The date is known as ve day, or victory in europe day. A conversation with Rick Atkinson, author of the guns at last light. Throughout the world throngs of people hail the end of the war in europe. It is five years and more since hitler marched into poland. Years full of suffering and death and sacrifice. 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. 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 of the world has been freed. United, the peaceloving nations have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger by far and the might of dictators are the tyranny of military clicks that once called us soft and weak. The power of our people to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the pacific war as it was proved in europe. Historic pictures last days of the war in europe show american and Russian Troops as they join to split german armys in two. The United States general rhinehart meets the russian general. A meeting that spelled out certain german defeat. Inside germany itself, the allies sees the famous stadium of nuremberg, scene of numerous nazi meetings. In a symbolic gesture american troops destroy the nazi party emblem. 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 europe theater. Ve day, victory in europe day. We welcome historian Rick Atkinson whose final book in the guns of last light published in 2013, the final of the three books focusing on the years of 1944 and 1945. And Rick Atkinson, to get our conversation started on ve day, just a quick time line of where things were and how they came from dday on june 6th, 1944, in late august the liberation of paris in august 25th, 1944, the battle of the bulge in december of that year into january of 1945, and then to ve day. Take us back, Rick Atkinson, to may 7th and 8th of 1945. How did the war end in europe . Well, the war ended with the germans basically deciding hitler having killed himself more than a week earlier that there was no profit in dragging it out with the russians in berlin, the russians murdering civilians, killing soldiers, 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 they were going to get a better deal from the western allies than from the soviets. So eisenhower had his headquarters in the french champagne town in northeastern france. The germans sent a delegation, there was a lot of palaber about the conditions for a conversation and they were told in no Uncertain Terms that Unconditional Surrender were the only terms by which the war would end. And so general yodel, who was the operations chief for the German Armed Forces showed up with hitlers at eisenhowers headquarters which was in a red brick building and reporters and photograph evers were there. It was 2 00 in the morning on may 7th, 1945, and the articles of surrender had been boiled down to barely 200 words. The whole ceremony with cameras rolling lasted only about 10 minutes. Yodel 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 8th, in order to give time to alert german uboat crews in the atlantic and german detachments in norway. The soviets felt it was important to have a surrender ceremony on german soil. They dont want the germans to be able to say, as they have in world war i, they had never been defeated and never capitulated in germany proper and they insisted there be another surrender ceremony in a suburb of berlin, which happened on may 9th. So the soviets, now the russians, considered that to be the ve day but for the rest of the world the surrender went into effect on may 8th and that was the end of the war in europe. Now there is still a war in the pacific and that certainly had a moderating effect on the utter jubilation that would have taken place otherwise. No one knew how long that war was going to go. On that time line, from dday, june 6th, 1944, did the final victory in europe, base on your research of u. S. Forces and british forces, did that happen sooner than they thought or take longer than they thought . It took longer in the sense that after the battle of the bulge ended at the end of january of 1945, there was a 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 medium sized city or even big cities continued to resist. There were 10,400 american soldiers killed in action in april 1945 in germany. That is almost as many as were killed in june of 1944, the month of invasion. So it was awful virtually to the last gunshot. And as a consequence, there was a group consternation about whether they were going to surrendering whether every last german soldier was going to have to be killed and whether more would have to die and of course whether more allied soldiers would have to die. There was hope the war would end sooner. May 8th turned out to be the day. Our guest is Rick Atkinson, it is the 75th anniversary of ve day. We would love to hear from you, your questions ant comments. Here are how the lines are broke up. 2027488001, mountain and pacific and for those of you that are world war ii or veterans call in 2027488002. It is alarming to read the death tolls n. One story you write about the training, just the training for dday alone. There was one accident in the training that killed 700 soldiers in that training accident. And looking at the statistics of how many people died in overall, military deaths in world war ii, all the deaths of soviet soldiers. And they had 190 million people, and its estimated the total soviet deaths were 26 million. That is a staggering percent, 13 of the total population. Our losses were bad enough. We had 291,000 killed in action. A little more than 400,000 as you mentioned all deaths including accidents and disease and so on. That is about onethird of 1 of the American Population of 130 million during world war ii. As staggering as they 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 and thats a death every three seconds for six years, and that is an idea of the magnitude, the greatest catastrophe selfinflicted in human history. And the war ended after the death