tv documents america story. on sunday's book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span two comes from these television companies and more. including comcast. >> do you think this is just a community center? no, it is way more than that. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wi-fi enabled stuff. so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything comcast along with these television companies support c-span 2 as a public service. >> good evening everyone. thank you so much for coming tonight and thank you to everyone here. thank you for everyone on zoom. joining us through c-span, as well. before we start i would like to inform everyone that this lecture will be recorded and available for later viewing. my name is angelique moss. i am the chairwoman of the

alexandra cistern committee. we are a volunteer city committee that promotes educational cultural exchange between the city of normandy and can and the city of alexandria here in virginia. this is the first of two programs that we will be hosting this year for the 78th anniversary of d-day. tonight is my pleasure to welcome back dr. for our 12th annual commemoration lecture. the doctor kim bernard is a professional historian with the u.s. army and was for 34 years. he received accommodations from the late john marshall, secretary of the army, and president ronald reagan's. he is the recipient of the 2008 joseph el harsh history award for the northern virginia association of historians. and the cover supplement of the 2016 t michael mueller

alexandria history award from the alexandria historical society. his father served in the u.s. army. this was as a medical officer during the second world war. and he took care of many d-day wounds on the return to england. later he served under president dwight eisenhower's medical staff. we were fortunate to have the doctor join us as a lecturer last year and in 2019. tonight he will speak on patents. he will speak on the missing generals of d-day. we will have time for a q and a afterwards. then we will invite everyone to join us afterwards for reception. and now, ladies and gentlemen, madam and mr., doctor kim. >> thank you very much.

when i was called earlier this year about doing tonight's program hole i asked, what do you want the program to be? they said they wanted something different and something short and well we will definitely have something different and short to leave more time for questions and answers. that is just as important as what i will be seeing up here tonight. i come from an old army family. my wife comes from and old navy family. tom that big game in december it gets a little bit touchy. that is as to who is going to win and lose. and of course, for those of you that are lucky enough to be married you know the wife always wins. we will leave it at that. tonight we are going to look at the two most famous generals. they are from the ego european

theater of operations. when you talk about d-day you talk about world war ii, and europe, and north africa. you end up talking about george smith patton junior, or erwin reynolds. they are certainly the two most famous generals that were not at d-day on d-day. that is george s. patton and erwin johannes eugen rommel. in may of 1994 rommel is walking along the beaches of normandy with his loyal aide, captain lang. he turns to captain lang and he says, lang, the first 24 hours will be decisive. for germany, as well as for the allies. it will be the longest day. with that, let's go to slide number one. i would do the slides but i am probably going to blow up the room if i do that.

wait a second, i thought we were talking about d-day. that is a viking show up there. who is that guy in the costume who looks like he should be at the queen's anniversary? well, normandy is being named after my viking ancestors who came down and saw the most beautiful countryside. it is the most beautiful in the world on the beaches of normandy. perfect for their rating along the european coastline and settling in. and so, they came around the or 980. they were smart enough to say. the next century one of them was william duke of normandy. he would lead the last successful invasion of the british isles. that would be in the famous

battle of hastings in ten 66. so, it all goes back to a bunch of norwegians and swedes who did not want to eat fish anymore up in scandinavia and they came. down so that they could take part in that wonderful french cuisine. they decided to stay, just like relatives come for a weekend and stay for a year. you cannot get rid of them. our sister city was mentioned, cannes it is the most important city in the province of normandy. not because it is our sister city but because it is a road hub. and as a rogue hub, ladies and gentlemen, it controls ingress and egress from all of central and eastern normandy. if you control it you control central and eastern normandy. western normandy is where the

americans would land. that is critically important. it does not have the road network that cannes does. what is so important about that road network? it goes straight east to paris. that is the diamond of france. so, consequently, if you take cannes you are on the road to victory to paris. george s. patton is next to the bat. he said, if the proper study of mankind's man, then the proper study of warfare our maps. patton like rommel it's a commerce or of his profession. he is studying maps and studies them. if you go to the movie patton, when he is flying from england into france, as he complains with all the other spare parts

after the normandy invasion, what blue book is sitting on his lap? take a quick look in gold lettering. it is the conquest of england. it is all about william the conqueror and how he developed a road network infrastructure in normandy to enable them to build a base of operations to invade england in ten 66. he knew that. he knew that all of the roads that william the conquer had belts, 900 years earlier, nobody else did. george did. what about george smith junior? when his family immigrated over from scotland they came locally. they came to fredericksburg. and they married into the family. you can go down to old town and you can see the medical apothecary shop. it is still there.

you can see that it was a very famous doctor there during the revolutionary war of the continental army. a personal friend of president washington. he was wanting to go to west point in the worst possible way. he has dyslexia. he is not able to until age 16 able to read and write. before going to west point what does he do? he goes to v am i to prep for a year. when he walks into the tailor shop to be fitted for his uniform the taylor says, oh, mr. patton, i fitted your father. here is my logbook. you have the exact same measurements as your father. you say your grandfather went? i will get his measurements. they are the exact same as yours and your fathers. this reinforces george patton belief in reincarnation.

