WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:16.767 --> 00:00:20.979 I still get the same reaction when I see a B-17. 4 00:00:21.855 --> 00:00:24.441 But isn't that a beautiful aircraft? 5 00:00:25.150 --> 00:00:26.777 It's like a piece of sculpture. 6 00:00:28.195 --> 00:00:31.573 line:5% And it's lovely in the air when your wheels are up. 7 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:39.039 When you flew in formation... 8 00:00:42.918 --> 00:00:45.504 sometimes with a thousand aircraft... 9 00:00:47.923 --> 00:00:50.384 it was a very beautiful and dramatic sight. 10 00:00:52.636 --> 00:00:55.013 In the cold, blue skies over Europe, 11 00:00:55.556 --> 00:00:57.224 a new kind of combat was fought 12 00:00:57.307 --> 00:01:01.228 in an environment that had never been experienced before. 13 00:01:01.854 --> 00:01:04.897 It was a singular event in the history of warfare. 14 00:01:04.982 --> 00:01:08.694 Unprecedented and never to be repeated. 15 00:01:19.246 --> 00:01:21.748 Airmen from 40 American bomber groups 16 00:01:21.832 --> 00:01:25.544 bled and died in staggering numbers in air combat. 17 00:01:26.044 --> 00:01:29.464 One of these groups, hyperaggressive and undisciplined, 18 00:01:29.548 --> 00:01:33.677 suffered so many casualties in such a short period of time 19 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:36.471 it became known as the Bloody Hundredth. 20 00:01:55.782 --> 00:01:57.993 Germany has invaded Poland. 21 00:01:58.076 --> 00:02:02.122 line:5% In a big attack, about nine o'clock, Warsaw itself was bombed. 22 00:02:06.877 --> 00:02:10.130 line:5% The German army invaded Holland and Belgium early this morning 23 00:02:10.214 --> 00:02:12.841 by land and from parachutes 24 00:02:16.762 --> 00:02:18.805 line:5% You ask, what is our policy? 25 00:02:18.889 --> 00:02:22.142 It is to wage war by sea, land and air. 26 00:02:22.226 --> 00:02:26.813 To wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed 27 00:02:26.897 --> 00:02:30.943 in the dark and lamentable catalog of human crime. 28 00:02:34.655 --> 00:02:36.657 If Great Britain goes down, 29 00:02:36.740 --> 00:02:42.704 line:5% the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe and Asia 30 00:02:42.788 --> 00:02:46.375 line:5% and Africa, and they will be in a position 31 00:02:46.458 --> 00:02:52.464 to bring enormous military and naval resources against this hemisphere. 32 00:02:53.632 --> 00:02:55.509 line:5% We have witnessed this morning 33 00:02:55.592 --> 00:02:59.596 line:5% severe bombing of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes. 34 00:03:00.138 --> 00:03:01.515 It is no joke. 35 00:03:01.598 --> 00:03:03.308 It is a real war. 36 00:03:05.102 --> 00:03:08.272 line:5% I ask that the Congress declare 37 00:03:08.355 --> 00:03:11.191 line:5% that since the unprovoked 38 00:03:11.817 --> 00:03:15.946 line:5% and dastardly attack by Japan, 39 00:03:16.613 --> 00:03:18.657 a state of war. 40 00:03:32.546 --> 00:03:33.964 At this point in the war, 41 00:03:34.047 --> 00:03:36.925 line:5% Hitler's Germany controlled continental Europe. 42 00:03:37.009 --> 00:03:39.678 line:5% Great Britain stood alone and vulnerable, 43 00:03:39.761 --> 00:03:44.224 the last surviving European democracy at war with the Nazis. 44 00:03:44.766 --> 00:03:47.936 And the question became how to hit back at the enemy. 45 00:03:48.937 --> 00:03:52.191 Britain's bomber command had been striking Germany incessantly 46 00:03:52.274 --> 00:03:54.943 but ineffectively since 1940, 47 00:03:55.027 --> 00:03:59.907 taking huge losses in night raids that often missed their targets by miles. 48 00:04:01.909 --> 00:04:05.370 There was a clear and present danger to global democracy 49 00:04:05.454 --> 00:04:07.664 because of the Nazis. 50 00:04:07.748 --> 00:04:11.460 line:5% So, patriotism was something that the Greatest Generation, 51 00:04:11.543 --> 00:04:14.004 line:5% my father's generation, took very, very seriously. 52 00:04:16.548 --> 00:04:19.091 Now, it isn't as if it was a chore for me to talk to you 53 00:04:19.176 --> 00:04:22.930 line:5% because I wanna speak on my favorite subject, the Army Air Forces. 54 00:04:23.972 --> 00:04:26.350 line:5% I can't speak from long experience. 55 00:04:27.142 --> 00:04:28.644 I've only been in the service a year, 56 00:04:28.727 --> 00:04:31.939 but I've learned a lot about what the air forces have to offer. 57 00:04:33.106 --> 00:04:34.483 That's what I wanna talk to you about. 58 00:04:35.692 --> 00:04:39.363 The Army Air Forces need 15,000 captains, 59 00:04:39.446 --> 00:04:43.784 40,000 lieutenants, 35,000 flying sergeants. 60 00:04:44.326 --> 00:04:47.037 Young men of America, your future's in the sky. 61 00:04:47.621 --> 00:04:49.248 Your wings are waiting. 62 00:04:51.250 --> 00:04:54.586 I was in the middle of my sophomore year in college 63 00:04:54.670 --> 00:05:00.551 line:5% and didn't have a lot on my mind but chasing girls and drinking whiskey. 64 00:05:01.176 --> 00:05:04.137 Meantime, Pearl Harbor happens, and then, 65 00:05:04.221 --> 00:05:09.685 along with my other fraternity brothers, were recruited as aviation cadets. 66 00:05:09.768 --> 00:05:11.311 Attention! 67 00:05:12.437 --> 00:05:15.607 At that time, there was a great deal of anti-Semitism. 68 00:05:15.691 --> 00:05:20.070 And Hitler, with his talk of superiority of the Aryan nation, 69 00:05:20.153 --> 00:05:24.658 I had a sense of frustration that I couldn't do anything about it. 70 00:05:24.741 --> 00:05:27.494 Suddenly, that frustration disappeared. 71 00:05:27.578 --> 00:05:29.663 I'd felt now that I could do something. 72 00:05:30.163 --> 00:05:33.876 line:5% I thought the most effective way to serve would be as a pilot. 73 00:05:35.252 --> 00:05:40.090 I went down the next day and volunteered to be an air force cadet. 74 00:05:43.218 --> 00:05:46.847 Before enlisting, thousands of American flyers had never set foot 75 00:05:46.930 --> 00:05:51.685 in an airplane or fired a shot at anything more threatening than a squirrel. 76 00:05:51.768 --> 00:05:54.771 The crews were made up of men from every part of America 77 00:05:54.855 --> 00:05:57.274 and nearly every station in life. 78 00:05:57.357 --> 00:06:01.612 There were Harvard history majors and West Virginia coal miners. 79 00:06:01.695 --> 00:06:04.740 Wall Street lawyers and Oklahoma cowpunchers. 80 00:06:05.365 --> 00:06:08.660 Hollywood idols and football heroes. 81 00:06:11.330 --> 00:06:13.207 The cadets have passed their test. 82 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:15.250 And now, they'll get their flying lessons. 83 00:06:16.043 --> 00:06:19.421 Each instructor had four students. 84 00:06:19.505 --> 00:06:23.342 The other three students had previous flight training, I had none. 85 00:06:23.425 --> 00:06:25.511 I had never been inside of an airplane. 86 00:06:30.015 --> 00:06:32.935 After about ten hours, we'd have solo. 87 00:06:33.435 --> 00:06:36.605 line:5% When those wheels leave the ground, there's no one to help you. 88 00:06:36.688 --> 00:06:37.648 line:5% You're on your own. 89 00:06:40.025 --> 00:06:45.280 line:5% I became a navigator because I was a flop as a pilot. 90 00:06:46.657 --> 00:06:47.741 I got washed out. 91 00:06:47.824 --> 00:06:50.994 line:5% I'll never forget the guy that washed me out was Lieutenant Maytag, 92 00:06:51.078 --> 00:06:54.498 line:5% proper name for washing out a prospective flying student. 93 00:06:55.082 --> 00:06:59.670 I had a military instructor, and he was about to wash me out, 94 00:07:00.379 --> 00:07:02.422 and he said, "You're gonna kill yourself anyway, 95 00:07:02.506 --> 00:07:06.093 but I'll tell you what, I'm gonna go over and sit under that tree. 96 00:07:06.176 --> 00:07:11.515 line:5% If you can take this up three times and around the pattern and land it, you're in. 97 00:07:12.057 --> 00:07:14.059 If not, you're out." 98 00:07:16.687 --> 00:07:20.732 We flew from eight o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock at night. 99 00:07:20.816 --> 00:07:24.778 I did various maneuvers of chandelles and lazy S's. 100 00:07:24.862 --> 00:07:27.614 And on a rare day off, we would dogfight. 101 00:07:29.616 --> 00:07:32.578 I never enjoyed anything more than I did at that time. 102 00:07:43.505 --> 00:07:48.427 Forty of my classmates, just graduated from flying school, 103 00:07:48.510 --> 00:07:49.720 along with me, 104 00:07:49.803 --> 00:07:53.056 were all assigned to fly the B-17. 105 00:07:53.140 --> 00:07:55.893 We'd never been in a B-17 before. 106 00:07:58.145 --> 00:08:01.398 The Boeing Flying Fortress, manned by ten men, 107 00:08:01.481 --> 00:08:04.401 this new bomber has a speed of nearly 300 miles an hour. 108 00:08:04.484 --> 00:08:07.112 The bulges on its fuselage are turrets for machine guns. 109 00:08:07.905 --> 00:08:09.573 With 4,000 horsepower engines, 110 00:08:09.656 --> 00:08:13.452 it can cruise for 3,000 miles without landing to refuel. 111 00:08:13.535 --> 00:08:18.749 B-17 was the first both offensive and defensive aircraft ever designed. 112 00:08:19.458 --> 00:08:23.754 Offensively, it dropped very heavy payloads for its day. 113 00:08:23.837 --> 00:08:27.299 And it was called the Flying Fortress because it had so many 50-caliber guns. 114 00:08:28.884 --> 00:08:31.845 The feel of the B-17 was wonderful. 115 00:08:32.346 --> 00:08:37.768 The plane responded so beautifully that I immediately related to it. 116 00:08:38.809 --> 00:08:41.313 I was very happy to be on B-17s. 117 00:08:42.898 --> 00:08:45.859 We had about five or six months of practice training 118 00:08:45.943 --> 00:08:48.153 and getting ready for an overseas assignment. 