Then they would need more ships to protect those transports during the crossing. More ships would keep them supplied not only with arms and bullets but also with cocacola and hershey bars and newspapers. Cigarettes. That couldre ships take that force and bring it across the channel and landed on an opposed beach. Apart from all that, they would still need more ships, thousands of more ships, to fight another war in the Pacific Ocean ocean halfway around the world against the japanese. That voracious demand for shipping in particular was the singular greatest pediment and bottleneck in allied planning and execution of dday landing. Without the ships, planning for any of that was an exercise in futility. In short, the story of dday is 20 minutesrrific seen that we see at the opening of saving private ryan. That moment of unimaginable on the and sacrifice landing beaches. It was also the years of training asilding, well as the landing. The first element of it is a strategic one. There is the effort to do it. Particularly when to do it. They are assembling the material to make it possible. Then there is the operational story of getting it done. Collectively, all of that back story was called operation neptune. Let me start the story with the strategic landing. Just how did the American Allies decide to do this . How do they make the decision . There is a lot of talk about the special relationship between the british and the americans. There is a common language, a. Ommon foe the outlet partnership was marked by disagreements and sometimes bitter arguments between the partners. I want to start with this image. Asay a picture is worth thousand words. This may be worth at least 2000. I spend plan to spend at least 2000 talking about it. You on the you all know these two guys in front. That is fdr in front. From the very beginning of the war, roosevelt had supported britain in its contest with knotty germany. He did so not with words but supplies and equipment, stretching the law and arguably even the constitution almost to the breaking point to ensure the british could hold out. There is a popular spokesman. Ike Charles Lindbergh most republicans and even roosevelts own ambassador to the port of saint james all opposed to him in this policy. One reason they did so was they believed that such support violated the spirit if not the letter of american neutrality. She is determined to do all he could to make sure that it did. Britains survival was the security. Americas it allowed britain to survive though barely. Right ofleft or to the the picture as you are looking at it is Spencer Churchill with face,uckish grin on his the survivor of a thousand parliamentary debates and the of nazism followers as it is derived from the root nausea. Churchill was grateful for the support. What you really wanted was american active participation in the war. They were a supplicant in the relationships. Roosevelt was the one being wooed. This photo was taken in august of 1941, still four months before pearl harbor. They are aboard a british battleship. Parenthetically it would be sunk four months later by japanese aircraft. No one in this photo knew at the time. It was hidden and completely secret, he even from the secret service. Roosevelt still hopes the United States might be able to limit its role in the war to what he called eating the arsenal of democracy. Wanted the u. S. To provide the material of war so that britain and the commonwealth outners cannot only hold and eventually with american support win. Hope had become more realistic after hitlers foolish and clearly fatal decision to invade the soviet union in the so summer of 1941. At leastchurchill think it was possible, just barely possible, at with , russian blood, and british grit that it might be beaten without the United States having to get into the war. Changedtegic landscape or medically after pearl harbor. Churchill was thrilled to have the United States i am a as a full ally. Given the character of the japanese attack, American Public forceould first Franklin Roosevelt energy to the pacific rather than against germany. Worried. T have at least not about that. As it happens in the month before pearl harbor, between this photo and the japanese attack, the United States has settled on a new strategic land. It would have to be defeated before the United States turns a deal with japan. It was an american admiral. They jacked up the memo that established a new policy of Germany First. It became the key element of not only american but subsequently angloamerican war planning and churchill was much relieved to hear it. Churchillther hand, learned the americans took the view that because germany was to be the first targets of angloamerican ferocity the best possible thing to do was to attack it immediately. At once. A characteristic american attitude. We are not a patient people as a role. When we decide what we want we usually conclude that we must once. T at the british view was Something Like that is all very well and good but we must be practical about these things. Their preference was to postpone any reengage in of the continent on thehe nazi empire was brink of collapse so the landing would be a simple matter of walking in and sweeping up the wreckage. Difference in view between american expectations and british hesitancy, if i can use that word, became a running dispute that lasted for most of two full years. The principal advocate of an immediate, approximate, allied invasion of nazi occupied europe with the army chief of staff, general george c marshall. He is also in this photograph. He is the guy just over churchills, i guess that is his right shoulder, in between the , it looksof state like he is listening to the american chief of Naval OperationsErnest J King who was standing gently behind fdr he also has a lot of stripes on his lsleeve. King was skeptical of the Germany First strategy. He would not openly contradict the president or his policy. King