THE TRUE GLORY

[Music] [Applause] [Music] one minute squad with the bird soon the next mental column sermon types coming around the corner going wild over my buddy says lilz tanks come from so I asked the tanker he yells down there the Third Army taking off been waiting for three weeks I bet somebody let the rabbit on the head man wow what a rabbit with pearl-handled revolvers when I think back to the breakthrough I don't seem to be able to remember anything with the French people people beside the road kids we couldn't stop to give candy to FFI boys bringing in the crops from the fields and farm workers waving as we went by it was easier to look them in the face and smile and wave back at the me and had to smash their homes to pieces first the morning we got into Wren boy that really was decoration [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a trend American armored plans drive east and northeast and thus surround and take the German car divisions in the rear the foley plans to stop the arrow did by cutting its supply road to the point where it stretched narrowest along the coast so a great force exploded toward more tape hoping and a brush to achieve receive and bag our hopes down for the smoking Brown there's a lot of places I rather talk about them more tank that's where I got hit we've been going great up to there some of the guys had even been singing harmonizing and then our first German artillery chorus for the accurate to one hour late I was short 18 min well be hold in and we hit back with everything we had they weren't just trying to stop us see they want to come right through and then me I get a belt in the face left side and I keel the last thing I remember is looking up and seeing those RAF typhoons when I heard them screaming up ahead I thought jeez I'm glad they're on our side [Music] I was sitting in front of the intelligence office doing a bit of Sun bathe when headquarters came through saying area northwestern wartime was packed with German armor heading west let started it for six hours a wing kept it up absolutely non-stop takeoff attack planned refuel rearm and take off again it was the same when every airfield in normally the only breathing okay the chaps was well you know where they are the only interrogation when they got back was before at lamina did you get [Music] [Applause] three days it lasted every kind of soldier was in there and every weapon for me it was just eating and smoking and loading at 105 no sleeping and things quieted down and where he came back we stopped him cold everybody felt like celebrating that was a tough order out there I tried drinking a whole bottle of cough medicine that worked fine I got stiffer in a plank the counter-attack which took us by surprise still did not hinder our deceptive plans for down from call the faux fur drawn of horse and left his North flank weakened now the stage was set toward today's swept the Empire troops together with the poles the German led behind his back American armor turned toward our shelter our generals and outfought he found himself within a closing trap [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I've covered them with a gun down to the clearing stations thousands on all kinds the tough ones with the smile froze stiff on their faces by shellfire and the plain Jose had had too much and ready to tell you that and then poker-faced officers never lost the poker face look the SS the parachute troops the old soldiers off the Russian front I've seen them all but Hitler Youth babies look alike they walked out a Lincoln High expert killers smart aleck with their talk of rights under the Geneva Convention and asking why don't we go to America and the other guy who crawled out of a hole with his hands up ball through and talking too much ready to swear he hated Hitler all the time the kids that knew how a machine gun work and nothing else grinning like they were still on top so we can hardly hold that trigger fingers still and little aged guys wanting to tell you about the wife and kids you'd let him and they were through killing when I saw and through getting killed too some of them thought they were lucky and others didn't and some didn't give a damn I covered him down to the rear where it was somebody's job to find out what made him tick but it wasn't my job to figure them out I just kept them covered brother I never gave him more than the Geneva Convention and that was all America thanks round on into the East Ward Paris and the opposite before them the Germans helter-skelter fled away and saw retreat or stood with hands up raised by roads all littered without smoldering gear fill the tanks ground on beyond the smoke into the unscarred country a good solid man well delineated an absolute must for a modern mechanized army traveling at high speed in our division the issuing of maps was my job when we broke out of the shurberg peninsula my department had this situation well in hand then for us everything what man stark raving mad one morning I woke up and the Army had gone right off the map absolutely right off the map so we rushed through an order for 500,000 maps of the Corleone