To a political solution, a political agreement to end the war. In this battle, the largest that has ever been fought by the United States army in its history, better than 600,000 better than 600,000 americans were engaged. And you can see, our lines famously bulged but they did not break. However, you have the story of the siege that is going to be depicted here. Most famously, George Patton is going to come up and save the town from the south after they had been surrendered. This was an incident that Many Americans will recognize from where thepatton, Commanding Officer was asked by the germans to surrender and he famously said to them one word, nuts. In this case here, you get a sense of how logistics are so important in war, particularly with things like gasoline up here. We have a german gas tank where you can actually see the sf markings on the side. Germans were running out of gasoline. We, however, are going to also not only have to deal with moving mechanical vehicles, tanks, and trucks around, but also more importantly, probably, can see, in and you this case as well, tankers boots. These were worn by major carl thein during the battle of voltage where he was around belgium. In the end, we are going to prevail. As i mentioned, our lines bulged , but they do not break. However, it comes at a tremendous cost in blood. About 19,000, over 19,000 americans are killed in this writing that goes on for six weeks. One last item i thought i would point out is a souvenir nazi flag captured by members of the 101st airborne division. They were nicknamed the battered masters. Some of the airborne members signed their names to it. You can see in particular sam on and from kenneth, missouri, other members, where they managed to hold out. Patton is going to be able to come in and provide them relief and we are going to push the germans back towards germany. Are now headed into the heart of the battle of the bulge gallery at the National World war ii museum. You can see around me we have an environment once again that its very hostile to our forces. Early degrees below is the weather. Snow all over in this forest. The things that made fighting in the forest rather dangerous was that the germans would shoot artillery into the trees, not aiming for american troops, which they knew were under the trees, but to create shrapnel. The tree branches would all shatter and then come down, and few were unfortunate enough if you are not fortunate enough, you would be killed by splinters flying around. In the battle of the bulge, as we present this story in various video screens, we tell the stages of the battle. Coming in. They have broken through the american line. Have been taken prisoner. One of the things we show is americans being captured. We have pows. I want to point this out. Here is the prisoner of war id tag of Benjamin Cohen who is with the 423rd infantry regiment. He is going to be captured very early on in the battle of the bulge. One thing i will mention of general interest, it was better to be a prisoner of war of the nazis man it was of the japanese. Better than 40 of american pows of the japanese perished in those camps, whereas the germans, because they were concerned that the allies would give good treatment to their own pows, tended to respect the rules of the geneva conventions more, which the japanese had refused to sign. ,o i wanted to point that out that not everything in war is necessarily victorious, and sometimes, you wind up on not just the losing side, but in the enemys hands. Here, one other thing that i wanted to point out was the famous prayer card that general George Patton asked his chaplain to come up with to basically guarantee good weather during the battle of the bulge. And basically, when the chaplain made the prayer, the weather cleared up. Patton credited this is having an influence on the battle. In truth, the chaplain had actually written the prayer sometime before the battle, but so, this prayer card was delivered to all of the troops, and it became part of the legend of the battle of the bulge. Here in our battle of the bulge gallery, we do have a german sedan. This was one of the cars that was used by basically the german officers to go back and forth and transport themselves back and forth to the fronts. Here, you can see all of the camouflage that they in fact used in these types of winter conditions with branches and things like that to try and blend into a landscape when they might have aircraft or run into other dangerous situations. We are now entering our last gallery into the german heartland. Map, byan see by this early 1945, after the battle of andbulge, the United States her allies, you can see French Forces and British Forces flanking American Forces in the west as well as forces from the soviet union basically crushing germany from the east. The war is in its endgame stages as we are all converging on berlin. Havein this gallery, we basically the story of how berlin falls, even though american troops never actually quite make it to berlin itself. However, people can see the handwriting on the wall by april 25. In this gallery up here, we have a hat. This was a hat worn by one of the soviet troops when those troops met with the americans theng the elbow river river. This hat was given to a lieutenant by the name of george. From that point forward, berlin was surrounded and the soviets are in fact going to go ahead and crush hitlers and the force in berlin vehicular manslaughter forces in hitler and the forces in berlin. What we want to remind people of, even as we move into germany and we are getting closer and closer to our goal of victory, the violence continues to escalate, and it has a real human cost, so we tell the story of curtis ritter. Intis ritter was a private the american army, and here, you can see a letter he wrote to his wife, evelyn, in 1944. 1944 onilled in late the way into germany. You can see in the case that the hometown newspaper for, the berlin post is going to bring news of his death to his hometown and public, and you can the condolence letters that will be written to his family from various sympathizers, neighbors, friends, family members who knew curtis ritter. Down here in the corner, we have curtis ritters coveted combat infantry badge with a blue background and the rifle on it. The badge i was an honor that was that was an honor that was given only to those who faced an enemy indirect combat in direct combat. What we want to show the public is the immense devastation that went on as we move towards berlin. You can see our representations ,f hamburg and dresden basically, the allies raised about60 german razed 60 german cities on the way to berlin and the germans refused to give up, but in the end, adolf hitler committed suicide, april 30, 19 45, in a bunker in berlin. Formally nazi germany surrendered to the allies. In this case here, we have silverware and a teapot with adolf hitlers initials on them that were captured by american troops in munich, where hitlers ,ad begun his political career found in nazi headquarters, buildings, Nazi Administration buildings in munich. Eliminationith the of adolf hitler, we then have the opportunity to try and sum up what this war in europe amend, and we do so with a film that tries to tell what the entire cost the summation of hitlers nazi germany meant to deaths, itn terms of was something that had never been seen before. In terms of destruction, culture, entire communities, the holocaust of the jews, as well as others, political prisoners, on, many such and so others perished in hitlers concentration camp systems. We try and give people a sense of what the allied troops were fighting for, what it meant to extinguish that from the world. At the end of the road to berlin, after we try and summarize the cost of the war for our public, we have an ending quote by general dwight d i. This came from a letter