I unleash the bombing again on july 25th knowing the danger this time. He decides to go ahead with it. Then okay well mark it with orange colored smoke which tells us, okay, dont bomb on this side of the orange colored smoke because thats the u. S. Lines. So the crew men are briefed do not do that. None of them want to bomb their own troops. What do you think happens on july 25th. Heres murphys law. Which way do you think the wind is blowing. Towards the u. S. Lines. So orange smoke is coming back towards the american lines, theres confusion by at least one or two groups and thats all it takes, they will unload their bombs over the u. S. Lines and there will be more friendly fire casualties. Ultimately 111 americans killed. Many come from the old hickory division. By july 25th, general hobbs hates the u. S. Air force. The 30th division is going to be told were sorry this happened to you but go ahead and attack. If you ever heard of the great war correspondent ernie pyle he wrote what this was like. So when the troops go forward on july 25th they find the germans are in a good position to resist, unfortunately. Some of those fronts line positions havent been hit that hard. Thats the bad news. The good news the rear areas have been really nailed, tanks flipped upside down, communications destroyed, people just destroyed, horse columns destroyed, all this kind of stuff. And so once you get past that hard crust of initial resistance, there is room to maneuver, and collins has to make this decision theres cratering and we dont know whats ahead of us. Should i send the infantry forward and go for the kill. He does so by july 26th and 27th and leads to what you see on the map break through that rectangle that blue rectangle thats been bombed and now is where the germans are really in trouble. Now you see a break through in normandy in late july 1944. And the kind of mobile campaign the americans had always wanted. Now doesnt mean that its safe out there. There are powerful german units moving and retreating, trying to get out to avoid encirclements. The 2nd division will be in a road block position and run into a very powerful german armored task force that leads to confused night battle with significant loss of life on both sides. Theres plenty much very furious fighting going on. From a Bigger Picture poichbt view its to the americans advantage. The germans are in trouble. On august 1st they activate the famous 3rd army under general george patton, so you have two operational u. S. Armies in play now, the first and the third and bradley moves up to be an Army Group Commander of the 12th army in control of all the u. S. Ground forces and Pattons Third Army has a reputation for being veriay ar r armored heavy because he likes mobile and mechanized warfare. This is precisely what they will be doing on the western side of the map. Basically slashanddash. Move quickly. Just hit the germans hard, get to the rear areas, encircle them. This is what pattons army excels at. They get to avranche which you can see on the map, eventually theyre going to move into brittany. The german army is going to find itself in a very difficult mortal position at this stage and from a conceptual view point, history isnt about memorizing facts or dates, theres a larger analysis or purpose to it all in a sense and whats interesting to me as an american historian is that this u. S. Army that you now see in late july, in august 1944 after whats generally known as the breakout from normandy, like you see portrayed on the map there reflects the society that has created it and is sustaining it. At that time, the United States was the most Automated Society in the world. When you think of world war ii you tend to think of the germans and their vehicles and tanks and blitzkrieg and all that. The german army is moving their supplies with horsedrawn wagons. Theyre running their vehicles on ersatz fuel. Theyre not even in the class of the United States army in this sense. The u. S. Army hardly even knows what a horse is anymore by 1944. Every vehicles of every tight and description but jeeps and trucks and recovery vehicles and aircraft and all of it is designed for mobile slashing, transportation oriented mechanized maneuver warfare, ground and air so what you have is a fasthitting fastmoving for force, this is flip side of the air force. The heavy bombers had been asked in operation cobra to do something that was not in their skill set. To bomb a precision target in front of friendly troops. Now youre talking about immediate yup bombers a are more accurate, that can fly lower ahead of grown formations to act as eyes and ears and give them close support and this is precisely what happens. If youre a german column moving on the roads of normandy you will be in trouble and you have nice bodyguards in the sigh above you if youre a ground commander at that point. So throughout the early days of august, 1944, the german position gets worse and worse as you see on the map. They get kind of bent around and now theyre endanger of encirclement. So if youre the german commanders you say at this point you might say well, its time to get out of there. Hitler being hitler, hes not going to think that way. He wants to attack. Hes giving orders forbidding retreat and he says lets counterattack. So he scrapes together their best remaining Armored Division in normandy and attacks on august 7 through 12, 1944. The purpose of this is to get all the way to avenue ranch, about ten miles away, and to basically cut off patton and reverse the whole tide. Now certainly it takes the americans off guard and elites furious fighting around more ortain but the operation is a dismal failure. And when its over its clear the germans have to get out of normandy or risk losing everything thats left. So in the wake of mortaine the americans are hoping to destroy the german army. Patton has had to siphon off formations in brittany which he doesnt want to do but just like cher bourg, theyre going to destroy the port cities. But the rest of pattons army will swing around eastward and patton is hoping to swing toward