119 00:08:50.113 --> 00:08:54.117 line:5% In May of 1943 we were sent to England 120 00:08:54.201 --> 00:08:55.994 line:5% to become a part of the Eighth Air Force. 121 00:08:57.955 --> 00:09:01.083 We were told before we went overseas, 122 00:09:01.875 --> 00:09:04.503 "You look on your left and your right, 123 00:09:04.586 --> 00:09:06.672 and only one of you is gonna come back." 124 00:09:07.256 --> 00:09:09.508 We were going overseas to die. 125 00:09:25.357 --> 00:09:28.777 Just as the crews of the 100th began arriving at their new base 126 00:09:28.861 --> 00:09:33.866 in rural eastern England, the European war entered a new phase. 127 00:09:33.949 --> 00:09:36.535 It was the official beginning of Pointblank, 128 00:09:36.618 --> 00:09:38.996 an around-the-clock bombing campaign, 129 00:09:39.079 --> 00:09:42.165 with the Americans bombing by day and the British by night. 130 00:09:42.666 --> 00:09:47.004 Its purpose, to achieve air supremacy over northern Europe 131 00:09:47.087 --> 00:09:49.590 by the D-Day invasion the following spring. 132 00:09:50.591 --> 00:09:54.636 Without air supremacy, the Allies could not invade the European continent. 133 00:09:58.223 --> 00:10:01.894 We'd just got there and getting to know one another, 134 00:10:01.977 --> 00:10:06.356 line:5% and King, the pilot, asked me, "What had you done before?" 135 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:11.278 line:5% I said, "Well, recently I did the work of a cowboy." 136 00:10:11.361 --> 00:10:15.032 line:5% And he said, "Well, fine, you'll be Cowboy from now on." 137 00:10:15.949 --> 00:10:17.826 The 100th is a young outfit, 138 00:10:17.910 --> 00:10:20.913 and it had some pretty reckless young commanders. 139 00:10:20.996 --> 00:10:24.208 line:5% A guy named Gale Cleven, who was a squadron commander 140 00:10:24.291 --> 00:10:26.877 line:5% and an air executive named John Egan. 141 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:30.714 line:5% Egan and Cleven didn't have to fly as squadron leaders, but always did. 142 00:10:30.797 --> 00:10:33.300 line:5% And that's one of the reasons the men admired them. 143 00:10:33.383 --> 00:10:38.180 Buck Cleven, along with Bucky Egan, they wore scarves 144 00:10:38.263 --> 00:10:41.517 and their hats cocked on one side of their heads, 145 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:43.519 and they were pretty cocky. 146 00:10:43.602 --> 00:10:46.563 line:5% They'd be at the officers' club, and they would say, 147 00:10:46.647 --> 00:10:49.650 line:5% "Lieutenant, taxi over here, I wanna talk to you." 148 00:10:50.442 --> 00:10:52.361 line:5% John Egan, Gale Cleven, 149 00:10:52.444 --> 00:10:55.322 line:5% their life's ambition was to fly an airplane. 150 00:10:55.405 --> 00:10:56.823 And here they are, flying an airplane. 151 00:10:56.907 --> 00:10:59.993 line:5% Doing something that they love for a country that they love 152 00:11:00.077 --> 00:11:01.495 line:5% on a mission that they believe in. 153 00:11:02.538 --> 00:11:05.040 Cleven and Egan would help lead the 100th 154 00:11:05.123 --> 00:11:09.586 against the most formidable air force in the world, the German Luftwaffe, 155 00:11:09.670 --> 00:11:14.299 whose veteran pilots had seen action over Spain, Norway, Poland, 156 00:11:14.383 --> 00:11:19.680 France, Russia, Greece, North Africa and England. 157 00:11:20.180 --> 00:11:25.102 line:5% They will understand the enormity of their miscalculation 158 00:11:25.936 --> 00:11:30.649 line:5% that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior air power. 159 00:11:31.191 --> 00:11:35.362 That superiority has gone forever. 160 00:11:35.946 --> 00:11:41.326 We believe that the Nazis and the fascists have asked for it, 161 00:11:41.410 --> 00:11:43.328 and they're going to get it. 162 00:11:52.379 --> 00:11:55.007 Captain Kirk, Captain Thompson, Lieutenant Bushka, 163 00:11:55.090 --> 00:11:57.426 Iverson, Holloway and Hawkers scheduled to fly. 164 00:11:57.509 --> 00:11:58.343 Snap it up. 165 00:12:02.014 --> 00:12:04.391 The commanding officer, he'd come in, he'd come up the front, 166 00:12:05.225 --> 00:12:07.519 he'd pull back a curtain, 167 00:12:07.603 --> 00:12:12.566 line:5% and there'd be a red ribbon from Thorpe Abbotts all the way to the target. 168 00:12:13.817 --> 00:12:16.653 This group of buildings here is your target. 169 00:12:17.404 --> 00:12:19.990 This building will be the aiming point. 170 00:12:20.532 --> 00:12:24.161 If your bomb pattern is concentrated in this area, 171 00:12:24.244 --> 00:12:27.539 it should very effectively knock out the factory. 172 00:12:35.214 --> 00:12:38.967 After getting off the jeep and getting some of the stuff stowed, 173 00:12:39.051 --> 00:12:42.304 line:5% then climbed aboard, got settled in, and fired up. 174 00:12:55.609 --> 00:12:57.653 Flying in a self-defending formation 175 00:12:57.736 --> 00:13:00.322 they called a combat box, 176 00:13:00.405 --> 00:13:04.826 with accumulative firepower of as many as 13 guns on each plane, 177 00:13:04.910 --> 00:13:09.206 they could muscle their way to the target through waves of enemy planes. 178 00:13:10.582 --> 00:13:13.252 At the fighter fields, Thunderbolts are ready. 179 00:13:18.382 --> 00:13:20.592 They set out to meet the bombers. 180 00:13:20.676 --> 00:13:23.971 The two groups make rendezvous over the English Channel, 181 00:13:24.054 --> 00:13:27.474 and with the fighters patrolling the skies around the bomber formation, 182 00:13:27.558 --> 00:13:30.310 the air armada moves into enemy territory. 183 00:13:32.229 --> 00:13:35.607 The bombers received limited protection from the smaller, 184 00:13:35.691 --> 00:13:39.528 more nimble fighter planes, like the P-47 Thunderbolt, 185 00:13:39.611 --> 00:13:42.990 whose limited fuel capacity forced it to leave the bombers 186 00:13:43.073 --> 00:13:45.492 once they crossed deep into Germany. 187 00:13:45.576 --> 00:13:47.452 The crewmen were in an alien world 188 00:13:47.536 --> 00:13:52.416 to where they physically could not survive without specialized clothing, 189 00:13:52.499 --> 00:13:54.209 without specialized equipment, 190 00:13:54.293 --> 00:13:57.254 without breathing oxygen that was being pumped to them. 191 00:13:57.337 --> 00:14:00.591 As soon as we got to altitude, we had to go on oxygen, 192 00:14:00.674 --> 00:14:03.135 so we had an oxygen mask clasped on our face. 193 00:14:03.218 --> 00:14:05.012 And the stark cold. 194 00:14:05.095 --> 00:14:07.431 The frigid temperatures. 195 00:14:07.514 --> 00:14:11.310 We were operating in 50 or 60 degrees below zero. 196 00:14:17.941 --> 00:14:21.153 The fighter escort did not have the range 197 00:14:21.236 --> 00:14:25.282 to escort the B-17s all the way to the targets inside of Germany, 198 00:14:25.365 --> 00:14:27.534 so the Allied fighters turned around and went back to England. 199 00:14:35.334 --> 00:14:39.129 I remember that when we first crossed over the English Channel, 200 00:14:39.213 --> 00:14:43.383 I remember looking down and realizing that we were over enemy territory, 201 00:14:43.467 --> 00:14:45.427 and I had a lump in my throat. 202 00:14:45.511 --> 00:14:46.845 I was nervous. 203 00:14:49.681 --> 00:14:51.683 There are the black smudges of the flak 204 00:14:51.767 --> 00:14:53.977 that come up from the antiaircraft guns below. 205 00:14:54.770 --> 00:14:56.939 A flak gun is a German 88 gun, 206 00:14:57.022 --> 00:15:00.067 and it could fire a shell up to 40,000 feet. 207 00:15:00.150 --> 00:15:05.197 The shell would explode in the air, and it would throw shards of shrapnel. 208 00:15:07.574 --> 00:15:10.661 The skin of the plane is not steel, it's aluminum. 209 00:15:10.744 --> 00:15:13.121 So, that meant flak just blew holes in the plane. 210 00:15:15.249 --> 00:15:20.337 That was my first time to be exposed to very heavy antiaircraft fire, 211 00:15:20.420 --> 00:15:23.298 and it was frightening. 212 00:15:28.053 --> 00:15:31.682 We were being confronted by very experienced 213 00:15:31.765 --> 00:15:36.061 and very well equipped and very well trained opposition. 214 00:15:36.144 --> 00:15:39.857 They were pros, and we were rank amateurs. 215 00:15:43.902 --> 00:15:46.488 When the formation neared its target, 216 00:15:46.572 --> 00:15:50.200 the bombardiers entered variables such as airspeed and wind drift 217 00:15:50.284 --> 00:15:51.910 into their Norden bombsights, 218 00:15:51.994 --> 00:15:55.455 top-secret aiming devices designed to guide the planes 219 00:15:55.539 --> 00:15:59.001 to the optimal release point for dropping their payloads. 220 00:15:59.585 --> 00:16:02.546 The Norden bombsight, it's supposed to be so accurate 221 00:16:02.629 --> 00:16:07.801 that you can bomb from 20,000 feet and drop your bombs into a pickle barrel. 222 00:16:10.596 --> 00:16:12.055 When we dropped our bombs, 223 00:16:12.139 --> 00:16:14.641 line:5% I could see bombs from the planes ahead of us dropping 224 00:16:14.725 --> 00:16:17.644 line:5% but also I could lean out in the plexiglass nose 225 00:16:17.728 --> 00:16:21.231 and see the bombs falling directly down from us. 226 00:16:21.315 --> 00:16:25.569 And then, when they exploded, we could actually see the explosions. 227 00:16:25.652 --> 00:16:27.237 The first bombers have been over, 228 00:16:27.321 --> 00:16:30.574 and the target's already partially obscured by the fires they've started. 229 00:16:31.366 --> 00:16:34.912 Hits were scored on a power plant, submarines under construction, 230 00:16:34.995 --> 00:16:36.955 and at least one U-boat in the water. 