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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 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 {\an8}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 {\an8}In a big attack, about nine o'clock, Warsaw itself was bombed. 22 00:02:06,877 --> 00:02:10,130 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe and Asia 30 00:02:42,788 --> 00:02:46,375 {\an8}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 {\an8}We have witnessed this morning 33 00:02:55,592 --> 00:02:59,596 {\an8}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 {\an8}I ask that the Congress declare 37 00:03:08,355 --> 00:03:11,191 {\an8}that since the unprovoked 38 00:03:11,817 --> 00:03:15,946 {\an8}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 {\an8}Hitler's Germany controlled continental Europe. 42 00:03:37,009 --> 00:03:39,678 {\an8}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 {\an8}So, patriotism was something that the Greatest Generation, 51 00:04:11,543 --> 00:04:14,004 {\an8}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 {\an8}because I wanna speak on my favorite subject, the Army Air Forces. 54 00:04:23,972 --> 00:04:26,350 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}When those wheels leave the ground, there's no one to help you. 88 00:06:36,688 --> 00:06:37,648 {\an8}You're on your own. 89 00:06:40,025 --> 00:06:45,280 {\an8}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 {\an8}I'll never forget the guy that washed me out was Lieutenant Maytag, 92 00:06:51,078 --> 00:06:54,498 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}In May of 1943 we were sent to England 120 00:08:54,201 --> 00:08:55,994 {\an8}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 {\an8}and King, the pilot, asked me, "What had you done before?" 135 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:11,278 {\an8}I said, "Well, recently I did the work of a cowboy." 136 00:10:11,361 --> 00:10:15,032 {\an8}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 {\an8}A guy named Gale Cleven, who was a squadron commander 140 00:10:24,291 --> 00:10:26,877 {\an8}and an air executive named John Egan. 141 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,714 {\an8}Egan and Cleven didn't have to fly as squadron leaders, but always did. 142 00:10:30,797 --> 00:10:33,300 {\an8}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 {\an8}They'd be at the officers' club, and they would say, 147 00:10:46,647 --> 00:10:49,650 {\an8}"Lieutenant, taxi over here, I wanna talk to you." 148 00:10:50,442 --> 00:10:52,361 {\an8}John Egan, Gale Cleven, 149 00:10:52,444 --> 00:10:55,322 {\an8}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 {\an8}Doing something that they love for a country that they love 152 00:11:00,077 --> 00:11:01,495 {\an8}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 {\an8}They will understand the enormity of their miscalculation 158 00:11:25,936 --> 00:11:30,649 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}I could see bombs from the planes ahead of us dropping 224 00:16:14,725 --> 00:16:17,644 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}and they're gonna attack the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt 266 00:18:30,152 --> 00:18:31,653 {\an8}and then go back to England. 267 00:18:31,737 --> 00:18:35,032 {\an8}So, the Germans are gonna have to decide which of these groups to hit. 268 00:18:35,115 --> 00:18:39,703 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}There was flak, there were fighters, more flak, more fighters. 290 00:19:55,237 --> 00:19:59,867 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}I had landed in England in the summer of 1943, 329 00:22:30,184 --> 00:22:33,520 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}Because we had high losses, our group was pretty well banged up, 388 00:26:20,414 --> 00:26:24,376 {\an8}and we could only put 13 planes in the air. 389 00:26:26,003 --> 00:26:28,672 {\an8}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 {\an8}This kind of record got around, 424 00:28:52,149 --> 00:28:54,359 {\an8}and people became worried about us. 425 00:28:54,443 --> 00:28:56,361 {\an8}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 {\an8}We would scatter bombs even on good, clear days, 466 00:31:27,179 --> 00:31:29,640 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}We had been having very high losses due to fighter action. 553 00:36:37,406 --> 00:36:42,661 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}and be sure the Luftwaffe will be pulled into the sky, you go to Berlin. 586 00:38:48,245 --> 00:38:50,789 {\an8}When they had the briefing, and they pulled the curtain back, 587 00:38:50,873 --> 00:38:53,458 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}The commanding officers were just blue in the face 642 00:42:11,073 --> 00:42:13,992 {\an8}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 {\an8}General LeMay marched in and announced to us that the Allied Forces 680 00:44:55,028 --> 00:44:58,740 {\an8}would land on the beaches of Normandy the next morning. 681 00:44:58,824 --> 00:45:03,120 {\an8}But he said in order for you to thoroughly understand 682 00:45:03,203 --> 00:45:06,415 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}you are about to embark upon the Great Crusade 692 00:45:41,074 --> 00:45:43,660 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}The army camp had these clandestine radios 726 00:48:15,354 --> 00:48:19,358 {\an8}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 {\an8}including Second Lieutenants, Alexander Jefferson and Richard Macon, 732 00:48:36,959 --> 00:48:41,672 {\an8}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 {\an8}Even when people didn't know that these were Black pilots flying the planes 735 00:48:48,262 --> 00:48:50,556 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}Finally, down the line came a long, tall Kentucky hillbilly 751 00:49:46,195 --> 00:49:50,991 {\an8}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 {\an8}We were in the officers' club until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. 776 00:51:07,860 --> 00:51:10,112 {\an8}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 {\an8}should we march the prisoners out of the camp or kill them? 808 00:53:07,271 --> 00:53:09,273 {\an8}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 {\an8}At Spremberg, they put us on a train. 824 00:53:59,323 --> 00:54:01,742 {\an8}We were locked inside of these boxcars. 825 00:54:01,825 --> 00:54:04,328 {\an8}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 {\an8}That one, we were packed in tighter than heck. 829 00:54:10,751 --> 00:54:13,670 {\an8}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 {\an8}One day, we were walking around in the camp. 842 00:54:52,376 --> 00:54:55,420 {\an8}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 {\an8}they passed over fields of brilliantly colored tulips. 867 00:56:23,884 --> 00:56:25,469 {\an8}In one of them, the heads of the flowers 868 00:56:25,552 --> 00:56:29,389 {\an8}had been clipped to say, "Many thanks, Yanks." 869 00:56:37,814 --> 00:56:39,650 {\an8}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 {\an8}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 {\an8}And we developed a tremendous respect for each other and we shared a victory. 920 01:00:03,395 --> 01:00:07,191 {\an8}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. 79765

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