of fdr in warm springs, gather, on april 12th of 1945, hairy truman, the president on ve day, what was the effect stateside when that news came . It was a great shock. Anyone looking at news reel footage could see that president roosevelt was not a healthy man. He been dying for some months. He had a very arduous trip to first malta for a conference with churchill and then they flew to yalta on the black sea for a conference with joseph stalin, the soviet leader and anyone who even today looks at pictures who could tell this man was dying. His Blood Pressure was in the stratosphere, he had all kinds of health problems. So he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage april 12th, 1945. Right after lunch. The word spreads through the country very quickly by Late Afternoon virtually all americans are aware of it. Its a shock to everyone. Hes been president for more than 12 years and our war president. Hes the president through the darkest days of the depression. There were young men in uniform with very little memory of a time when roosevelt was not their leader and now theyre commanderinchief. So no one knew who harry truman was. An obscure senator from missouri and had been a captain in world war i. Hes a bit of a cipher in the eyes of most americans and the notion that hes 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. We have a lot of calls waiting for you, Rick Atkinson. Lets go first to larry in gallop, new mexico. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. My father was a navajo code talker in the south pacific. In addition, on your research i wanted to know how much about or the role of the american indian, the la cota, sioux, comanches and the hopi, how much on your research have you done on them if any, what was the role during the war. Thanks for your call. Thanks to your dad. American indians were important and they had a tradition of being warriors and that is critical when you are trying to put together an army. As you mention 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 that we are talking about the Pacific Theater in this case, could eavesdrop and hear that conversation which they could, they werent going to be able to decode it because very few japanese spoke navajo so the code talkers were important for operational security. I think there was also a sense that with American Indians and 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 there is a rightful role in combat unit for black americans. That black americans could be excellent Fighter Pilots as they showed as the Tuskegee Airmen in alabama who got into combat in europe showed. So i think for the native americans it was a feeling that first of all theyve got some practical skills that are useful, and second that it is an affirmation that this is a pan american war. Salva for in annapolis, maryland, welcome. Caller yes, hello. My dad fought in world war ii and had a couple of brothers and a couple in europe and other uncle who fought in the pacific in the navy. A couple of questions, my dad was a Second Generation italian american. It appears that the prejudice against italian americans was much less than against japanese americans and im wondering if that was true and im wondering why. And the second question, dropping of the atomic bomb probably is the reason im talking to you today. And wondering how that impact had on the outcome of the war and the ability of more american soldiers to survive. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Well thanks for the call and the questions. Yes, i think it is fair to say that the prejudices against the italian americans were considerably less than against japanese americans. 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 had occurred at pearl harbor the japanese struck in december of 1941. I think there is also a racial component to it, frankly. I think that there was a 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 in the war and there were japanese americans who fought valiantly in italy and france during world war ii they were exceptionally capable, ferocious fighters. And they had something to prove because at home there were tens of thousands of japanese who had been inattorneyed in camps. And treated as second class citizens but as noncitizens. With respect to the atomic bombs, yes, i think that the fact that the two atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki brought an end to the war in the pacific probably saved hundreds of thousands of american lives. When ve day occurs on may 8th, 1945, one of the reasons that the jubilation was not more frenetic than it was is that the battle for okinawa is occurring precisely then. It is a cave by cave blood letting and this foreshadowed 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 to 1 million if that were required. And of course the atomic bombs and when ve day occurs in may of 1945, no one knows about the atomic bombs except a small group of physicists and others in new mexico. But no one knows whether even they are not certain whether it is going to work. So those bombs, horrible as they were and 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. Were talking about the end of word war ii, the 75th anniversary of ve day and join us is pete from davidson, oklahoma. Caller hello. Good morning. Youre on the air. Caller thank you. Yes, i was over there on may the 6th, 1945 and we got on the ship on may 15th heading for the pacific. And we stopped by the United States, was training and flying b24s was going to train on b29s for a couple of weeks and go to the pacific. And during that period of time is when they dropped the bomb that ended the war in the pacific. But we bombed all of europe from a b24 base in mandera, italy. Great to have you with us and thanks for your story. And Rick Atkinson, how quickly was the military able to pivot to focus on the Pacific Theater . Well, the commanders in europe and of course theyre civilian masters back in washington had been