to pivot to the battles in the Pacific Theater . Europehe commanders in and civilians in washington were trying to figure out how to take a good portion of that base and move it to the pacific. And how you would do that and who would go . Was it fair to those that had been fighting in north africa beginning in 1942 and then in italy in 1943 and 1944 and then in western europe . For them to now have to go and fight in the pacific. So, there were plans that had been put together there were, in fact, soldiers that were being shifted in may of 1945 getting ready to retrain for the assault on the japanese homeland. The b29 he mentioned was the newest with the full engine longrange bombers that had been doing extraordinary work devastating japan. B29s were used to drop those two atomic bombs. So, there was a belief that you were going to have to take a good portion of that european force, leaving some behind, of course, as an army of occupation. But the majority of it was going to end up in the pacific in one form or another. Host in your weekend piece for the wall street journal, there is a photo of general dwight d. Eisenhower flashing the v for victory sign. In your first book you said in a different photograph, there was a photograph that reflected a certain buoyancy of spirit that i think served him well. You write in your final book, the guns at last light, that his fellow commanders, some of the other allied commanders, were not confident that ike was the commander type. Rick well, there were some frictions, no doubt about it with the british especially having doubts about him. He had difficulties really through the entire final year of the war with field marshal montgomery, who was the senior british commander in europe. A very difficult character, it must be said. So, there were those who had doubts about eisenhower. There were those who had doubts about him when he became the theater commander in the mediterranean in late 1942. He had never heard a shot fired in any country. He and his west point classmate had both missed world war i. They hadnt been deployed. And so there was a feeling, who is this guy . And why is he the one to be the Supreme Commander . I lived with dwight eisenhower, metaphorically, for 15 years during the book and my admiration for him through every year of that span he was an extraordinarily Capable Military leader and extremely capable as a political general in that his primary job was to hold together this fractious ally coalition. Eventually, there was more than 50 countries in what Franklin Roosevelt called the United Nations fighting with the United States. And eisenhower was brilliant at Holding Together that coalition against all of the centrifugal forces that tried to pull apart every coalition, every wartime coalition. So, you know, eisenhowers laurels at the end of the war i think are fairly earned. He showed himself to be a capable allied commander, awardwinning commander, and that big smile of his, which one of his subordinates said was worth at least in army corps, in morale terms, was fairly earned. From tom next,r st. Petersburg, florida. Caller hello, my name is tom and the reason im calling is i often wondered who engineered the endofthe end of the war . Was it the admiral . And did the admiral believe through his career that his losses in the atlantic were not caused by the anemic machine . And thirdly, whatever happened to him at the end of the war . Rick thats a lot of questions. The admiral was the commander of the german navy at the end of the war. There wasnt much of a german navy left to command at that point. The german submarine force had been almost completely destroyed by may of 1945. In terms of who engineered the end of the war, there were conversations among those that were still surviving in berlin or to the northwest of berlin about how to go about contacting the allies and how to go about bringing this catastrophe to a close. Hitler, having killed himself on april 30, had essentially tried to pull the temple down around him as he perished. But not everyone was willing to take that route. Not everyone was suicidal. So, there had been basically an agreement that they would send a delegation to allied headquarters. First, they went to montgomery. Then they end up, as i mentioned, at eisenhowers forward headquarters. Its all a bit as catch as catch can, making it up as they go along. Theyre very aware that every day that passes there are more germans that fall under soviet control. And this theyre determined to avoid. Theyre trying to stall as long as they can to allow germans to flee westward. And theyre fleeing westward by the hundreds of thousands, eventually the millions, in order to avoid being under soviet control. So, when they decided to go for Unconditional Surrender with the allied commander, at that point its a fait accompli. Host next, we hear from steve who was calling from providence, rhode island. Wanted to, i just make a comment. This gentleman knows, as i do, that the war was decided on the eastern front. The western front was like a little skirmish compared to the eastern front. And if the germans prevailed on the eastern front, there wouldnt have been a western front. There wouldve been a settlement. The most important issue i want to state was the russian crime when they entered berlin and over 2 million german women were raped by those communist animals. Im a germanamerican and my father is a germanamerican who served in the italian campaign. Host steve, well get a response from rick atkinson. Rick thanks for