that the Supreme Commander of the allied forces wrote in april of 1943 to his son, john, where he tried to put in his words the meaning of the conflict that he was so central in trying to prosecute. He said no other war in history has served definitely lined up the forces of arbitrary oppression and dictatorship against those of human rights and individual liberty. To eisenhower, this is what the war was about. This was his great achievement as a general and military leader, and later on, it made him the president of the United States and the leader of the free world. Cannot believe their eyes. Unable to witness anymore. German soldier asks an american g. I. Why he is fighting, the g. I. Replies master race. American history tv is on social media. Follow us at cspan may 8 is known as ve day or victory in europe day marking the date 75 years ago when the allies except did nazi germanys accepted nazi germanys Unconditional Surrender of its armed forces bringing an end to hostilities and world war iis european theater. Begins with an 19hival newsreel from may, 45 showing the signing of the surrender and a statement from president harry truman. [video clip] throughout the world, wrongs of people hailed the end of the war in europe. Five years and more before since hitlers marched into poland. Now, the war against germany is one bag. Is won. Thanksful nation gives for victory. Hundreds of thousands crowd into american churches to give thanks to god. President truman announced the official surrender. 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. Nationsthe peace loving have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger by far than the might of the dictator or the tyranny of usitary that once called salt and wheat. Peoples tof our defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the pacific war as it was proved in europe. Historic at pictures of the last days of war in europe show american and Russian Troops as elbe. Oin on the river , a meeting that spelled out certain german defeat. Itself, naray burke scenes of countless not see party rallies. The American Flag now drowns out the swastika. In a symbolic gesture, american troops destroyed the nazi party emblem. Rick American History tv and washington journal are marking the end of a world war ii. The 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii in the european history. The ebay. 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 started from 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, 25th, 1944. The battle of the bulge in december of that year and then to be a day. Take us back, Rick Atkinson to may 7 and may eighth of 19 40 five. How did the war and in europe . Rick the war ended with the ,ermans basically deciding 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. The germans decided that trying to make peace with the western allies, the americans in particular, was their best bet. They would get a better deal from the western allies than they would from the soviets. So, eisenhower had his forward headquarters in the french in town in the northeastern parts of france. There was a delegation and a lot of palaver about the conditions. 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, a 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 onlyas rolling lasted 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 would go into effect the next day. May 8. Giving them time to a alert german uboats in the atlantic and the german detachments in norway. The soviets felt it was important to have a surrender ceremony on german soil. They did not 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. They insisted on yet another surrender ceremony in a suburb of berlin which happened on may 9. So the soviets, now the russians , considered 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. There is still a war in the pacific and that certainly had a moderating effect on the other jubilation that wouldve taken place otherwise. From on that timeline dday, june 6, 1944, did the final victory in europe, based on your research of u. S. Forces and British Forces, it did that happen sooner than they thought where did it take longer than they thought . Rick you know, it took longer in the sense that after the battle of the balls, 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 would not give up . Why they continued to fight. Why one little town, one mediumsized city or even big cities continued to resist. Were 10 thousand 400 american soldiers killed in action in april, 1940 five in germany. Almost as many as were killed in june, 1944, the month of invasion. So this was awful virtually until the last gunshot and as a there was great consternation about whether they would 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. Is rickr guest atkinson, it is the 75th anniversary of dday. You,uld love to hear from your questions and comments. Here are how the lines are broken up. For the eastern and central time zones. And then the mountain and pacific time zones. 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 on. Atkinson, it rick is a really a alarming it is really a alarming to read the death tolls. In one story you write about the training, just the training for dday alone, there was one thatent in the training killed 700 soldiers in that training accident. Looking at the statistics of how many people died, military death come up u. S. Deaths. Over 10 million soldier deaths. Estimated that the total soviet debts were million. Our losses were bad enough with 291,000 killed in action and over 400,000 in terms of all deaths including accidents and disease. That is about one third of 1 of 100american population of 30 million during world war ii. Staggering as those numbers are for us, they are monumental for the soviets in particular. The germans lose about 7 million people. About 60 Million Deaths worldwide in world war ii that is a death every three seconds for six years. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of this. The greatest catastrophe selfinflicted catastrophe in u. S. History. Host the were ending three weeks or so after the death of fdr in warm springs, georgia in 1945. Harry truman, the president on the day. What was the effect stateside when that news came . Rick 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 an arduous trip first to malta with a conference were a conference with churchill and then he went to the black sea for a meeting with stalin come of the soviet leader. Anyone looking at those pictures today can see he is a man that is dying. Theblood pressure was in stratosphere and he had all kinds of health problems. Hemorrhagea cerebral come he is at his cottage april 12, 1945. Right after lunch. The word spreads through the country very quickly. By late afternoon, virtually all americans are aware of it. It is a shock to everyone. He has been president for more than 12 years. He is our war president. He is 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, and of senator from missouri. He had been a captain in the artillery in world war i. A bit of a cipher in the eyes of most americans. 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 have difficulty comprehending. Of callshave a lot waiting for you, Rick Atkinson. We go first to larry in gallup, new mexico. Good morning. Was a code father talker in the south pacific. And on your research, i wanted thenow how much the role of American Indian including the comanches, how much under research have you done on them if andy. What was their role during the war . Thank you very much. , for thenk you, larry call and to your dad. American indians were important. First of all, they had a tradition of eating warriors which was critical when you were trying to put together an army. As you mentioned, there were code talkers, navajo and others that had their own language and it was assumed correctly that if a navajo