231 00:16:38.957 --> 00:16:40.375 We dropped our bombs, 232 00:16:40.459 --> 00:16:43.045 a couple of fighter attacks, nobody got hurt. 233 00:16:43.629 --> 00:16:45.714 line:5% And I thought, "Well, this isn't so bad." 234 00:16:48.509 --> 00:16:52.221 The early missions for the 100th were mostly coastal targets, 235 00:16:52.304 --> 00:16:56.558 like submarine pens and industrial sites in France and Norway. 236 00:16:57.518 --> 00:16:59.770 The air force was trying to destroy 237 00:16:59.853 --> 00:17:02.147 the war machine of Nazi Germany. 238 00:17:02.231 --> 00:17:05.442 The factories that made planes, that made tanks. 239 00:17:05.526 --> 00:17:07.194 The factories that produced ball bearings. 240 00:17:07.778 --> 00:17:09.488 At the British landing fields, 241 00:17:09.570 --> 00:17:11.114 word on the sky battle was out. 242 00:17:12.199 --> 00:17:14.826 Many of the fortresses themselves were crippled. 243 00:17:14.910 --> 00:17:19.164 A few came in with feathered props or with knocked-out landing gear. 244 00:17:20.249 --> 00:17:23.210 The B-17 had the reputation of being trustworthy and safe 245 00:17:23.292 --> 00:17:24.502 and getting people back. 246 00:17:24.586 --> 00:17:26.630 You could lose three engines and get home. 247 00:17:26.713 --> 00:17:30.050 You could lose half of your vertical stabilizer on the tail 248 00:17:30.133 --> 00:17:31.176 and get home. 249 00:17:31.260 --> 00:17:34.054 It would bring you home on two engines, 250 00:17:34.137 --> 00:17:36.557 line:5% and I've seen 'em come in with only one. 251 00:17:42.729 --> 00:17:44.940 Everything was about to change for the Eighth 252 00:17:45.023 --> 00:17:47.568 with the largest raid they would undertake up to now. 253 00:17:47.651 --> 00:17:51.363 A double strike against ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt 254 00:17:51.446 --> 00:17:54.241 and Messerschmitt factories in Regensburg, 255 00:17:54.324 --> 00:17:58.203 massively defended targets deep inside Germany. 256 00:17:58.287 --> 00:18:01.498 The 100th was assigned to the Regensburg Force. 257 00:18:02.165 --> 00:18:04.960 When they pulled the curtain away from the map, 258 00:18:05.043 --> 00:18:07.963 and you saw that red line going all across Germany, 259 00:18:08.046 --> 00:18:10.048 line:5% you know, we thought, "Holy cow." 260 00:18:10.716 --> 00:18:13.427 The plan as designed is really brilliant when you look at it. 261 00:18:13.510 --> 00:18:14.344 So, you've got 262 00:18:14.428 --> 00:18:19.057 line:5% Curtis LeMay's Third Bombardment Division is going to fly 263 00:18:19.141 --> 00:18:23.270 and attack the Messerschmitt factories at Regensburg and then head for Africa. 264 00:18:23.353 --> 00:18:27.232 And ten minutes behind them is gonna be the First Bombardment Division, 265 00:18:27.316 --> 00:18:30.068 line:5% and they're gonna attack the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt 266 00:18:30.152 --> 00:18:31.653 line:5% and then go back to England. 267 00:18:31.737 --> 00:18:35.032 line:5% So, the Germans are gonna have to decide which of these groups to hit. 268 00:18:35.115 --> 00:18:39.703 line:5% The problem is-- surprise, it's August, and there's fog in Great Britain. 269 00:18:41.205 --> 00:18:42.623 We went out that morning. 270 00:18:42.706 --> 00:18:47.169 line:5% I had took lanterns and flashlights and lead the airplanes out. 271 00:18:48.086 --> 00:18:51.423 I got assembled about ten minutes late, but we got off. 272 00:18:51.507 --> 00:18:54.426 Curtis LeMay has trained his bombardment division 273 00:18:54.510 --> 00:18:56.512 to take off in English fog. 274 00:18:56.595 --> 00:18:59.014 The other bombardment division hadn't. 275 00:18:59.097 --> 00:19:02.643 So, all of a sudden, LeMay gets his guys up and gets them all formed, 276 00:19:02.726 --> 00:19:05.020 and the other bombardment division hasn't even taken off yet. 277 00:19:05.771 --> 00:19:08.774 So, it ends up, instead of a ten-minute gap, a two-hour gap. 278 00:19:11.235 --> 00:19:14.112 This captured German film shows how quickly their 109s 279 00:19:14.196 --> 00:19:17.157 and Focke-Wulf 190s got into action after a warning. 280 00:19:17.658 --> 00:19:21.036 They had plenty of time to amass their fighters at a chosen point of attack 281 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:24.790 and to outnumber our escort at anything from 2-to-1 to 10-to-1. 282 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:30.963 Flew across the channel. It was a beautiful day out there. 283 00:19:31.755 --> 00:19:32.840 They hit the Dutch coast, 284 00:19:32.923 --> 00:19:35.133 and all of a sudden the whole world exploded. 285 00:19:36.176 --> 00:19:38.136 Kept up for the next two hours. 286 00:19:41.014 --> 00:19:44.184 The training we'd had previously gave us the idea 287 00:19:44.268 --> 00:19:46.728 that we could outrun German fighters. 288 00:19:46.812 --> 00:19:50.107 Of course, we learned that that was not true. 289 00:19:50.983 --> 00:19:55.153 line:5% There was flak, there were fighters, more flak, more fighters. 290 00:19:55.237 --> 00:19:59.867 line:5% And I could hear the top turret chattering away with machine-gun fire. 291 00:20:00.534 --> 00:20:04.246 Cleven's plane took six hits. 292 00:20:04.329 --> 00:20:07.249 They knocked out the hydraulic system. They knocked out one of the engines. 293 00:20:07.833 --> 00:20:09.501 The cockpit is on fire. 294 00:20:09.585 --> 00:20:13.589 Cleven turns around, and he looks at the radio gunner, 295 00:20:13.672 --> 00:20:15.883 and the radio gunner doesn't have any legs. 296 00:20:15.966 --> 00:20:17.050 They'd been sheared off. 297 00:20:19.887 --> 00:20:22.014 And I still remember one plane, 298 00:20:22.097 --> 00:20:24.808 fire was coming out of every opening in that hull. 299 00:20:26.810 --> 00:20:29.521 I dreamed about that one for a long time. 300 00:20:30.564 --> 00:20:32.399 Every single member of that flight crew 301 00:20:32.482 --> 00:20:35.611 was fighting so democracy and freedom could reign. 302 00:20:35.694 --> 00:20:39.198 But when you're in combat, you know who you're fighting for? 303 00:20:39.281 --> 00:20:41.992 The guy to your left and the guy to your right. 304 00:20:42.075 --> 00:20:44.328 The guy just ahead of you and the guy just behind you. 305 00:20:44.411 --> 00:20:45.746 That's the pod you're fighting for. 306 00:20:48.707 --> 00:20:53.545 Cleven is sitting in the cockpit, and his copilot said, in so many words, 307 00:20:53.629 --> 00:20:55.672 "We gotta get out of here. Let's hit the bail out bell." 308 00:20:55.756 --> 00:20:57.841 Cleven said, "We gotta get to the target. 309 00:20:57.925 --> 00:21:00.093 We're gonna complete the bomb run." 310 00:21:00.177 --> 00:21:05.432 Five minutes before we got to the target, everything stopped. 311 00:21:05.516 --> 00:21:07.392 No fighters, no flak, no nothing. 312 00:21:08.227 --> 00:21:10.812 We succeeded in dropping our bombs. 313 00:21:13.982 --> 00:21:16.068 Perilously low on fuel, 314 00:21:16.151 --> 00:21:21.240 the Regensburg group fought its way over the Alps down to North Africa, 315 00:21:21.323 --> 00:21:25.953 while the Schweinfurt group flew straight into the full brunt of the Luftwaffe. 316 00:21:26.828 --> 00:21:30.207 So that means for the Germans, they get up and ravage LeMay's guys, 317 00:21:30.290 --> 00:21:33.544 then they get to land and have a schnapps and rearm and refuel too. 318 00:21:33.627 --> 00:21:35.420 And then they get to hit the Schweinfurt guys. 319 00:21:39.174 --> 00:21:44.513 The whole Luftwaffe jumped on the Schweinfurt group and just shattered them. 320 00:21:51.812 --> 00:21:53.939 Having made it to North Africa by day's end, 321 00:21:54.523 --> 00:21:58.652 the crews of the 100th Bomb Group were battle-worn and weary, 322 00:21:59.194 --> 00:22:01.530 but feeling lucky to be alive. 323 00:22:02.906 --> 00:22:05.784 Any commander that had to commit forces to combat 324 00:22:05.868 --> 00:22:07.744 when they were outnumbered 325 00:22:07.828 --> 00:22:10.038 and with equipment which was not suitable 326 00:22:10.122 --> 00:22:15.794 line:5% and with a minimum of training, faced very tough decisions. 327 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:19.131 It's like sentencing men to death. 328 00:22:23.594 --> 00:22:28.932 line:5% I had landed in England in the summer of 1943, 329 00:22:30.184 --> 00:22:33.520 line:5% and I was sent to the 100th Bomb Group. 330 00:22:33.604 --> 00:22:36.481 Rosie Rosenthal arrived at the group 331 00:22:36.565 --> 00:22:40.736 as a replacement crew for crews that were lost. 332 00:22:41.320 --> 00:22:45.324 Egan had gotten word that this kid, Rosie, was a pretty good flyer. 333 00:22:45.407 --> 00:22:48.952 And so, Egan took him out and ran him through the struts 334 00:22:49.036 --> 00:22:51.038 and said, "I want you in my squadron." 335 00:22:54.875 --> 00:22:56.668 I happened to be in the bar. 336 00:22:56.752 --> 00:23:03.258 And I was having my usual Scotch and felt this tap on my shoulder 337 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:06.887 and turned around, and here was the squadron commander. 338 00:23:07.471 --> 00:23:10.390 He said, "Lucky, you better go home and get some sleep. 339 00:23:11.058 --> 00:23:12.392 You're flying tomorrow." 340 00:23:16.522 --> 00:23:20.234 When the weather over Germany cleared on October 8th, 341 00:23:20.317 --> 00:23:24.238 the Americans launched a succession of maximum-effort missions 342 00:23:24.321 --> 00:23:27.366 to take out aircraft manufacturing plants. 343 00:23:28.158 --> 00:23:31.870 The airmen would eventually call it Black Week. 344 00:23:32.579 --> 00:23:36.375 On October 8th, 855 planes left Great Britain 345 00:23:36.458 --> 00:23:38.877 for a raid on Bremen and Vegesack. 346 00:23:38.961 --> 00:23:41.713 They were loaded with two and a half million pounds of bombs. 