the call, steve. Yeah, there were war crimes of the first order committed by the soviets, not only in berlin, but through all of Eastern Europe really as they overran poland and then pushed into the eastern precincts of what was then the german empire. And the reason the soviets were doing that, besides the fatal lack of discipline, was a feeling that the depravity that the germans had visited on the soviet union, beginning with the invasion of 1941 and extending right on through the end of the german advance was to be repaid in kind. So, war spirals out of control in ways that no one could see can foresee at the beginning and this was a good example of the atrocities that the germans committed were repaid probably with interest by the russians. I agree with you the russians certainly carried the weight of the war for all of the allies. Its estimated that soviet soldiers killed nine german soldiers for every one who is killed by british and american troops combined. And i mentioned 26 million soviets dead. They did most of the dying. They did most of the killing. And it was absolutely vital to have them remain as part of the alliance. Host it is the 75th anniversary of ve day, victory in europe day. Were joined by rick atkinson, the author of the liberation trilogy. The last book in that, the guns at last light, a three book series on the war in the european theater. More of your calls and comments coming up momentarily. Were joined next by senator roberts of kansas, chair of the eisenhower memorial commission. The senator from kansas senator, we saw you yesterday on the floor with your i like ike button on the senate floor. You were a youngster when ve day happened. Tell us about that. Senator roberts i was nine when that happened, bill. Actually, the button says i still like ike. We handed them out at the congressional lunch yesterday. They were a hot item. I think most of my memories came when i was 16 and i got to go to the Republican Convention in 1952, where eisenhower won on the first ballot, as opposed to robert a. Taft. And then again during the inaugural. Those are the only times i personally met the man. Obviously at nine, i was back in kansas. I remember that day, though, as i was swinging on the front porch and my mom came in with tears in her eyes and she said we have defeated hitler. Ike defeated hitler. And i asked her, does that mean that dad can come home . Not at that time. He was in the pacific. He was a marine in iwo jima. At any rate, the one thing i remember about ike, you knew he came into the room even though your back was to him. He had that presence, that charisma. He had a very ready face, a wonderful smile, and he met liked ike. And that pretty much stuck. Host were obviously talking about eisenhowers role in the victory in europe. Were talking to you about the eisenhower memorial. General eisenhower led the allies to victory in europe and he served two terms as president. Why has it taken so long for a memorial to be created in washington for president eisenhower . Senator roberts it is amazing how many groups that you have to go through, the National Capital planning commission, the fine arts council, etc. Etc. Secondly, you have to raise the money for it and you have to have federal funds. You have to have all members of the family on board. There were changes i was the second chairman way back. But danny annoi, the medal of honor winner, the senator from hawaii, and then senator ted stevens, two veterans who pushed very hard on this. If you take a look at the memorials, not many are built on a rapid basis. It just takes stepbystep. But the process basically is just not simple. Youve got site selection, design approvals, construction, its a monumental undertaking. Pardon that terrible pun. We are thrilled now, finally, to see the hard work come to fruition. Its done and all we have to do now is wait until september, when social distancing wont be that much of a problem. We hope. If it still is, we will have the dedication accordingly. Host it was supposed to be today on the 75th anniversary of ve day. What comments, what were you going to say in that dedication . Senator roberts well, i think i had four minutes. The president had accepted the invitation to speak. We had a flyover. Basically, the eisenhower family wouldve spoken. We had a number of world war ii veterans, including bob dole, who really helped raising money on the private side of it. And i just think this memorial honors not only a very extraordinary man and favorite son of kansas, but i think he served as a symbol for all generations of the promise of america and what our values made possible here and around the world. I think he really was the president that basically was president when we entered the world stage and then more especially when he was the supreme allied commander in europe. Host senator roberts, senior senator from kansas, we look forward to the dedication when that does happen. Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the 75th anniversary of ve day. Senator roberts hope you can be there. Host and back to our guest, rick atkinson, author of the liberation trilogy, taking your calls and comments on this 75th anniversary. James is in south dakota. Go ahead. Caller yes, this is Master Sergeant keating, retired air force. I was an iraqi war veteran post 9 11, saudi arabia, ground zero. Served a year in korea. And i did a fundraiser with my dad. He was a world war ii veteran. 