thinking about how to take a good portion of that force and move it to the pacific and how you would do that and who would go. Was it fair for those who had been fighting from north africa beginning in 1942 and then in italy in 43 and 44 and then in western europe for them to fight in the pacific. So there were plans that had been put together, there were, in fact, units being shifted as he just said in may of 1945, they were getting ready to retrain for the assault on the japanese homeland. The b29 he mentioned was the newest of the four engine long range bombers that had been doing extraordinary work devastating japan. B29s were used to drop the two atomic bombs. So there was a belief that you were going to have take a good portion of the European Force leaving some behind as an army of occupation, but the majority of it was going to end up in the pacific in one form or another. And in your weekend piece in the wall street journal there is a photo of eisenhower flashing the v for victory pens at the signing ceremony. Rick atkinson, at one of your early interviews at cspan in 2002, you said in a different photograph of ike that there is a photograph reflected a certain buoyancy of spirit that i think served him well. You write in your final book, the guns at last light, that there his fellow commanders, some of the other allied commanders were not confident that ike was necessarily the commander type. Well, there were frictions, there is no doubt about it and the british in particular had doubts about eisenhower. Not all of them. Sof of them revered him. He had difficulties really through the entire final year of the war with field Marshal Bernard montgomery, 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 never heard a shot fired in anger. He and his west point class both missed world war i, they had not been deployed. So there was a feeling who was this guy and why is he the one to be the supreme commander. My feeling is i lived with Dwight Eisenhower metaphorically for 15 years and my admiration for him grew every year during that span. He was an extraordinarily capable war leader. He was an extremely capable political general in that his primary job was to hold together this fractious allied coalition. Eventually there are more than 50 countries in what Franklin Roosevelt called the United Nations fighting with the United States. And eisenhower was brilliant about Holding Together that coalition against all of the centrifugal forces trying to pull apart every wartime coalition. So eisenhowers laurels at the end of the war i think are fairly earned. He showed himself to be a capable allied commander and that big smile of his which one of his subordinates said was worth at least an army corp in morale terms was fairly earned when we get to may 8th, 1945. Lets hear from tom next, saint petersburg, florida. Tom, youre on thor. Caller hello. My name is tom willis and im calling is i often wondered who engineered the end of the war, was it admiral dornus and secondly did he honestly believe throughout his entire career that his losses in the atlantic were not caused by the anemic machine and thirdly what happened to him at the end of the war . Well that is a lot of questions. Admiral doanus was the commander of the german navy at the end of the war. There wasnt much of a german navy left to command by that point. The german submarine force had been almost completely destroyed by may of 1945. In terms of who engineered the end of war, well, there were conversations among those who were still surviving in berlin, he was actually to the north 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 30th 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 a basically an agreement that they would send a delegation to allied headquarters, first to montgomery and then they end up as i mentioned at eisenhowers forward headquarters. Its all a bit of catch us if you can. They are making it up as they go along. They are very aware that every day that passes there are more germans who 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 they are fleeing westward by the hundreds of thousands, eventually by the millions, in order to avoid being under soviet control. So when the final decision is made that okay were going to give up to the allied demands for unconditionable surrender, at that point it is a fait accompli. Steve calling from providence, rhode island. Hi there. Caller yes, good morning. I would like to make a comment. This gentleman knows and i know 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 any western front. There would have been a settlement. But the most important issue i want to state is the russian crime when they entered berlin and over 2 million german women were raped by those communist animals, im a german american and my father is a german american who served in the italian campaign. Steve steve well get a response from Rick Atkinson. 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 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 fatal lack of discipline, was a feeling that the depravity that the germans had visited on the soviet Union Beginning with the invasion in 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 at the beginning and this is a good example of the atrocities that the germans committed, are 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, it is estimated that soviet soldiers killed nine german soldiers for every one who was 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. It is the 75th anniversary of the ve day, victory in europe day. Here on American History tv and washington journal were joined by Rick Atkinson, the author of the liberation trilogy, the guns at last light, the three book series on the war in the european theater. More of your calls and comments momentarily. We are joined next though by senator pat roberts of kansas who is 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 your memories of that. I was nine there. The button says