All language subtitles for American.Heart.In.WWI.A.Carnegie.Hall.Tribute.2025.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

- Hi, I'm General
Stan McChrystal.

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For 250 years,

generations of American
veterans have defended our flag

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and fought for freedom.

Tonight, I present
you with a story

that honors and
celebrates that tradition

and is the origin
of our Veterans Day.

[dramatic music]

From July 1914 to November 1918,

war engulfed Europe.

By early 1917,

Germany and its allies

had seized hundreds of thousands

of square miles of territory

across the Eastern, Western,
and Southern fronts,

leaving an entire
continent shattered.

At that moment when
all seemed hopeless,

America stepped into the fight

and onto the world stage.

With the willingness
of the heart,

husbands, fathers,
sons, and brothers,

boarded ships and
headed over there

to stand beside our allies
and fight for democracy.

On stage at New York
City's Carnegie Hall,

historian John Monsky
takes us inside the war

through the lives
of five real people,

movingly brought to life

by some of Broadway's
finest performers.

He tells their story

in a way you've likely
never seen before,

through a powerful blend
of live storytelling,

rare film and
photographs from the war,

and a live 60-piece orchestra.

It all comes together

to create an extraordinary
living documentary.

The soldiers in this story

are just like the men and women

that I had the honor of leading,

smart, skilled, above all,

filled with the values of
the American character.

There's a lot we can
learn from them even now.

Here is "American
Heart in World War I:

A Carnegie Hall Tribute."

[dramatic music]

[audience applauding]

[dramatic music]

♪ Pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag ♪

♪ And smile, smile, smile ♪

♪ Pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag ♪

♪ Smile, boys,
that's the style ♪

♪ What's the use of worrying ♪

♪ It never was worthwhile ♪

♪ So, pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag ♪

♪ And smile, smile, smile ♪

- 100 years ago, every
American knew the story

of the Meuse-Argonne
Offensive in World War I.

It stood side by side with
Yorktown and Gettysburg.

Tonight I want to take you there

to the Great War and
the Meuse-Argonne.

The farm fields of the
Meuse-Argonne are still there

just three hours east of Paris.

It was and still is the largest
battle in American history.

1.2 million United
States soldiers,

125,000 casualties,

25,000 dead.

A graveyard near the
battlefield still stands.

They play "Taps"
there every night.

It holds 14,000 Americans.

[bright music]

♪ Pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag ♪

♪ And smile, smile, smile ♪

♪ Pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag ♪

♪ Smile, boys,
that's the style ♪

♪ What's the use of worrying ♪

♪ It never was worthwhile ♪

♪ So pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag ♪

♪ And smile, smile, smile ♪

- Most of us know nothing
about World War I.

We owe it to the fallen, if
not to ourselves, to know more.

My name is John Monsky.
I'm a lawyer and historian.

I lecture here at Carnegie Hall
and the New York Historical,

and I decide I
want to know more.

So I go there to
the Western Front

and the Meuse-Argonne itself.

During a cold December,
my son Harrison,

not knowing any
better, comes with me,

and we stand in the trenches.

We traverse the forests.
We cross the ponds.

And for almost five days,
we're covered in this deep mud.

In my backpack I
carry a book with me.

It's not a battlefield guide.

In fact, it's complete fiction,

F. Scott Fitzgerald's
"The Great Gatsby."

[bright music]

It's published 100 years
ago in April, 1925.

We know it as a
Jazz Age romance,

but it's filled with
insights into World War I,

all the way to the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive itself.

When the war breaks out,
Fitzgerald volunteers,

spends a year in the Army.

But to F. Scott's
great disappointment,

the war ends before he
gets shipped overseas.

He remains fascinated
by the war.

He will study the
pictures and he will walk

these war-torn battlefields
again and again.

It's no surprise then that
the plot of "The Great Gatsby"

turns around two
World War I vets,

Jay Gatsby himself, and
Nick Carraway, the narrator.

The war destroys
Gatsby's romance

with his true love, Daisy.

Daisy gives up waiting
for Gatsby during the war

and marries a brute of
a man, Tom Buchanan.

After the war, Gatsby does
everything to get her back.

He throws lavish parties,

drives gorgeous cars,
flies in on hydroplanes.

But the ending is
tragic and futile.

No, this is not a
battlefield guide,

but it is a useful map to me.

A map of an emotionally
bankrupt generation

cut adrift by World War I.

"The Great Gatsby" ends
with a deadly car accident.

World War I starts with one.

On the morning of June
28th, 1914, in Sarajevo,

there's an assassination attempt

on the Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria.

Now it may surprise you to
learn this, but it fails.

Later that afternoon, the
Duke's car takes a wrong turn

and they stop and
ask for directions

right in front of one of
the original assassins.

For the Duke and his wife,
it's all over in a few seconds.

- [Announcer] Austria
invades Bosnia

and both countries declare war.

- [Woman] Germany
sides with Austria

and invades Belgium and France.

- [Man] England
sides with France,

the Ottoman Empire with Germany.

- [Woman] Russia mobilizes.

- [Man] Germany
declares war on Russia.

- [John] And that
is how a wrong turn

on a summer afternoon
supposedly starts World War I.

[bright music]

♪ Call out the
Army and the Navy ♪

♪ Call out the rank and file ♪

♪ Call out the brave
old Territorials ♪

♪ They'll face the
danger with a smile ♪

♪ Where are the boys
of the old brigade ♪

♪ Who made Old England free ♪

♪ Call out my mother, my
sister, and my brother ♪

♪ But for God's
sake, don't send me ♪

- [John] The tragedy is, and no
one really understands

how this event turns
into a world war.

History tells us it's about men

making bad decisions
and misunderstandings.

40 million casualties.

20 million deaths.

Now that the war has started
and the world is on fire,

we turn to the war itself

through the lives
of five real people.

- An Oxford student serving
as a nurse in France.

- A jazz musician
in the trenches.

- A boy who grew up
in the White House,

now flying planes for
the United States Army.

- A Manhattan debutante
in love with him.

- And a New York
lawyer leading a group

of soldiers surrounded
in the Argonne Forest.

- When you look at the
war through their eyes,

you pry open a hole into it.

The war that these
figures step into

is the most destructive
the world has ever known.

While Americans are
trying to decide

what to do about World War
I in 1914, '15, and '16,

the rest of the world
is busy fighting it.

At Gallipoli on
the Turkish coast,

the British suffered
200,000 casualties.

The failed effort is blamed
on the lord of the admiralty,

a young Winston Churchill.

Oh, Gallipoli, it's
nothing compared

to the Western Front in France.

Verdun, 800,000.

The Somme, 1.3 million.

But it's not all
about the numbers.

It's also about the sheer
brutality of the war.

The poison gas,
the no man's land,

and what I call "the faceless."

This is what our five
figures endure day after day.

You need to understand
this to understand them.

So I turn there,
walking these fields

before I go to their stories.

[bright music]

♪ Up to your waist in water ♪

♪ Up to your eyes in slush ♪

♪ Using the kind of language
that makes the sergeant blush ♪

♪ Who wouldn't join the Army ♪

♪ That's what we all inquire ♪

♪ Don't we pity
the poor civilian ♪

♪ Sitting beside the fire ♪

- [John] More than
a hundred years ago,

chemical gas just
rolls over these fields

Harrison and I are walking on.

You are blinded.

Your skin develops blisters
and your lungs labor.

And if you're exposed
enough, you die.

Gas, along with explosive
artillery shells,

kills everything in the way.

All the trees, all
the ground cover.

This will become the first
war against the environment.

Shortly after the war,
the German gas scientists

create a gas called "Zyklon B."

It will be the gas used
in the concentration camps

in World War II.

Like many things, the
winds of World War I

just blow right
into World War II.

[bright music]

♪ Oh, oh, oh, it's
a lovely war ♪

♪ What do we want
with eggs and ham ♪

♪ When we got plum
and apple jam ♪

♪ Form fours, right turn ♪

♪ How do we spend
the money we earn ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, it's
a lovely war ♪

- John Singer Sargent
is a 62-year-old

American portrait
painter living in London.