region they arrived in due time to our horror the army progressed far beyond the early on region was off the map again this was a period of acute crisis for me I give the highest priority to a fresh order maps of the Paris Area we refuse to be licked by the situation the final blow came when it became evident that we were going to bypass Paris had almost finished us eventually we had to drop 10 tons of maps to them by parachute it was a very humiliating experience I'll be glad when I get back to the Library of Congress for maps have some permanent value while the Allies were fighting near Paris we French soldiers of the television we are fighting in the Normandy field and suddenly another came go to Paris said and take it they arise after having equipped our division with tanks guns rifles lorries and jeeps that night decided to give us Paris short four o'clock in the morning the Vivienne starts rushing at the roads and in the sky and the right on the left everywhere the american air force protects our tree what a trip 250 kilometers in one day I think I'll tell it all the time to my grandchildren and bore them with until I die at the beginning of August we in Paris where did by homers what could be confirmed was towards the middle of the month the Germans started to leave the city yes the rows where the same Germans who had signed 25-year leases on their partner then on the 14th our Polly went on the side the next day the Gestapo live that was the day - when a police car opened fire on the German detachment on the brother cocoa and began the battle for the city after that it seems the French flag was hanging from every window how the flags we are made of curtains all dice's rags everything it didn't matter four days later we heard shouting coming from the living we started I happened anybody know how as behind people were screaming the French army had hired when we got to the Plaza Hotel de lis we saw a truck - I get my husband because he was crying Talley we began to realize how unhappy we had been for four years and how lucky we were to be alive on this August evening the great pursuit Fazal that last the Battle of France was nd we're all suddenly another DJ's ton the shakin phone two armies struck American and French along the broad beat southern coast of France then north the two new armies rolled like waves to join the four seas moving on the right beyond the same we're from a hundred sites the Germans launched their flying bombs and brought death and destruction of the English towns our valiant armies went about the task long since assigned them wore the right frontiers Americans advanced against the plots hugging the channel garrisoned in force by desperate those Canadians were sent and in a thunderous sweep the British Armour surged toward awaiting Brussels people have lost those laughed and cried and threw flowers and the time consent goodbye Tommy when they went to say hello man they were happy I suppose were no longer afraid I remember wondering then how the first German civilians would react to us [Applause] I remember one day we were coming across a big flat field didn't look like nothing special after barbed wire fence and a guy says to me guess what so I says what so he says you're in Germany it's a sign over there says then like a dope I thought well it won't be long now I want to quit over the fall of Paris and Tim Bob Russell I had a fiver on it being over by October the 1st I remember the point system beginning out of the army came out about this time I began to think of that great chalk stripe double-breasted suit in the mothball I was in the Seventh Army coming up from the south of France one day a lieutenant said take a ride with me I got some prisoners for you to guard how many Isis about twenty thousand he said a whole German division had surrendered we Canadians were advancing in the north and one day we came across the thing I've never seen before I guess it's a flying bomb sight the officer says well that really made me feel good prisoner told us the newest Jerry gag if an eight man shows up white it's American the shows up dark it's British and if it never shows up it's the Luftwaffe every time they sent me along as several forward switchboard and I got my earphones on I found out that the rear switchboard had leapfrog five miles ahead I wrote to the old man in st. Louis he owns a men's store I totally better cut prices on GI neckties and socks if he didn't want to be stuck with a lot of military apparel someone asked the sergeant major what he thought the chances were for spot of lead don't you worry about Lee blared he says we've got the chaps to finish here regular soldier of course King it was a terrific feeling passing the German border we were damn sure nothing could stop us [Music] then it happened just outside Metz you run out of gas there just wasn't any to be had I looked at my 30 tonne Sherman sitting there a useless I got I am I wanted to bawl I don't know how far we got a guy on who knows but I guessed stopping sit there in the road I know then we were in for a rough time when we took talkin the rations was short on mostly K rations at