All language subtitles for PBS.Ken.Burns.The.War.6of7.The.Ghost.Front_track3_[eng]-eng

(wind whistling)

(machine gun fire)

(machine gun fire continues)

(men shouting)

(shouting)

(wind whistling)

RAY LEOPOLD:
In the process of this battle,

we took about 18 or 19
German prisoners.

A young man approximately 24
years of age turned to me,

and in a voice completely
accent-free, he said,

"Where are you from?"

I said,
"I'm from the United States."

"Where in the United States?"

"The Northeast," I said.

"Where Northeast?"

I said, "I'm from Connecticut."

"Where in Connecticut?"

He was persisting.

I said, "Yes, I'm from
Waterbury, Connecticut."

"Ah, yes," he said, "Waterbury,

at the junction of the Naugatuck
and Mad Rivers."

Now, you have to know
a bit about the area.

The Naugatuck
is a fairly substantial river,

but the Mad River
is a little stream

that you can jump across
without any trouble.

Anyone who knew this...
I was puzzled.

I said, "How did you possibly
know that?"

He said, "lI was in training
for the administration."

"The administration of what?"
I said.

He said, "The administration
of the territories."

My blood ran cold.

I couldn't imagine that Hitler--

in his wildest imagination--

not only had figured

he practically had Europe
in his grasp,

but he also figured that he
would control America, too.

(wind whistling)

(distant artillery explosions)

PAUL FUSSELL:
You had no possessions at all.

You would cut everything down
to the simplest,

‘cause you had
to carry everything.

When we were marching
from one horror to another,

I had shoepacks on because the
ground was always wet or frozen.

I had two pairs of woolen socks.

In my pockets I carried probably
a couple of, uh...

boxes of K-rations.

I never had
a toothbrush at all.

I didn't take a shower
for six months.

No change of underwear at all.

No change of clothes
at all for months.

And I had a sleeping bag
which I carried with a rope

over my shoulder like a tramp.

And, uh, that's all I had.

NARRATOR:
More than 16 million Americans
served in the armed forces

during the war.

The vast majority of them
never saw serious combat.

The infantry represented
just 14% of the troops overseas.

But wherever they fought--

in North Africa
or the South Pacific

or Western Europe--

the infantry bore the brunt
of the fighting on the ground

and suffered seven
out of ten casualties.

And they endured hardships
and horrors

for which no training
could ever have prepared them.

BURNETT MILLER:
You know, you get
hardened to it.

I stayed in a hole for an hour
and a half

or something like that--
it seemed like that anyway--

with a dead German.

And it's kind
of an eerie feeling.

Uh, but you're so worried,

really, about yourself
at that time

that you didn't think
too much about it.

But you get really hardened
to seeing

a lot of gruesome sights.

And that worries you
as much as anything.

You think, "My gosh.

"I saw so-and-so
get killed today

"and then he got run over by
a tank and just a horrible mess

and it didn't bother me at all."

But about a week after
the war ended,

I saw an automobile accident

and I got sick as I normally
would before the war.

NARRATOR:
By December of 1944, Americans
were growing weary of the war

their young men had been
fighting for three long years.

In Europe, it was supposed
to be over by now.

The generals who had directed
the fighting

from far behind the lines

had been predicting victory
for months.

It had not happened.

In the Pacific,

American progress had been slow
and costly.

The enemy showed no sign
of giving up.

And on a tiny volcanic island
called Iwo Jima,

the Marines would face still
another terrible test.

For the people of Luverne,
Minnesota,

and Waterbury, Connecticut,

Sacramento, California,
and Mobile, Alabama,

and every other town struggling
to absorb it all,

the stream of telegrams
and newspaper headlines

telling of new losses

seemed endless and unendurable.

For their sons overseas
it was, of course, far worse.

(explosions)

For them there was no option

but to fight on
and try to stay alive.

Ray Leopold, a mortgage broker
from Waterbury,

who had been trained
to kill people,

would find himself trying
to save them instead.

Burnett Miller, the only child

of a prosperous
Sacramento family,

would be caught up
in the biggest--

and least expected--
battle on the Western Front.

Quentin Aanenson of Luverne,

who had dealt out death
from the air,

would now encounter it close up,
on the ground.

And 11-year-old
Sascha Weinzheimer,

a prisoner of the Japanese,
whose fondest dream

was that her world might simply
return to normal,

would have the happiest day
of her life.

TOM GALLOWAY:
Basically, getting shot at
or shelled is just plain scary.

You just hope that, uh...
it misses you.

When the artillery's coming in,
you think, "Oh, God,

it's covering such an area
and I hope it doesn't hit me."

We would wish they'd just start
using rifles, you know?

Well, when you get

to where a bullet whizzes
by your head...

you know that's personal...
(laughs) you know?

You better get out of the way.

NARRATOR:
Since the summer of 1944, Hitler
had been secretly planning

a massive counterattack,

an all-out attempt to divide
and destroy the Allied armies

before they could move further
into Germany.

His target would be
the Ardennes--

rolling forested hills
in Belgium and Luxembourg

through which German troops
had advanced toward France

twice before,
in 1914 and again in 1940.

It was now thinly defended.

His armies were to break through
the unsuspecting Americans,

race for Antwerp, cut off
the British army in the north

and drive it into the sea.

Most of Hitler's commanders
thought it madness.

They had lost nearly four
million men since the war began.

They had too little fuel
for a major mechanized advance.

The once-mighty Luftwaffe
had largely been destroyed.

But Hitler was implacable.

"The coming battle,"
he said, would decide

"whether we shall live or die."

Every able-bodied German male
between the ages of 16 and 60

was made eligible for service.

25 new divisions,

called "the people's infantry,"
were formed--

250,000 fresh troops--

convicts and the infirm,
old men and young boys,

and conscripts
from occupied countries

who didn't speak
a word of German.

Preparations for the attack
would take time

and demanded utter secrecy.

Hitler would not launch it
until he was certain

winter weather and dense fog

would keep Allied aircraft
on the ground.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant
Tom Galloway of Mobile

and his division were among
the American troops

who happened to be stationed
in the Ardennes.

GALLOWAY:
We were in Luxembourg rebuilding
after Hurtgen Forest,

because the losses
were kind of heavy.

There, like we had a front,

the division had a front
of some 20 miles.

Well, because
it was a quiet area

and nothing was going to happen,
I fired 25 rounds a day.

I'd go up in the morning
and fire just one at the time,

just to let them know
we were there.

(Duke Ellington's
"Solitude" playing)

NARRATOR:
There were only four
U.S. infantry divisions

in the Ardennes-- 80,000 men,
stretched out along a front

that ran some 80 miles
from north to south.

Two of the divisions
had seen little combat.

The other two--
the Fourth and Galloway's 28th--

had been battered by weeks
of desperate fighting

in the HUrtgen Forest,

and had been sent
to the Ardennes to rest.

Ray Leopold, of Waterbury,

was serving with the 28th, too.

He had been trained as a sniper.

LEOPOLD:
We were in a place
called Malmedy-St. Vith,

at a little place
called Sevenig Hill.

You could put one foot
in France, one foot in Belgium,

and spit into Germany
at this particular spot.

NARRATOR:
One frosty morning, after
several hours of guard duty,

Leopold stood up to stretch.

A German sniper shot him
in the left thigh.