When a German artillery
shell kills his beloved niece

while she prays in
a French church,

he feels compelled
to enter the war.

He becomes an artist

for the British
Ministry of Information.

And at the Western Front,

he sees a line of
men blinded by gas.

He will turn his sketches
into one of the most

remarkable war paintings
ever made, titled "Gassed."

The painting's at the
Imperial War Museum in London.

Its scale will overwhelm you.

It's 7 1/2 feet
high, 20 feet wide.

This is how war starts,

how nations fight it,
how men die in it.

The blind are literally
leading the blind.

[bright music]

♪ Oh, oh, oh, it's
a lovely war ♪

♪ Who wouldn't be
a soldier, eh ♪

♪ Oh, it's a shame
to take the pay ♪

♪ Form fours, right turn ♪

♪ How do we spend
the money we earn ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, it's
a lovely war ♪

- [John] Now, this brings
us to no man's land,

the terrifying ground
between the trench lines

of the warring parties.

Following an artillery barrage,

men go over the top of
their trenches from one side

and they fight their way
across to the other side.

Going across no
man's land each time,

barbed wire, machine guns,
and artillery trap them.

They can't go back and
they can't go forward.

Mass murder follows.

[dramatic music]

♪ Hush ♪

♪ Here comes a whizzbang ♪

♪ Hush ♪

♪ Here comes a whizzbang ♪

♪ Now you soldiers get
down those stairs ♪

♪ Down in your dugouts
and say your prayers ♪

♪ Hush ♪

♪ Here comes a whizzbang ♪

♪ And it's making
straight for you ♪

♪ And you'll see all the
wonders of no man's land ♪

♪ If a whizzbang hits you ♪

[dramatic music]

- If chemical gas or no man's
land does not break you,

the trauma of men
rendered faceless

by artillery shells will.

Looking out of his train window,

Nick Carraway sees
a faceless man

who appears on a billboard.

- At the Valley of Ashes
above the gray land

and the spasms of bleak dust,
you perceive after a moment

the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg.

The eyes of Dr. T.J.
Eckleburg look out of no face,

but instead from a pair of
enormous yellow spectacles

which pass over a
non-existent nose.

- Removed from World War I,
we see Dr. T.J. Eckleburg

as some kind of god lording
over the Valley of the Ashes.

But for war vets who actually
fought on the front lines,

like Nick in "Gatsby,"
this faceless man

evokes something else entirely.

The world has never before seen

the power of artillery
unleashed in World War I.

It steals the faces of men.

And where facial surgery
fails an American,

Anna Coleman Ladd steps in.

She's neither a
doctor nor a surgeon,

just a highly trained
artist who wants to help.

And she makes masks
for boys without hope.

Glasses hold a mask
on a man's face,

T.J. Eckleburg glasses, and
cover empty eye-sockets.

After the war, the
faceless are forced

to hide from public view,

just like the phantom of
the opera in the 1925 film.

In Paris, the
faceless form a union

and they retire to
a castle in a farm.

It will be called the
"House of Broken Faces."

[bright music]

♪ And when they ask us ♪

♪ How dangerous it was ♪

♪ Oh, we'll never tell them ♪

♪ No, we'll never tell them ♪

♪ We spent our
pay in some cafe ♪

♪ And fought wild
women night and day ♪

♪ 'Twas the cushiest job ♪

♪ We ever had ♪

♪ And when they ask us ♪

♪ And they're certainly
going to ask us ♪

♪ The reason why we didn't
win the Croix de Guerre ♪

♪ Oh, we'll never tell them ♪

♪ No, we'll never tell them ♪

♪ There was a front ♪

♪ But damned if we knew where ♪

- Poison gas, no man's
land, the faceless.

Now we begin to understand

what our five brave
figures will confront.

The first one, Vera Brittain,

brings us to the early
years of the war.

She grows up in a
small town in England,

middle-class family.

She wants to be a writer, and
she wants to go to Oxford.

It's an outlandish wish.

Her father believes Vera
should focus on marriage,

not a college education.

Vera's brother, Edward,
her best friend,

finally convinces their
father to let Vera go.

And when the war breaks out
in 1914, Edward's too young

to join the Army without
his father's consent.

But Vera owes Edward.

She convinces their
father to let Edward go.

Complicity and a decision
she'll find hard to forget.

All the boys from
school sign up too,

including her friends Roland
and Geoffrey and Victor.

Vera and Roland are in love,

and they will soon be engaged.

To Vera's frustration,
Roland goes out of his way

to be assigned to
the front lines.

Vera and Roland talk it over.

- "If you return from
the war, not when,"

I corrected Roland,
"if you return."

He answered gravely and
said that he had thought

about the issue many times
and had a settled conviction

that he would return, but
he may not be quite whole.

"Would you love me just the same

if I was minus one
arm?" he asked.

My reply need not be recorded.

- [John] As much as
she loves Oxford,

she's unable to sit
on the sidelines.

- [Vera] Soberly equipped
in my new nurse's uniform,

I turn my back forever upon
my provincial young ladyhood.

- She is assigned to
a hospital in London.

December 23, 1915,
the war rages on,

and it takes Roland
with that rage.

Roland is buried
on the battlefield.

His body does not come home.

At this point in the war,

England's war dead
are not coming home.

Too many bodies,
not enough trains.

What does come back
is Roland's uniform.

Vera goes over to Roland's house

to unpack it with his mother.

- Everything was damp and worn

and simply caked with mud,

and I was overwhelmed
by the horror of the war

without the glory.

For though he had worn
these things while living,

the smell of those clothes

was the smell of
graveyards and the dead.

The mud of France that covered
them was not ordinary mud.

It was not the pure
clean smell of the earth,

but it was as though we were
saturated with dead bodies.

"Take those clothes away,"
Roland's mother cried.

"Bury them or burn them."

- The mud. This entire war
seems to be about the mud.

Everyone's letters,
everyone's books,

everyone's diary entries
talk about the mud.

Now, when Harrison and
I walk the battlefields,

we're just covered in it.

We were warned about it
even before we got there.

At one point we go
to a gas station,

we try to power wash this mud
off our boots and our jeans.

It's not successful.

The mud, the war,
comes home with us.

Why does the United States
enter this desperate war?

For me, the answer
is always imperfect.

History tells us unrestricted
German submarine warfare,

the sinking of the Lusitania,
and the Zimmermann telegram,

a coded-message in which the
Germans propose an alliance

with Mexico in war
against the United States.

But at the bottom of it
all, for many Americans,

this is a fight for democracy.

The Germans are the aggressors.
They invaded Belgium.

They took French land.
And now, we must act.

During the American Revolution,

the French military and
the Marquis de Lafayette

fought side-by-side with us.

Now's the time to
repay that debt.

President Wilson asked Americans

to help make the world
safe for democracy,

and as always, they respond.

The United States enters
the war on April 6th, 1917.

The very next day, a
composer, George M. Cohan,

writes what would become
one of the most famous songs

in American history
on his way to work.

When he gets home, he
performs it for his family

with a tin pan for a helmet
and a broom for a gun.

♪ Over there ♪

♪ Over there ♪

♪ Send the word, send
the word over there ♪

♪ That the Yanks are coming,
the Yanks are coming ♪

♪ The drums rum-tumming
everywhere ♪

♪ So prepare ♪

♪ Say a prayer ♪

♪ Send the word, send
the word to beware ♪

♪ We'll be over ♪

♪ We're coming over ♪

♪ And we won't come back
till it's over, over there ♪

- The first United States troops
arrive in Paris on July 3rd

and have a parade on the 4th.

With thousands of
Parisians cheering them on,

an American battalion marches
to the tomb of Lafayette

and declares,
"Lafayette, we are here."

Tonight, on this stage,
we have two flags

carried by the 1st
Division, 16th Infantry,

2nd Battalion of the United
States Army in Paris.

[audience applauding]

Let us take you back
to July 4th, 1917,

with those flags
from that moment.