347 00:23:41.797 --> 00:23:44.591 Two and three-quarter million rounds of ammunition. 348 00:23:46.510 --> 00:23:50.013 As we came off the target, out of the corner of my eye, 349 00:23:50.097 --> 00:23:56.353 I saw this flight of two Fw 190s aiming directly for us. 350 00:23:56.436 --> 00:23:59.815 He shot down the ship directly in front of me, 351 00:23:59.898 --> 00:24:03.735 and it blew them out of the formation, and they exploded. 352 00:24:05.070 --> 00:24:06.738 The group was decimated. 353 00:24:06.822 --> 00:24:10.617 We were shot clear out of the formation. Our number three engine was on fire. 354 00:24:11.869 --> 00:24:13.370 Cleven tried to move up 355 00:24:13.453 --> 00:24:16.498 and take over the group when he was shot down. 356 00:24:17.833 --> 00:24:18.959 Cleven, he got hit. 357 00:24:19.668 --> 00:24:21.670 There's a lot of chaos in the plane. 358 00:24:21.753 --> 00:24:23.589 The cockpit caught fire. They gotta bail. 359 00:24:27.384 --> 00:24:28.927 Gale Cleven is shot down. 360 00:24:29.011 --> 00:24:33.098 This is a huge hole left in the 100th Bomb Group at this time. 361 00:24:33.182 --> 00:24:36.476 And for all intents and purposes, everybody thinks he's dead. 362 00:24:37.811 --> 00:24:43.317 That was the first time that I doubted that I really was gonna get back. 363 00:24:44.318 --> 00:24:49.114 line:5% My plane, Rosie's Riveters, was badly damaged, 364 00:24:49.198 --> 00:24:51.325 and a couple of engines were out. 365 00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:54.912 After we dropped our bombs, 366 00:24:54.995 --> 00:24:58.665 I brought what was left of the formation home, 367 00:24:58.749 --> 00:25:01.084 which was only six airplanes. 368 00:25:04.379 --> 00:25:08.425 I mean, imagine the morale, to lose all those crews in one day. 369 00:25:09.009 --> 00:25:11.303 What they would try to do is clean out the barracks. 370 00:25:11.386 --> 00:25:13.388 As soon as a plane went down, they'd clean it out. 371 00:25:13.472 --> 00:25:15.933 So, you'd walk into an empty barracks. 372 00:25:17.267 --> 00:25:20.771 Egan was in London on leave, 373 00:25:20.854 --> 00:25:23.565 and he got word that Cleven had been shot down. 374 00:25:24.816 --> 00:25:28.695 Egan was so incensed that he immediately canceled his leave 375 00:25:28.779 --> 00:25:33.450 and returned to the base, and said, "I'm leading the next mission." 376 00:25:34.201 --> 00:25:37.162 The Münster raid was a city-busting operation, 377 00:25:37.246 --> 00:25:39.289 a new thing for the Eighth Air Force. 378 00:25:39.373 --> 00:25:43.710 The target was a strategically essential rail yard in the city center 379 00:25:43.794 --> 00:25:47.589 and also a neighborhood of workers' housing that abutted it. 380 00:25:48.215 --> 00:25:53.345 In the fight against Nazi tyranny, human flesh and bone became a target, 381 00:25:53.428 --> 00:25:56.557 an essential part of the Reich's war machine. 382 00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:58.559 There was tension in the room. 383 00:25:58.642 --> 00:26:01.645 A lot of the airmen, for the first time ever, 384 00:26:01.728 --> 00:26:03.105 questioned the mission. 385 00:26:03.689 --> 00:26:05.607 Egan makes a speech. 386 00:26:05.691 --> 00:26:10.279 They were gonna fly this one for Cleven, and this is a revenge raid. 387 00:26:14.783 --> 00:26:19.913 line:5% Because we had high losses, our group was pretty well banged up, 388 00:26:20.414 --> 00:26:24.376 line:5% and we could only put 13 planes in the air. 389 00:26:26.003 --> 00:26:28.672 line:5% When it came to German fighter attacks, 390 00:26:28.755 --> 00:26:34.136 if your formations were loose, if you had 13 aircraft as opposed to 18, 391 00:26:34.219 --> 00:26:36.513 the Germans are gonna attack the lesser target. 392 00:26:36.597 --> 00:26:40.767 We were immediately attacked by over 200 German fighter aircraft. 393 00:26:41.351 --> 00:26:46.523 Two Me 109s came in behind us and killed our tail gunner. 394 00:26:46.607 --> 00:26:50.360 I was sprayed with shrapnel flak from an exploding cannon shell 395 00:26:50.444 --> 00:26:51.904 and knocked to the floor. 396 00:26:51.987 --> 00:26:54.781 It was clear that the airplane was out of control, 397 00:26:54.865 --> 00:26:57.034 and we were going to go down. 398 00:26:57.576 --> 00:27:00.746 I remember we were about 21-- 22,000 feet. 399 00:27:00.829 --> 00:27:04.833 The ground looked a million miles away, but I had no choice. 400 00:27:04.917 --> 00:27:07.252 I had to go out, and so I did. 401 00:27:15.719 --> 00:27:20.140 We went down the flight line, and we kept waiting around. 402 00:27:24.478 --> 00:27:26.855 Finally, one of ours came in. 403 00:27:28.023 --> 00:27:30.567 Only one airplane of the 100th had returned. 404 00:27:31.068 --> 00:27:33.904 Rosenthal was the man that was flying that airplane. 405 00:27:33.987 --> 00:27:38.700 So, he had seen his share of rough times. 406 00:27:40.994 --> 00:27:43.872 We returned to the officers' club. 407 00:27:43.956 --> 00:27:46.792 There was an eerie silence there. 408 00:27:46.875 --> 00:27:49.920 There were a few people who hadn't flown the mission, 409 00:27:50.546 --> 00:27:53.173 and nobody seemed to approach us. 410 00:27:53.257 --> 00:27:55.092 We were sort of left by ourselves. 411 00:27:55.175 --> 00:27:57.594 It was a very strange feeling. 412 00:27:59.179 --> 00:28:04.268 We certainly felt the loss of the people that had been shot down. 413 00:28:04.351 --> 00:28:10.899 I especially lost my very best friend on the Münster mission. 414 00:28:14.486 --> 00:28:17.948 When Bucky Egan and Cleven were shot down, 415 00:28:18.031 --> 00:28:20.993 it was really a tremendous morale factor 416 00:28:21.076 --> 00:28:24.788 because everybody just assumed they were invincible. 417 00:28:26.582 --> 00:28:30.544 The Münster mission was the greatest air battle up to that time. 418 00:28:30.627 --> 00:28:33.338 Not just a raid, but a titanic struggle 419 00:28:33.422 --> 00:28:37.009 between two large and murderous air armies. 420 00:28:37.092 --> 00:28:40.888 The 100th had arrived in England four months before Münster 421 00:28:40.971 --> 00:28:43.807 with 140 flying officers. 422 00:28:43.891 --> 00:28:48.854 After Münster, only three of them were still able to fly and fight. 423 00:28:49.354 --> 00:28:52.065 line:5% This kind of record got around, 424 00:28:52.149 --> 00:28:54.359 line:5% and people became worried about us. 425 00:28:54.443 --> 00:28:56.361 line:5% They called us the Bloody Hundredth. 426 00:28:58.697 --> 00:29:00.407 When you're an airman, and you go out, 427 00:29:00.490 --> 00:29:02.534 you have four hours of pure terror. 428 00:29:02.618 --> 00:29:04.953 All of a sudden, you get on your bicycle, go to the local pub, 429 00:29:05.037 --> 00:29:07.956 drink a beer, go out with a local girl, go back to base, 430 00:29:08.040 --> 00:29:09.291 sit nice and peaceful. 431 00:29:09.374 --> 00:29:12.461 Then, the next day, you're up, and you're back into the terror again. 432 00:29:15.047 --> 00:29:22.012 This had the ultimate result, in some cases, of causing people to crack. 433 00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:27.100 After Black Week, 434 00:29:27.184 --> 00:29:30.270 morale in the Eighth plummeted to a new low, 435 00:29:30.354 --> 00:29:32.856 and commanders worried about crew revolts. 436 00:29:33.398 --> 00:29:35.901 There were distressing reports from flight surgeons 437 00:29:35.984 --> 00:29:40.906 and air force psychiatrists of abnormal behavior among crewmen 438 00:29:40.989 --> 00:29:46.578 as combat insidiously shook the moorings of airmen's self-control. 439 00:29:46.662 --> 00:29:48.664 I have seen instances 440 00:29:48.747 --> 00:29:53.961 where they weren't in control enough to just walk out of the airplane. 441 00:29:54.962 --> 00:29:57.673 Those were individuals that were on the verge 442 00:29:57.756 --> 00:30:01.051 of what we called victims of combat fatigue. 443 00:30:03.345 --> 00:30:06.098 We have learned that many of these men with neurotic reactions 444 00:30:06.181 --> 00:30:07.349 can recover quickly 445 00:30:07.432 --> 00:30:10.269 when the battle situation has been left behind temporarily. 446 00:30:10.769 --> 00:30:13.397 Fundamentally, we must depend for this recovery 447 00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:16.108 on the patient's own recuperative powers. 448 00:30:16.191 --> 00:30:19.945 But these powers can best be exercised away from a hospital atmosphere. 449 00:30:22.155 --> 00:30:26.660 We would try to get them out of the wartime environment 450 00:30:26.743 --> 00:30:30.497 for a few days and sent to the rest home. 451 00:30:30.581 --> 00:30:32.457 We called it the Flak House. 452 00:30:33.500 --> 00:30:37.588 Oftentimes, it was effective. Sometimes it was not. 453 00:30:39.089 --> 00:30:41.967 This was a problem that all commanders had to deal with 454 00:30:42.050 --> 00:30:46.430 because there are some people whose chemical and mental makeup 455 00:30:46.513 --> 00:30:49.141 is such that they just can't stand this sort of thing. 456 00:30:49.808 --> 00:30:53.312 We had to immediately remove those people 457 00:30:53.395 --> 00:30:56.440 from the crew and from the base 458 00:30:56.523 --> 00:31:00.611 because that sort of attitude was contagious, 459 00:31:00.694 --> 00:31:04.448 and we couldn't afford to have it affect the morale of the rest of the people 460 00:31:04.531 --> 00:31:08.660 that were going out every day and continuing to perform their duties. 