(gunshot, soft thud)

As chance would have it,

I had picked up
a German medic's kit

a couple of days before,
lying in the field.

And I doctored my own wound,

because our own medic
had been killed.

And, with the German equipment,
I probed for the bullet.

I extracted it.

I cleansed the wound.

I doctored it myself.

Two days later, when I got
to battalion aid station,

the captain looked at the wound

and said, "This is wonderful.
Who did it?"

I told him that I had.

He then told me,

"Leopold,
I have a proposition for you.

I'm going to make you a medic."

I, thereafter,
never carried a gun.

(soft thud)
MAN:
Strike!

(men cheering)

NARRATOR:
For the most part,

the war seemed a long way away
from the Ardennes,

and the men took full advantage
of the facilities

for rest and recreation.

Life there was so quiet,
so uneventful,

that some of the men
called it the "ghost front."

MARLENE DIETRICH:
§ Outside the barracks,
by the corner light §

§ I'll always stand
and wait for you at night §

§ We will create
a world for two §

§ I'll wait for you
the whole night through §

§ For you, Lili Marlene §

§ For you,
Lili Marlene. §

(accordion and orchestra
playing interlude)

§ It's you §

§ Lili Marlene. §

NARRATOR:
But just a few miles
to the east,

hidden beneath the trees,

Hitler's army was making
the final preparations

for its surprise attack.

There were signs that
something was going on.

Civilians slipped
through the lines

to report growing numbers
of German troops.

Spotter planes
noted hospital trains

and massive Tiger tanks
loaded on flatcars.

At night, Gls heard
the distant rumble of motors.

GALLOWAY:
I did know that roads
would not have snow on them

in the morning,

which meant there was traffic
on those roads at night.

Report it, but I didn't
put any significance to it.

NARRATOR:
Allied headquarters
paid little attention.

General Omar Bradley
remained convinced

the German army
had been wrecked.

Then, at 5:30 a.m.
on December 16,

thousands of guns opened up.

The shells fell on and around
the American positions

for an hour.

(clamoring shouts)

A few moments later,
the enemy began to emerge

out of the dense fog
that shrouded the forest.

(rapid automatic gunfire)

(soldiers shouting)

And, uh, of course,
the Bulge broke right there.

And, as I say, when
they fired the first round,

it darn near hit me.

From then on, it got worse.

(artillery explosions)

But, uh... they came
barreling over there,

and, uh... just right into us.

NARRATOR:
20 German infantry divisions
were moving forward

along a 50-mile front--
a quarter of a million men.

Behind them roared 600 tanks.

LEOPOLD:
On the adjoining ridge,

which was only
a half-mile from us,

sitting up as bold as brass,

several German tanks in line,

with the driver sitting
in his black uniform,

were coming down paths
that could not, in our opinion,

possibly have taken a tank.

Footpaths.

But there it was.

The gigantic tanks,
with their 88-mm guns,

were coming down this path
in single file.

GALLOWAY:
You just had waves of Germans
coming at you.

We had one machine gun
just mowing them down.

They'd keep coming
right down the road,

right into that machine gun.

But there were waves of them.

NARRATOR:
The Germans kept coming
at the Americans,

pushing them back
or flowing around them.

As Hitler had hoped,
thick clouds and ground fog

kept Allied warplanes
out of the sky.

Some men simply fled.

Surrounded by the enemy,
cut off from one another,

out of ammunition
and unable to fight back,

others were forced
to surrender--

more than 10,000 men.

Most struggled to hold on.

Clerks and truck drivers
who had never fired a carbine

found themselves in combat.

Some officers acted
like traffic cops,

trying to restore order to
the chaos on the clogged roads.

GALLOWAY:
At, uh, one point I'm there

and I'm trying
to figure out tactics.

And to be perfectly honest,
I figured,

as a junior officer
in the artillery

I'd be a forward observer

and I didn't have to worry
about tactics too much.

As it ended up, here I am
in charge and trying to say,

"Why did you sleep through
tactics?" and, uh...

It makes you think.

NARRATOR:
The Germans continued
to advance.

On December 17,

an SS panzer unit
ambushed an American convoy

near a tiny village
called Malmedy,

captured and disarmed 150 men,

and then gunned down
at least 86 of them.

They also butchered
scores of Belgian civilians.

News of the killing spread fast
among the embattled Americans.

LEOPOLD:
Archie Costran was the first
sergeant of our outfit.

Came up to me
within the hour

with word of what had happened
at the Malmedy massacre

only two miles away from us.

He said, "If you are captured

and identified as Jewish,
you will not live."

He said, "Ray, why don't
you do what I'm doing?

"Take your dog tags,
with its big letter 'H' on it,

"wrap it around your hand,
put your glove back on.

If, by chance, you're ever
forced to surrender," he said,

"as you raise your hand,
throw the glove,

together with the dog tag,
into the snow and step on it."

For 12 days, my hand had
the dog tag wrapped around it.

NARRATOR:
The Germans succeeded
in smashing through the center

and spreading out to create
a 50-mile salient,

a "bulge" in the Allied line.

The Americans managed to keep
the breakthrough from widening

by holding on to two villages--

St. Vith to the north
and Bastogne in the south.

GALLOWAY:
The unit tightened up,
and we held...

(rapid automatic gunfire)

Until... we had about
a day, two days,

and then we had
to start dropping back.

So we'd drop back and fire,
drop back and fire.

At that time I didn't know it,

but apparently we were
trying to protect Bastogne.

I had never heard of Bastogne.

I didn't know there
was such a place,

but we were trying
to protect Bastogne.

NARRATOR:
The little town commanded

seven all-weather roads.

Keeping the Germans from gaining
control of those roads

was now the Allies'
highest priority.

GALLOWAY:
I was asked to go out and ride
recon, and that was a mistake.

And I reported that, uh...
German tanks were coming,

and I could hear them speaking,
"Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

so, uh, I had to back up.

NARRATOR:
But it was too late.

Tom Galloway and his men
were surrounded.

They hid in a house.

GALLOWAY:
They brought a tank up,
shot that house up pretty bad.

NARRATOR:
Left with no other option,
Galloway surrendered.

Well, you never think
you're going to get caught.

You think, "It's not
going to happen to me."

NARRATOR:
He and some
of his fellow captives

were sent deep inside Germany

to a prison camp 40 miles
east of Frankfurt.

Meanwhile, the 101st Airborne
was ordered to hold Bastogne

until other reinforcements
could reach the Ardennes.

While elements of the First Army
drove south toward the forest,

General George Patton's
Third Army

began a headlong rush north

to try to relieve Bastogne

before the enemy could take it.

The Germans encircled the town
and began to shell it.

(frenzied shouting)

The surrounded Americans

began running out
of ammunition, food...

medicine.

(shell whizzing, exploding)

On December 22, German
officers under a white flag

approached the American
commander at Bastogne,

General Anthony McAuliffe
of the 101st Airborne.

The Americans' situation
was hopeless, they said.

The town was surrounded.

They demanded
the Americans surrender.

McAuliffe had a one-word
answer: "Nuts!"

The Germans had
no idea what he meant,

but they returned to their lines
and the shelling started again.

But the next morning,

the skies cleared

and were quickly filled
with Allied planes,

bombing and strafing
German armor

and dropping supplies
and ammunition

to the besieged Americans.