♪ Johnny, get your gun, get
your gun, get your gun ♪

♪ Take it on the run,
on the run, on the run ♪

♪ Hear them calling you and me ♪

♪ Every son of liberty ♪

♪ Hurry right away,
no delay, go today ♪

♪ Make your daddy glad
to have had such a lad ♪

♪ Tell your sweetheart
not to pine ♪

♪ To be proud her
boy's in line ♪

♪ Over there ♪

♪ Send the word, send
the word over there ♪

♪ That the Yanks are coming ♪

♪ The Yanks are coming ♪

♪ The drums rum-tumming
everywhere ♪

♪ So prepare ♪

♪ Say a prayer ♪

♪ Send the word, send
the word to beware ♪

♪ We'll be over ♪

♪ We're coming over ♪

♪ And we won't come
back till it's over ♪

♪ Over there ♪

[audience applauding]

- This brings us to
the spring of 1918.

It's often overlooked,
but among the very first

United States troops to
make it to the front lines

to help the Allies
are Black-Americans,

and at the center of it
all is James Reese Europe.

In 1903 at age 23, he
arrives in New York City,

escaping the Jim Crow South.

He works as a composer
and a band leader.

He starts the Clef Club,
part booking agency

and part social club.

But his eye is on
more than music.

He organizes for Black citizens

a music union and
a music school.

- I've done my
best to put an end

to this discrimination
in the music industry.

I am not bitter about it.

After all, it is about a portion
of a price my race must pay

in its fight for a
place in the sun.

- [John] And the creative
output that follows,

it's breathtaking.

- I write and record one of
the major songs of the day,

"Ballin' the Jack," later
brought to the screen

by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland.

♪ First you put your two
knees close up tight ♪

♪ Then you swing
'em to the left ♪

♪ And you swing
'em to the right ♪

♪ Step around the floor
kind of nice and light ♪

♪ Then you twist around
and twist around ♪

♪ With all your might ♪

♪ Stretch your lovin' arms
straight out in space ♪

♪ Then you do the Eagle
Rock with style and grace ♪

♪ Swing your foot way
round and bring it back ♪

♪ Now that's what I
call ballin' the jack ♪

♪ Ballin' the jack ♪

[bright jazz music]

♪ Ballin' the jack ♪

[audience applauding]

[bright jazz music]

- And then in 1912,
James Reese Europe

creates a remarkable event

that passes beyond
everything else.

He brings an all-Black,
150-person chorus,

125-person orchestra, and 14
pianos facing back to back

to this stage right
here at Carnegie Hall.

It's the kind of music sensation

that Nick sees at
Jay Gatsby's parties.

[drum booms]

- There was a boom
of the bass drum

and the orchestra leader
cried out suddenly,

"Ladies and gentlemen, at
the request of Mr. Gatsby,

we are now gonna
play for you a work

which attracted so
much attention

at Carnegie Hall last May,

'The Jazz History
of the World.'"

- [John] Let me take you there.

On the evening of May
2nd, 1912, at 8:00 PM,

this hall is packed.

Every seat you are
sitting in is taken.

It's standing room only.

And James Reese Europe
opens the concert

with his "Clef Club March."

[bright jazz music]

- Standing on this stage, in
this very spot, I make my plea

for the formation of a
National Guard unit in Harlem,

a long-held wish of many
Black citizens in this city.

And in 1916, the
governor of New York

will finally authorize it
as the 15th National Guard.

For the pride of the 15th,

the commanding
officer wants a band.

He asks one very
high-qualified soldier

to form it and lead
it, me. [chuckles]

And I give him a band,
all right, a 60-piece band

playing syncopated
music, jazz style music

like no other band.

[jazzy orchestral music]

[jazzy orchestral music
continues]

[jazzy orchestral music
continues]

[audience applauding]

- Training camp does not go well

for the 15th in
Spartanburg, South Carolina.

They experience one racially
charged incident after another.

The place is about to explode.

Thanks to the help of the
undersecretary of the Navy,

a young Franklin
Delano Roosevelt,

they manage to get out of there.

Roosevelt uses the one
tool at his disposal.

A great troop ship picks them up

in New York City,
headed for France.

And as they pull
away from the docks,

they're leaving Spartanburg,

the race riots of East
St. Louis and Houston,

and the lynchings across
the South and the West,

to fight a war for democracy.

After nearly two weeks at
sea, on New Year's Day, 1918,

thanks to the United
States Navy, they arrive.

Lieutenant Europe and his
band march off their ship

playing a syncopated
French national anthem

to a stunned and then
thrilled French audience.

This is the moment,
the very moment

that jazz comes to France.

[bright jazz music]

[bright jazz music continues]

Spring 1918, the Germans launch
a series of massive actions.

The Germans have signed
a treaty with Russians,

and now they can move
over a million men

from the Eastern Front
to the Western Front.

They're gonna run the table
before the United States

can even get its
feet on the ground.

And Vera Brittain sees
the Germans coming.

- I shall never forget
the crushing tension

of those extreme days.

Nothing had ever quite
equaled them before.

Not the Somme, not
Arras, not Passchendaele.

For into our minds
crept for the first time

the secret, incredible fear
that we might lose the war.

- The Germans are now
just 34 miles from Paris.

John J. Pershing, the commander

of the American
Expeditionary Force,

has pledged never to
give up any of his troops

to the command of
foreign officers,

but he's now forced
to do something.

He sends the 15th to the French.

To Pershing, these Black
soldiers were dispensable.

But they make themselves
indispensable.

Again and again
at the front lines

they earn their nickname,
the Harlem Hellfighters.

They'll be awarded medal
after medal for their heroics.

They arrive at the front
with about 2,000 men.

800 of them will not come home.

James Reese Europe
writes to his friend,

future jazz great, Eubie Blake.

- At the moment
my hands are tied.

But if the war does
not end me first,

sure as God made man,
I will be on top,

and so far on top that it'll
be impossible to pull me down.

Eubie, just stay at your
job and take your medicine.

The thing to do is to
build for the future.

And that's what I'm doing.

- In the spring of 1918,
while the Harlem Hellfighters

are on the front
lines in France,

Vera's serving in a hospital
on the French coast.

- The world is mad and
we are all its victims.

That is the only
way to look at it.

A doomed 20-year-old German boy,

beautiful in spite
of his concave cheeks

and agonized biting of his
lips, asks me one evening

how long he has before he dies.

It was not very long.

The screens were around his
bed by the next afternoon.

I see men without
faces, without eyes,

without limbs, men disemboweled,

men with hideous truncated
stumps of bodies.

I wish those people
who write so glibly

about this being a holy war

could see the effects
of mustard gas,

could see the men burnt
and blistered all over,

blind-eyes stuck together,

fighting for breath with
voices a mere whisper,

saying that their
throats are closing

and they know they
will choke to death.

- [John] A few months
later, Vera is on leave

back in England at
her parents' home.

- There came the
sudden loud clattering

of the front door knocker,
which always meant

a boy with a telegram.

For a moment I thought

my legs would not
carry me to the door.

I opened and read it.

- We regret to inform you
that Captain E.H. Brittain,

MC Sherwood Foresters,
was killed in action

in Italy on June 15th.

The Army Council
expresses their sympathy.

- "No answer," I told
the boy mechanically,

and handed the
telegram to my father.

- Edward is buried high
up in the Dolomites

in the Italian Alps
where he was killed,

along with 142 British soldiers.

Now the tragedy is complete.

Roland and Edward, Victor and
Geoffrey, they're all dead.

Vera desperately
wants to do it over,

to erase her brother's death,

to convince Roland to
stay out of the war,

to save her friends,
Geoffrey and Victor.

But for Vera, there's no
turning back the clock.

- For the first time I realized.

With all that full
realization meant

the dead were dead and
would never return.

- The story of Quentin Roosevelt

brings us to the summer of 1918

and the very edge of the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Quentin is the fifth
and youngest child

of Edith and Theodore Roosevelt.

The family moves into
the White House in 1901.

Quentin has his run
of the White House,

stuffs the family pony into
the White House elevator,

fires spitballs at the portrait
of President Andrew Jackson,

and starts pillow-fights

with the president
of the United States,

the commander in chief
of all U.S. forces.

TR just loves it all,

and he makes picture
drawings of the children.

Quentin goes to a
local public school.

A visitor from Europe asks him,

"How does it feel to go to
school with common boys?"

- I don't know what you mean.