the landing beaches and snap that trap shut and join hands with the 21st army group, british and canadians coming from the other direction. Originally this is the concept for the allies but bradley will tell them to halt and this is a controversial decision in normandy because its thought of by some historians that allows germans to escape who otherwise might not have. Well, regardless of that, you do end up with an encirclement eventually by about august 18, 1944. Tens of thousands of germans had escaped, some tanks escaped, vehicles, equipment and the like but the two sides do join hands in a town called shambois. Its not a lunge up of americans an british. Its american and polish. Captain laughlin waters from the 90th division is reconning ahead of his unit on that day and theyre under heavy artillery fire and hes taking cover in a ditch, kind of see whats ahead as hes going to have orders to move forward and take the town of shambois and he notices a guy in funny looking uniform walking along the road braving the shell fire. He knows hes not german but hes not sure who he is so he decides to go and talk to him. Off polish Armored Division moving from the other direction and the polish Army Commander tells water this is the first ever meeting of polish and american soldiers on a battlefield. So the two coordinate to snap trap shut for the germans and they will do so but the germans have tried to attack furiously eastward to get out of there. This part is known as ifalaise gap. The german losses have been terrible. 25,000 to 50,000 men captured, 10,000 dead in the pocket alone. P its a concentrated area so youre talking about enormous destruction by allied artillery, allied air, allied ground force s. Killing of horses, thousands of horses, blood running in the norman lanes as you saw one of them portrayed earlier in our slide show there. The stench like you wouldnt believe. The allied Fighter Pilots that are flying above this, when they open their canopies, theyre hit with the stench of burning flesh immediately. On the ground, the horror is unspeakable for the germans there. Its humbling enough for the allies and troubling enough for them, you can imagine the germans. Thats really the figurative end of the battle of normandy. The germans have lost the better part of two field armies in normandy, thats hundreds of thousands of troops well over a thousand tanks. The allied losses are significant. The americans lose 126,000 men at normandy. Almost all men. Killed, wounded, captured, missing. British, canadians and poles 83,000. Over 21,000 americans killed in the battle of normandy. Paris is liberated on august 25 which is the figurative end to this and from the larger point of view how we interpret the battle of normandy, its the beginning of the end for germany its not a turning point. The turning point happened earlier, stalingrad, other places like that. Its the pivot point. After normandy, the germans are not going to win this war. Its just a matter of time. But it also doesnt mean its over now. Theres plenty of hard fighting again so this is the beginning 60 an American Military, economic, and political superpower that has now accepted that baton to lead this western allied coalition and in a longer view its the beginning of a major American Military presence in europe that will remain to this day through nato. It really is a seminal moment in American History. So the battle of normandy its fair to say is probably the most significant in the entire history of campaign in northwest europe. Thank you. [ applause ] we have time for two questions for dr. Mcmanus. Dr. Mcmanus. We were building up in normandy and slowly grinding the germans down which you see on the map, the 15th army. How long did it take the germans to figure out that maybe normandy was the real invasion and not secondary . Right. The allies had hoped to deceive the germans about the real invasion, that the second invasion would be coming at calais later in the summer. Id say it takes about half that summer for the germans to figure this out. But part of the issue 1 once they have figured it out, its easier said than done to move elements of that 15th army from calais to normandy because of allied air. So the germans have difficulty maneuvering. And the subsequent invasion does come but its not as well known. Its the invasion of south france which happens on august 15. This is one of the things i should have mentioned. Eisenhower had always envisioned the normandy enseparation as one part of two complementary invasions. He wanted an immediate toll lowup in south france to put measure pressure on the jer germans from both sides. As it turns out, it takes two months for them to invade south france mainly because of the paucity of landing skraft and other shipping. So when the landing happens on august 15, its at that point in tandem that hitler finally says okay, lets retreat and the germans are more or less kicked out of france in the two weeks after that. But it takes them just to more specifically answer your question it takes them about half the summer to figure out there isnt another invasion coming at calais. Dr. Mcmanus, this question concerns the german high command and hitler on the strategy of committing the Armored Divisions. By the second or third day after dday when hitler literally woke up and figuratively woke up and saw that was the invasion he then committed the reserves. Rommel said its too late. What is your take on that . What could have happened . My take, again, this is purely my personal opinion. I think rommels concept was wrong and proven wrong. The reason i think that is partially what happened earlier in the war. That when the germans had moved armor near the allies landing beaches that had a naval presence they had come to regret it. In sicily, at salerno, at anz owe. It just hadnt worked out that well for them. They probably were not going to foil the invasion at the water line. They could have stalemated the allies terribly perhaps more than they did. So i tend to see the armor getting to the beaches on dday as deciding everything as