They were still surrounded,

still cut off
from help on the ground,

but now, at least
they had food to eat

and ammunition
with which to shoot back.

And they were fast
becoming a symbol back home...

of American resistance.

KATHARINE PHILLIPS:
The Battle of the Bulge
was publicized.

We knew they were
holding out in Bastogne.

And we were all
cheering them on.

Again, we know now
how dreadful it was,

but we were very conscious
of the Battle of the Bulge,

because we felt like we
had just about completed

that campaign in Europe.

And when this
counterattack came,

it came as a blow
to the entire nation.

("Silent Night" playing)

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT:
It is not easy to say
"Merry Christmas"

to you, my fellow Americans,

in this time
of destructive war.

Nor can I say
"Merry Christmas" lightly

tonight to our armed forces

at their battle stations
all over the world.

NARRATOR:
General Eisenhower,
as surprised as anyone

by the success
of the German advance,

nevertheless saw the opportunity
embedded in the crisis.

The Germans were
on the offensive

for the first time
since Normandy,

but that meant
they were exposed

and could be themselves
surrounded and cut off.

On Christmas Day,
30 miles west of Bastogne,

the Americans stopped
the German advance.

The following day,

American tanks
broke through the German lines

and linked up with the 101st
Airborne inside Bastogne.

The men there celebrated
a belated Christmas,

despite the shells and bombs

that continued
to fall around them

and the fighting that lay ahead.

("O Holy Night" playing)

(artillery exploding)

(men shouting)

SASCHA WEINZHEIMER (dramatized):
"I am making

"a few Christmas gifts
for Buddy and Doris

"and bookmarks
for all my friends.

"Mother said it was best
to forget it this year,

"but we can't, on account
of the little kids.

"She told them, because of the
anti-aircraft guns in Manila,

"Uncle Sam told Santa
to keep away this year

and leave his gifts
for the kids in San Francisco."

(shells whistling)

(explosions)

"When you stop
and think how hard

our boys are fighting for us,
I guess we can take it, too."

"But just a little more rice
would be all I can ask for.

"We always picture Opa and Oma
on their farm in California.

"If they only knew
how hungry we are,

"they would be very sad.

"I guess even when we tell them,

they will never,
ever believe it."

Sascha Weinzheimer.

NARRATOR:
The grandparents Sascha
Weinzheimer called Opa and Oma

lived in the Sacramento Valley.

Her grandfather blamed himself

for his family's captivity
in the Philippines.

When they'd asked to go home

in the weeks
before Pearl Harbor,

he'd insisted they stay
where they were,

certain there would be no war.

Once he knew they
had been imprisoned,

he had tried to get messages
and Red Cross packages to them

month after month.

His health began to fail.

My dad walked me to the main
building for my siesta

because the camp shut down,
um, for three hours

in the heat of the day.

("O Little Town
of Bethlehem" plays)

So he stopped at the desk,
and they said,

"Oh, we have a Red Cross
telegram for you."

It was from my grandmother.

And it said my grandfather...

he had passed
eight months prior...

and we were just getting it.

He stood there and cried,

and then walked me
up to my room.

Everybody told us

that my grandfather
literally died

of a broken heart.

NARRATOR:
That evening, the family
did its best

to celebrate the holiday.

They made a tree
out of a palm branch

stuck in a tin can
filled with dirt

and lined up at the canteen
with the other prisoners

for a special treat--

two tablespoons of jam
and one bite of chocolate.

Sascha thought it all delicious,

even though "there were tiny
white worms in the chocolate."

During the night,

American planes
could be heard overhead again

and scores of leaflets
fluttered out of the dark sky--

Christmas greetings

from the troops fighting
their way across the Philippines

toward Manila...

toward them.

BURT WILSON:
I became a Sacramento Bee
news carrier at the age of ten,

and for me, the war was

that little square map
on the front page

where it showed wavy lines
moving in some direction,

and then the next day you'd
see them move a little more,

and arrows pointed
here and there

where different armies
were going.

And then, all of a sudden,

there was this bulge in the map

that was going back
the other way.

That was the Battle
of the Bulge.

And, my God,
what's happening here?

Are we losing now
that we're this close?

We all took it
seriously because...

the lines had moved
the other way.

(distant shouting
and artillery explosions)

OLLIE STEWART (dramatized):
"This is being written

"on the verge of the New Year,

"when all along
the Western Front

"the outcome still remains
in doubt.

"When German parachutists
were known

"to have been dropped behind
American lines

"dressed in American uniforms,
it became necessary

"to demand identification papers
from everybody.

"But with colored troops,
it was only a matter of form,

"since the Germans have no known
colored soldiers.

"I was halted many times,

but my face
was my best identification."

Ollie Stewart,
The Baltimore Afro-American.

(shouting, rapid gunfire)

(wind whistling)

BURNETT MILLER:
I think that we went

to have a great experience.

And all of a sudden
we were having

more of a great experience
than we really had reckoned for.

We were scared
to death, of course.

NARRATOR:
Burnett Miller of Sacramento,
who had been raised a few blocks

from where Burt Wilson lived,

was a private in the 21st
Armored Infantry Battalion,

11th Armored Division.

He was among the thousands
of American troops

ordered into the Ardennes

to relieve Bastogne
and drive the Germans back.

It would be Miller's
first real taste of war.

MILLER:
We crossed France,

went through parts of Belgium

and hit the Bulge
in a big snowstorm.

Our vehicles
became almost inoperable.

(artillery explosions)

(clamoring shouts)

And the tanks, one after
another, were blown up,

and we could see dead tankers

and wounded tankers running
for cover all over the place.

That was not a pretty sight.

We bailed out of these tracks

and started running
through the snow

to get some kind of coverage...

...and actually retreated
back up onto a hill,

dug in and spent that night
in a big snowstorm.

We were wet, and I thought,

"Boy, I don't think
we can make it."

(shell explodes)

And that night there were tracer
bullets all over--

lots of artillery--
very, very scary.

And you'd rationalize things,
like nothing worse can happen

but getting killed.

But there... there were things
worse than being killed.

(somber blues music plays)

NARRATOR:
In the Ardennes, the fighting
and the dying went on.

It was the coldest winter
in memory.

Many men were without winter
boots or winter coats.

Thousands lost fingers,
toes or feet to frostbite.

MILLER:
Lots of our equipment
wasn't very good.

We always had frozen feet

because our shoes were really
very, very poor.

Also, you know, we went to,
into combat in the Bulge

in the same overcoats
we went to London in

and they were big, bulky,
miserable things

that would get wet.

And pretty soon we were looking

for German prisoners
or German dead.

They had nice, white, bunny fur
jackets that were just terrific,

not only comfortable and warm,
but were white and camouflaged.

HERNDON INGE:
Morale, I thought, kept up
because you were with people.

That as long as you were
with other Gls in the snow

and in the misery,
if you had somebody next to you,

you figured, "Well, they can
handle it, I can handle it."

You just, uh...
keep moving ahead.

(artillery whizzing, exploding)

(men shouting)

(soldiers shouting)

NARRATOR:
In the chaotic fighting
that followed,

some towns changed hands
four times.

Civilians hid in cellars

as their homes were destroyed
above them.

