80 years after D-Day, historians work to preserve stories

you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe and security for ourselves in a free world this Thursday marks 80 years since tens of thousands of Allied servicemen stormed ashore at Normandy France it was called D-Day Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower called The Invasion the great Crusade the challenge now is keeping alive the memories of that great Crusade Barry Peterson reports from Paris France and New Orleans watch closely at this moment that will one day be gone forever that first time in combat do you remember being nervous or do you feel like your training had prepared you for that moment or what were your feelings going into that you always nervous when you know you're going to be in combat and you're always nervous after you've been in combat but for me and I think most of my contemporaries when we in combat no nerves at all just doing your job a moment when you can talk to a World War II veteran like 99-year-old Steve Ellis a Gunnery officer on a Navy Invasion landing craft in the Pacific I can still remember that we were on a resupply run in which we were under constant attack for 3 days and I never got to bed he shares his stories at the national World War II Museum in New Orleans with seniors like Luke Suggs from Holy Cross High School what does it mean to you to hear him say that as opposed to reading it in a book I think it's very interesting at that moment for me personally uh to realize I'm really talking to someone who went through this and and who was there that day can't get it from a book don't get it from a movie exactly got to get it from the guy yes the guy who can tell you face to face exactly why he did it when people ask you Steve like what was the point of the war in your mind why were you there what do you answer well I guess I was there because it was expected of my generation that we that we take up the cause the cause as as what of of Freedom more than 16.4 million Americans served during the war today fewer than 100,000 are left and with the greatest generation almost gone the museum is working hard to reach new generations like providing high school yearbooks from the war years as part of the course material sent to students across the country says Chrissy Greg who heads the Museum's education Outreach obviously the hairstyles are different the slang but there's some common things there is chess club and there is basketball and there's prom well that really helps because now you're really talking about young people of the same age looking at the greatest generation when they were that age I can understand how that would really resonate certainly the museum sends student reporters to places like Normandy young people sharing stories with other young people a prominent observation point between Omaha and Utah Beach this site earned the name bloody Omaha Mark and Lisa Kramer taught D-Day by taking their children Grant and Caroline to Normandy but first Mark made them watch D-Day in the opening scenes of Saving Private R Grant had quite a bit of interest at that point in World War II and I think it made it sink in a little deeper that uh war is a really terrible thing Grant a high school sophomore brought home a modernday lesson we were a nation United behind the cause of democracy and freedom and it seems like you have people today in our government you know putting democracy up as a debate when it shouldn't be especially not in the United States of America this is a Sherman tank Mike Bell spent his army career in tanks and praises the ingenious tactics Allied soldiers used against the Germans so for instance they might fire white phosphorus smoke over a German tank and that it would it would suck the air into the German tank and the crew would Evacuate the tank in American history he is executive director of the Jenny Craig Institute for the study of war and democracy at the Museum he can ponder the very real what if so what would have happened if D-Day had failed you know if D-Day had failed which's incredible is there there's no backup plan I I think you could imagine that the oppressed peoples would not be liberated or certainly would not be liberated in 1944 and 45 you can imagine the extent of you the Holocaust you know the other oppression slave labor how those would have continued under Nazi denomination for years but it didn't fail by days in the Allies had 156,000 servicemen on French soil in a week we more than 320,000 in late August in a major boost to Allied morau American soldiers got their first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower as they fought their way into Paris and liberated the city but there would be a lot more war to come the Allies swept across France and into Germany until May of 1945 11 months after the first soldiers came ashore at Normandy the job was done Germany surrendered and at the same time the Allies were waging a separate war in the Pacific to defeat the Japanese as shown in this Museum exhibit called the road to Tokyo we try to create immersive environments Steven Watson is the Museum's president and CEO real documents real weapons real uniforms uh real armaments you know helmets Maps you know uh real things tell stories in a way that's authentic I feel like we're in a battle I mean you've created some of some of the sound some of the effect literally some of what the service people were going through that's right it's a little bit overwhelming by Design and other exhibits show how the war is part of our lives today if you think about jet engine technology nuclear power computers medicine plasma the origins of a lot of the things that you know impact our daily lives today go back to this period of innovation when we needed Solutions during World War II an estimated 2,500 Americans died just on D-Day fathers husbands Sons best friends at the Normandy American cemetery and Memorial each name has a Story Each one worthy of honor and teaching the story of their bravery to new generations is the debt we owe them that is our debt of Honor for CBS Saturday morning Barry Peterson Paris an incredible Museum it started off as a national D-Day Museum off the real effort of Stephen Ambrose the author of Band of Brothers he wanted people to understand the the sacrifice of easy company that went all the way to Berlin and in so doing they realized you know what we don't have a national museum on World War II and we're going to make one here and New Orleans you know really band it together to make it happen it is amazing those first person accounts those are the things that we are losing and when you see a child or somebody younger hear it all the difference in the world yeah and it's always good to be reminded of that selfless greatest Generation in this age of self-promotion and and everything else just the sacrifice involved absolutely

Channel: CBS News

Views: 2,174

Keywords: CBS Saturday Morning, CBS News, video, world war ll, history, d day, america

Id: HaHATGq4b_s

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024