that what we ate then we started to run low on ammo well that was serious you can't kill a man with K rations at least I never heard such innocence my pants were up to the Bellport gap our drives came to a stop he could not then proceed until we had a pot through its supplies could reach our audience crouched beside the keys the German suicide Garrison's held the port so sorely needed when the German port strategy became apparent we had to move swiftly to counteract his plan we captured servic in a mighty rush but he hung on to other Carver's and when he couldn't do that he destroyed them that was the story of pressed for American ground air and naval forces fought such a long bitter battle in Brittany where we were joined by French Resistance forces at the Channel ports of Calais won by the Canadians the Harve captured by the British Dieppe and bellowing Canadians and dunker B seeds by the Czechs it takes a lot of freight per day per man to keep an army fighting in the field the fellows I charged with getting it to the front headed tough nut to crack we just didn't have enough working ports that's all supply suffered our offensive was slowed and the German was gaining time to consolidate down in defense line where our supplies petered out we just reached a siegfried line that's as far as we got we went through the first part easy dragon's teeth and stuff like that then we hit the pillboxes forts obstacles hidden positions it was why I was like going into one of those joints in Coney Island where you get lost instead of mirrors they had guns with supplies maybe we could have cracked it then maybe not I don't know frontal assault upon the CG kind was for the moment fatal they're encased in trench and pillbox tucked the German power a Hydra hundred headed still enslaved and all the cunning of a thousand years of war had gone to mold its walls of Steel yet every line must somewhere have an inn in southeast Holland nothing lay between the British Army and the German plane except two rivers and a town and so we made our plans to send an airborne army down to seize Eindhoven and the bridges at Nijmegen and Arnhem then to fill them for the force that would sweep up like thunder from the south thus were no line existing would the Rhine at last be crossed in force I have to jump master darlings I said ride forward by the window blue skies and the kotas with the fighters up topside like midges one of the boys was reading a newspaper he showed me a funny piece in it I couldn't laugh the coast of Holland came along before I rode a flight someone yelled running up now we got two action stations I remember thinking what a bloody bit of bad luck to be bumped off now when the war's nearly over [Music] [Applause] [Music] the lining is dropping Ireland when we come down and go to a place called Eindhoven Holland she goes good get right dig in set up a defense perimeter and wait for the British Army to come up can we join them and head out for an I make the Brigitte Nijmegen Rd had a mark on it we crossed the river and started out for our name but we didn't get far but Hannah knew as well as we did that we damn well got to get through any put in everything you've got that was the worst I ever struck knowing our men were there waiting at on him and we couldn't get to him at Arnhem we got ourselves a little doggy in device on some of the poles we're short of ammo and food that was our main worry I'll never forget those supply dropping missions the way Jerry let loose at them away they just came straight on into it towards the end we knew the situation was bad we knew we were Hamed in we knew it was possible we wouldn't get out more than anything I remember the way everyone behaved and then you knew as the toughest fighters became gentle kind and considerate to each other I knew a lot more about men after Arnhem the guns died out in Arnhem then we knew the greatest gallantry was not enough to cross the final bridge and now no choice remained to us direct assault against the seat feed-line would be the only way to carve our corridors into the Reich the first of pot was needed for supplies and 12.we hair but plundering German guns controlled the 30 cold miles of the shelter from Antwerp to the sea the docks were still the winch's silent all the ports lay dead a useless city's severed from the sea it would stay dead until we cut away through the gray shirt so the battle formed to free the estuary for our ships I covered that battle for The Associated Press I only wish I could have written the story with the greatness of the men who fought it it was vicious and fearsome fighting all the way the Canadians and the poles tearing the south bank of the river the Royal Navy in Marines and Norwegians charging knee-deep in blood and water into the mouths of the 9 inch shore guns at West Capel it was the kind of fighting that makes legends and the minesweeping of the scant afterwards due to the greatest operation of its kind in history the cost of that first ship into antwerp Harbor was the lives of thousands of our bravest men I reported it as well as I could but their memory deserves more than words [Music] [Applause] I