overrated a little bit in that sense. If we also look to the pacific, the japanese are just now figuring out in 1944, lets not fight them at the water line, lets fortify inland and bleed them. In the way, thats the last best option the axis venezuela v in 1944 is to bleed them so badly and take so much time that youll end up with a political change. But, you know, its a fun debate and i totally understand the other point of view because you can say, well, okay. But at the same time, if you let them get ashore they industrial the advantage there, too. Thats my feeling. All right, great. Thanks. American history tv in prime time continues in a moment with a look at the role chaplains played in world war ii. Then, how air commandos got started as project nine in the allied invasion force in burma. Heres a great read to add to your Summer Reading list, cspans latest book sundays at eight. I always knew that theres a risk in the bohemian lifestyle and i decided to take it because whether its an illusion or not i dont think it is it helped my concentration. It stopped me being bored. It stopped other people being bored, to some extent. It would keep me awake. It would make me want the evening to go on longer, to prolong the conversation, to enhance the moment. If i was asked would i do it again the answer is probably yes. Id quit earlier possibly, hoping to get away with the whole thing. Easy for me to say. I was not very nice to my children. I was irresponsible if i say yeah, id do all that again to you. But the truth is it would be hypocritical to say no, id never touch the stuff if id known. Because i did know. Everyone does. The soviet union and the soviet system in Eastern Europe contained the seeds of its own destruction. Many of the problems that we saw at the end begin at the very beginning. I spoke about the attempt to control all institutions and control all parts of the economy and political life and social life. The problem is when you do that, when you try to control everything, then you create opposition and potential disdense everywhere. If you tell all artists they have to paint the same way and another artist says i want to paint another way. You have just made him into a political dissident. If you want to subsidize housing in this country and we want to talk about it and the populous agrees its something we should subsidize, then put it on the ballot sheet and make it clear and make it evident and make everybody aware of how much its costing. But when you deliver it through these thirdparty intervises fannie mae and freddie mac, when you deliver it through a company with private shareholders and executives who can extract a lot of that subsidy for themselves, thats not a very good way of subsidizing homeownership. Christopher hitchens, Ann Appelbaum and gretchen are a few of the 41 engaging stories in cspans sundays at 8 00. Now available at your Favorite Book seller. While congress is on break, were using this time to show American History tv programs normally seen weekends here on cspan 3. Next, the role of chaplains in war. During world war ii, roughly 12,000 chaplains travelled with combatants into battle and served as friends, advisors, and spiritual leaders. Professor lyle dorsett explores the difficulties chaplains faced and shares stories from many of their autobiographies. This hourlong event was part of the National World war ii museums commemoration of the 70th anniversary of dday in june. Well, thank you for attending this session. And i will try to leave a little bit of time at the end for questions and answers if you would like. Because often lectures raise more questions than they answer so ill be happy to do that with you. A year and a half ago, i published the book that dr. T doctor just mentioned serving god and country u. S. Military chaplains in world war ii. And my research to put that book together took me several years and it was something ive studied a lot of American History, ive written history. But i didnt expect to be so influenced by something as this book. I really had no sense of the crucial role the chaplains played in world war ii. Indeed, i sort of had in my mind that there were these chaplains floating around during a war, a lot of them on the home front in america in those 600 plus chapels that were built on the camps and bases and forts all over the country and when they went off with the troops they were sort of in the background, maybe in tent hospitals. Maybe they were holding Worship Services when they could. And all of those things are true. But what i had no idea of was the harrowism of these men and in world war ii it was only men who were chaplains. I had no idea of the crucial role that they played in the war. Let me read to you the quotation of the commander of the 75th Infantry Division in world war ii. And his words were for the men and women under his command. This was general pricketts comment. He said religion is basic in American Life and fundamentally and fundamental to our survival as a strong people. Those words are almost shocking today because i dont think the typical american believes that sort of thing. I dont think we believe today that religion is basic in American Life and fundamental to our survival as a strong person. But the general did and he went on to say this. He said one of the four freedoms of the Atlantic Charter for which we con tend is freedom of religion. Well, later nonhis talk he said this to his troops. Chaplains are more than morale builders. Morale building is every officers duty. The primary function of chaplains is to minister religion to the officers and men of this command. In order do this work and listen to what hes saying here. And this began to knock into my view. In order to do the worst most effectively the chaplains are training with the men, going into the field with them, living with the troops, getting close and understanding their psycholo psychology. A Navy Chaplain put it this way. He said, what freed us upmost was when the commanders of various units would say chaplains should be in harms way with the combatants. You see, chaplains