Allied troops had to recapture
the ground they had lost

inch by frozen inch,
sometimes reoccupying foxholes

they'd been forced from
just a few weeks earlier.

(men shouting, explosions)

The Americans lost an average
of 1,600 men a day.

Among the dead were Private
John Tavera of Sacramento,

Corporal Lester Bendt
of Luverne,

Private First Class Domenic
DeRosimo of Waterbury

and Private First Class Jesse
Leon Hattenstien of Mobile.

(shell whizzes, explodes)

Those who were killed
and wounded were replaced

by thousands of green troops--
mostly high-school boys--

who had been rushed through
basic training.

(gunfire)

Many replacements died before
officers could learn their names

and were replaced by still more
frightened newcomers.

KATHARINE PHILLIPS:
I had a friend who claimed

he was sent
into the Battle of the Bulge

with six weeks' training
and a new rifle.

Graylap said if he had not been
shootin' squirrels all his life,

he would have
been completely lost.

But he shot the Germans
like he would squirrels

and that was it.

NARRATOR:
Some officers ordered their men
to take no German prisoners.

The memory of the massacre
of American troops

at Malmedy remained fresh.

MILLER:
We had been held up
at a little town.

We were supposed
to just walk through it,

and the Germans stopped us dead.

We just couldn't crack it.

Fire!

Eventually artillery came in...

sort of leveled the houses.

They finally surrendered,

and they came out
and sort of lined up

and per usual, no one knew
what was going on.

(men shouting)

We had a new battalion
commander,

just graduated from West Point,
and he lined 'em up and said,

"I want you to shoot 'em."

And I was horrified.

Quite a few of us
were horrified.

And I went to him and told him,
you know,

that this was against all
international law and humanity.

My good buddy, who I'd spent
so much time with,

grabbed me and said,
"This nut'll shoot you.

You better quit...
knock this off, and..."

And he got enough guys and they
shot these about 25 prisoners.

It was a terrible thing to see,

and I talked to a lot of my
buddies who had shot these guys

and they were horrified, too.

(wind whistling)

NARRATOR:
By January 30, 1945,

six weeks after the German
offensive in the Ardennes began,

six weeks after the start
of the Battle of the Bulge,

the Allies had finally managed

to regain all the ground
they'd lost.

It had been the biggest battle
of the war on the Western Front.

More than a million men
took part.

19,000 Americans died.

60,000 more had been wounded

or captured or listed
as missing.

Hitler's enormous gamble
had ended in disaster.

He had lost some 100,000 men

and virtually all his tanks
and aircraft

and now had no way
of replacing them.

(explosions)

And in the east, the Russian
army was blasting its way

closer to Berlin every day.

(explosions)

LEOPOLD:
They had blown up
our chow truck.

So these big aluminum cans

that contained the variety
of food they had

were spaced
about 40, 50 feet apart.

If a shell came in, it would
only kill one or two men,

instead of groups of us if we
were all blocked together.

We walked down the line slowly
and opened up our mess kits

and in the big pan
of your mess Kit,

the first man placed
two pieces of toast.

The second man put a nice
half-inch-thick piece

of magnificent roast beef
covering most of the toast.

The third man a ladle of gravy
over all of it.

Everything was fine.

The next man gave us a scoopful

of reconstituted
dried peas and carrots.

It was proper.

It was good.

It was on one side.

And finally we came
to the end of the line.

And the end of the line,
the man reached in

and took a great big scoop
of chocolate pudding

and covered
this magnificent roast beef

from one side to the other
with chocolate pudding.

I don't know how many of you
have ever had

chocolate pudding roast beef.

But I can tell you,
despite this fact--

despite the insult
that must have come

to this beautiful piece
of meat--

we loved every single bite.

I still remember
chocolate-flavored roast beef.

(airplane engines droning)

NARRATOR:
On January 8,
an American plane had flown low

over Santo Tomas prison camp
in Manila

and dropped new leaflets.

They, too, were addressed to
the people of the Philippines.

"General MacArthur
has returned," they said.

"He will tell you
over the radio,

"in proclamation and leaflet,

"exactly how and when
you can help.

Watch closely
for these instructions."

SASCHA WEINZHEIMER (dramatized):
"Gosh!

"Maybe soon we can sing
'God Bless America' out loud.

"Maybe we can see
our flag flying again.

"What a thrill it will be

when our first boys
come through that gate."

(piano playing
"God Bless America")

"Mother says we fought
this war, too... like soldiers.

"People are dying
every day from starvation.

"Fred Fairman
and Mrs. Everett yesterday.

"We have such
a short time to go.

"What a pity they couldn't hang
on to life just a while longer.

"Mother weighs only 73 pounds.

"She used to weigh 148.

"And Dr. Allen says she has
to stay in bed from now on

because she can't walk."

SASCHA WEINZHEIMER:
When I'd get bouts
of really severe hunger--

it comes over you like waves--

and then I'd do something
to distract me.

Like drumming on the side
of the shanty, or making noise,

or even go screaming
a little bit,

just to get it out of your
system, and then I'd go on.

But the kids would cry...

and grab their throat,

or they'd grab their belly
and go up to my mother.

That... that probably
was a very bad thing, you know,

to see your kids do.

WEINZHEIMER (dramatized):
"January 17.

"Buddy's favorite expression is,
'Let's talk about food.'

"He has a favorite suit, too,
which he calls his 'Gate' suit.

"He's been taking this suit out
almost every day for months,

"putting it on the bed
and saying,

"I'l put my Gate things
right here, Mummy,

"so I can be ready.

"All of us have something saved
to wear out the gate.

"All of us except Daddy,

"who has been barefooted now
for six months.

"I don't need a thing
for the gate

‘except two good legs
to walk out with,' he said."

"February 1.

"This morning,
Auntie Bee came to visit.

"She works in the hospital.

"She says the doctors
expect seven more to die today,

all from starvation."

DANIEL INOUYE:
To me, the real heroes
of the war

were those who very seldom
get medals.

They're the medics.

Whenever a man gets injured,

he very, very seldom calls out

for his sweetheart
or his mother.

First thing he calls out
is the medic.

He always says, "Medic!"

And whenever that word is heard,
the medic rushes over.

And to rush over,
he is just dodging bullets.

That takes guts.

(rapid artillery fire)

(men shouting)

LEO GOLDBERG:
Munitions are a terrible thing.

It tears a person apart.

It's not a clean cut.
It tears. It rips.

I can't imagine what
the medics went through.

You know, they were right there,

and they were patching people up
who were bleeding to death.

So my heart goes out
to those boys.

NARRATOR:
Medics were paid ten dollars
less per month

than the men they tried to save.

Many were pacifists
and conscientious objectors,

unwilling to take lives,
but willing

to risk their own lives
to save others.

Like the men they tended,

they learned to improvise
in combat.

During the Battle of the Bulge,

they kept morphine
and plasma inside their shorts

to keep it from freezing.

In the Pacific,

some dyed the red crosses
on their helmets green

to make themselves less likely
targets for the Japanese.

And everywhere,
they were forced

to make terrible choices.

LEOPOLD:
If you're in a firefight

and you see a party
that is wounded

in a way that you know
he cannot survive,

you must pass him by,

even though he may be calling
to you for help,

and you must doctor somebody

whose life
you potentially can save.

And it's a terrible decision
you have to make

to pass somebody by
who is in need of comfort

but is not going to live.