was hauling on the first convoy Hanford I got to the front I saw more empty supply dumps and I like to see boys wanted to know where the stuff was can't fight without stuff anybody knows that I made lots of trips I don't know how many driving all day all night singing so as to keep awake songs like milkman keep those bottles quiet [Music] my job was to see to it that they had a new toothbrush and a cot maybe a book to read when they came over from the east bank to the west bank of the Moselle for a little rest we brought him over one company at a time because that was all the regiment could spare from the line at any one time somebody had tapped him on the shoulder and said all right boy you're going back across the river for 24 hours rest and here they were where they could rest they just couldn't believe it here they were for just 24 hours without war everything was down to essentials pounded out like dollar bills through a tellers window one night's sleep one day's hot meals one clean change of underwear one clean pair of pants one shave one hot shower one movie I still wonder what was the best of that day was it the chance for him to ride home hot shower well that long-legged girl on the screen however it was all of it was over by morning they were going back with their one clean suit of underwear the hot shower that famed shave and live good night's sleep back across the Mosel for their holes in the ground and the shelves by that time we knew we were going to see a winter campaign there was no way out of it Germans were dug in and they were tough and it was plain that until we got a lot stronger we weren't going anyplace the squadron was operate him whenever it could there wasn't a lot of flying we were iced up and fed up suppose you're having a swell time in Paris my cousin wrote me with all that perfume and silk stockings in that champagne they called our end of the line south we were in divulge mountains with their American seventh army but it was very little warmth in the south I recalled with pleasure the Mediterranean where we had landed in August now but never into the deep World War before I joined the army I'd have thought it was certain death to dig a hole in me back garden and living it winter but that's what we did the sergeant said will squirrels do it every year yes Otto for the deaf man machine guns as well there was no heating in our Brussels or his I put on so much under my uniform they called me the bulb in Britain I never smoked before but pretty soon I found myself smoking as high as a pack a day I worry about that old law of percentages my company was melting away you'd look up one day and be fighting alongside a stranger it was an awesome feeling our hunk of the line was the yard done pretty quiet a lot of elf is a gun up north start a million latrina grants about to win one of our offensive then one day I'm standing guard in the shelter tough a minute this was it did I realize these shots weren't outgoings brother they were incoming next thing I knew German tanks was an offensive all right bulu is going the wrong way the offensive we were mounting to the law for suddenly for stalled and set aside as through the rugged thinly held our den for instead struck he caught a fire a path through the American lines and sent his tanks desperately driving toward the revelers the night of fog and pale December frost saw the beginning none foresaw the end he aim for Antwerp Harbor through Liege and all our plans held fire while we bent our strength to curb the Germans in the Bulge [Music] [Applause] [Music] one night I was a replacement in England playing shove hey penny a poet the next day they shoved me in an aeroplane and that matter was fighting Germans or being kicked around I don't know about the other outfits but mine was being cut to ribbons drop it all around the thing that still sticks in my head is the medics the only weapon they had was a needle but they were around right where it was the hottest you'd hear that yell medic medic they'd always be there [Music] our whole division got a Presidential Citation for what happened up at Bastogne even me just a cook I'll never forget that old lieutenant running into the field kitchen and hollering at me if and I had any idea how to operate a bazooka I said no and he said well you gonna run now son I did and hold that dog gonna from the first shot out to battle I didn't get me a Jarrett tank God interviewed later bus Stars and Stripes they said it was a crackerjack story I'm telling it the drop of a half we've been up north where things were a bit static so we were quite glad to be moved down to the top side of this valve coming down through Belgium we noticed how scared some of the civilians governor naturalizer birth we were held in reserve for a week and then his enters into action [Applause] on account of fog we couldn't get any air coordination you sure miss it bad when you gotten used to it all the way since d-day and then on December 24th like a Christmas present that Sun come up after a while we was giving him the old one-two again [Music] we stopped them dead finally it cost us plenty of member