461 00:31:10.954 --> 00:31:13.832 You can argue not only has the Allied air forces 462 00:31:13.916 --> 00:31:17.002 don't have any sense of air superiority over Germany and Europe, 463 00:31:17.085 --> 00:31:18.962 you could argue they're losing the air war. 464 00:31:20.422 --> 00:31:23.800 You know, we did not drop into a pickle barrel all the time. 465 00:31:23.884 --> 00:31:27.095 line:5% We would scatter bombs even on good, clear days, 466 00:31:27.179 --> 00:31:29.640 line:5% several miles from the intended target. 467 00:31:30.724 --> 00:31:32.351 They couldn't hit their targets, 468 00:31:32.434 --> 00:31:35.938 and they were much more, themselves, a target 469 00:31:36.021 --> 00:31:39.650 line:5% for German fighter defense. So the force was being slaughtered. 470 00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:43.779 Every few cubic feet of this pile contains a plane, 471 00:31:43.862 --> 00:31:46.198 22,000 hours of American labor. 472 00:31:47.157 --> 00:31:50.869 Every yard of it means ten American boys dead or captured. 473 00:31:56.208 --> 00:31:59.795 Probably the most dreadful thing that one could expect was to be shot down. 474 00:32:00.420 --> 00:32:02.214 We always knew it was possible. 475 00:32:02.297 --> 00:32:05.175 Being young and thinking that we were immortal, 476 00:32:05.259 --> 00:32:07.678 we always figured that they might get everybody else, 477 00:32:07.761 --> 00:32:09.012 but they wouldn't get us. 478 00:32:09.930 --> 00:32:12.683 I knew how much my mother worried about me, 479 00:32:12.766 --> 00:32:14.601 and I knew that she would be getting 480 00:32:14.685 --> 00:32:18.605 a missing-in-action telegram from the War Department, 481 00:32:18.689 --> 00:32:21.149 and she would not know what happened to me. 482 00:32:23.527 --> 00:32:26.822 Airmen were given parachutes but not trained how to use them, 483 00:32:26.905 --> 00:32:31.034 and they were given only scant training in escape and evasion tactics. 484 00:32:31.118 --> 00:32:35.247 Nor were they properly warned when civilians in bombed-out towns 485 00:32:35.330 --> 00:32:38.667 began to attack downed airmen in increasing numbers. 486 00:32:40.794 --> 00:32:43.172 Cleven, he goes down, 487 00:32:43.255 --> 00:32:46.717 and he can see that farmers are gathering all around. 488 00:32:46.800 --> 00:32:47.843 The next thing he remembers, 489 00:32:47.926 --> 00:32:51.471 a farmer has a pitchfork a ninth of an inch in his chest 490 00:32:51.555 --> 00:32:52.639 and wants to press down on it. 491 00:32:53.307 --> 00:32:56.226 Some local Luftwaffe police show up. 492 00:32:58.312 --> 00:33:01.690 I was taken to a German Air Force airfield 493 00:33:01.773 --> 00:33:03.066 that was a collection point 494 00:33:03.150 --> 00:33:06.236 for all of the American flyers who had been captured that day. 495 00:33:11.700 --> 00:33:13.577 I got interviewed by this guy, 496 00:33:13.660 --> 00:33:17.289 and he congratulated me on my promotion. 497 00:33:18.207 --> 00:33:22.377 I had just gotten first lieutenant about three days before. 498 00:33:22.461 --> 00:33:24.963 That sort of took me by surprise. 499 00:33:25.047 --> 00:33:27.716 And he hands me a 3-by-5 card, 500 00:33:27.799 --> 00:33:33.013 and there's my name and birth date, my parents' name, and my address. 501 00:33:34.765 --> 00:33:37.643 The Germans had spies in the United States 502 00:33:37.726 --> 00:33:40.145 send them their hometown newspaper. 503 00:33:40.229 --> 00:33:41.313 So, they relax you 504 00:33:41.396 --> 00:33:43.941 to get this sense that you're having a conversation, 505 00:33:44.024 --> 00:33:46.109 and they know everything about you. 506 00:33:46.193 --> 00:33:48.237 This cagey interrogation technique 507 00:33:48.320 --> 00:33:51.907 was sometimes effective in persuading unsuspecting airmen 508 00:33:51.990 --> 00:33:55.452 to give up information they considered inconsequential, 509 00:33:55.536 --> 00:33:58.372 but which master interrogators prized. 510 00:33:59.289 --> 00:34:02.626 The next morning, they put us in a boxcar. 511 00:34:02.709 --> 00:34:05.796 There were 30 or 40 of us in the boxcar. 512 00:34:07.089 --> 00:34:09.049 None of us knew what was gonna happen. 513 00:34:15.556 --> 00:34:17.558 I can remember walking through the gate, 514 00:34:17.641 --> 00:34:19.935 and there were big, wooden stakes there, 515 00:34:20.018 --> 00:34:22.688 and there was barbed wire all over the place, 516 00:34:22.771 --> 00:34:25.732 and there were guard towers at all the corners. 517 00:34:25.815 --> 00:34:30.152 And there was about a 10- or 12-foot space between the big fence, 518 00:34:30.237 --> 00:34:32.322 and then there was a smaller fence. 519 00:34:32.406 --> 00:34:35.324 We were told not to go over the small fence, or we'd be shot. 520 00:34:36.577 --> 00:34:38.911 The American POWs who were there, 521 00:34:38.996 --> 00:34:41.456 many of whom were members of the 100th Bomb Group 522 00:34:41.540 --> 00:34:44.501 who had been shot down before I was shot down. 523 00:34:44.585 --> 00:34:46.378 The minute they saw us come in, well, they-- 524 00:34:46.460 --> 00:34:49.089 Some of them laughed and said, "Well, we've been expecting you. 525 00:34:49.172 --> 00:34:50.174 You're finally here." 526 00:34:51.592 --> 00:34:56.096 line:5% Cleven and Egan arrived at Stalag Luft III within days of each other. 527 00:34:56.179 --> 00:34:59.683 Cleven was immediately wisecracking with the injured Egan, 528 00:34:59.766 --> 00:35:02.269 and soon, the two were roommates again 529 00:35:02.352 --> 00:35:05.564 and quickly assumed leadership roles inside the camp. 530 00:35:05.647 --> 00:35:08.275 We lived together, cooked together, 531 00:35:08.358 --> 00:35:11.236 washed our clothes together, showered together. 532 00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:14.781 Showers were once a week, maybe, if you were lucky. 533 00:35:15.782 --> 00:35:18.243 Life inside the Stalag Luft camps 534 00:35:18.327 --> 00:35:19.953 was very, very regimented. 535 00:35:20.037 --> 00:35:23.248 Everything was done in a military way to keep their minds busy, 536 00:35:23.332 --> 00:35:26.335 to keep discipline, and basically to keep everybody alive. 537 00:35:31.882 --> 00:35:34.092 At a secret meeting at the Tehran Conference 538 00:35:34.176 --> 00:35:36.094 in late November 1943, 539 00:35:36.178 --> 00:35:41.767 Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed to a second front against Nazi Germany 540 00:35:41.850 --> 00:35:45.521 to be planned and executed principally by the Americans and the British. 541 00:35:47.022 --> 00:35:49.483 There was to be a massive amphibious assault, 542 00:35:49.566 --> 00:35:50.984 the greatest in history, 543 00:35:51.068 --> 00:35:55.656 across five beaches in Normandy, France, code-named "Overlord." 544 00:35:55.739 --> 00:36:00.911 It was scheduled for May 1944, just six months away. 545 00:36:01.787 --> 00:36:04.331 General Eisenhower has been brought to London. 546 00:36:05.666 --> 00:36:09.837 He said that we can't launch the fleet until you knock out the Luftwaffe. 547 00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:12.381 That is our mission now. 548 00:36:12.464 --> 00:36:17.803 We were aware that no land invasion can occur 549 00:36:17.886 --> 00:36:20.722 unless air superiority has been achieved. 550 00:36:22.266 --> 00:36:25.102 The ultimate goal was to shoot down so many fighters 551 00:36:25.185 --> 00:36:27.646 that the Germans could no longer put up a fighter defense. 552 00:36:30.858 --> 00:36:36.738 line:5% We had been having very high losses due to fighter action. 553 00:36:37.406 --> 00:36:42.661 line:5% And so, a rush program at home began to get us more and more fighters. 554 00:36:43.370 --> 00:36:46.331 Late 1943, a fighter aircraft arrived in England, 555 00:36:46.415 --> 00:36:49.334 and it was the fighter plane that the Eighth Air Force had been waiting for. 556 00:36:49.418 --> 00:36:51.170 It was the P-51 Mustang. 557 00:36:52.171 --> 00:36:54.423 line:5% The Mustang. The P-51. 558 00:36:54.506 --> 00:36:56.884 The longest-range fighter in the world. 559 00:36:56.967 --> 00:37:01.305 Speed, fast climb, quick dive, tight turn. 560 00:37:01.847 --> 00:37:03.891 When P-51s came over, 561 00:37:03.974 --> 00:37:08.645 they had the range to accompany us to the target and back. 562 00:37:08.729 --> 00:37:11.857 And they also fixed up the 47s 563 00:37:11.940 --> 00:37:15.485 and put wing tanks on them so that they could accompany us. 564 00:37:17.613 --> 00:37:21.491 When we went to Emden, and I saw all those gorgeous P-51s, 565 00:37:21.575 --> 00:37:23.869 I thought, maybe for the first time, "I'm gonna get through." 566 00:37:25.746 --> 00:37:26.872 The primary mission 567 00:37:26.955 --> 00:37:28.790 is not to protect the bombers and get 'em home safely. 568 00:37:28.874 --> 00:37:33.086 It'll be to go after the Luftwaffe in the air and on the ground. 569 00:37:37.508 --> 00:37:40.135 Sunday morning 20 February, 570 00:37:40.677 --> 00:37:42.930 we prepared for the heaviest assault 571 00:37:43.013 --> 00:37:46.808 in the history of the American Strategic Air Forces up to that time. 572 00:37:47.976 --> 00:37:50.729 This was the prelude to invasion. 573 00:37:52.022 --> 00:37:57.027 They planned a succession of continuous raids one day after the other. 574 00:37:57.110 --> 00:37:58.987 This is gonna decide the whole war. 575 00:38:05.744 --> 00:38:07.788 Day after day, month after month, 576 00:38:08.288 --> 00:38:13.460 Mustang, Thunderbolt against the Me 109s and the Fw 190s. 577 00:38:13.544 --> 00:38:16.630 Our fighters attack, attack, attack. 578 00:38:17.339 --> 00:38:20.592 Our victory column soared at the rate of 4-to-1. 579 00:38:21.885 --> 00:38:25.222 The casualty rate for German pilots on the western front 580 00:38:25.305 --> 00:38:29.726 between January and May 1944 was 99%. 