It's never pleasant
to do the work of a medic.

But it's one of the essentials
of civilized behavior.

NARRATOR:
There were some wounds
no medic could treat.

(film projector clacking)

What were you
afraid of?

Everything.

What in particular?

Dead.

What?

Dead.

Dead what?

Dead people.
I can't...

stand seeing them.

I can't hear you.

I can't stand
seeing dead people.

NARRATOR:
There were many names for it--

"shell shock," "battle fatigue,"
"combat exhaustion."

One out of four
of all the Army men

evacuated for medical reasons
in Europe and the Pacific

suffered from some form
of neuropsychiatric disorder.

(shell explodes)

(rapid artillery fire)

Army planners determined
that the average soldier

could withstand no more
than 240 days of combat

without going mad.

(rapid artillery fire,
men shouting)

By that time, though,

the average soldier was more
than likely dead or wounded.

(insects chittering)

(jaunty piano jazz playing)

NAT KING COLE:
§ Knock me a kiss,
you'll never miss §

§ When I'm ready to go §

§ But if you can't smile
and say yes §

§ Please don't cry
and say no §

§ Squeeze me a squoze
in these fine clothes §

§ Mmm... I love you so §

§ But if you can't smile
and say yes §

§ Please don't cry
and say no. §

DOLORES SILVA:
During that time,
they had a lot of pinup girls.

Betty Grable had a picture
of herself in her bathing suit,

and she's glancing back
over her shoulder.

And it's a back view and,
oh, it was gorgeous.

So I says, "My Norman is going
to have his own pinup picture.

And I had a red and white
polka-dot bikini.

But you could
either wear it low,

if you had enough nerve
to do it,

or you could wear it
all the way to the top.

Well, anyway, I put on
my red and white bikini,

and went out in the backyard,
and I gave my mother my camera.

I says, "Here. Take a picture.

"I want to send it to Norman.

I'm going to be his pinup girl."

And he carried that
through the war with him,

and he said that he received
a lot of comments

from his buddies
when they saw that picture,

because after some of them saw
it, they says, well,

they looked at him, and they
looked back at the picture

and they looked at him again,

and they says,
"What does she see in you?"

(laughs)

And I had a picture
of him on my desk--

one that he took in France--

so I was with him,
and he was with me.

SAM HYNES:
The best joke I remember

about the war, uh...

was not a joke that was told,
but that one saw.

I think it was on Eniwetok,
in the, uh...

in the Officers' Club bar.

Above the bar, uh...

there was, uh...
an enormous brassiere,

as I remember, mounted
on a board like a tarpon.

And underneath, it said,
"Remember Pearl Olson."

(men shouting)

SASCHA WEINZHEIMER (dramatized):
"February 3, 1945.

"At about 5:00 last night,

"ten of our planes came over
our camp.

One pilot dropped his goggles
with a note tied to them."

"It fell
in the main building patio

"where there weren't any Nips,

"and a lucky friend of ours
found it

"because we found out right away
what it said:

"'Roll out the barrel!

"Your Christmas will be here
today or tomorrow."

"Shortly we heard guns
and tanks in the distance.

"Everyone thought it must be
the Japs, except Daddy.

He was sure
it was the Americans."

(gunfire)

The liberation was the most
exciting thing in my life.

And if I cry, you'll forgive me.

So on the third of February,

my father walked me
to the main building.

But while we were walking,

we heard these big rumblings
in the distance.

And usually when that happened,

we could, all right, we had
trained ears by this point.

We knew it was the big bombers
coming overhead.

But as we walked, we noticed

the... it was, the noise was
getting louder and louder,

but there was no planes
appearing.

And we thought that was weird.

And people were coming out of
their shacks and saying, "Gee!

Isn't...
this is a different thing."

Fire!

(gunfire)

And we heard guns going off.

The Brits were saying,
"Oh, it's the Brits!

"The Brits are coming!

They're here!
The Limeys are here!"

And the Americans said,
"Don't be silly.

This is the Americans coming."

So, we were doing...

rushing back and forth,

and because of the fire,
the firing and the noise,

people were just running around,
you know?

They weren't staying put.

All of a sudden-- and it was,
we didn't know this till later--

it was, like, three minutes
to 9:00 in the evening,

they came through, crashed
through the front gates

with their tanks.

And it was wonderful.

People went crazy.

You'd think the war was over,
but it wasn't.

My mother was bedridden
at 73 pounds.

My mother always said,

"Now, let's always keep one item
to wear when our boys come in."

So she had
a half-eaten lipstick.

I had something, I forgot,
a sock, which is now, you know,

no shoes, there's no point
in wearing a sock.

My sister had a clip,
a barrette.

And so when my father picked up
my mother

and ran out of the shanty,
she says, "Wait! Wait!"

So he couldn't understand why.

She said, "Go back."

So she reached underneath
her mattress

and pulled out her lipstick
and put it on.

She said, "Now I'm ready
for my boys."

(vehicle engine humming)

(dramatic newsreel music plays)

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
At Santo Tomas prison in Manila,

safe at last, the internees
gather for evacuation back home.

Pitifully undernourished,

they can still chop wood
to cook their new Army rations.

News from home,
after three long years;

the Red Cross distributes
letters from loved ones

these internees had thought they
might never hear from again.

(crowd cheering)

NARRATOR:
As Gls escorted the Japanese
guards out of the camp,

some of the children
ran after them shouting,

"Make them bow, boys!
Make them bow!"

Four days later,

General MacArthur himself
visited Santo Tomas.

WEINZHEIMER:
February 7 is my birthday.

I had turned 12.

And MacArthur came in
for 20 minutes,

greeted the prisoners and left.

(shell whizzing)

(thud, explosion)

And as soon as he left, the Japs
started shelling the camp.

And we had a lot of internees
that were Killed.

A lot of soldiers,
Gls that were killed.

And it was just one
of those wild things that...

There was
just blood everywhere,

and stretchers
and, um, people running.

There were two days of shelling.

We spent two days
in the central kitchen

until they found the nest.

NARRATOR:
The battle for Manila
would go on for a month.

Most of the city was destroyed.

A thousand Americans died.

So did 16,000 Japanese soldiers

and nearly 100,000 Filipino
civilians

hit by artillery fire

or slaughtered
by their retreating captors.

WEINZHEIMER (dramatized):
"March 8.

"Major George Woods took Mother,
Dad and me through Manila

"in a jeep to see the ruins.

"We had heard how badly Manila
was destroyed,

"but until we saw it
with our own eyes,

"we couldn't believe
such a thing could happen.

"The whole city, nothing left!

"Taft Avenue, the Boulevard,
everything in ruins.

"The odor from the dead
was awful,

"and whenever we stopped,

the big green flies
were all over us."

GLENN FRAZIER:
The information that we were
getting in Japan

was very sketchy.

We would see some of the maps
on the paper, on the newspapers

on the stands as we were passing
showing that the Navy was...

the Navy battles were closer,
and that was encouraging for us.

But it was still a question

as how we were going
to get out of there.

(trolley bell clangs)

NARRATOR:
Glenn Frazier,
from Ft. Deposit, Alabama,

was one
of 168,000 Allied prisoners

still in Japanese hands.

He had been captured
in the Philippines

after the fall of Bataan
in the spring of 1942.