i still like ike. They handed them out at the congressional lunch as of yesterday. They were a hot item. But i think most of my memories came when i was about 16 and got to go to the republican convention, 1952 where eisenhower won on the first ballot as opposed to taft and then again during the inaugural. Those are the only times i personally met the man. Obviously at 9 i was back in kansas. I remember that day, though, because 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 could come home . Not at that particular time, he was in the pacific. He was a marine and on okinawa and iwo jima and all of that effort. Well were talking any way, the one thing i remember about ike, you knew he came into the room even though your back was too him. He had that presence that charisma and a very ready face, a wonderful smile and everybody met that liked ike and that stuck. Were talking about general eisenhowers role in the victory in europe. Talking to you, though, about the eisenhower memorial. General eisenhower led the allies to victory in europe. He served two terms as president. Why has it taken so long for a memorial to be created in washington for president eisenhower . It is amazing how much groups that you have to go through at the National Capital commission and the fine arts council, et cetera, et cetera. Secondly, you have to raise the money for it and then 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 annoy, the medal of honor winner from the senator from hawaii and then senator ted stevens, two world war ii vets pushed very hard on this. If you take a look at most memorials, not many are built on a very rapid basis. It takes step by step. But the process basically is just not simple. You have site selection, to the design approvals, the construction, it is a monumental undertaking, parton that terrible pun. We are thrilled now finally to see the hard work come to fruition. It is done. And all we have to do now is wait hopefully until september when social distancing will not be that much of a problem, we hope. If it still is well have the dedication accordingly. It was supposed to be today on the 75th anniversary of ve day. What quick comments were you going to make . What were you going to say in that dedication . Well i think i had four minutes. The president had accepted the invitation to speak. We had a flyover. Basically the eisenhower family would have spoken. We have a number of world war ii veterans including bob dole who 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 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 on the world war stage and then more especially when he was the supreme allied commander in europe. Well senator pat roberts 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. You bet. I hope you can be there. And back to our guest. Rick atkinson, the author of the liberation trilogy taking your calls on comments on this 75th anniversary. James is in sturgis, south dakota. Go ahead. Caller yes. This is Master Sergeant keating, retired air force. I was an iraqi war veteran. And 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. Graduated in may, 1945. And he delivered coffins and there was a lot of them. Were a lot of them. He went to florida, portland, oregon, may of 1945 and i like to thank all the veterans and show a little history. Thanks, james. Rick atkinson, your dad served in world war ii when you yourself an army a career military veteran. Tell us what that experience in particular like . Ve. When that would come up every year with your dad . My dad was from new jersey. He enlisted in the army right after turning 18 in late 1942. He went to ocs. He got to europe right after the war ended. He was in the constabulary which was an occupation on force in bavaria with Extraordinary Police powers because germany was in ruins, obviously, and anarchy was a big threat not only in bavaria but everywhere else. He came home in 1936 and went to pence date and went back into the army to make it a career and served for 30 years. He died about 18 months ago at the age of 94. V. Idai was not anything particular in his view. He marked veterans day, memorial day, 4th of july. These were put in holidays for him as they were for us. Ve day, he was worried as one of our earlier callers was was whether we would end up in the pacific. Fortunately for me and for him, that was not necessary. I was born in munich because my father, as a lieutenant, having moved back into the army, went back to europe and was part of the army of up you can occupation installs bergh. In munich, not far away. At that point austria was still partition and he was part of the occupation force in austria until 1955 when the russians and the americans both left austria. So the residual effects of the war have persisted in many ways. Even ten years after the war, we still had Occupation Forces in austria and of course to this day we have American Forces in germany. They are not Occupation Forces because they are our allies now. Consequences of the war of the military topography were profound and affected me personally and certainly my father. Next up is robert who is calling from portsmouth, virginia. Good morning, gentlemen. I just got to comment. My grandfather said in both theaters, he was in the navy during the european conflict. They decided they were going to call acquits, ve day, he transferred over to the United States marine corps so that he could go, would you call it, the Pacific Theater. He actually had seen action and thank god he came home to us. He served into different branches of the service and to theaters overall or. Robert, any specific questions or comments . I had a question for him. Is it true that during the second world war, they had a secret group of nazis to make a fourth rake back to the war . To make a wide . I am sorry i did not hear that. A fourth reich. There were certainly good nazis who got away who escaped the hangman, prison, or some sort of accounting. Some of them famously