Series. And keybattlefields events, american artifacts, touring museums and historic sites. Discover what artifacts reveal about americas past. Thepresidency, looking at policies and legacies of americas commanders in chief. And our new series, real america, featuring educational films from the 1930s through the 1970s. Cspan3, created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local satellite provider. Each week, American History reel america ring your photos. Bringing home the lesson of pearl harbor. From hardwon open our, from the plains of the third and fifth fleets, japan came under the inevitable rain of ruin. Ally c forces moving up to the japanese home islands shall the mainland almost without opposition. Hammering the enemy to its knees, but the worse to come. The destructive atomic bomb, the First Mission the Industrial City of hiroshima. Second mission, the port of nagasaki. Japan had its choice, complete surrender complete ruin. At potts dam, even as they laid the foundation for a stable andpean bees, harry Truman Joseph stalin had decided on common action against japan. As agreed at yalta, russia joined the allies in war on the last remaining active enemy. Make sure it was attacked. Manchuria was attacked. The war was lost, japan sued for peace. Warashington, secretary of and secretary of state hurried to the white house with the secretary of the navy. The u. S. Cabinet meeting with president truman study japans surrender messages, in full ordination with the government of britain, china, russia, and other allies. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was remember. Years of grave responsibility to their toll. Oh grateful world honors him today. Douglas macarthur, now named supreme allied commander in japan. Nimitz,ishek, chester commander of the mighty pacific fleet. Truman, four months after taking oath as president , leads his country finally to victory and peace. Mr. Truman and his cabinet meet an emergency session. The president breaks the momentous news of japans surrender. That have received this afternoon a message from the japanese government in reply to the message for rita that government by the secretary of state on august 11. I deem this reply of full acceptance of the pot stem declaration, which specifies the Unconditional Surrender of japan. In the reply, there is no qualification. Arrangements are now being made for the formal signing of the surrender terms at the earliest possible moment. General Douglas Macarthur has been appointed the supreme allied commander to receive the japanese surrender. Great britain, russia, and china will be represented by highranking officers. Allies allied armed forces have been ordered to suspend offensive action. Mustroclamation of vj day await the formal signing of the surrender terms by japan. Rush the president s report to a waiting world and through the early evening, tuesday, august 14, the news is life. In new york city and throughout a rejoicing nation in word, happy people celebrate the end of fighting the dawn of peace. 2 million new yorkers jammed times square. Its official, its all over, its total victory. All night long the rejoicing continued. Never in history has there been greater reason to be thankful for peace. The worlds free people are united in their determination that the worlds peace shall never be endangered again. Maderst lady, helen taft several notable changes at the white house. The most obvious is replacing the white male ushers with africanamerican staff. She also raised funds to create immemorial for victims of the titanic. Her greatest legacy was bringing thousands of cherry japanese Cherry Blossoms to the capital. This sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans original ladys first influence and image. Influence on the presidency. From Martha Washington to michelle obama. Sundays at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. American history tv on cspan3. This sunday night on q and a, institute for policy studies fellow and antiwar activist, Phyllis Dennis on u. S. Foreignpolicy since 9 11. The recent negotiations with iran and the war on terrorism. Who is isis . What are their origins . These questions are important and i address them in the book. Is whatmore important is the u. S. Policy regarding isis . Why isnt it working . Are we doing the war wrong or is it wrong to say there should be a war against terrorism at all . Those are the questions that are in some ways are the most important and the most useful. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern and pacific. Each week, American History tv sits in on a lecture. You can watch classes here at 8 00 and midnight eastern. Next, Donald Miller talks about what daily life was like for british and american airmen during world war ii and how their experiences differed from infantrymen. He also describes how the strategy of using air power changed over the course of the war. This class is two hours. Prof. Miller im going to show you some slides. It is not a pro forma lecture. We will keep the lights on. If you have questions, observations, let me know. Where we are at in 1943. We have invaded sicily, we have invaded italy. We are beginning to win the battle of the atlantic. An enormous russian victory at stalingrad. Now, the war is beginning to reverse itself. We are going to turn back a little bit to the beginning of the american participation in the war and take that right dday. The day the next time we will do the dday invasion. There is the basis, in east anglia. Bases in easthe anglia. It is only about 60 miles from london but it might as well be six centuries away. As i say in the book, it is shaped like a giant hachette aimed at nazi, germany. Thiscross from here is the closest in england that you can run a bomber operation. The fighter boys were down here. The british raf pilots and Bomber Command was north near york. I have this map in your book. It is pretty good although it is not in color. You have the ranges of the fighter aircraft. How far they could get roundtrip from england. That tells you the course of the year were. Only eginning, we can the americans could only do shallow penetration missions. If youre trying to knock out , and that is featured in the great film, 12 00 high. Mostly