Frazier had then been so certain
he would die

that he had thrown his dog tags
into a mass grave

so that when they were found,

his parents would have some idea
of what had happened to him.

Now, with
the Philippines retaken,

American troops came
upon the grave.

FRAZIER:
So then they found the dog tags

that I threw in the grave.

So they had absolute proof
that I was in that mass grave.

So they take the dog tags

and the, uh, Army gentleman goes
to my mother and dad

and tried to show them
the dog tags

and tried to settle
the insurance.

So my daddy said,
"Well, if I take the $10,000

and he's not dead,
what happens then?"

And he says, "You'll have
to pay it back."

He said,
"Well, you just keep it,

"because I'm sure if anybody can
make it, my son can make it.

"And if he's dead,
then I'll come back to you

and get the $10,000."

(car engine humming)

(newsreel theme music playing)

ANNOUNCER:
The historic Yalta Conference
as it arrives at decisions

that will shape
the future of the world.

The Big Three reaffirm the
ideals of the Atlantic Charter.

They call for...

NARRATOR:
On February 4, 1945,

the day after Sascha Weinzheimer
and her family were liberated,

the Big Three-- U.S.
President Franklin Roosevelt,

British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill,

and Soviet Premier
Josef Stalin--

met at Yalta on the Black Sea.

In week-long talks, they pledged
to hold free elections

after the war in
the Eastern European states

captured by the Soviets,

and agreed to divide Germany
and Austria

into three zones of occupation.

But first, Germany had
finally to be defeated.

The Nazis were still trying
to reinforce their army

on the Eastern Front.

Stalin wanted help

from American and British
air power to stop them.

The Soviet leader called
for air attacks

on railroad stations
and marshaling yards,

often located in the hearts
of cities.

Dresden was the first target,

a beautiful old city
on the Elbe,

through which German
reinforcements

were said to be streaming east.

On February 13 and 14,
900 British and American bombers

hit Dresden in two waves,
dropping incendiary bombs

in hopes of setting
off a firestorm.

They succeeded.

At least 35,000 civilians
were burned or blown apart--

or asphyxiated as they huddled
in basements and bomb shelters.

The bombing went on,
battering oil facilities,

defense factories,
roads and railways

and more cities.

Pforzheim, Wirzburg,

Essen, Dortmund, Potsdam.

In March alone, Allied warplanes
dropped 163,864 tons of bombs

on Germany--

almost as many
as they had dropped

in the preceding
three years combined.

By the middle of the next month,

the air chiefs
would call a halt.

They had run out of targets.

By then, 593,000
German civilians

had died under Allied bombs.

Most were women.

More than 100,000 were children.

AL McINTOSH (dramatized):
"February 15, 1945.

"When John Bosch was in Luverne
last Friday,

"he happened to stop and count
the gold stars

"on the Honor Roll board

"and said, "There are
now 20 gold stars.

"He didn't know it then,

"but the 21st gold star
would be that opposite the name

"of his own son,

Pfc. Everett Bosch,
who was killed on Luzon."

"The message telling of his
son's death was handed Bosch

when he reached
his home that afternoon."

Al Mcintosh,
Rock County Star-Herald.

(rapid gunfire)

QUENTIN AANENSON:
I believe it was
February 22 of 1945.

At that point I was housed
in a medieval castle

that was right there
on the, uh, Ruhr River

about two and a half miles
back from the Ruhr River.

I was set up in the great hall
of the castle

with my maps and telephone lines
coming in.

NARRATOR:
Fighter pilot Quentin Aanenson
of Luverne

was no longer flying missions.

He'd been promoted to captain
and was now coordinating

air strikes from what he assumed
would be

the relative safety
of the ground.

I was calling in
my fighter planes,

and there was just a tremendous
amount of requests coming in

for doing this, when suddenly,
an 88 or a 105 artillery shell

came through an opening
in the wall of the castle

and exploded about 30 feet
from me-- somewhere like that.

I was partially shielded
from the explosion

because there was a column--
a stone column-- there,

but the explosion took the top
of the head off an enlisted man

who was about 15 feet from me

and, it threw...

blood, tissue, brains,
everything

all over me, my maps.

And I remember at the time
it created a lot of havoc,

but I had fighter planes
that were in the process

of their dive,
so I had to keep working there.

They carried the man
who had been killed out

and a couple
that had been wounded.

And then while I
was still working

calling in the fighter planes
on targets,

they came over and cleaned
the brain tissue out of my hair

and off my leather flight jacket
and... and off my maps,

and we just continued on.

(plane engine roaring)

(newsreel theme music playing)

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
Airborne, the B-29s head
for Tokyo.

The giant bombers, equipped
to range over 5,000 miles,

now swiftly cover the
1,500 miles from Saipan

to their objective,

to open the full-fledged air war
against Japan.

NARRATOR:
Allied planners hoped
the kind of bombing

that had leveled German cities

would destroy the Japanese will
to resist

and make unnecessary
the bloody invasion

that otherwise seemed
inevitable.

American B-29s could now reach
the enemy's homeland

from Saipan and Tinian,

but roughly halfway
between them and Japan itself

lay a tiny volcanic island--
Iwo Jima.

It was an otherworldly
place--

barely eight square barren miles
of rock and ash,

reeking of sulfur,
without safe drinking water.

But it had an airstrip from
which Japanese fighters

rose to harass American bombers

as they flew to and from
their mainland targets.

American commanders wanted
the island taken.

Then they could make it a haven
for their crippled bombers.

For 72 straight days,

American bombers pounded
Iwo Jima

and its defenders with some
6,000 tons of high explosives.

Three more days followed of
ceaseless shelling by the Navy.

In the early morning
of February 19, 1945,

the Marines started
toward the island.

Most were veterans
of earlier landings--

Saipan, Tinian, Peleliu.

The first three waves
met little resistance.

Some began to think this
invasion would be different,

that for once the pre-invasion
bombardment

really had knocked out
the island's defenses.

It had not.

Some 21,000 Japanese soldiers
were waiting for the Americans

inside a virtually impenetrable
network of tunnels and bunkers.

As the fourth wave
neared the beach,

the enemy opened fire.

(frenzied shouting)

Sergeant Ray Pittman
of Mobile was there.

PITTMAN:
Going into Iwo Jima,

I was a squad leader
by that time.

(shell whizzes, explodes)

And I always looked around
and wondered

"Now how many men
am I going to lose?"

Course, we didn't know it was
going to be bad as it was.

NARRATOR:
Maurice Bell, also from Mobile,

watched the fighting from the
deck of the USS Indianapolis.

BELL:
I set up there
with my binoculars

and watching the Marines
on the island.

And I actually saw
tanks going up...

And they would come down
to the beach

and a bunch of Marines
would get behind the tanks,

and they would escort them up.

And they'd get up
to certain points

and jump down in the holes.

And the tank would turn, go back
and escort more on up there.

And one day, I saw,
I guess he was a Marine

just... short distance up
from the beach.

Had his flamethrower going.
It was hot that day.

And all of a sudden he stopped,
and he turned and he walked back

to the water, he took
the flamethrower off

and he undressed,

put his clothes all down on top
of the flamethrower

and went swimming...

for about 30 or 40 minutes...

And he come back and he dressed,

got his flamethrower and went
back to fighting again.