we stopped him and we started moving ahead again the rest of us [Music] French did reeled back on over toiling spring his great attempt was over and his Army's attentive powered such a wealth of blood sagged sodden towards the right at the outer then while dire explosions shook the German fronts the three great architects of freedom met to fix the final blow and plot the peace and even as they met we moved to act upon our strategy we wish the foe to stand and fight upon the western bank of the gray ride but there we could destroy him outside his fortress opened unprotected by any bridgeless river down we cast the gauntlet challenging him stand and fight [Music] [Music] we were attacking the north of the Canadian roundabout the Wrightsville forest Dutch frontier area it was wet and filthy and they nicknamed our army commander Admiral cruller well anyway the enemy put up some very stiff opposition but actually this was just what we'd hoped for it showed that Jerry's emotions about fighting for every foot of his beloved fatherland were getting the better of his sense of strategy and every German killing outside of the Ryan was to make it easier for us on the 3rd of Bank and a lot of the boys were killed I can tell you rice bowl was the bloodiest show I've seen in this war it was one hell of a push the chap who told me eight divisions he easily know he follows things like that I was with the outfit that took luncheon Gladbach I think you say it there weren't many civilians in the streets and even the ones that were there we weren't supposed to talk to one unless we had to there was a $65.00 act for fraternization I wonder how they happen to figure out that number I mean why 65 we could see the cologne cathedral a long time before we got there that tower was our objective was on the Rhine River we went fast and by the time we got in the tongue there wasn't too much fight left in Cologne was mangled all right but there were still a few buildings dying I was sorry I thought of those French cities flattened anyway we got our objective now we had to cross that River I thought they must be very short of men when they put a sailors at a battledress lugdi assault boats on the tracks and send us across Belgium by Road good talk about silent service I've never been sick at sea but I was sick as a dog on the road when we reached our destination I was feeling lazy longing for a breath of sea air I found the whole bloody landscape under a stinking smokescreen like London it was next day we got up to the Rhine it was good to get a glimpse of the water again our Air Force has given the old lumps on East Bank at Orion but we're still nervous the Germans had blown the bridges and we knew the crossing would be in fib when I'm nervous I get off my feet for two days before that crossing I couldn't eat nothing but a couple of Milky Way bars it was gonna be d-day all over again dangerous a miracle there it was sittin there big and black I'm no architect but to me that Remagen bridge was the most beautiful bridge in the world in the army when things go as per plan that's wonderful but when they go better than plans then you think of the chaplains working overtime what's a breakout in our bridging we cashed in on it and the first guys over the river were over in style the watch on the Rhine was finished washed up but a coin a phrase kaput [Music] [Applause] we got across that kind everything was going fine but suddenly i gets detailed to guard some German prisoners I'll never forget their faces when they me airborne bloke started to come over they just stood there looking up at them and then after about half an hour it one of them looks at me looks up at the sky and says throb again [Music] [Applause] the word pocket was the first big objective across the Rhine we and heavy sealer dolphin the ground forces wrapped it up after that they exploded in all directions got the jury room he's up in pockets then take him one by one that was a program third way could be carved up like a Christmas turkey chasing the Bosch was getting a little bit monotonous I'll assign one leave burning houses a few shells an occasional sniper's rifle shot yesterday kind of defines I thought and then one day the routine was broken but came across a prison of war camp other ranks Yanks mostly they went mad from the sauce screech grade Indian war cries hold on asked what the news was it's in the chamber telemundo so happy well nothing for it I told him President Roosevelt died yesterday afternoon is it you'd have held him quite and down once in this campaign the old filters though they'd suffered a major defeat I don't like I stayed there talking to him trying to cheer him up but paid no time to lose Jerry only had a few hundred square miles of earth left to sports aisle job as out of a hurry I'm up all scorch it for me we were in the homestretch cutting deeper all the time when we ran into these displaced persons slave workers they were sick hungry from all over Europe the roads were jammed with him but they kept out of the way and didn't give us any trouble I can fellas said there's a lot more than towns gonna have to be reconstructed