1945. And he delivered coffins and there were a lot of them. And he went to florida, portland, oregon. May of 1945, he graduated. Anyway, just calling to thank all the veterans and share a little history. Host thanks, james. And rick atkinson, your dad served in world war ii and you yourself, your dad a career military veteran. What was that experience in particular like ve day, when that will come up every year with your dad . Guest my dad was from new jersey and he enlisted in the army when he turned 18 in late 1942. He went to ocs, officer candidate school, became a Second Lieutenant and got to europe right after the war ended. He was in the constabulary, which was an occupational force in bavaria with Extraordinary Police powers because germany was in ruins, obviously, and anarchy was a big threat in bavaria and everywhere else. He came home in 1946 and went to penn state, and went back into the army. He liked it well enough to make it a career and he served for 30 years. He died about 18 months ago at the age of 94. Ve day was not anything particular in his worldview. He marked veterans day, memorial day, fourth of july. These were important holidays for him as they are for many of us. Ve day itself, he was worried as one of our earlier callers was about whether we would end up in the pacific, i think. Fortunately, at least for me, and for him, that was not necessary. I was born in munich. My father, as a lieutenant, in the army, went back to europe and was part of the army of occupation of salzburg. And the Army Hospital happened to be in munich, not far away, and austria was still partitioned. He was part of the occupation of austria until 1955, when the russians and the americans both left austria. So, the residual effects of the war have persisted in many ways and even 10 years after the war, we still had occupational forces in austria. And of course, to this day, we have American Forces in germany. Theyre not Occupation Forces because theyre our allies now. But the consequences of the war in terms of the military topography were profound and affected me, personally, and certainly my father. Host next up is robert calling from portsmouth, virginia. Caller good morning, gentlemen. I just got a comment. My grandfather served in both theaters. He was in the navy during the european conflict. And when they decided they would were going to call it quits, ve day, he transferred over to the United States marine corps so that he could go to the Pacific Theater. And he actually seen action and thank god he come home to us. He served in two different branches of service and two theaters of war. Host ok, robert, any specific questions or comments . Caller i have a question is it true that during the second world war, they had a secret group of nazis to make a fourth reich after the war . Guest i didnt hear that. Sorry . Host a fourth reich . Caller a fourth reich. Guest there were certainly good nazis who got away and escaped the hangman or prison or accounting. Some of them famously went to south america. There were a few who had ambitions of either reconstituting the german reich. Or, at least keeping alive the spirit of the reich in the spirit of adolf hitler. This is a fringe group. Really to be taken seriously. I think of greater concern is not those who may have had ambitions to pull together the tattered remnants of the german empire and reconstitute it in some fashion. But those in germany and elsewhere in europe, its not just germans, by any means, who feel that the spirit of the third reich somehow should be honored. And you know, you cannot legally be a nazi in germany. The germans have been extraordinary capable in the past 75 years at educating all germans, particularly younger germans, about what had happened and who was responsible for it. But its difficult to snuff out this virus of fashion. And we see it cropping up in hungary. We see it in other places in Eastern Europe. We see little sparks of it in portions of germany. Its very concerning. And we see it wherever there is there are populace who want to take the route of fascism or neoclassicism or protofascist protofascism or and try to feather their nest politically with it. Thats a greater concern than any residual of nazis from 1945. Host you wrote in your last book about the discovery of a vast trove of german bully on bullion and gold, already treasures in caves and mines across germany in the waning days of the war. How did allied forces prevent looting of that, and also prevent extra violence, revenge violence against germans who may have been prisoners or in pursuit of german troops . Guest yeah, the germans were great thieves. The nazis had looted artworks and treasures of all sorts, both from individuals and galleries and museums all across occupied europe. And we tried to discover that stuff and to get it back to the original owners, and its a process that goes on to this day, actually. Revenge killings were a great concern. We saw at the how in fact, dachau, for example, when american soldiers liberated the concentration camp and saw tens of thousands in emaciated conditions and thousands who had camp. Corpses, and americane soldiers, soldiers, who lost control and discipline broke down and there were an estimated several dozen german camp guards, ss guards, who were murdered either by the americans. In one place, they put them up against the wall and murdered them with a machine gun, or they were murdered by inmates who got into a frenzy until order was restored. There was concern about this for the most part, discipline of obtained. The number of revenge killings by american troops and western