My father says there's
only four kinds of boys,

good boys, bad boys, tall
boys, and short boys.

That's all the kind
of boys there are.

- August 4th, 1916,
marks the event

of the Newport summer season,

the coming out of
Flora Payne Whitney,

the daughter of a
Vanderbilt and a Whitney.

"The New York Times"
is there to cover it,

for these are two of
the wealthiest families

in the United States.

Flora's date and
guest for three days,

18-year-old Quentin Roosevelt.

They dance all night.

At dawn they swim
in the sea together.

It's a romantic readiness
right out of "Gatsby."

♪ I met you in a garden
in an old Kentucky town ♪

♪ The sun was shining down ♪

♪ You wore a gingham gown ♪

♪ I kissed you as I placed a
yellow tulip in your hair ♪

♪ Upon my coat you
pinned a rose so rare ♪

♪ Time has not changed
your loveliness ♪

♪ You're just as sweet to me ♪

♪ I love you, yet ♪

♪ I can't forget ♪

♪ The days that used to be ♪

[bright music]

♪ When you wore a tulip ♪

♪ A sweet yellow tulip ♪

♪ And I wore a big red rose ♪

♪ When you caressed me ♪

♪ 'Twas then heaven blessed me ♪

♪ What a blessing no one knows ♪

♪ You made life cheery
when you called me deary ♪

♪ 'Twas was down where
the bluegrass grows ♪

♪ Your lips were
sweeter than julep ♪

♪ When you wore that tulip ♪

♪ And I wore a big red rose ♪

[bright music]

[bright music continues]

♪ Your lips were
sweeter than julep ♪

♪ When you wore that tulip ♪

♪ And I wore ♪

♪ A big red rose ♪

[audience applauding]

- When the United
States enters the war,

Quentin and his brothers enlist.

Airplanes are the new
thing, and Quentin,

now 21, dreams of being a
pilot for the U.S. Army.

TR knows his son
will get his wish

because he secretly
arranges for it.

Complicity in a decision he
will find hard to forget.

Quentin and Flora are engaged.

And shortly thereafter
he's ordered to France.

- As men and women
ship overseas,

over 13,000 songs pour
into the Copyright Office

of the Library of Congress, a
record of a national farewell,

some patriotic, some
funny, some forlorn.

♪ When I'm through with
the arms of the Army ♪

♪ I'll come back to
the arms of you ♪

♪ When the lines of
the foe we are taking ♪

♪ My arms will be aching for
you, they'll be breaking ♪

♪ Oh, you know I love you ♪

♪ But that old flag above you ♪

♪ You know I love it too ♪

♪ So when I'm through with
the arms of the Army ♪

♪ I'll come back to
the arms of you ♪

♪ Little Mary's beau said ♪

♪ I've got to go ♪

♪ I must fight for Uncle Sam ♪

♪ Standing in the crowd,
Mary called aloud ♪

♪ Fare thee well,
my lovin' man ♪

♪ All the girls said ♪

♪ Ain't he nice and tall ♪

♪ Mary answered yes
and that's not all ♪

♪ If he can fight
like he can love ♪

♪ Oh, what a soldier
boy he'll be ♪

♪ If he's just half
as good in a trench ♪

♪ As he was in the
park on a bench ♪

♪ Then every Hun
had better run ♪

♪ And find a great
big linden tree ♪

♪ I never saw him in
a real good scrap ♪

♪ But you're a goner
when you're in his lap ♪

♪ And if he fights ♪

♪ Like he can love ♪

♪ Why then it's good
night, Germany ♪

[gentle music]

♪ Life is a book that we study ♪

♪ Some of its leaves
bring a sigh ♪

♪ There it was
written, my buddy ♪

♪ That we must part, you and I ♪

♪ Nights are long ♪

♪ Since you went away ♪

♪ I think about you ♪

♪ All through the day ♪

♪ My buddy ♪

♪ No buddy quite so true ♪

- From his air base in France,

Quentin's letters tell
of crashes and crack ups

and endless rain.

The base, he writes,
is a sea of gumbo mud.

He comes down with
the Spanish flu,

a worldwide pandemic in 1918.

50 million people
will die from it.

Luckily Quentin recovers,

and always sticking up
for the common boys,

he's now one of the most
popular officers on the base.

Quentin's lucky
to have his friend

from his school days with him,

a pilot named Hamilton Coolidge.

Out of a Greek tradition,
Hamilton and Quentin

cut a gold coin in half.

Proof of life that one can
send to the other if captured.

As June comes around,
the United States

is facing significant losses.

The Marines suffer
5,000 casualties

in their storied
victory at Belleau Wood.

Flora paces the
floors with concern.

She pours out
letters to Quentin.

♪ Miss your voice ♪

♪ The touch of your hand ♪

♪ Just long to know ♪

♪ That you'll understand ♪

♪ My buddy ♪

♪ Your buddy misses you ♪

♪ Your buddy ♪

♪ Misses you ♪

[audience applauding]

- July 14, 1918, Quentin
heads out on a patrol,

flying with a squad
of nine planes.

They run into a formation
of nine German planes.

All 18 planes engage.

The counts vary, but they
all end up in the same place.

Quentin's plane
plunges downward.

Theodore Roosevelt
writes a letter.

- It is no use pretending

that Quentin's death
is not very terrible.

I most earnestly hope that
time will be very merciful

to Flora and that in a few
years she will keep Quentin

only as a loving memory
of her golden youth,

and she will find happiness
with another good, kind man.

As for Mother, she will ache
for Quentin until she dies.

I would not for all the world
have had him fail fearlessly

to do his duty, but it is
useless for me to pretend

that it is not very
bitter to see that good,

gallant, tenderhearted boy
leave life at its crest.

- And it's here
that we see Quentin

and Gatsby echo each other.

They fly planes and hydroplanes,

they gamble with
life, and they have,

as Nick puts it in the
novel, "incorruptible dreams."

- If personality is
an unbroken series

of successful gestures, and
there was something gorgeous

about Gatsby, some
heightened sensitivity

to the promises of life,

as if he were related to one
of those intricate machines

that would register earthquakes
thousands of miles away.

His responsiveness
had nothing to do

with creative temperament.

Rather it was an
extraordinary gift for hope,

a romantic readiness
such as I had never found

in any other person,

and which it is likely that
I'll never find ever again.

- Like Gatsby, there
is something

gorgeous about Quentin,

something stolen from us
when this war kills him.

Quentin's crash site
and original burial site

are on top of a hill
overlooking a small town.

On our trip, Harrison and
I struggle up this hill.

We slog through the mud.

And we hear guns firing nearby.

Unfortunately, no one
has bothered to tell us

it's boar hunting season.
[audience laughing]

Harrison's not phased by this.

I'm moving into a
level one panic.

[audience laughing]

And when we reach
the top of this hill,

we find a marker for
Quentin still there.

And we look down at
this little town below.

And it's a moving moment,
you have to understand.

Because I know from the marker,

this is the very spot
Edith Roosevelt visits

in February of 1919,
right after the war ends.

She's here for her son.

She kneels down in this
mud at the grave site

and she says the Lord's Prayer.

And all I can think
about as I stand there

with my son, is how hard
that must have been.

Just as Vera will never
leave Roland behind,

Flora will never
leave Quentin behind.

In the Harvard
Library you'll find

a box of Flora's keepsakes.

And I can tell you
that opening that box

is like opening her heart.

Letters from Quentin,
pictures of the two of them,

dried flowers from
his grave site.

And at the bottom of the box

is half of the gold coin he
split with Hamilton Coolidge.

Proof of life.

In that box you
can feel the tears,

the tears of Vera as she held
Roland's mud-covered uniform.

The tears of Flora
as she put away

Quentin's half of
that gold coin,

the children they
would never have,

the years of love
they would never know.

