ARMY IN ACTION: THE TIDE TURNS

with the coming of spring 1940 for the winter stalemate in Italy was broken our forces slowly resume fighting their way up the west coast of the Italian boot toward Rome against bitter German opposition the British advanced up the East Coast in the face of equally bitter opposition in the Pacific troops of the 1st cavalry division landed on most Negros and mothers islands in the Admiralty group to wipe out all Japanese resistance and complete occupation of the entire group of islands we landed large forces at Hollandia and I to pay on the north coast of New Guinea general Stilwell and his troops were fighting the Japanese in Burma this was global warfare on a scale never known before less than three years before Hitler had addressed the rice [ __ ] Germany Italy and Japan will waits common war upon the United States to a victorious conclusion in Rome his fascist partner had declared fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany ever closely linked participate from today on the side of heroic Japan against the United States a Japanese militarists joined the derisive chorus Americans have radios automobiles big beef steaks when a people has those things they don't want to fight Americans won't sleep in hammocks or lion trenches they are like a tiger whose stomach is full they are sleepy the American is no soldier the American no soldier and yet there he was carrying the fight to the boastful aggressors the self-acclaimed Superman was learning to his bitter surprise and sorrow the fighting qualities of the American soldier it seems the aggressors had made a slight miscalculation Oh in Italy our forces pushed on through rain and mud over mountains across rivers toward wrong our power drive up the Italian boot forced the enemy to divert 30 of his divisions from France and the Low Countries weakening his defenses along the English Channel coats where our invasion of France was soon to come we now had an army numbering millions of soldiers we now had 150,000 armored vehicles as compared to the 29 tanks the army had in nineteen forty four hundred thousand artillery pieces were now engaged in the war effort compared to the 235 available in 1940 from a 1940 production capacity of 117 aircraft a month we were now producing nine thousand planes of all types a month a plane every five minutes 12 an hour here now was an Air Arm of 150,000 planes supporting the coordinated Allied effort to wipe out enemy industry supply routes and communication facilities the American Tiger grown sleepy on a full stomach or so the Japanese had thought was now fully awake lead and fighting in the jungles on the fourth of jun 1944 our 5th army captured wrong it was a military victory yes but it's psychological effect carried the greater impact throughout the world or Hearst axis capital to fall our hands bringing consternation and foreboding to the enemy and fresh heart and rejoicing to the free world and it's fighting forces in England after miss of planning and preparation it was d-day minus two General Eisenhower was about to unleash the most massive amphibious invasion in history during the big bill had become a vast staging area for troops and the material of war thousands of vehicles and ready to be assembled combat type aircraft 20,000 railroad cars and 1,000 locomotives 20 million square feet of covered storage and shop space 44 million square feet of open storage space to hold the growing volume of supplies why fires bombs shells and other explosive devices awaiting invasion port embarkation were thousands of trucks and support vehicles row upon row of tanks and a wide range of artillery weapons 170 miles of new railroad had been constructed to haul more than two million tons of supplies and combat hardware to the invasion force the United States Army had constructed 163 airfields in England for the align planes that were systematically farming Germany day and night the invasion directive issued by the combined Chiefs of Staff was concise General Eisenhower had his orders you will enter the continent of Europe and in conjunction with the other allied nations undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces another American general was to have a central role in complying with that monumental or General Omar in Bradley field commander of American forces d de- one invasion forces began embarking in England destination Normandy involved in this massive amphibious invasion were some three million soldiers sailors and airmen four thousand ships and boats 20,000 vehicles of all types and an endless list of combat support weapons Operation Overlord the code name for the invasion was close at hand now as d-day and H our approach the final logistical operation was underway in the darkness before dawn on june six 1944 the great invasion began to unfold seventeen thousand men of the 82nd and 100 1st airborne divisions with over two million pounds of combat equipment and supplies were airlifted to carefully selected drop zones behind the invasion beaches where they were dropped to secure key road junctions and other strategic terrain objectives the invasion Armada the largest ever assemble was now in position off the coast of France while our assault forces prepared for H our allied naval