I wonder what was up when all are the MC personnel in a lock down the stretcher bearers were urgently call for I soon found out we've taken the Belsen concentration camp well I'm not squeamish I've seen amputations operations deaths long before I went in the Army in 41 I was a warden I lost count of all the arms and legs I pulled out of the wreckage down in Croydon and got quite used to it this was different very different I I don't know any words big enough to make you understand what we all felt all I can say and I'm proud of this is it I had to fall out and be quickly sick in the courtyard as I say on I'm not squeamish but well I'm human and thank God for it the government sent a few of us congressman over to see those camps and if there's anybody left who wonders if this war was worth fighting well I wish they could have been along there it was right in front of us fascism and what its bond to lead to wherever it crops up I talked to some of the prisoners the ones that had the strength to talk their offenses were the usual Nazi crimes you know wrong religion or wrong race belonging to a union or the wrong political party in Germany it led to over 400 camps like the ones I saw it was the worst thing I ever saw in my life and I wouldn't have missed it for anything when Ana gets to moving in a hurry that's where air transport comes in we've been flying in the stuff along with the British Transport Command since d-day and towards the end they seem to be moving faster on the ground and we were in the air as pocket after pocket of the flow fell heart hopes rose higher than the soaring flames of Mark the broken towns of Germany in Italy a million prisoners came in as with a single sudden blow the German power was smashed then our tanks go through the southern mountains where the foe had hoped to make his furious final stand Russians took Berlin and cut the heart from Hitler's empire and he himself who plan to rule the earth from pole to pole vanished like smoke among the falling walls upon the green banks of the river Elbe we waited for the East and West to meet [Music] we linked up with the Russkies at the Elbe River I hung around for a couple of days with a Tommy gonna name the county cop he didn't know any English so I taught him to say my ake in fact and he taught me to vary that means comrade we drank toast to lend-lease and had a million lives they'll Kanaka found an interpreter and gives it toasted a great American soldier that stopped me we did all right but I don't like to think we would have been without them we were going towards the Danish frontier Bravin felled in Hamburg the rot was setting in a million and a half surrenders in the north the fighting was nearly over and our job was beginning we've been training a long time for the administration of Germany and we were prepared for plenty of trouble sabotage passes resistance they have something more violent you know werewolves and sheep's clothing the desert turned out most of them would go silent when they were told they seemed healthy well-fed their disease was in their minds the German woman looking at what was left of the town said to me if only you'd given up in 1940 none of those need have happened [Music] [Applause] at one minute after midnight May the 9th 1945 the gun stopped d+ 337 now it starts all the arguments about who won the war well here's what I say that no country on earth could have one of the lone so what does that mean that anybody who wants to take a bow by himself is not only boasting but nuts I spent four years in the infantry and I saw my share and during that time I only met three men that liked to fight they were a little cracked but it had to be done now that it's over I feel good except for one thing all this talk about World War three these big pessimists that talk so easy about another war just didn't see this one or enough of it we watch them bringing in some high up prisoners quite ready to be friendless however most thing you fellas I'd known have bought it crash shot down missing writing from the Battle of Britain I remember their faces Oh some joke that Plato may be just the way they laughed or something it seemed to be such a lot of them I remember [Music] to the victor belongs the spoils that's what they say well one other spoils only this chance to build a free world better than before maybe the last chance remember that the heaving shadow lifts the smoke dies down and Europe freed at last begins to breathe and stir among the ruins now our minds our hearts emotions all facilities must turn to where Japan engulfs the East the power of our arms must be deployed ten thousand miles across a wounded world to what can be the last of all the walls if we retain the brotherhood of hope forged in the flames with men of many lands in that titanic struggle still on one in the bright peace which then will bless the earth may we keep in our hearts this ancient prayer O Lord God when I'll give this to thy servants to endeavour any great matter grant us also to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it been thoroughly finished which yielded the truth glory [Music] [Applause] [Music]