british spitfires. As you get further in the war, fighters with longerrange including thunderbolts and lightnings. They can take the german bombers all the way to the order. Near the hanover area. This is the Industrial Area of germany. Boys these boards these are on their own. They are going down a corridor, a bloody shoot all the way from here to the target and back. Go all the way down the spine of the pyrenees and land in north africa. Later, when you get the mustangs in december or january of 1943, the mustangs have long legs and they can go deep in germany. It can go all the way into nearand near product prague. That is a game changer. Mustangs,ance of the no one expected it. The germans did not expect it. Mistake beforee the war by not getting it into production. They got it into production late but it did show up just in the nick of time. It the the dday dday invasion to occur. Student with the initial bomb runnings with the limited fighters, when the bombers would be turned with the flight that carried them out, would they be waiting for them . Prof. Miller not necessarily. They went in waves. Even when they had the mustang. A lot of times they fly out with thunderbolt coverage to hanover and then the mustang would take off from england. They would overtake them. The thunderbolts would turn back in the mustangs would go all the way to the target. Then there will be another Fighter Group waiting for them while they returned. Once they got to the target they were on their own and they start back. They are picked up. It just determines, if it is a mustang it is going to pick them up. Right out of berlin. The thunderbolt is not going to pick them up until you get to the german border. They depend on those guys all the way. Student for they have counted in for the missions they ran, like the fighters shooting at ground targets . Prof. Miller as part of the mission . Student when they cant have with a leave and asked her prof. O run the mission . Miller the mustang are ready has tremendous fuel efficiency. It is a nimble plane. Hurts you inght some ways if you run into opposition on the way back. Lets say the luftwaffe needs you on the way back and wants to engage in the air. You have to drop those tanks. The guys go out on the reserve tanks. Then they can drop them. Then the plane is nimble and can fight a dogfight. That is how they planned the operation. Once doolittle takes over, he says the bomber should come back unescorted. Most Important Mission is to dive down and kill as many planes on the ground as you can. Youre killing them on the ground in the best on the ground and in the air. On the ground and in the air. Fighter boys love that stuff. That is not the best film footage. They had those cameras on the guns. You get that kind of footage. Anybody else . Ok. So, here you get a better sense of the targets. They are going to be initially right here. We just took a trip to normandy. To the dday museum and the world war ii museum. We stopped here. Immense submarine fortification. Then you see some of the other key spots. When they finally put an air force in italy through the south here, that is the 15th air force. They will fly over the outs and outs and hit targets right here including dresden. This will be a air force territory here. Germany, by 1944 is getting it from both sides here and here. You get daylight bombing and the raf at night. There is 24hour bombing of germany by three air forces. Also from italy, they would mount to missions across here into romania because germany gets most of its natural oil from romania. It is important to knock out spots there. That is the job of the 15th. They are closer. This is where the africanamerican pilots flew. The Tuskegee Airmen. They flew out of italy and they escorted bombers on missions over eastern europe. Student did the russians, were they able to mount the aerial campaign . Prof. Miller good point. No. There is only two countries in the world that have these four engined bombers, britain and the united states. Germany tried to put one into production and ran into problems even with their crack engineers. In the late the russians 1930s. They never got one off. Concentrated entirely on Strategic Air force. Covering ground operations so they had two engined bombers. The germans had two engined bombers. That is how they bombed britain. That is how they bond stalingrad. They dont have these babies that can go long distances. We are the only countries that have this sort of thing. That is the general strategic picture. There is the instrument of destruction. The b17. It looks big. It looks big on the ground. When you get inside, it is very claustrophobic. It is like the cabin of a submarine. You have a 10 or 11 person crew in here. You have a plexiglas nose. It is not bulletproof. Missions,the first you may have read this. A copilotasualty was pigeon pidgin hit a hit the plexiglass and not some splinters into their heads. That First Mission was a cake run. You have a navigator who is sitting at a desk here. He has to get you to the target. A lot of these guys are kids. Was atd to a guy that university and he is a history major. He is about to go into his junior year. He has not even taken advanced andetry that he is drafted six months later, he is navigating a bomber from maine to scotland with a crew of five. Guys are not well trained. They are rushed into this war. That explains a lot of the early casualties that take place. A lot of responsibility on the navigator. You have to get to the target to bomb the target. Then there is the bombardier who has a highly sophisticated system. A small computer. You aim at the target. Itd just to wind drift and whether and the height that you are at. Supposedly, on a clean, clear into au could drop bombs circle about as big as this room. They exaggerated and called it pickled bombing. The idea was that this would be the great secret weapon of the war. When the aircrews landed, there were two guards who went out. They escorted the bombardier who carried the bomb site with him and it was put under lock and key at night. It did not matter that much at the time because the germans there were enough crashes and mistakes that the germans knew what was going on but they never implemented them during the war. That