power began their concentrated Shore bombardment this was amphibious warfare on a scale that staggered the imagination nothing like it had ever been said an Omaha Beach in the first assault thirty thousand American troops stormed ashore british and canadian forces struck at three different beach sectors at Utah Beach 20,000 American troops were landed by the end of the first day our invasion force ashore totaled 120,000 men with every passing hour with each passing day reinforcements streamed ashore to enlarge the beachhead with tanks trucks ammunition and supplies you hundreds of our attack bombers and fighters were now over Europe carrying payloads of destruction aimed at the vital centres of hit lowes fortress Europe Flying Fortresses in heavy formations cascaded 3,500 tons of explosives hate on every second upon Nazi held positions our mass bomber formations were now given a canopy of protective hair support by p-38 lightning together they fought off enemy air attacks as the roar of engines and concussion of the bombs were still ringing in the ears of a dazed and battered enemy our ground artillery opened up more tanks and infantry rolled forward driving west to isolate press and other ports on the peninsula other elements pushed south and these foreign Paris what was left of 10 German divisions was mopped up by the very men their Fuehrer had told them were not soldiers and would not fight again the aggressor had made a slight miscalculation as the Germans were meeting disaster in northwestern France the United States 7th army combat hardened veterans of the fighting in Italy hit the beaches in southern France on the morning of august 15 during that day 50,000 men and their equipment were landed the American Sixth Army Corps pushed north along the Rhone River Valley and other troops moved eastward toward the Italian border the drive into the heart of France was deeper now Patton's Third Army angles poured points just east and south of Paris the first star may flanking the third the seven now was moving up swiftly from the south 10 days after the landings in southern France Paris was liberated after four years of Nazi occupation deliberation of Paris like the liberation of Rome less than three months before was a cause for rejoicing and its psychological effect was reflected throughout the free world among our troops who parade it so proudly down the shawls elysees where some whose fathers had followed the same flag down that famous Avenue a quarter of a century before celebrating another victory which they too had one in the best traditions of the American fighting man and who had come there not for conquest but to liberate but the men of our fighting forces knew it was only one more important milestone along the rugged road to victory Allied armies held bridgeheads all along the line of the same in the South of France they captured too long and Marseille the British and Canadians took Brussels and the great port of antwerp the first American army pushed across the border into Belgium and drove on to the age the third took their done the third having crossed the Meuse river reached the Moselle now the allied front ran on a line all the way from the Swiss border to the North Sea 7th army patrols coming up from the south met patrols from the 3rd army the two armies were now linked up for the coordinated offensive to come retreat for Nazi forces caught on the wrong side of the line was cut off we rounded up our share of prisoners the desperate plight of Hitler's armies became more apparent as the bewildered legions of a once mighty destructive force found themselves defeated by an army they had been repeatedly told would never last on the soil of the Third Reich longer than nine hours in the 97 day the 5th Corps had led the assault on Omaha Beach it had come nearly 500 miles and now drove across the German border and stood on the soil of Hitler's Germany who was it that once said the American was no soldier in World War two the American soldier proved his fighting qualities as he always has and always will he stands second to none and his leadership is second to none from private to general he is the product of a free society conceived in Liberty he even has the power through his right to vote in free elections to choose his own commander-in-chief he has a voice in making the laws which govern him he has a precious heritage to defend much to fight for when he must fight to defend his good way of life he prefers the arts of peace as all men of good will do yet he knows how to practice the arts of war in some of the scenes filmed of the actual historic events which have been documented in this series you have seen the reaction to the American soldier by newly liberated peoples in North Africa Italy and France to them he was and still is a living symbol of freedom for he came to their lands giving of himself not for conquests but to liberate to defeat and destroy a ruthless aggressor or we might well say the aggressor who like evil throughout history lives on and has been known by many names the aggressor who would dictate that impose his will upon those he would conquer and enslave and not the least among those who stand opposed to him is the American soldier he knows the price of freedom is eternal vigilance you