I guess he thought he was going
to be killed anyway

so he might as well enjoy...
cool off a little bit.

(newsreel theme music plays)

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
The airfield is taken,
and the advance grinds on.

Japanese are caught in the open.

(gunfire)

Marines move ahead in a battle

that outranks any ever fought
in the Pacific.

Iwo Jima, in its first 15 days,
has cost 2,050 American dead.

And the battle still rages!

NARRATOR:
The fighting would go on
for nearly a month

before the Americans
took the island.

(shouting)

(rapid gunfire, shelling)

The Japanese lost
their entire garrison.

Once again, they had never
intended to surrender.

Their mission was to Kill
as many Americans as possible

before they were killed
themselves.

6,821 Americans died--

five times the number killed
on Guadalcanal or Saipan.

Among the dead were Private
David Harris of Luverne,

Corporal John B.
Zwanch of Waterbury,

Private Zera Richards
of Sacramento,

and Sergeant James Albert
Chambliss of Mobile.

27 Medals of Honor were awarded
to those who fought on Iwo Jima.

13 of them had to be
given posthumously.

So many of the men in one unit
were lost

that it came to be called
the "X-Ray Company."

Of the 16 men
in Ray Pittman's squad,

only he and two
others were left.

PITTMAN:
What I... I went through
after the war--

the dreams
and everything I had--

uh...

it would be just like
reality to me.

But, uh...

it, uh, it's really...

it's really hard to explain

just how you feel, because
I came home and married

and raised a family and lived a
real happy life after the war.

But so many of them left their
blood on the sand on Iwo Jima

and Saipan and Tinian that they
didn't have that chance.

NARRATOR:
With the airstrip on lwo Jima
in their hands,

the Americans were one big step
closer to the Japanese homeland.

American bombers were now free
to attack it at will.

(dramatic newsreel music plays)

ANNOUNCER:
The new American firebomb,

the type that has been
devastating Tokyo with flame.

This is how it was tried out,

a blazing sweep
of jellied gasoline.

That's the incendiary material,

a newly developed form
of ordinary gas,

gelled in a way

that gives it a volcanic force
of blazing devastation.

NARRATOR:
On the night of March 9, 1945,

firebombing came
to the cities of Japan.

334 American B-29s
roared in low over Tokyo

and dropped
hundreds of thousands

of 70-pound napalm bombs.

16 square miles of the city,

built largely
of pine and paper and bamboo,

burst into flame.

Perhaps 100,000 people died.

More than a million
were left without homes.

In the next ten days,
the Americans went on

to hit Nagoya, Osaka,

Kobe, Nagoya again.

Some 50,000 more people
were killed.

(bomb explodes)

GLENN FRAZIER:
When the bombing started
in our area,

first it was about
once every two weeks.

Then it was a raid about every
week, then it stepped up.

And most of the raids started
at night with the B-29s,

and you could hear the B-29, you
could distinguish their sound,

and all of a sudden you could
hear these Zeros up there

trying to-- and the gunfire--
trying to shoot them down.

(rapid anti-aircraft fire)

But we did see some of the fires
in the distant places.

And it was like a ballgame
to us.

I mean, we were happy about it.

And they burned out a third
of the whole area,

killed over 300-something
Japanese right among us.

It burned out our own barracks
that we were In.

(bombs exploding)

They made rats out of us in the
Philippines when we were there,

and our B-29s made rats
out of them in Japan.

And we knew that Americans
were getting closer.

But they also told us

that if any American
landed on their soil,

that we would all be shot--
the POWSs--

that all guards had the ability
to shoot you.

NARRATOR:
American B-29s continued
to fire-bomb Japanese cities,

eventually forcing more
than eight million people

from their homes.

The Fifth Air Force printed up
a pamphlet to reassure pilots

who might have felt uneasy
about killing so many civilians.

"The entire population

was a proper military target,"
it said,

"since the Japanese government
had ordered all men and women

to enlist in
a volunteer defense corps."

"For us,"
the pamphlet continued,

"there are no civilians."

(train whistle blows)

("Taxi War Dance"
by Count Basie plays)

KATHARINE PHILLIPS:
I volunteered for
the Red Cross canteen,

which was down
at the railroad station.

We served the boys that came
through on the trains.

And over our head we would carry
a tray of sandwiches

and another girl would carry
a tray of doughnuts

and another girl would carry
the two jugs of coffee

and a fourth girl
would carry the cups.

Well, we got word one night that
this troop train was due,

so we got our equipment ready
and out we went.

(whooping and whistling)

And we started walking along
by the side of the troop train

and all of a sudden,
the worst whoop went up

and these Marines started
pouring out of the troop train.

Well, I threw my sandwiches
and started to run.

And the girl with the doughnuts
threw her doughnuts.

But the poor girl with
the coffee was caught.

Well, these Marines,
we found out,

had just come back
from lwo Jima.

They had been put on the ship
and disembarked in New Orleans

and were on their way
to Parris Island.

So we were the first real
American girls

they had come in contact with.

And they were determined
to kiss us.

So we ran as hard as we could
into the canteen,

slammed the door,
got under the counter...

locked the door
and got under the counter

and just sat there trembling.

Well, their officers came off,
and the shore patrol,

and they finally got them all
together and back on the train.

And we just stayed there

till the train moved out
of the station.

But when we went home that
night, my friend whose...

who was carrying the coffee--
her name was Polly--

Polly's mother asked her, said,

"Well, Polly, what did
you girls do tonight?"

And Polly said,
"Oh, nothing, Mama,

it was just a regular night."

She said, "How did you get
those black handprints

all over your coat?"

(laughing):
So, we had to tell her

that Polly was kissed
I don't know how many times

before she could get away
and get into the canteen.

But her mother was not upset,
she just laughed and she said,

"Well, you girls can go back
next Saturday night.

You know,
you're doing a good job."

Fire!

("Sheik of Araby"
by Benny Goodman plays)

PAUL FUSSELL:
The German army had been
beaten up very badly,

and not just in France,
but other places they'd been.

Also, Russia was beating
the hell out of them

in the other direction.

It wasn't child's play
beating them,

but it was clear they were
going to be defeated.

Fire!

So we really had them
in the bag.

And at that moment, I knew
we were going to win this war.

As soon as the ice goes away
and spring comes again,

we get on the attacking
frame of mind again,

we're going to win.

NARRATOR:
By the middle of March 1945,

hundreds of thousands
of Americans

were crossing the Rhine

and driving into the heart
of Nazi Germany.

When George Patton
and his Third Army

began to cross near Frankfurt,

the general stopped halfway
across the pontoon bridge.

He'd always wanted to
"piss in the Rhine," he said,

and in full view of his men,
he did.

Then Patton learned
that his son-in-law,

who had been captured in
North Africa two years earlier,

was being held in a German
POW camp near Hammelburg.

It was some 40 miles
behind the German lines,

but Patton didn't care.

He dispatched
a special task force--

16 tanks, 27 half-tracks,
and 300 men--

to free his daughter's husband
right away.

Meanwhile, at the POW camp,

the prisoners had heard that the
Americans had crossed the Rhine

and believed that it was
only a matter of time

before they would be liberated.

Tom Galloway, who had been
forced to surrender

early in the Battle of the
Bulge, was among the prisoners.

GALLOWAY:
But you couldn't get too excited
about anything,

you were too hungry.