♪ What'll I do when you ♪

♪ Are far away ♪

♪ And I am blue, what'll I do ♪

♪ What'll I do ♪

♪ When I am wondering who ♪

♪ Is kissing you ♪

♪ What'll I do ♪

♪ With just a photograph ♪

♪ To tell my troubles to ♪

♪ When I'm alone ♪

♪ With only dreams of you ♪

♪ That won't come true ♪

♪ What'll I do ♪

[gentle orchestral music]

[swelling orchestral music]

♪ What'll I do ♪

♪ With just a photograph ♪

♪ To tell my troubles to ♪

♪ When I'm alone ♪

♪ With only dreams of you ♪

♪ That won't come true ♪

♪ What'll I do ♪

♪ That won't come true ♪

♪ What'll I do ♪

[audience applauding]

- As we walk down the hill,

something else draws our
attention on the map.

We came to see
Quentin's crash site,

but now I realize that
the American 42nd Division

is just around the corner
when Quentin crashes.

I know all about
the 42nd Division

because in it is a
soldier named Sol Monsky.

Sol Monsky is my great uncle
from Montgomery, Alabama.

I cannot explain to you
how my father's family,

a Jewish-Polish family
escaping the pogroms,

ends up in Montgomery, Alabama.

The family story is they got off

on the wrong train
stop and just stayed.

The day after Quentin's crash,

the Germans slam right
into Sol's division,

the 42nd Division.

Back home in Montgomery,
there's news of this big battle.

But for six long weeks, there's
absolutely no word from Sol.

The family knows
what comes next.

They wait for that telegram
from the War Department

until a letter with a
French postmark arrives.

- Sergeant Sol Monsky begged
me to send you this letter.

He took part on July
15th in an attack

which the courageous soldiers
of America fought side-by-side

with their French
brothers, and he as well.

We are happy and proud to
count you among our allies.

We have waited for
you for four years,

and we were sure that
America would take part

in the war of right.

Victory is certain.

Mademoiselle Germaine
Herbillion, La Chef, France.

- But there is no
relief for Sol.

The now battle-tested
42nd Division

is pushed into a
counter offensive.

The Croix Farm and the
Ourcq River run red

with the blood of
United States soldiers.

And as they're being
slaughtered on the fields

by the Ourcq River, Sol's
commanding officer is shot dead.

And Sergeant Sol
Monsky, my great uncle,

takes command of
his machine gun unit

and he pushes forward
with the attack.

And for this, he will receive

the Silver Star for
Gallantry in Action.

And now a century
later, Harrison and I

stand on the spot where
Sol earned the Silver Star.

It's a strange feeling.

One of Sol's fellow officers
writes a description

of this battlefield
at the end of the day.

For me, this explains
once and for all

why Sol never talks
about the war.

- The blood-red sun holds
for a moment before setting.

It bathes the field
in a rich glow

like a flaming Remington canvas.

On the field, dead bodies
abound, pitifully strewn about

in grotesque attitudes
of supplication.

Some pitch forward
on their faces.

Some crumble forward on their
knees as if trying to rise.

Some are in repose,
as if asleep.

Lifeless fingers still
clutching lifeless cigarettes.

- With no time to rest,
Sol and his division

are ordered to move forward.

Heading to the Meuse-Argonne,

they leave the dead behind,

they pick themselves up,
and they keep moving.

[dramatic music]

♪ Fading away like the
stars of the morning ♪

♪ Losing their light
in the glorious sun ♪

♪ Thus would we pass
from the earth ♪

♪ And its toiling ♪

♪ Only remembered for
what we have done ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ Only remembered for
what we have done ♪

♪ Thus would we
pass in the earth ♪

♪ And its toiling ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ For what we have done ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ Where are they running ♪

♪ Why are they falling ♪

♪ Fewer, still fewer ♪

♪ Than what was begun ♪

♪ Ghost in the morning mist ♪

♪ Voicelessly calling ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ For what we have done ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ For what we have done ♪

♪ Ghost in the morning mist ♪

♪ Voicelessly calling ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ For what we have done ♪

♪ We'll be over ♪

♪ We're coming over ♪

♪ Who'll sing the anthem ♪

♪ And who'll tell the story ♪

♪ Will the line hold ♪

♪ Will it scatter and run ♪

♪ Shall we at last
be united in glory ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ For what we have done ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ For what we have done ♪

♪ Shall we at last
be united in glory ♪

♪ Only remembered ♪

♪ For what we have done ♪

[audience applauding]

- Now, walking through
the fields of France,

Harrison and I reach
November, 1918.

We stand on the fields of
the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

where 25,000
Americans are killed.

Jay Gatsby puts himself right
in the middle of these fields.

[bright music]

- Then came the war, old sport.

It was a great relief, and
I tried very hard to die,

but I seem to bear
an enchanted life.

In the Argonne Forest I took
two machine gun detachments

so far forward that
there was a half-mile gap

on either side of us where
the infantry couldn't advance.

We stayed there two
days and two nights.

And when the infantry
came up at last,

they found the insignia
of three German divisions

among the piles of dead.

I was promoted to be a major,

and every allied government
gave me a decoration.

Even Montenegro,
little Montenegro

down on the Adriatic Sea.

- No one in 1925 could miss
what Jay Gatsby just told Nick.

He was part of the
famous Lost Battalion.

Every kid on every
block in every town

in the United States
knows this story.

In the novel, Jay
Gatsby is in charge.

But in real life,
a soldier named

Charles Whittlesey is in charge.

Jay Gatsby is
Charles Whittlesey,

or at least wants to be
a war hero just like him.

What happens to Charles
Whittlesey in the Argonne Forest

is the stuff of legend.

And it all starts with the
77th Division of New York City,

the Liberty Division.

The ranks of the 77th are
filled with immigrants.

And they're sent for
training to Camp Upton

in Yaphank, Long Island.

25% of the 77th is Jewish,
all from the Lower East Side.

Irish boys, Italian
boys, Asian boys,

Native American boys,

and farm boys from the
West fill out the ranks.

At Camp Upton, the
immigrants speak

43 different languages
and dialects.

The press makes fun
of them and writes,

"They're not to be trusted."

One of the immigrants
sent to Camp Upton

is a songwriter,
Israel Isidore Bailin.

At Camp Upton, he writes a
revue to entertain the troops.

He calls it, "Yip Yip Yaphank."

The music is later published

under his stage
name, Irving Berlin.

[bright band music]

♪ I've been a soldier
quite a while ♪

♪ And I would like to state ♪

♪ That life is
simply wonderful ♪

♪ The Army food is great ♪

♪ I sleep with 97
others in a wooden hut ♪

♪ I love them all,
they all love me ♪

♪ It's very lovely, but ♪

♪ Oh, how I hate to
get up in the morning ♪

♪ Oh, how I'd love
to remain in bed ♪

♪ For the hardest blow of all ♪

♪ Is to hear the bugler call ♪

♪ You gotta get up,
you gotta get up ♪

♪ You gotta get
up this morning ♪

♪ Someday I'm going
to murder the bugler ♪

♪ Someday they're going
to find him dead ♪

♪ And then I'll
get the other pup ♪

♪ The guy who wakes
the bugler up ♪

♪ And spend the rest
of my life in bed ♪

[singers laughing]

[audience laughing]

♪ There's dirty work to
be done in the Army ♪

♪ And it's not much fun ♪

♪ It's the kind of
work that's done ♪

♪ Without the aid of a gun ♪

[gunshot booms]

[audience laughing]

♪ The boys who work with
the cooks in the kitchen ♪

♪ Holler out for peace ♪

♪ For they have to
do the dirty work ♪

♪ And they're called
the kitchen police ♪

♪ Poor little me ♪

♪ I'm a KP ♪

♪ I scrub the mess hall ♪

♪ Upon bended knee ♪

♪ Against my wishes ♪

♪ I wash the dishes ♪

♪ To make this wide world
safe for democracy ♪

♪ Mr. Wilson, Mr. Wilson ♪

♪ Won't you kindly lend an ear ♪

♪ To what we think
is a bright idear ♪

[singers catcalling]
- What's the idea?

♪ It is very necessary ♪

♪ That the boys
are in good cheer ♪

♪ So that they can
do their best ♪

♪ And here's what we suggest ♪

♪ Send a lot of jazz
bands over there ♪

♪ To make the boys feel glad ♪

♪ Send a troop of Alexanders ♪

♪ With the jazz band
down in Flanders ♪

♪ And make 'em play a
lot of snappy airs ♪

♪ The kind that
makes you dance ♪

♪ It isn't just
ammunition and food ♪

♪ You gotta keep 'em
in a happy mood ♪

♪ So hurry up and send
a troop of jazz bands ♪

♪ Over to France ♪

[whistle trills]
[bright jazz music]

♪ It isn't just
ammunition and food ♪

[bright jazz music]
- Whoa!