went to south america and there were a few who had ambitions of somehow either reconstituting the german reich or at least keeping alive the spirit of the reich and the spirit of adolf hitler. This is a french group. They are not really to be taken seriously. I think a greater concern is not those who escaped justice and those who may have had ambitions to pull together the tattered remnants of the german empire and reconstituted in some fashion. But those in germany and elsewhere in europe, it was not germans but anyone who feel that the spirit of the third reich somehow should be honored that. You cannot be legally a nazi in germany. The germans have been extraordinarily capable of in the past 75 years. First of educating all germans, particularly younger germans about what had happened and who was responsible. But it is difficult to snuff out this virus and we see aid cropping up in hungary, we see it in other places in Eastern Europe. We see little sparks of it in portions of germany. It is very affirming. We see it wherever there are populous who want to take the route of fascism or real fascism and try to feather them politically. So that is a greater concern then any residual nazis from 1945. You last spoke about the discovery of vast, rose of gold, art treasures, of manuscripts in caves and mines across germany in the waning days of the war. How did allied forces prevent looting of that and also prevent them of extra violence by troops . Revenge violence against germans who have made been prisoners or in pursuit of german troops . You have the germans were gate great thieves. The nazis had great artwork and treasures of all sort. Both from individuals and galleries and museums. All occupied europe. Who discovered that stuff and to get my theory going and it is a process that goes on until this day. Revenge killing was a great concern and in fact we saw the concentration camp not far from munich, when american soldiers liberated the camp and sought tens of thousands and thousands who had died. Of course on the outskirts of the camp, there were american soldiers who lost control, but discipline broke down and their honor an estimated several dozen german camp cars, ss cars, murdered either by the americans and one case they put them up against the wall and voted them down with a machine gun or were murdered by inmates until order was restored. So there is concern about this. For the most part disciplined obtain. The number of revenge killings by american troops in western ally tubes is very small. Discipline was really quite adamant. Less so i think its fair to say among the soviet troops coming from the east but that was part of the price and the pain a victory. Lets go back to calls and hear from lawrence in st. Paul, minnesota. What a great opportunity. Thanks. I will be really quick. Two comments. One, i always did my thank eisenhower for having to pull and citizens from the town near the concentration camps so that they could witness what the nazi regime did but that is not my question. The question is, studying world war ii is so impactful for understanding where we are today from a political military and social perspective. Well you can comment on that particularly as it relates to the politics as it relates to both the atomic and Hydrogen Bombs post world war. So thanks for the opportunity. I look forward to hearing your comments. Thanks for the call, lawrence. The consequences for world war ii are extraordinary. Socially, politically, militarily. Socially in this country our views on gender and racial equality are very much shaped by the experiences in world war ii. There were black americans, hundreds of and thousands of black americans, for example, who served in the war. Mostly, initially in all black units. It was a segregated military. And many of them had what they called the double fault v campaign, victory over fascism overseas, and victor against racism back home. The dignity, the empowerment, the sense of service, the sense of cohesion that that experience brought to black america was really a propulsion system for the Civil Rights Movement after the war. We had 19 million american women working outside the home during world war ii. Many of them went back to being homemakers after the war but you do not keep that chain of action at the bottom for long. It showed women that they had an opportunity, potentially an opportunity to do whatever man could do. That they could do thing that men could do as well, if not better. Whether it was riveting together a ship, or working in a science lab, teaching in college, whatever. So these very large social implants that have come out of the war are with us to the state. Shape the culture and society, the economy in extraordinarily profound ways that we still see 75 years today. We will point our viewers and listeners to Rick Atkinsons modernday reflection on the idai and the wall street journal on a piece headlined ve day forge a world still worth defending. Photograph there of army veteran arthur moore of buffalo, new york. Who was wounded in belgium. Standing there in Grand Central station on may 7th, 1945. Halle springs North Carolina is next and linda, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I have great aunt and uncle from northern italy who had told the stories about resistance by many of the italians and how they alighted they were on liberation day. Our current family and friends remind us that, this week, april 25th, was their liberation day and they celebrated and how sad they are that many other elders survivors have actually passed way to the covid 19. They feel like they are embattled again. My question is, what were the italian terms of liberation and were there still germans in italy fighting at that time . Yes there were germans in italy until may of 1945. Italians, you may know from family history, in 1943, had decided after missing an alliance with germans, they packed a steal that mussolini and hitler put together. In 1943 