581 00:38:29.810 --> 00:38:31.812 I mean, they just get butchered. 582 00:38:33.981 --> 00:38:36.650 It wasn't until the Mustang really got involved in the war 583 00:38:36.733 --> 00:38:39.903 that America and England gained air superiority over Germany. 584 00:38:41.238 --> 00:38:42.865 If you want to go to the heart of the enemy 585 00:38:42.948 --> 00:38:47.202 line:5% and be sure the Luftwaffe will be pulled into the sky, you go to Berlin. 586 00:38:48.245 --> 00:38:50.789 line:5% When they had the briefing, and they pulled the curtain back, 587 00:38:50.873 --> 00:38:53.458 line:5% and the tape went all the way to Berlin, 588 00:38:54.168 --> 00:38:57.754 first it was just stunned silence and then just a shout. 589 00:39:01.425 --> 00:39:03.427 You can't hear what's going on down there 590 00:39:03.510 --> 00:39:05.095 five miles below you, 591 00:39:05.637 --> 00:39:09.683 but marshaling yards and chemical tanks, ships and warehouses, 592 00:39:09.766 --> 00:39:14.313 spare engines, and ball bearing factories are disintegrating in molten chaos. 593 00:39:15.522 --> 00:39:20.110 This would be the American's first foray into bombing Berlin. 594 00:39:20.194 --> 00:39:23.197 It would be the toughest target the Eighth ever attacked, 595 00:39:23.780 --> 00:39:25.115 but it had to be done. 596 00:39:27.242 --> 00:39:29.453 I can say that if I had been in Germany 597 00:39:29.536 --> 00:39:35.083 and witnessed, everyday, hordes of bombers coming over and dropping bombs, 598 00:39:35.167 --> 00:39:37.753 it would have had a very adverse effect on my morale. 599 00:39:37.836 --> 00:39:41.798 It must have had an adverse effect morale on the civilians and military alike. 600 00:39:47.763 --> 00:39:50.974 One of the worst things about being a prisoner of war 601 00:39:51.475 --> 00:39:54.728 is that you don't know how long you're gonna be held captive. 602 00:39:54.811 --> 00:39:57.731 It's not as if you've been given a fixed sentence. 603 00:39:57.814 --> 00:40:01.401 You're going to be there until you either escape or it's all over. 604 00:40:02.194 --> 00:40:03.904 I did start a tunnel. 605 00:40:04.404 --> 00:40:07.449 They had an old toilet that had a tile floor 606 00:40:07.533 --> 00:40:10.327 and I figured, well, let's see if we can do something here. 607 00:40:10.410 --> 00:40:14.665 And my object was to have these removable tiles 608 00:40:14.748 --> 00:40:16.166 and we could start digging. 609 00:40:16.250 --> 00:40:18.627 The guards caught that almost immediately. 610 00:40:20.170 --> 00:40:25.133 line:5% Some 76 British prisoners tunneled out of the compound 611 00:40:25.217 --> 00:40:28.846 immediately adjacent to us through a tunnel that they dug. 612 00:40:28.929 --> 00:40:31.139 It was known as the Great Escape. 613 00:40:31.223 --> 00:40:37.312 All but two were recaptured, and 50 were executed by the Germans. 614 00:40:38.397 --> 00:40:41.358 What little decent relations we had with the Germans 615 00:40:41.441 --> 00:40:43.318 evaporated completely after that. 616 00:40:46.655 --> 00:40:49.950 One day I received a telephone call and they said, 617 00:40:50.033 --> 00:40:52.202 "General LeMay would like to speak to you." 618 00:40:52.286 --> 00:40:55.289 He said, "Jeffrey, I need a group commander 619 00:40:55.372 --> 00:40:58.208 at the 95th Bomb Group and the 100th Bomb Group. 620 00:40:58.292 --> 00:40:59.960 You can take your choice." 621 00:41:00.627 --> 00:41:03.172 The 95th could essentially do no wrong. 622 00:41:03.255 --> 00:41:05.174 They lost the minimum number of airplanes. 623 00:41:05.257 --> 00:41:09.469 Their bombing record was good, and I figured that I could do more 624 00:41:09.553 --> 00:41:11.430 for the 100th than I could for the 95th. 625 00:41:11.513 --> 00:41:15.142 So, I called him back and I told him with his permission, 626 00:41:15.225 --> 00:41:17.269 I would accept the 100th Bomb Group. 627 00:41:17.352 --> 00:41:19.396 And I asked him, "When do you want me to report?" 628 00:41:19.479 --> 00:41:20.689 And he said, "This afternoon." 629 00:41:25.194 --> 00:41:30.324 My first action was to ask General LeMay if he would take the 100th 630 00:41:30.407 --> 00:41:33.869 off of operations for two days and he granted that. 631 00:41:33.952 --> 00:41:35.621 And so, over the next two days, 632 00:41:35.704 --> 00:41:37.706 four hours in the morning and four hours in the afternoon, 633 00:41:37.789 --> 00:41:42.085 we flew every airplane in the 100th Bomb Group in formation. 634 00:41:42.920 --> 00:41:49.301 Tom Jeffrey, he was dynamic, charismatic and knowledgeable, 635 00:41:49.384 --> 00:41:53.138 not only about the aircraft, but about combat flying. 636 00:41:54.681 --> 00:41:56.725 I had people in the lead airplane 637 00:41:56.808 --> 00:41:58.060 photographing the formation 638 00:41:58.143 --> 00:42:01.522 so that we could identify who was flying good and who wasn't. 639 00:42:01.605 --> 00:42:05.359 And then I took an old airplane and circled around the formation, 640 00:42:05.442 --> 00:42:08.403 back and forth, and tried to herd 'em into position. 641 00:42:08.487 --> 00:42:10.989 line:5% The commanding officers were just blue in the face 642 00:42:11.073 --> 00:42:13.992 line:5% about us keeping our formations tight. 643 00:42:14.076 --> 00:42:16.787 You think you're tight and they say tighten 'em up more. 644 00:42:17.788 --> 00:42:19.831 At the end of two days, 645 00:42:19.915 --> 00:42:23.961 the 100th was flying the best formation that I have ever seen. 646 00:42:25.087 --> 00:42:30.300 It was not until Jeffrey came did we become a superb group. 647 00:42:31.093 --> 00:42:33.679 I think the best group in the air force. 648 00:42:37.766 --> 00:42:42.271 An Eighth Air Force bomber crew had a tour of duty of 25 missions. 649 00:42:42.354 --> 00:42:44.314 Once you completed your 25 missions, 650 00:42:44.398 --> 00:42:46.441 you were rotated back home to the United States. 651 00:42:47.693 --> 00:42:52.322 Upon completion, I was told that I could either remain 652 00:42:52.406 --> 00:42:58.120 and accept command of a squadron or rotate back to the States. 653 00:42:58.203 --> 00:43:04.376 I concluded that I had been extremely fortunate 654 00:43:04.459 --> 00:43:09.756 and lucky to have survived and that I shouldn't push it any further. 655 00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:13.051 So, I elected to return. 656 00:43:14.845 --> 00:43:17.222 Rosie Rosenthal completes his 25 missions 657 00:43:17.306 --> 00:43:21.143 on March 8th, 1944, on a raid over Berlin. 658 00:43:21.852 --> 00:43:25.606 The crew urged me to buzz the field when we returned. 659 00:43:25.689 --> 00:43:29.109 I was a very conservative pilot and I said, "I don't think so." 660 00:43:29.860 --> 00:43:33.363 But on the way back, I said, "What the heck." 661 00:43:33.447 --> 00:43:38.035 And headed right for the tower and everybody hit the deck there 662 00:43:38.619 --> 00:43:42.414 and I buzzed the field three or four times and then came in. 663 00:43:42.497 --> 00:43:44.416 And then somebody approached me and said, 664 00:43:44.499 --> 00:43:48.504 "Rosie, did you know that General Huglin was there? 665 00:43:49.004 --> 00:43:52.424 And he hit the deck and he-- his clothes are all messed up." 666 00:43:52.508 --> 00:43:56.220 And there coming into the debriefing room was General Huglin. 667 00:43:56.303 --> 00:43:58.597 He came over and grabbed my hand 668 00:43:58.680 --> 00:44:01.391 and he said, "One hell of a buzz job, Rosie." 669 00:44:02.476 --> 00:44:05.437 Everyone knew that D-Day was on the horizon 670 00:44:05.521 --> 00:44:10.192 and finishing off the Reich was a big objective for Rosie. 671 00:44:10.692 --> 00:44:14.613 To leave here is to leave the center of the universe. 672 00:44:14.696 --> 00:44:17.991 And that's when I decided to continue flying, 673 00:44:18.075 --> 00:44:22.621 and ultimately, I was assigned to be a squadron commander. 674 00:44:23.539 --> 00:44:27.709 On this day, 650 American flying fortresses 675 00:44:27.793 --> 00:44:31.463 inflicted severe damage on German defenses along the coast. 676 00:44:35.843 --> 00:44:39.137 I had flown over to France to drop some bombs on some target. 677 00:44:39.221 --> 00:44:42.516 And when I returned, I was met at the airplane 678 00:44:42.599 --> 00:44:48.272 and told that I was to report to General LeMay's headquarters that evening. 679 00:44:49.523 --> 00:44:54.945 line:5% General LeMay marched in and announced to us that the Allied Forces 680 00:44:55.028 --> 00:44:58.740 line:5% would land on the beaches of Normandy the next morning. 681 00:44:58.824 --> 00:45:03.120 line:5% But he said in order for you to thoroughly understand 682 00:45:03.203 --> 00:45:06.415 line:5% the importance of this occasion, 683 00:45:06.498 --> 00:45:11.420 that the Eighth Air Force will expend every airplane that it has 684 00:45:11.503 --> 00:45:14.882 in its inventory to be sure that these people got ashore. 685 00:45:16.133 --> 00:45:18.343 line:5% I remember coming to the briefing 686 00:45:18.427 --> 00:45:22.723 and when they moved the curtain from the map and there were cheers. 687 00:45:22.806 --> 00:45:25.726 I had never heard this kind of thing from the crews. 688 00:45:25.809 --> 00:45:27.644 Finally, D-Day had arrived. 689 00:45:31.732 --> 00:45:34.276 Soldiers, sailors and airmen 690 00:45:34.359 --> 00:45:36.361 of the Allied Expeditionary Force, 691 00:45:37.905 --> 00:45:40.991 line:5% you are about to embark upon the Great Crusade 692 00:45:41.074 --> 00:45:43.660 line:5% toward which we have striven these many months. 