was determined to ensure nese do not get a chance to consolidate their conquests in the western pacific after pearl harbor while the angloamericans were busy defeating germany. That would make the subsequent and eventual recon quest more costly and difficult. Toa result, marshall had convince not only churchill and the british that an early invasion was a good idea, he had to make sure that king and the navy were on the same page as he was. He isrshalls left, looking somewhat suspiciously at marshall and a king. I love the expression on his face. It is like he is trying to listen in on his conversation. He might. That is bridges sergeant sir john dell. Churchill had brought them along on this trip and on subsequent trips to the United States. Stay behind inl washington to serve as a kind of liaison between the english became allies. Was anrshall, dill underappreciated player in the contrivance of allied grand strategy. And if the running of the war generally. He was able to smooth over many of the rough patches between the allies. He was willing to talk activities own superiors in was necessary and gracefully represented the british view in washington. Not live to see the fruits of his labors. He died in 1944 before the invasion. He is one at a very few ried atricans to be bu Arlington National cemetery with full honors. Not pictured in this photograph are the russians. They were bearing the full brunt of the war against the armies of germany and were positively frantic for the angloamericans it to open a second front in france to take some of the pressure off them. Stalin suspected, and not without justification, that churchills opposition to an early second front in europe it was because churchill was willing to fight the germans to the very last russian. [laughter] course churchill might have said it the nazis to the last communist. Before i leave this, there are that i wantracters to point out. They are on the left talking to one another, having their own private conversation. The fellow with his hands behind his hat and is harry hopkins. He seems to be important in Holding Together the englishspeaking allies as dill. Trustedoosevelt most personal advisor, second only to eleanor herself. Hopkins was a sickly man. He was a cancer survivor. Most of the stomach have been cut out of thin. He was unable to process food properly. Pounds. Ed just over 100 he was easily exhausted. None of that kept him from working 20 hour weeks routinely. Roosevelt exploited him terribly. Roosevelt himself was inhibited in his mobility and sent hopkins routinely to london or moscow or anyplace in the world were conversations need to take lays in an effort to hold together they often fragile antiaxis coalition. The workload probably killed him. He lived to see the end of the war dying in january of 1946 at the age of 55. The handsome fellow who was whispering in his ear is averill who fdr sent to london to coordinate relief aid. Thurchill may aror may no known that the figural was having a torrid affair with churchills 21yearold daughter was married toho churchills only son randolph and serving with the british army in egypt. Decades later, after everyone else in this photograph was long wouldaverill and pamela marry. Later he will become John Kennedys choice as americas ambassador to france. There is our cast of yours, or theeast most of them, in bitter negotiations between the americans and the british not so much about whether to invade nazi occupied europe. That was never in question. A little bit about where. Mostly about when. Evident. Was self it had to be northern france. Be inin landing would northern france. That was evident from the very beginning. It was closest to britain which would have to be the staging area for the invasion. The only place from which land based air covered the invasion teaches. The plan was more problematic. As i have noted, the americans were eager to do it as soon as possible, the british not as much. It was marshall that presented the first serious plan for an invasion scheme. He called her the angloamericans to land in france in may of 1943. At the time he did so, the british offered support. Somewhat needs it, but support. It is still 16 months away. There would let a time later to raise objections and concerns. For right now they just do not want to annoy the americans. The more immediate issue was what are we going to do in the meantime . Surely the americans is not intended to sit around for 16 months twiddling their thumbs while they built at the wherewithal for an invasion. Fdr knew the public would not tolerate that. They wanted action and the doe. If the invasion was not possible until may of 1943, american soldiers had to get into action somewhere else and soon. There was always the pacific. Admiral king was always ready to suggest i have some ideas about how we could use some of that material. But it would fatally compromised Germany First strategy that roosevelt stuck to. There had to be some way to use those ships they did have in the european theater prior to may 1. Marshall thought this was a terrible idea. There were no germans and french north africa. It belonged to be she france bishi, france and was out of the war. He feared was the allies committed to a campaign in the mediterranean theatre, it would treat a Gravitational Force that would draw in more men and supplies until the 1943 invasion of france became impossible. He was right. Africa leds in north to a campaign into tunisia which led to an invasion of sicily which led to an invasion of italy. Happens, it has become obvious that exactly as marshall had foreseen, the momentum of event had drawn the war fully into the mediterranean which may have been exactly what Winston Churchill had in mind. Marshall had been right. Churchill was right, too. For the extended campaign in north africa demonstrated more clearly than any british argument could have done that the angloAmerican Allies were simply not ready for the