there were secret negotiations between the americans and british and the italians and in 1943, the italians basically switched sides. Now not all of them switch sides. There were a corrupt state that prevailed in northern italy, supported by the germans. The fighting in italy, which had begun with our invasion of sicily in july of 1943 was going to continue right to the very end of the war, it lasted almost until this day, 75 years ago. The italians eventually surrendered after the germans had agreed to storm. It was the germans occupying italy, fighting italy, propping up that romp state of the italian pseudogovernment who had to throw in the towel and that occurs until may 2nd, 1945. So the war is awful in italy until the very end also. One next in illinois. You are on. Good morning. I hope the son from new mexico is still listening. We had a navajo code in the Radio Station being interviewed. That fella saying the marine corps in him and navajo. Before the back of my neck stood up, i stood up for attention. My dad was a marine in hiroshima, i was a marine in vietnam. The question i had was, if Franklin Roosevelt still lived in august, would eleanor have led him to the bombs . For thanks for that. Eleanor roosevelt was not directing war policy before or after Franklin Roosevelts death in april. Roosevelt was keenly interested in the manhattan project, which was the destruction of the atomic bomb. He sought as a way to destroy the war, he sought as a way to save lives for both american and American Allies and to see if save japanese lives also. So had Franklin Roosevelt lived beyond april 12th, 1945, i do not have any doubt that he would have made the same decision that harry truman did which was to go ahead and use this terrible weapon in hopes of bringing the war, the total war to a complete and final and which happens of course with the japanese in tokyo on tokyo bay on the uss missouri of september 2nd of 1945. That was vj day. Bob in missouri asks this, who were the german signing for the german country . I guess he is referring to the ve day, the allied signing, not the russian signing. Yeah. It was generally the operations chief for the german military. Yodel had been designated to give the authority by the residual german government. He had an appointment after that signing and that was the heisman. He was one of those who were executed for warcrimes subsequently. You probably get this at this question a lot. Youre liberation trilogy is about the war in the european theater. You are working on another trilogy about the revolution of your first book coming out on that last. You have you ever considered a book about the Pacific Theater in world war ii . No, i thought about it, bill. Obviously its the pivot to the pacific than i had done for the mediterranean and western europe. I decided not to. This was 2013 as one of the third and final volumes of the liberation trilogy. I decided not to in part because i am really a european is to lived in europe, born in europe. Two and more important i just had a fascination, even a fixation with that earlier war, the war of our independence, the war that gave us the republic that we have to this day. So i am working on volume two of the American Revolution trilogy. It is going to take me a while. I do not anticipate being around to take up the pacific. To jesus in berlin, illinois. Good morning. Good morning. I have a question for atkinson. I wonder what he thinks about the mexican americans, latinos in american war. [inaudible]. Thanks for the question, hayes is. As with the other ethnic contributions that we talked about earlier, native americans, blacks and others, the hispanic contribution, take the Texas National guard, the 36 infiltrate division. Or the 45th division, which had been in oklahoma, near Mexico National guard. You go down the roster of names of the soldiers in those new units and you see lots of hernandez is, gonzales is, there are many hispanic names. Mexican and otherwise. Their contribution is significant and their role in making those units into fine fighting units. The 36 and the 45th both ought in italy in some of the worst fighting. So, you know, hispanic americans have every reason to be proud of their role and their contribution to that 16. 1 million men and women in the force that made the United States military in world war ii. There is a photograph from bbc today at this point, princess elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth to lead the 75th anniversary event. Speaking to the nation on television. There is an army jeep driver. What was the role of the royal family back then in the war . Their role was to keep the british in the fight and to keep them focused on the ambitions of the entire british nation which was basically to prevail and to withstand the pressures from hitler and his fascist thoughts. When ve day occurred, there were huge crowds in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere in london. There were crowds gathered outside of the palace. They sang patriotic socks, hope and glory, people reaping. And chance that we want the king, we want the king. The king came out, he appeared at Buckingham Palace six times during the day and he brought with him the queen and he brought with him the two princesses including elizabeth who was then, you know, still a young girl but now 75 years later, it has been queen for a long time. There was no one better equipped to speak on behalf of britain and whats britain accomplished during the war than Queen Elizabeth. Well work atkinson, we should appreciate you joining us this morning on the 75th anniversary of ve day. We have always appreciated your theories on book tv as well. Good luck with your continuation on the series on the American Revolution. Bill, thanks so much for having me. Japan formally surrendered to the United States on september 2nd, 1945. Aboard the uss missouri where officials from both countries signed documents bringing world war ii to a close