693 00:45:44.578 --> 00:45:46.538 The eyes of the world are upon you. 694 00:45:47.998 --> 00:45:50.125 Your task will not be an easy one. 695 00:45:51.001 --> 00:45:54.588 Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. 696 00:45:55.088 --> 00:45:56.757 He will fight savagely. 697 00:45:57.633 --> 00:46:02.721 I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. 698 00:46:03.680 --> 00:46:06.975 We will accept nothing less than full victory. 699 00:46:10.437 --> 00:46:12.022 As we flew over the channel, 700 00:46:12.105 --> 00:46:16.860 we looked down and saw thousands of ships in an armada down there. 701 00:46:18.570 --> 00:46:25.452 It was so thrilling one of the crew started to pray, and we all joined in. 702 00:46:30.541 --> 00:46:34.336 This is Robert St. John in the NBC newsroom in New York. 703 00:46:34.419 --> 00:46:37.339 This is a momentous hour in world history. 704 00:46:37.923 --> 00:46:42.177 The men of General Dwight Eisenhower are leaving their landing barges, 705 00:46:42.261 --> 00:46:45.889 fighting their way up the beaches into the fortress of Nazi Europe. 706 00:46:46.723 --> 00:46:48.517 They are moving in from the sea 707 00:46:48.600 --> 00:46:52.271 to attack the enemy under a mammoth cloud of fighter planes. 708 00:46:53.522 --> 00:46:56.149 The fury from the air went on and on. 709 00:46:56.233 --> 00:47:01.113 Our airmen in tactical support of the ground forces took no rest that day. 710 00:47:01.196 --> 00:47:05.534 Back from one sortie, they gassed up, loaded their bombs and ammunition belts 711 00:47:05.617 --> 00:47:08.829 and grimly went out again and again. 712 00:47:12.207 --> 00:47:16.587 There was hardly any air intervention by the Luftwaffe 713 00:47:16.670 --> 00:47:17.880 when we invaded Normandy. 714 00:47:19.089 --> 00:47:21.466 The Air Force really paved the way 715 00:47:21.550 --> 00:47:24.761 for the invasion across the English Channel. 716 00:47:28.473 --> 00:47:31.018 Germany now had to fight on two fronts, 717 00:47:31.101 --> 00:47:35.314 line:5% against the Anglo-American allies in the west and the Russians in the east. 718 00:47:35.397 --> 00:47:39.318 In August 1944, the Red Army discovered Majdanek, 719 00:47:39.401 --> 00:47:44.531 an abandoned Nazi concentration and extermination camp near Lublin, Poland, 720 00:47:44.615 --> 00:47:50.204 indisputable evidence of Hitler's program to exterminate the Jews of Europe. 721 00:47:56.084 --> 00:47:58.837 Our invasion forces are on the offensive 722 00:47:58.921 --> 00:48:03.884 against Nazi troops who have been ordered to die rather than retreat. 723 00:48:03.967 --> 00:48:08.096 However, die or retreat they must, for this attack is being made 724 00:48:08.180 --> 00:48:12.684 with all the strength the Allied Command can throw into battle. 725 00:48:12.768 --> 00:48:15.270 line:5% The army camp had these clandestine radios 726 00:48:15.354 --> 00:48:19.358 line:5% and we knew just about everything the BBC knew. 727 00:48:19.441 --> 00:48:23.362 When the invasion started in June of '44, 728 00:48:23.445 --> 00:48:25.697 we knew that we weren't gonna be there forever. 729 00:48:26.990 --> 00:48:30.577 Downed airmen were still streaming into Stalag Luft III. 730 00:48:30.661 --> 00:48:32.412 Among them, a number of Black pilots 731 00:48:32.496 --> 00:48:36.875 line:5% including Second Lieutenants, Alexander Jefferson and Richard Macon, 732 00:48:36.959 --> 00:48:41.672 line:5% who were with the renowned 332nd fighter group, the Red Tails. 733 00:48:41.755 --> 00:48:45.008 The Tuskegee pilots painted a deep red on the tails of their planes. 734 00:48:45.092 --> 00:48:48.178 line:5% Even when people didn't know that these were Black pilots flying the planes 735 00:48:48.262 --> 00:48:50.556 line:5% they recognized that they were Red Tails. 736 00:48:51.056 --> 00:48:54.768 We didn't have any concern about running into the enemy 737 00:48:54.852 --> 00:48:57.813 because we knew that we were better flyers than they were, 738 00:48:57.896 --> 00:49:00.440 line:5% and I would "Ready, aim, fire." 739 00:49:02.276 --> 00:49:04.653 These courageous Black flyers had been waiting 740 00:49:04.736 --> 00:49:09.575 to contribute to the war effort, and they distinguished themselves brilliantly. 741 00:49:11.785 --> 00:49:15.622 Within the Air Force, and especially among the bomber crews 742 00:49:15.706 --> 00:49:20.294 that are making those long dangerous runs, say that they appreciated the Red Tails 743 00:49:20.377 --> 00:49:23.922 line:5% more than any of the other squadrons that they flew with in the war. 744 00:49:24.715 --> 00:49:27.134 Macon and Jefferson had been racially segregated 745 00:49:27.217 --> 00:49:29.803 on Air Force bases in America and Italy, 746 00:49:29.887 --> 00:49:31.388 and were shocked to discover 747 00:49:31.471 --> 00:49:34.850 that the barracks at Stalag Luft III were integrated. 748 00:49:34.933 --> 00:49:36.602 There were approximately 150 men 749 00:49:36.685 --> 00:49:40.022 who had come in to this camp, and we were lined up. 750 00:49:40.105 --> 00:49:45.444 line:5% Finally, down the line came a long, tall Kentucky hillbilly 751 00:49:46.195 --> 00:49:50.991 line:5% and he walked back and says, "By cracky, I think I'll take this boy." 752 00:49:51.074 --> 00:49:54.328 Colonel walked across and said, "Lieutenant, you go with him." 753 00:49:55.162 --> 00:49:56.163 "Yes, sir." 754 00:49:57.164 --> 00:49:58.999 The Germans took me into the room 755 00:49:59.082 --> 00:50:03.086 and showed me where I was going to be, on the third bed up. 756 00:50:03.629 --> 00:50:06.340 I didn't realize how badly I had been injured. 757 00:50:06.423 --> 00:50:09.009 I was paralyzed from my waist down. 758 00:50:09.092 --> 00:50:11.595 So, once they saw that I couldn't move, 759 00:50:11.678 --> 00:50:14.431 the Germans tried to tell them 760 00:50:14.515 --> 00:50:17.559 who will give up his bottom bunk for this man. 761 00:50:17.643 --> 00:50:19.019 Nobody moved. 762 00:50:19.102 --> 00:50:23.232 And finally, the guy from Texas said, "He can have my bunk, I'll go up there." 763 00:50:23.857 --> 00:50:26.443 He and I became the best of friends. 764 00:50:27.361 --> 00:50:30.155 These men had to come together to survive the prisoner camp. 765 00:50:30.239 --> 00:50:34.701 They let whatever racial attitudes, racial animosities go or at least lessen 766 00:50:34.785 --> 00:50:37.371 because they had to work together to keep up each other's spirits 767 00:50:37.454 --> 00:50:38.580 to survive that experience. 768 00:50:40.582 --> 00:50:44.753 One of the last Air Force operations was to starve the Reich of fuel 769 00:50:44.837 --> 00:50:47.881 by bombing German synthetic oil plants. 770 00:50:47.965 --> 00:50:52.094 The Allies also would need to hit transportation and storage facilities 771 00:50:52.177 --> 00:50:55.389 for the coal that powered jet production plants. 772 00:50:55.472 --> 00:50:58.892 This air blockade would cripple the Reich's war machine 773 00:50:58.976 --> 00:51:01.603 and leave the German army without adequate air cover 774 00:51:01.687 --> 00:51:04.314 in the culminating battles of the war. 775 00:51:04.398 --> 00:51:07.109 line:5% We were in the officers' club until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. 776 00:51:07.860 --> 00:51:10.112 line:5% Suddenly we heard the announcement: 777 00:51:10.195 --> 00:51:12.114 "Be prepared for a mission in the morning." 778 00:51:15.033 --> 00:51:18.370 We put up 2,000 heavy bombers. 779 00:51:18.453 --> 00:51:22.374 All you could see was four-engined bombers to the horizon. 780 00:51:24.918 --> 00:51:27.004 To knock out one plant in World War II, 781 00:51:27.087 --> 00:51:29.214 a place called Leuna near Merseburg, 782 00:51:29.298 --> 00:51:35.262 it took 6,000 bombers flying about 40 missions to knock that plant out. 783 00:51:36.597 --> 00:51:40.392 Our group led one of the biggest raids on Berlin. 784 00:51:40.475 --> 00:51:42.186 It was a very beautiful day. 785 00:51:42.269 --> 00:51:44.938 The sun was shining, not a cloud in sight. 786 00:51:45.606 --> 00:51:49.776 As we approached the target, the plane was hit, 787 00:51:49.860 --> 00:51:52.863 but we continued and bombed the target, 788 00:51:52.946 --> 00:51:56.200 knowing that we couldn't return to our base. 789 00:51:56.783 --> 00:52:00.537 There was smoke and fire in the plane, and I knew I had to get out. 790 00:52:00.621 --> 00:52:03.123 And when I got out, I thought I was in heaven. 791 00:52:04.374 --> 00:52:07.836 And suddenly, I hit the ground and I looked up, 792 00:52:08.629 --> 00:52:11.673 and I saw three soldiers coming at me with guns. 793 00:52:12.674 --> 00:52:16.803 One of the soldiers raised his gun and was about to strike me, 794 00:52:16.887 --> 00:52:21.767 and I noticed that he had, on his hat, the Red Army symbol. 795 00:52:22.434 --> 00:52:25.479 And I yelled, Amerikanski, Roosevelt, 796 00:52:25.562 --> 00:52:28.023 Stalin, Churchill, Pepsi-Cola, 797 00:52:28.106 --> 00:52:31.485 Coca-Cola, Lucky Strike. 798 00:52:32.653 --> 00:52:36.448 The Berlin raid was Rosie's 52nd and final mission. 799 00:52:36.532 --> 00:52:39.826 The most raids flown by a pilot in the 100th. 800 00:52:39.910 --> 00:52:42.496 After recuperating in a Russian hospital, 801 00:52:42.579 --> 00:52:44.831 Rosie made his way back to Thorpe Abbotts, 802 00:52:44.915 --> 00:52:49.294 where he had flown his first mission a year and a half earlier. 803 00:52:52.589 --> 00:52:55.843 The Russians were knocking on the door. 804 00:52:55.926 --> 00:52:57.970 We could hear artillery 805 00:52:58.053 --> 00:53:01.431 and other sounds of combat in the distance. 806 00:53:02.057 --> 00:53:03.559 Hitler debated back and forth: 807 00:53:03.642 --> 00:53:07.187 line:5% should we march the prisoners out of the camp or kill them? 808 00:53:07.271 --> 00:53:09.273 line:5% That was a real possibility. 