♪ You gotta keep 'em
in a happy mood ♪

♪ So hurry up and send
a troop of jazz bands ♪

♪ You gotta get up,
you gotta get up ♪

♪ You gotta get
up this morning ♪

♪ Hurry up and send a
troop of jazz bands ♪

♪ I wash the dishes ♪

♪ Over to France ♪

♪ For little me ♪

[bright jazz music]

[audience applauding]

- At the last minute,
Berlin decides

to cut one of his
songs from the revue.

He'll save it for another war.

♪ While the storm
clouds gather ♪

♪ Far across the sea ♪

♪ Let us swear allegiance ♪

♪ To a land that's free ♪

♪ Let us all be grateful ♪

♪ For a land so fair ♪

♪ As we raise our voices ♪

♪ In a solemn prayer ♪

[gentle music]

♪ God bless America ♪

♪ Land that I love ♪

♪ Stand beside her ♪

♪ And guide her ♪

♪ Through the night with
a light from above ♪

♪ From the mountains ♪

♪ To the prairies ♪

♪ To the oceans
white with foam ♪

♪ God bless America ♪

♪ My home, sweet home ♪

♪ God bless America ♪

♪ My home ♪

♪ Sweet ♪

♪ Home ♪

[audience applauding]

- Charles Whittlesey
shows up at Camp Upton

discovering he may be in for
more than he bargained for.

43 different languages
and dialects is a lot.

He grew up in rural areas.

First Wisconsin,
then Massachusetts.

The death of two
of his siblings,

especially his
nine-year-old sister,

make him aware of the
tenuous nature of life.

And by the time he
enters Williams College,

he's six foot two and described

as a tree towering over a brook.

He really has no conception

of what he wants to
do after college.

But like Gatsby, he's striving

to do something bigger,
something better.

At one, point Whittlesey
tells a friend,

he's thinking of
becoming a missionary.

- Because I wanna do
something I don't wanna do.

[audience laughing]

- Like a lot of people who
don't know what they want to do,

he attends Harvard Law School.

[audience laughing]

After graduation, he
opens up a law practice

in New York City with his law
school classmate Bayard Pruyn.

At Camp Upton, the Army
sizes up Charles Whittlesey.

They conclude he has the
stuff, he has the brains,

he has the skill to be
good operations officer.

But definitely not
a field officer.

By the summer of 1918,
the 77th is in France

along with the rest
of the American Army

and headed to the front lines.

Vera's back in France too.

- I was leaving Courtes
to go back to the ward

when I had to wait to
let a large contingent

of troops march past me.

They were swinging rapidly

and had an unusual
quality of bold vigor.

Their tall, straight figures
were in vivid contrast

to the undersized armies
we had grown accustomed to.

I wondered who are
they, watching them move

with such rhythm, such dignity,

such serene consciousness
of self-respect.

I heard, "Look, here
are the Americans."

I pressed forward
with the others

to watch the United States
physically entering the war.

- Captain Harry Truman,
an artillery officer,

is headed for the
front lines too.

- Dear Bess, you have no idea

what an immense
responsibility it is

to take 194 men to the front.

They are absolutely
dependent on my small ability

to think and act right at the
right time for their lives.

If I should go up there
and get them all killed

and not shot myself, I'd
certainly never be able

to look anyone in
the face again.

I then trust in the Lord
and hope that I am lucky.

Love, Harry.

- By the end of August, 1918,
the Allies hatch a bold plan

to end the war, a
coordinated attack

all along the Western Front.

The Americans are assigned a
particularly dangerous sector.

This is the Meuse-Argonne,
an area filled with traps,

an area that has the potential

to crush the entire United
States Army, all of it.

Just prior to the start of
this battle, Whittlesey,

who you remember was
never supposed

to be a field commander,

is promoted major and
given command of 700 men.

And to help out Whittlesey,
the Army assigns him

Captain George McMurtry.

At least by New
York City standards,

it's not a bad combination.

Whittlesey, the New York lawyer,

is matched with McMurtry,
the New York stockbroker.

[audience laughing]
Ah. Good luck to them.

The American sector for the
attack is about 20 miles wide,

running from the Argonne Forest

to the Meuse River at Verdun.

It's absolutely critical
that they take and hold

the northern half of
the Argonne Forest.

It cannot be left in the
hands of German artillery.

♪ Hurry up, hurry
up now, America ♪

♪ Don't you wait ♪

♪ It's too late if we dream ♪

♪ Wake them up, wake
them up now, America ♪

♪ Make them fear when
your eagle screams ♪

- [John] The forest is heavily
fortified and defended.

The French lost 70,000 men

trying to retake this
forest from the Germans.

It's already filled to the
brim with human remains.

[bright music]

♪ England sons, dear
old France, and Italy ♪

♪ Fight for rights with
their backs to the law ♪

♪ Do your best, make
the test now, America ♪

♪ Hurry up, come
across at their call ♪

- The United States Army
is thrown into this battle.

15 divisions, 1.2
million soldiers,

90,000 horses,

3,000 artillery pieces,

800 airplanes, 400 tanks.

And moving this massive
army into position

falls on the shoulders
of one young soldier,

Colonel George C. Marshall.

And it's Marshall's
plan that makes it work.

Marshall decides to
move the troops at night

under the cover of darkness.

10 nights, 100 miles.

Sheets of rain
pour down on them.

Roads of mud engulf them.

♪ Follow on ♪

♪ Grab a gun, get
the Hun on the run ♪

♪ See the tears of
France are falling ♪

♪ Hear the voice of
Belgium calling ♪

♪ Come on, Yanks ♪

♪ Fill the ranks ♪

♪ Do your share for
the ones over there ♪

♪ Over there ♪

♪ Now's the time, fall in line ♪

♪ Let's go over the line ♪

♪ Follow on ♪

- September 26, 4:20
AM, Marshall code

names it D-Day, H-Hour.

The United States Army
stands at the Meuse-Argonne.

The U.S. lines are packed.

Federal Army units as well
as National Guard units,

state after state after state.

The flags of these
units cover the line,

and two of them are
here with us tonight.

The flag of Battery B,

and the flag of Battery E.

And as the artillery opens
up, you can see these flags

boldly flapping in the wind.

Harry Truman writes
that it looks like

the sky itself is on fire.

♪ So prepare ♪

♪ Say a prayer ♪

♪ Send the word, send
the word to beware ♪

♪ We'll be over ♪
♪ Over ♪

♪ We're coming over ♪
♪ Over ♪

♪ And we won't come back ♪

♪ Till it's over, over there ♪

- October 2nd,
Whittlesey pushes deep

into the Argonne Forest.

But where are the battalions

covering his left
and right flanks?

Whittlesey stops.

Back at headquarters,
General Robert Alexander,

well known as a bully and a
liar, even to his own men,

now tells Whittlesey
one of the great lies

of American history.

- Your flanks are covered.

Proceed ahead
regardless of losses.

- Whittlesey and McMurtry under
direct orders, push forward.

The stockbroker and the
lawyer, they get it done.

Men die. Casualties grow.

And now, they're so
deep behind German lines

that they are surrounded.

And as night begins to fall,

they arrange themselves
in a 400-yard long,

100-yard wide, oblong perimeter.

They call it "the pocket."

And from here they're contesting
control of the forest.

A hundred years later,

Harrison and I
stand in the pocket.

It's frightening even now.

These tall trees, they
block the sunlight.

And here that night, dug in
are the men from Yaphank,

the shop workers, the dock
loaders, the newspaper hawkers,

the deli owners, the farm boys.

Off and on the rain pours down.

The men huddle in shell holes
filled with pools of mud.

Day two, no water, no
rations, no medical supplies.

There are three ways
to communicate

back to headquarters.

Wires, runners, birds.

The wires are cut,
the runners are dead,

and Whittlesey has only
one precious resource left,

a contingent of homing pigeons.