kind of effort that would have been necessary to invade northern france in 1943. It almost certainly would have been a disaster. Has beenngs in morocco haphazard. The campaign into tunisia was marked with wonders and reversals. None of them worse than a humiliating american defeat at the pass of february 1933. All of that demonstrated just how unready the americans were to take on this. Besides, there was still the whole shipping problem. We move from the strategic argument to the logistical problem. Harbor, thepearl United States had embarked on a truly historic ship building program. The United States produced just over one million tons of shipping. Atimpressive as that was, february of 1942, roosevelt told the Maritime Commission he expected then to build 8 million tons of shipping that year. 10 million more the next year. These numbers were staggering. If provoked incredulity among the british who could barely conceive of such numbers. Yet somehow it got done. When it did, roosevelt raised the bar again. 24 million tons of shipping. Attitude seemed to be if you somehow manage to meet the standard that i set, i guess i did not set high enough. Meet these unprecedented construction goals, workers in shipyards like this one, which is the Henry J Kaiser shipyard in portland, oregon, worked around the clock quite literally. This shows workers on the swing shift, the 4 00 p. M. To midnight shift, lining up to replace the dayshift workers. They would be replaced by those on the night shift who labored from midnight to 8 00 a. M. So it went around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The welding machines were never turned off. They were simply passed from hand to hand. Here arers depicted . 50 an hour for their work. After did that thing a dollar it0 for old age benefits, left them with 18 and . 60 for a 40 hour work week during most of them worked overtime as well. There is a sign which you cannot see on this slide over the gate. I blew it up so that you could read. This is what the workers all before they entered the plant. Program waslding not just a matter of manpower or woman power synth when db welder er alsowendy the weld participated. It was also a matter of raw materials. , the resources were not infinite. One bottleneck and the Construction Program was steel plate. Pressed by the demands of war, American Steel mills increased production by 300 between 19401943. Shipbuilding increase by more than 1500 in that same timeframe. American war production board had to decide which programs got preferred access to these scarce raw materials. No ship could be built without it. Battle ships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers. The principal rivals for these vital resources were to ship parts that are often overlooked in the heroic stories move you were of the war at sea. The delivered supplies. This was the Ugly Duckling of war. A propelled box, should more or less like a bats. 2100 tons of cargo. They had a flat bottom. You can steam right up onto a beach, open massive doors and discharge tanks and trucks right out onto the sand. That good case can be made it was the most important ship of the second world war. Loved ort no one admired them. They were very poor sailors. They had a blunt bowel to accommodate the doors and a flop on them to get on the beach. The wallowed terribly even in a calm sea. Any kind of mild chopped they slammed down heavily on every wave with a teeth rattling thump. Some even go under the waves. And lst clubs them to death. Despite all that, they were absolutely essential to any landing in the age of armored warfare. It became the logistical bottleneck of the allied cause in world war ii. There were three reasons why this was the case. The first is the llc had to compete for resources. They also had to compete for space. They are not along the coast line but along the rivers. Especially ohio. This is the photo of one being launched from the Naval Shipyard below pittsburgh which constructed with hundred 43 of them during the war. Other Building Sites included evansville, indiana and seneca illinois. Was once itblem became obvious that in 1943 invasion was not really going to be possible with the vortex of the black the mediterranean, many of the shipyards that have been did to construct lsts were constructed redeployed to build destroyers. By the time the prairie dust priority was shifted back, it is very nearly too late. Products of a shipyard is not like throwing a switch. These are different component parts. They have to start over from the beginning of that supply chain. This was slowed by arguments over what to do with them once they were built. The navy needed them in the pacific for landings at kwajalein and elsewhere. Allied forces in the mediterranean needed them to land in sicily and italy. There were losses to the german targeted forose britain made their way across the atlantic. There are certainly not enough temperatures waters to ensure the safety invasion of northern france. Then it got worse. Springout the winter and and 1944, the hundreds of thousands of men who have been transported to britain from the United States engaged in almost constant training exercises, mostly on the south coast. Most particularly on a beach just west of the dart river. This is a training exercise. You can see the Landing Craft depositing soldiers. Of 1944, they are to carry out a fullscale landing. Night they set out, the of fast boatser set out on the french side of the channel. They entered a convoy of a fully lsts. Ellis tees the tanks fully fueled and three diggity soldiers in the bottom in the bunks of the ships. Battle, the chart s andboat sunk to lst almost sank the lst to 89 that despite looking like this made it back to port. More than 700 americans were killed in this straining exercise. Int is more than were killed the actual landings on utah beach on dday. Should what concerned eisenhower almost as much was the loss of three lsts on the ev