Hunger was just foremost
in everybody's mind

when you just stay hungry
all the time.

I probably lost about 50 pounds
in just a few months.

HERNDON INGE:
Well, you're just cold
all the time.

I went three months without
ever taking my clothes off.

You just stayed in your clothes
24 hours a day.

You, you took your boots off--
we had boots--

and you'd tie them
to your bunk at night

because they may get stolen.

NARRATOR:
Second Lieutenant Herndon Inge
was also from Mobile.

He, too, had been captured
at the Bulge.

INGE:
When I was at Hammelburg,

I heard that there was
a prisoner in another hut

from Alabama,
so I looked him up.

A skinny, dirty fellow came up
to me and wanted to know if I...

he said he heard
I was from Mobile

and it turns out it was Herndon
Inge, whom we call "Wanky."

And he and I were raised

probably about eight blocks
from each other.

And he knew my brothers
and sisters,

and we've been fast friends
ever since.

(artillery explosion)

NARRATOR:
On March 27, Patton's task force
reached the prison camp.

(gunfire)

INGE:
Everybody was cheering
and jubilant over the fact

that at last we were going
to be taken to good food.

(cheering)

NARRATOR:
Then someone started shooting.

In the confusion, Patton's
son-in-law was hit by a bullet

and rushed to the camp hospital,

too badly wounded
to be liberated.

GALLOWAY:
Then they said,
"We're going to move out."

They said, "If you want to go,
you can go,"

but some went back into prison
and some took off.

I took off--
two... two others and myself.

NARRATOR:
More than 1,200 Americans
ran out of the camp,

but there were only enough
vehicles to carry 250.

Thousands of Germans
quickly surrounded them.

(rapid gunfire)

The freed prisoners scattered.

Most, including Herndon Inge,
were recaptured right away.

But Tom Galloway and his two
buddies had managed to escape

and were trying to make it
to the American lines on foot.

GALLOWAY:
We had passed a, uh... farmhouse

with barns, outbuilding
and a small chapel.

So I told them,
and I said, "Look"...

And by the way,
it was Good Friday,

Friday before Easter.

And I said, "This is..."
in that part of Germany,

Bavaria was mostly Catholic.

A matter of fact,
I thought it was all Catholic.

I told them,
"3:00 on Good Friday,

"they're going to be in church
and we're going to go in there

"and get in that barn
that we saw last night

and get out of this weather."

Well, we broke across the field
just as fast as we could go

and ran in that barn.

And I think we hit
the only Protestant family

in that part of Bavaria.

They were all in the barn.

So, that... our luck ran out
at that point.

NARRATOR:
Soon, Tom Galloway, too, was
back behind barbed wire.

He and Herndon Inge would have
to wait to be freed once again.

(footsteps)

AL McINTOSH (dramatized):
"Luverne, Minnesota,
March 29, 1945.

"A number of the boys in service
have mentioned in their letters

"they'd like to know how things
are going back home.

Dear Gang..."

"When we say it's spring again,

"you should be able to shut
your eyes wherever you are

"and imagine
what everything looks like.

"Everywhere you drove in Luverne
Tuesday night

"you could see people starting
to work in their yards.

"The lawns
are turning green again,

"and you could see the green

"in flower beds bordering
the homes.

The farmers are getting
into the fields."

NARRATOR:
By the end of March 1945,

American forces were steadily
gathering for their next target

in the Pacific war,

the big, densely populated
island of Okinawa.

The British had taken back
Mandalay in Burma.

The Russians were within
50 miles of Berlin.

But Hitler continued to exhort
his people to resist,

and the militarists who governed
Japan were calling upon

every man, woman and child
to fight to the death

against the American invasion
they knew was coming.

MCINTOSH (dramatized):
"Today started off
with a big mistake

"caused by an over-enthusiastic
radio broadcaster

"who got the idea
that a victory flash

"was coming up in a few minutes.

"To tell you the truth,

"it didn't cause much
of a flurry on Main Street.

"People have had tentative dates
for victory before

"and have seen
their hopes dashed,

"so they've made up their minds
to keep their heads down

"and keep working until there
is no doubt of victory anymore.

"And don't get the idea
that the folks back home think

"it's a grand waltz.

"They know the fighting
is brutal and costly

"and that lots of our best boys

"have been lost
in victory drives before.

(door squeaks shut)

"They are praying and hoping
that the struggle,

for your sake,
will be mercifully short."

Al Mcintosh,
Rock County Star-Herald.

(explosions)

NARRATOR:
Among the men who had landed
on lwo Jima

with Ray Pittman of Mobile

were Bill Lansford and Pete
Arias, Marines from California

who had been fighting
in the Pacific since 1942.

Their guerrilla outfit,
Carlson's Raiders,

had been dissolved.

The hit-and-run jungle tactics
they'd mastered

at Guadalcanal and Bougainville
no longer applied on Iwo Jima.

LANSFORD:
When we landed, the first thing
that I saw as the ramp went down

was a whole bunch of wounded
guys coming towards us.

People were carrying them
and they were all bloody,

and I said, "Uh-oh."

The noise was intense,
and it was really demoralizing.

It was the worst thing
I had ever experienced.

And I thought, you know,
I thought,

"Something's wrong with me.

I don't know if I'm going to be
able to make this or not."

And there were Kids,
you know, digging in,

trying to dig in
under the artillery,

and the poor kids
didn't know any better.

Those of us who had been
through two or three battles

literally grabbed them
by the neck

and kicked them and saying,
"Move, move, get out of here!"

because the shells
were right on top of us.

I thought I was going
to lose my mind.

And I thought, gee, I've been
in this too damn long already.

l... I can't take it anymore.

NARRATOR:
Meanwhile, Pete Arias's unit had
been stopped by relentless fire

from a Japanese pillbox.

ARIAS:
So I told this guy
named Danford, I said,

"Hey, Dan, let's see
what we can do about this."

So we crawled up there

to that place where
they was holding us up

and we took it out.

Then on the way back, you know,
I got hit in the leg.

And Danford, he got killed
right there coming back.

Pretty soon this corpsman
came over there.

He wasn't from our outfit.

He says, "You been taken
care of, Sarge?"

I says, "I don't know."

He said, "Let me look at you."

So he... so I had to get up
and I laid down there,

and he was over there.

He gave me a shot of morphine
and all that stuff

and, uh, I know he couldn't
bandage this up

because I was... I got big
wounds all over the place.

Then I heard this one coming.

(huge explosion)

NARRATOR:
The corpsman had thrown himself
over Arias to protect him.

ARIAS:
This poor guy, he took
the full blast, you know,

and that killed him right there.

You know, I always remember him.

I wonder who in the hell he was.

NARRATOR:
Both Arias and Lansford
would survive lwo Jima

and eventually get to go
back home.

LANSFORD:
The greatest sense
that I had about the war

was a sense of satisfaction,

and a sense of relief
that it was over

and we wouldn't have to do
any of that stuff again.

But I also had a sense of
kinship with all the other guys

who had been in the service.

Somehow we had become
a separate entity

from the people
who were civilians.

Our feeling was that, you know,
we were like our own gang.

We had all done
what we were told to do,

and most of us, you know,
were characterized as heroes,

but we weren't heroes.

We were just guys who were there

and we did
what we were supposed to do.