The Germans know all
about these pigeons,

and they're making every
effort to shoot 'em down.

One of the two pigeon masters,

Omar Richards, is
a French Canadian.

He's from Upstate New York.

And I suspect that he comforts
his dear pigeons in French.

His favorite bird
is named Cher Ami.

Day three, American
artillery miles away

tries to give the
units some support,

but instead of dropping a
protective umbrella around them,

shells are falling on them.

Arms and legs are
being blown off.

Whittlesey goes down the
line, all six foot two of him,

trying to keep the men
from breaking and running.

- Don't worry,
there are 2 million

American troops coming
to save us, 2 million.

- [John] Whittlesey writes
a note for a pigeon.

- We are along the
road parallel to 276.4.

Our artillery is dropping
a barrage directly on us.

For heaven's sake, stop it!

[dramatic music]

- Omar reaches for one of his
last two birds, hands shaking.

It escapes into the
fire and is killed.

Whittlesey yells-
- Get another bird!

- Omar reaches for
his final bird,

his favorite bird, Cher Ami.

Under fire, the bird flaps
frantically, circles twice,

lands in a tree,
terrified, not moving.

Whittlesey yells-
- What the hell?

Do something!

- The men yell at the bird, but
this bird speaks no English.

Omar climbs the tree,

and while shaking the
branches, he yells-

[speaker yelling in French]

- Every German gun in
the forest opens up,

and the bird flies!

A breathless hour later,

25 miles later, with
a wound in its breast

and a leg shot off, Cher
Ami lands at the pigeon loft

for the 77th Division.

This bird does
not speak English,

but for God's sakes,
the message does.

[audience applauding]

Taking this little
bird at his word,

an American battalion
pushes forward

to try to relieve
Whittlesey and his men

before they're all dead.

Day four, an air
resupply is attempted.

Two pilots are killed.

Day five, an elite German
flamethrower unit arrives.

Americans are going
to be burned alive.

Rising up with
bayonets and knives,

they repel the German raid.

Day six, they're starving.

The wounded are in agony and
the Germans send a message.

- The suffering of the wounded
can be heard in our lines.

We recommend to your
commander to surrender.

- In response, Whittlesey
calmly and simply

orders his men to remove
anything white from the lines

that might be mistaken
as a sign of surrender,

and a long night follows.

Day seven, U.S. troops
finally link up with them.

Through pure
determination, these boys,

these Americans, have
held the position.

And after the wounded and
dead are finally pulled out,

Whittlesey, who
started with 700 men,

has just 194 left.

He will never let
go of this burden.

The unit is cleaned up
for this photograph.

The uniforms are fresh.

Faces are not.

The Army films Whittlesey
and his cleaned-up men

as they leave the forest.

It makes good press coverage.

You can see Whittlesey in
the front at the far right.

He's turning back
to look at his men

as if he's too shy
to face the cameras.

Every American unit
now continues onward.

Hill after hill,
town after town.

Two young officers do
a lot of the pushing.

One named MacArthur,
another named Patton.

They're rather competitive
in their efforts to die.

The combined pressure
of Belgian, British,

American, French
forces is now felt

all along the German lines,

and those lines
are finally broken,

and for the first time
in four long years,

the feeling of liberation
is in the streets.

[audience applauding]

The Armistice, a peace treaty,
is negotiated in a rail car

about 80 miles north of Paris.

Dining car 2419D,

previously in the service
of the Orient Express.

The Armistice is too
much and too little.

It's economically punitive.

But at the same time, the
German army maintains a force

of a hundred
thousand to grow on.

Hitler will tell the German
people they never lost the war.

Indeed, 20 years later,

rail car 2419D will roll
right into World War II.

It will be captured by
the Germans in 1940.

And Hitler, to his
great joy, will demand

that the French surrender,
in the very same car.

The Armistice is signed at
5:00 AM, November 11th, 1918.

But it does not take
effect until 11:00 AM.

There are 10,000
casualties that morning

before the guns go
silent at 11:00 AM,

forever remembered
as the 11th hour

of the 11th day
of the 11th month.

1919 is the homecoming,

and New Yorkers give
the Harlem Hellfighters

a parade to beat all parades.

We're good at that.

Every newspaper records
the infectious excitement

of the entire city.

- We march up Fifth
Avenue home to Harlem,

my band leading the way.

And it all happens
right down the block

from here, from Carnegie Hall.

I compose a new song,
"Looking to the Future."

♪ Hello, Central ♪

♪ Hello, hurry ♪

♪ Give me 403 ♪

♪ Hello, Mary, hello, deary ♪

♪ Yes, yes, this is me ♪

♪ Just landed on the pier ♪

♪ I found the telephone ♪

♪ We've been parted for a year ♪

♪ Thank God at last I'm home ♪

♪ Haven't time to talk a lot ♪

♪ Though I'm
feeling mighty gay ♪

♪ Little sweet forget-me-not ♪

♪ I've only time to say ♪

♪ All of no man's land is ours ♪

♪ Dear ♪

♪ Now I've come back ♪

♪ To you, my honey true ♪

♪ Wedding bells in Juney June ♪

♪ All will tell
their tuney tune ♪

♪ That victory's won,
the war is over ♪

♪ The whole wide world
is wreathed in clover ♪

♪ Then hand-in-hand we'll
stroll through life, dear ♪

♪ Just think how
happy we will be ♪

♪ I mean, we three ♪

♪ We'll pick a bungalow
amongst the fragrant boughs ♪

♪ And spend a honeymoon
with the blooming flowers ♪

♪ All of no man's land is ours ♪

- In the end, Black
servicemen returned home

to discrimination,
segregation, and Jim Crow.

In the South, if a Black
man comes home in a uniform,

he may find he will be
ordered to strip it off

right there in
the train station.

Many of us pack up our
uniforms away for decades.

Some of our family members
never even know that we served.

But I keep working,
recording song after song.

I want my music to be
the agent of change.

- Six months after the
war ends, backstage,

James Reese Europe is killed
by one of his own band members,

a Hellfighter who
suffers from shell shock.

The war kills James
Reese Europe after all.

Tonight, to honor James
Reese Europe, in his hall,

Carnegie Hall, we have
with us his grandson,

granddaughter, and
great-grandson.

Europe family, would
you please stand?

[majestic music]
[audience applauding]

Charles Whittlesey comes
home, is given a promotion,

and is highly-decorated,
just like Jay Gatsby.

Even Montenegro,
little Montenegro

down by the Adriatic
Sea honors him.

- I want absolutely none of it.

- He breaks his silence only
when he sees others in need.

Wounded veterans, the
population starving in Germany,

immigrants attacked
during the Red Scare.

The very men who fought for him

under his command in the pocket.

He speaks out at the 92nd
Street Y in New York City.

- If I am ever pessimistic about
the future of this country,

I will always feel
assured that I can go

to the crowded
corners of this city

and pick out Herskowitz,
Ceriglio, and O'Brien,

and know that in them I can find

the kind of men that are needed.

- Even after all he's
endured during the war,

Charles Whittlesey
is still striving.

Gatsby's always striving too,

and throughout the novel,
he's symbolically reaching out

toward the green light
he sees across the water.

Whittlesey, Gatsby,
always reaching

for that difficult
thing called America.

In 1926, Fitzgerald
puts it into words.

- France was a land,
England a people,

but America having
about it still

the quality of an idea,
was harder to utter.

It was the graves at Shiloh,

the country boys
dying in the Argonne

for a phrase that was empty
before their bodies withered.

It was a willingness
of the heart.

- Charles Whittlesey, with
a willingness of the heart,

receives the Medal of Honor

one month after the war
ends, on the Boston Common.

20,000 people come to see it.

Vera Brittain will take 15
years to write her book,

"Testament of Youth."

- I write of my work as a
nurse on the front lines

and of lost love.

My Roland, Edward,
Victor, Geoffrey,

the folly of war.

- The entire first print of
her book sells out in days.

"The New York Times" says it's
"heartbreakingly beautiful."

- After I publish my
book, I push ahead.

As a writer, lecturer,
and poet, I speak out,

fighting for
feminism, for peace,

for love, and for
social justice.