809 00:53:09.982 --> 00:53:11.233 And suddenly, one night, 810 00:53:11.316 --> 00:53:14.903 our American senior officer was told by the Germans 811 00:53:14.987 --> 00:53:17.364 that we were going to be evacuated immediately, 812 00:53:17.447 --> 00:53:21.994 and we would be leaving the camp within an hour to march out on foot. 813 00:53:22.911 --> 00:53:25.664 They just said, we're moving you for your safety. 814 00:53:26.248 --> 00:53:28.625 That was what they said, but we all knew better. 815 00:53:30.502 --> 00:53:32.504 The airmen had no idea where they're going. 816 00:53:32.588 --> 00:53:35.465 They feared Hitler was going to take American airmen 817 00:53:35.549 --> 00:53:37.676 and use them as human shields. 818 00:53:37.759 --> 00:53:41.054 And it's the worst European winter in 100 years. 819 00:53:42.431 --> 00:53:44.016 It was bitterly cold. 820 00:53:44.099 --> 00:53:46.560 The snow was about knee-deep, 821 00:53:46.643 --> 00:53:50.981 and they walked us all that night until late the next afternoon 822 00:53:51.064 --> 00:53:52.065 with just brief stops. 823 00:53:57.029 --> 00:53:59.239 line:5% At Spremberg, they put us on a train. 824 00:53:59.323 --> 00:54:01.742 line:5% We were locked inside of these boxcars. 825 00:54:01.825 --> 00:54:04.328 line:5% They jammed in 60 to 70 men. 826 00:54:04.411 --> 00:54:06.079 Didn't have room enough to sit down. 827 00:54:06.163 --> 00:54:07.456 It was hell. 828 00:54:08.165 --> 00:54:10.667 line:5% That one, we were packed in tighter than heck. 829 00:54:10.751 --> 00:54:13.670 line:5% Anybody falling down would get stomped on. 830 00:54:13.754 --> 00:54:14.922 When the train pulled in, 831 00:54:15.005 --> 00:54:17.549 men were banging on the door to get out of the cars. 832 00:54:17.633 --> 00:54:19.760 The guards finally opened the doors. 833 00:54:20.385 --> 00:54:22.554 It's as bad as you can imagine. 834 00:54:27.851 --> 00:54:31.146 It was a camp that apparently had been designed 835 00:54:31.230 --> 00:54:34.525 to hold 8,000 or 10,000 people max. 836 00:54:34.608 --> 00:54:36.944 There was over 100,000 there. 837 00:54:37.027 --> 00:54:38.820 Camp Hell would be a good word for it. 838 00:54:40.739 --> 00:54:43.033 There were no barracks, people camped outside. 839 00:54:43.116 --> 00:54:44.493 The conditions were horrible. 840 00:54:44.576 --> 00:54:46.245 No one knew what was gonna happen to them. 841 00:54:49.748 --> 00:54:52.292 line:5% One day, we were walking around in the camp. 842 00:54:52.376 --> 00:54:55.420 line:5% Somebody says, "There's a tank. There's a Sherman tank." 843 00:54:55.504 --> 00:54:57.172 And then we looked and, surely enough, 844 00:54:57.256 --> 00:54:59.633 there was a Sherman tank on the horizon. 845 00:55:00.634 --> 00:55:02.761 Patton's Third Army came through. 846 00:55:02.845 --> 00:55:07.599 I saw Patton on a tank when he came through the main gate of Stalag VII-A. 847 00:55:07.683 --> 00:55:08.684 We'd been liberated. 848 00:55:10.936 --> 00:55:15.941 The men went to the flagpole and rung down the swastika 849 00:55:16.024 --> 00:55:21.154 while they opened up Old Glory and raised it, and we came to attention. 850 00:55:21.238 --> 00:55:24.241 We weren't in uniforms. Tattered clothes and all that stuff. 851 00:55:24.324 --> 00:55:26.910 And I guess that was the greatest salute I ever gave. 852 00:55:29.830 --> 00:55:31.665 It was very emotional. 853 00:55:31.748 --> 00:55:33.750 We were finally going to be freed 854 00:55:33.834 --> 00:55:38.630 after all those months and years of having been held as POWs. 855 00:55:38.714 --> 00:55:42.634 In many ways, it was hard to believe that we were finally gonna be able to go home. 856 00:55:43.760 --> 00:55:45.929 This is London Calling. 857 00:55:46.013 --> 00:55:47.973 Here is a news flash. 858 00:55:48.473 --> 00:55:53.270 The German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead. 859 00:55:55.230 --> 00:56:00.110 On May 1st, 1945, the day the world learned of Hitler's suicide, 860 00:56:00.194 --> 00:56:02.446 the 100th flew one final mission, 861 00:56:02.529 --> 00:56:05.490 part of what was called Operation Chowhound. 862 00:56:05.574 --> 00:56:09.745 The crews would be dropping, by parachute, food, not bombs. 863 00:56:09.828 --> 00:56:12.956 Relief for nearly five million starving people in the Netherlands, 864 00:56:13.040 --> 00:56:15.709 still occupied by die-hard Nazis. 865 00:56:16.210 --> 00:56:19.588 As the bombers reached the outskirts of Amsterdam, 866 00:56:19.671 --> 00:56:23.800 line:5% they passed over fields of brilliantly colored tulips. 867 00:56:23.884 --> 00:56:25.469 line:5% In one of them, the heads of the flowers 868 00:56:25.552 --> 00:56:29.389 line:5% had been clipped to say, "Many thanks, Yanks." 869 00:56:37.814 --> 00:56:39.650 line:5% The war in Europe was over. 870 00:56:39.733 --> 00:56:43.028 The crews of the 100th packed up their duffels, 871 00:56:43.111 --> 00:56:46.073 and the local folk from the villages around Thorpe Abbotts, 872 00:56:46.156 --> 00:56:48.242 dressed in their Sunday finest, 873 00:56:48.325 --> 00:56:51.620 gathered to see them off for their long journey home. 874 00:57:00.087 --> 00:57:02.548 When I got to Atlanta, I went to the public telephone 875 00:57:02.631 --> 00:57:05.676 and called my mother and told 'em I was home. 876 00:57:06.218 --> 00:57:07.845 Course, she immediately broke down, 877 00:57:09.513 --> 00:57:11.181 and they came out-- 878 00:57:11.265 --> 00:57:15.769 They drove out to Fort McPherson, and they picked me up and I got home. 879 00:57:18.438 --> 00:57:20.065 We got back to California. 880 00:57:20.148 --> 00:57:21.984 My dad and mother were there. 881 00:57:22.067 --> 00:57:25.696 There was a big reunion, of course, and I was halfway to the moon. 882 00:57:26.822 --> 00:57:30.284 And then I saw my wife-to-be, Barbara. 883 00:57:30.367 --> 00:57:33.078 And three weeks later, we were married. 884 00:57:34.788 --> 00:57:37.958 The men of the Bloody Hundredth were finally home, 885 00:57:38.834 --> 00:57:41.086 reunited with their families 886 00:57:41.753 --> 00:57:43.130 and their wives 887 00:57:44.006 --> 00:57:45.674 and their sweethearts. 888 00:57:46.175 --> 00:57:49.720 Some for the first time since leaving for war. 889 00:57:50.762 --> 00:57:54.808 When I left the service, I was exhausted. 890 00:57:54.892 --> 00:57:57.186 I'd been through these trying experiences, 891 00:57:57.269 --> 00:58:00.772 and I wanted to put that behind me and I wanted to resume civilian life. 892 00:58:01.982 --> 00:58:05.652 I went back to work at the same firm that I had been with, 893 00:58:05.736 --> 00:58:09.198 and I was not ready, really, to go back to work. 894 00:58:09.281 --> 00:58:12.659 And finally, after being there for six months, 895 00:58:12.743 --> 00:58:18.123 line:5% I heard about an opportunity to go to Nuremberg as a prosecutor. 896 00:58:20.584 --> 00:58:23.545 On the ship over there, I met this beautiful woman 897 00:58:23.629 --> 00:58:27.549 who was also a lawyer and was going over as a prosecutor. 898 00:58:27.633 --> 00:58:31.178 And within 10 days, we were engaged to marry, 899 00:58:31.720 --> 00:58:33.722 and we were married over in Nuremberg. 900 00:58:35.557 --> 00:58:40.437 I saw these defendants there who were powerless now, 901 00:58:40.521 --> 00:58:44.149 sitting abjectly and being tried and being convicted. 902 00:58:44.691 --> 00:58:48.779 And when I saw that, that, in fact, ended the war for me. 903 00:58:53.867 --> 00:58:57.454 World War II was the most devastating event in human history. 904 00:58:58.664 --> 00:59:02.125 More costly in lives than any war ever fought. 905 00:59:03.126 --> 00:59:08.131 In it, the Eighth Air Force suffered the highest casualty rate 906 00:59:08.215 --> 00:59:11.176 of any of the American Armed Forces. 907 00:59:14.304 --> 00:59:16.765 Now that I've survived it 908 00:59:16.849 --> 00:59:22.354 and can look back on it for all these intervening years, 909 00:59:23.313 --> 00:59:25.524 it was a life changer for me. 910 00:59:27.025 --> 00:59:28.318 If, in this time, 911 00:59:28.402 --> 00:59:32.489 there's a feeling of excitement and romance and mythology, it's there. 912 00:59:32.573 --> 00:59:36.994 My friends that I made then saved my life any number of times. 913 00:59:37.077 --> 00:59:40.080 They were the friends of all friends. 914 00:59:40.664 --> 00:59:43.584 The people we served with, they were dedicated, 915 00:59:43.667 --> 00:59:46.587 they sacrificed, they had great courage. 916 00:59:47.129 --> 00:59:50.048 We shared heartbreak and hilarity. 917 00:59:50.132 --> 00:59:54.511 We saw our comrades go down and being killed, 918 00:59:54.595 --> 00:59:57.848 being wounded, become prisoners of war. 919 00:59:57.931 --> 01:00:02.895 line:5% And we developed a tremendous respect for each other and we shared a victory. 920 01:00:03.395 --> 01:00:07.191 line:5% And I think this was the experience of all of our people. 921 01:00:07.274 --> 01:00:09.902 Miraculously, people came together. 922 01:00:12.696 --> 01:00:16.241 You have to give all the credit to the men and the women 923 01:00:16.325 --> 01:00:21.246 that sacrificed their lives and basically saved the world from fascism. 924 01:00:23.749 --> 01:00:28.378 The freedoms that we enjoy did not come about by accident. 925 01:00:28.462 --> 01:00:32.049 They were bought and paid for by my generation 926 01:00:32.132 --> 01:00:35.302 and the generations that preceded us. 927 01:00:35.385 --> 01:00:36.720 And for that reason, 928 01:00:36.803 --> 01:00:42.601 I think the World War II generation deserves to be remembered.