is the front of the plane. Then you step up in here into the cabin. Here are the pilots and copilots. Behind them, standing behind them is a guy called the engineer. Knows all the instruments in the plane. Anything goes wrong, he is watching all of the dials. Isyou are under attack, that his gun right there. He just exists head into that thing. He stands up on a stoop. It rotates. Millimeterll 50 browning machine guns. The best we have. There are 10 of them on the plane. That is the front of the plane. They are all officers. Captains and kernels. And you walk across a very precariously narrow catwalk. Doorsmes, the bombay would open up after you drop your ordinance and then they could not get them closed. You have to go up on that catwalk with the wind blowing like hell, dr. Miles high, and somehow cranked down on this thing and close the bomb doors by hand or sometimes a bomb would stick. Likeombs were in racks this. Maybe the top one would not go down. You had to go up and unleash the bomb and drop it through. There are cases where the guys fell through the hatch to the ground. Then you move back into the back. This is where my father was trained originally as a radio operator. There is a thing called an interphone on the plane. Everyone is wired up. It is symbolic of the kind of organic bonds connecting these guys. They are all on the same wire. They are connected technologically and personally. Comrades in arms. They have an interphone. Everyone can hear the pilot. When they talk to one another on the plane, no one else can hear that. Hooks up a general radio signal back here and he can talk to other planes or based. Generally, they are on silence. All the way to the target. There is not much direction from the home base in general. These kids are entirely on their own. I dont think there was a case in warfare that guys this young, the average age of a bomber group is about 22 years old. The old man on the plane is 26 years old. He would generally be the pilot. It is a lot of responsibility. You are entirely in the hands of your own navigator. Whether you destroy the target or not, whether you live or die, it is up to you. A terrific amount of pressure on these kids. Further back on the plane on each side there is a machine gun. A browning machine gun. The plane is so narrow that when one guy is operating, and another behind him, their backs touch. These things are open to the weather. The plane is not heated. There is a little bit of heat coming from the engine but the compartment is not heated. , incould be over germany january, it is 55 below zero inside at 26,000 feet. That explains the predominant frostbite. The guys who are injured early on in the war, it is generally connected to frostbite. It can be a killer. Later on, they will close these and stick the guns through a whole. Hole. Ough a i dont know if you have ever heard the expression the whole nine yards. That is the length of the machine gun. The ammunition boxes were here. Nine yards from here to the guns. Here is the entrance door where the crew got in. You could also get in underneath here. Back here, sitting on a bicycle seat, all by current vendor. And finally, there is this guy. Who is sitting in a plexiglas bubble. Not bulletproof. Hes been surround. He spins around. He tracks the plane. A tough position to be in. That is the b17. How often do the guns jam . Miller they generally jammed for two reasons. Cold weather. Everything breaks down in cold weather. The other thing is overheating. The barrel can blow up in your face. You have to be careful of that as well. That happened. If there was a Prolonged Air battle, generally an air battle would not last more than 30 minutes. Unless you are going all the way to stuttgart. Then they keep coming at you from different airbases. The germans are flying over their homeland. They come up and get you, go back and refuel. Might land four times trying to nail a fleet of bombers going in and coming out. Guns clog up on you with conditions like that with constant, persistent fire. Student it said in the movie yesterday it was so cold, their hands would freeze to the gun. Was it difficult to on jam them . Miller you were to do below sets of gloves. A light racetrack driver style silk gloves. They were not weather resistant. Then you wore larger gloves over that. You took off the larger gloves and then put the silk glove on and hope that that did not stick. Sometimes guys, in the chaos of combat, your gun jams and you are in danger, you pull both gloves off accidentally to try to clear the jam. Youre not been told this before. Your hand could stick. It could happen if you are i skating somewhere at zero degrees. That is what is going on here. Big thing is that no one they are fighting at four miles high. No one had even flown before this at four miles high. Everything is new. You get new kinds of problems. Everything. These guys are lab rats and guinea pigs. Everything is experimental. Student how quick were air commands to adapt . Prof. Miller very quick. I will tell you where they were slow. Preparing. Into thehinking went technology of the plane. It is done, boeing makes it. They start producing these things in 1935. They get into production of prototypes. We start to massproduce them. The sophistication of the machine. No one thought about the guys. Your problems. Ear problems. These guys are under tremendous pressure in unpressurized cabin. In her ear problems are a regular problem in addition to frostbite and no one had thought of that. No one had thought of giving these guys armor. The museum, the mets in new york city, which has all of these old medieval armor. Artists come over to design armor for these guys. When they went on the bomber, they put on helmets with holes in the ears because they had microphones. They on a vast, and st and it came down right below their crotch and that provided protection. If you got a flat burst flak burst. That is how thin the aluminum is. They took a lot of punishment but they had a good superstructure, good struts here and here. Thecould literally blow out sides. Sometimes planes would fly sidebyside and this whole area of the plane would be exposed. They could see the gunners in there. Smith tried to put out a fire inside a plane. They are adapting