- She dies in 1970, and
as requested in her will,

her ashes are spread
over her brother's grave,

a grave that remains high
in the Dolomite Mountains

alongside 142 British soldiers.

Last December, I hike
up into those mountains

and I leave flowers
for Edward, for Vera,

and all those dead soldiers.

Flora will go on to have two
marriages and four children.

- When Mother dies, she leaves
me a private art collection

run as a private museum and
housed in four townhouses

on 8th Street in the
Greenwich Village.

It's quite an effort
to maintain it.

"Sell it or keep it after
I die," Mother declared.

I chose to keep it.

And I turned it into a
public museum for all.

I put my focus on
collections with American art

at a time when American art
did not rank with European art.

In fact, when Mother
proposed to donate

the entire collection to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art

in 1929, they rejected it.

I make a home for American
artists like Edward Hopper,

George Bellows, Jasper Johns,

and Horace Pippin, a
Harlem Hellfighter.

- And now it's one of the
greatest museums in the world,

the Whitney Museum
of American Art.

[audience applauding]

F. Scott Fitzgerald will
publish "The Great Gatsby"

in April of 1925 and
will continue writing

for the rest of his life.

In December of 1927, his
off-and-on friend for decades,

Ernest Hemingway,
will send him a draft

of his World War I novel,
"A Farewell to Arms."

At the end of the novel,

Hemingway writes
truth as he sees it.

- The world breaks everyone.

And afterward many are
strong at the broken places.

But those that will
not break, it kills.

It kills the very good
and the very gentle

and the very brave impartially.

If you're none of these,

you can be sure it
will kill you too,

but there will be
no special hurry.

- F. Scott tells Hemingway it's
one of the greatest passages

ever written in the
English language.

F. Scott Fitzgerald dies

in December of 1940
at the age of 44.

He's broke and he's broken.

He receives $13 in royalties

for "The Great
Gatsby" that year.

It will not be rediscovered
until World War II,

when 155,000 copies are
printed in paperback

for U.S. troops, small enough
to fit in their pocket.

And this is one of
those 155,000 copies.

On the back of it, it reads,

"Here is a story that is
American to its core."

Cher Ami is awarded the French
Croix de Guerre with palm

and comes home to the
United States a hero.

[audience applauding]

He dies of his wounds
in June of 1919

and is preserved
with loving care.

He's a class four
national treasure

and can only be moved
with two guards.

You can go visit him
at the Smithsonian's

National Museum of American
History in Washington, D.C.

[gentle music]

My great uncle, Uncle Sol,

comes home and lives
the rest of his life

in my grandparents'
home, my father's home.

The Sayre family lives on the
same street in Montgomery.

They tell the Monskys that
their daughter, Zelda,

has just married some writer
named F. Scott Fitzgerald.

My father, the boy in the
white pants on the right,

will never forget

how Sol wakes up sweating
and shaking and screaming,

nightmares from the war.

Two years ago my father
is dying, and he knows it,

and gives me one thing
for safe-keeping,

Uncle Sol's Silver Star.

[audience applauding]

Finally, the last person
to come home from the war

is the Unknown Soldier.

And for me, this is where
the war actually ends.

Remarkably, the United
States neither seeks

nor takes any territory
in World War I.

In fact, the only land
that the United States

ends up with are leases
for nine cemeteries

for American dead.

Today, they're
lovingly maintained

by the American Battle
Monuments Commission

of the United States government.

The bodies of a great
number of these soldiers

in these cemeteries
are so damaged

that they cannot be identified.

Their inscriptions
all read the same.

"Here rests in honored glory

an American soldier
known but to God."

[audience applauding]
[gentle music]

In 1921, Congress
votes to create

the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Army randomly selects
one unknown soldier

from the nine cemeteries.

The soldier is carried from
France across the Atlantic

on the pride of the U.S.
fleet, the USS Olympia.

The body lies in state
in the Capitol Rotunda,

an honor never given
before to a "common boy."

November 11th, 1921, is
dedicated a national holiday.

This day will be
our Veteran's Day.

And that morning,
six riderless horses

carry the Unknown Soldier
from the Capitol Rotunda

to Arlington National Cemetery.

The president, the
Congress, the judiciary,

the Army, the Navy, and
1,000 Gold Star Mothers

march with them.

At Arlington, President
Harding delivers his remarks.

The coffin is lowered
into the tomb.

Chief Plenty Coups of
the Apsaalooke tribe

lays down his war
bonnet and lance.

Charles Whittlesey
and George McMurtry

are honorary pallbearers.

Charles whispers to George.

- George, I shouldn't
have come here.

Can't help but wonder

if that's one of my
men from the pocket.

I'll have nightmares tonight

and hear the wounded
screaming again.

- And the president's
own Marine Band

plays "Sursum Corda"
by Edward Elgar.

[gentle orchestral music]

[swelling orchestral music]

[gentle orchestral music]

[dramatic orchestral music]

[dramatic orchestral
music swells]

[audience applauding]

Not long after the ceremony,

after paying his rent,
clearing off his desk,

Whittlesey boards
a ship for Havana.

He's soon recognized
and cannot avoid

dinner at the captain's table.

The captain asks him if there's
anything he can do for him.

The only thing
Whittlesey asks for

is the score of
the Army-Navy game.

Captain gets it
over the wireless.

He has a nightcap in the lounge
with some of the passengers.

He looks rested,
somehow relieved.

And for the first time in
a long time when asked,

he talks about the war.

Sometime after midnight, Charles
Whittlesey jumps overboard.

He dies in the water,
just like Jay Gatsby.

Charles Whittlesey
is just 37 years old.

In his cabin, Whittlesey
leaves nine letters.

They're lost to
history, except for one,

that you will find in the
Williams College Library.

It's to his friend and former
law partner, Bayard Pruyn.

- Dear Bayard, just a
note to say goodbye.

I'm a misfit by nature
and by training,

and there's an end of it.

I'm sorry to wish upon
you the job of executor,

but there is very little to do.

I won't try to say
anything personal, Bayard,

because you and I
understand each other.

Give my love to Edith. As
ever, Charles Whittlesey.

- The body of Charles
Whittlesey is never found.

The Unknown Soldier at
Arlington National Cemetery

remains forever faceless.

Every day, all day long
and all night long,

an honor guard marches
in front of his tomb.

21 steps across, 21 steps back.

It's a willingness of
the heart. It's America.

And as the honor guard
takes those steps

late at night in the
stillness of the night,

we hear the last line
of "The Great Gatsby."

"So we beat on, boats
against the current,

borne back ceaselessly
into the past."

[gentle music]

♪ Nights are growing
very lonely ♪

♪ Days are very long ♪

♪ I'm a-growing weary only ♪

♪ Listening for your song ♪

♪ Old remembrances
are thronging ♪

♪ Through my memory ♪

♪ Till it seems the
world is full of dreams ♪

♪ Just to pull you back to me ♪

♪ There's a long,
long trail a-winding ♪

♪ Into the land of my dreams ♪

♪ Where the nightingales
are singing ♪

♪ And a wide moon beams ♪

♪ It's a long, long
night of waiting ♪

♪ Until my dreams
all come true ♪

♪ Till the day when
I'll be going ♪

♪ Down that long,
long trail with you ♪

♪ And when they ask us ♪

♪ How dangerous it was ♪

♪ Oh, we'll never tell them ♪

♪ No, we'll never tell them ♪

♪ We spent our
pay in some cafe ♪

♪ And fought wild
women night and day ♪

♪ 'Twas the cushiest
job we ever had ♪

♪ And when they ask us ♪
♪ It's a long, long trail ♪

♪ And they're certainly going ♪

♪ To ask us ♪
♪ Into the land of my dreams ♪

♪ It's a long, long time ♪
♪ There's a long, long night ♪

♪ Till my dreams come true ♪

♪ Until my dreams come true ♪

♪ Till the day when
I'll be going ♪

♪ Down that long,
long trail with you ♪

[gentle orchestral music]

♪ Till the day when
I'll be going ♪

♪ Down that long, long trail ♪

♪ With you ♪

[deep orchestral music]

[audience applauding]

[audience cheering]