he goes to west point. he has a little bit of trouble that first year. he has to repeat it. so, he ends up graduating in 1909. in 1909 this fine looking young gentlemen in the lower corner starts his apprenticeship at the officer condensed school in the baltics. it is now known as danced in poland. he graduates in 1913 and while he is there he meets and falls and loved with his dance instructor who is colin. she is half italian and half polish, i believe and they are deeply in love and this will come back to haunt them on june six, 1944. the great war comes in 1914. what happens?

george smith junior is the training officer, and then, the combat officer for the first american tank brigade in their first attack. he gets severely wounded in this. that is his backside. and now, he receives personally, from generals of the army purging their distinguished service crops, and he gets the distinguished service medal. in 1932 when they are first issued he gets a purple heart. he has an illustrious career during world war i. and then, he is a young officer in the german calvary. he is wounded in front of her in 1914. he goes back to recuperate in a hospital. and then, when he is well enough for combat, again, he is transferred to the front in the mountains and he surprises a

small contingent of battalions numbering 70,000. he takes some prisoner with his company of 200 men. he is commanding mountain troops and it is very elite. and then, a little bit later on in the alps he is given command of a battalion of 700 men. he captures a battalion division of 10,000. for those two accomplishments on the battlefield he is given the german equivalent of our medal of honor. this is the order of merit and these are both very distinguished young officers coming out of world war one. wait a second, what is that, that is pearl harbor being attacked. we are going to switch from the army to the navy. and george, he is always up to something. now, in 1927 there is an

intelligence officer who was there for the hawaiian division in pearl harbor. when he transfers out for his next assignment he writes a summary intelligence report. in that report he says, the japanese will attack pearl harbor on a sunday morning around 7:30 and they will do it with naval aircrafts. they will come in from the southwest. of course, they came in from the northwest. but, otherwise, they were 30 minutes later than his opposed attack time. everything else, he was right on the money. that is because he was a student of history. he lived, eight, and breathes history, all the time. later on he was stationed just up the road here, four times at fort myers. that was next to arlington

national cemetery. in the mid 1930s it is not well known. he was the executive author. he built the old post chapel. many of you have gone there for winnings, and funerals. then he became the commanding officer and when you go to patton hall, the officers club at fort myers, that was his administrative headquarters from 1938 to 1940. what happened to erwin between those wars? he is retaining a miniaturized german rnc. only 100,000 men, you know, you have to be the cream of the crop for an officer to be able to be retained in that german army. he has many assignments. all of which he handles extremely well. and, then in 1937 he writes his memoirs. he writes about these attacks, and now, when you watch the movie and patton is there in

north africa towards the beginning of the movie and he is asleep in that luxurious bed, and he has a book spread out on top of his chest, when the sergeant comes in to wake him up saying, general, wake up, we just got word from intelligence that there is going to be an attack. and he rears up in his bed and he yells out, you magnificent, i read your book. i say this is the book that he read. now, this book, it will cause the death of her when seven years later. we will go to that in a moment. this book brings him to the intention of hitler. hitler says, i want that crackerjack officer to be in command of my escort. my personal bodyguard with 500 men. that is what happens.

world war ii comes and there is a german invasion of poland in september of 1939. what happens? rommel is there in poland with hitler. hitler is almost right up on the front lines. they are under combat conditions. there is a long line of, what we used to call in the pentagon, strap hangers. they are staff officers, escort officers, and one of whom is a not see lackey, by the name of martin, he is hitler's right-hand man. norman is a vicious, nasty not see. he is as bad as they come. they have a brennan. he is the officer in charge of security and he is tried to put

his car ahead of this following the open mercedes, touring the battlefront in poland. they were coming under combat conditions. he shuts this down. he never forgets that. he pulled out his little black book and says, get revenge on erwin rommel one day. that is coming in 1944. rommel decimal in poland that hitler gives him command of the seventh armored division for the invasion of france. and that division reforms magnificently. it is known as the ghost division because it races from the river all the way to the english channel faster than anybody else. and, because he does so greatly in the french campaign of 1940, then, when there are problems in north africa with the italian troops facing the

british troops, in egypt, and libya, what happens? hitler turns and says, general, i want you to go down to north africa. take to light tank divisions. straighten things out for us. that is where he gets his great reputation as the doesn't fox. he is absolutely brilliant. because, he uses tanks in the sand of the desert like a good navy as a kid. just ships at sea. but, how does he do this? he has a face at the sleeve that is not knowing about it for a long time. we will touch on that in a minute. george paton, meanwhile, in 1940, he leaves fort myers. he goes and sets up the desert training center. it isn't south carolina. and, in southwest arizona. you can still watch part of it today, part of the park systems out there. it is outstanding.

it is a burning concept. only george patent could have set up such an outstanding training center. because, you fight as you train. that is why the troops that go through that desert training are properly prepared for combat. now, in 1942, in november, he leaves the american liberation of northwest africa, the operation torch, and he comes into french morocco. later, when things get very, very csiky in tunisia, eisenhower, calls on him to save the day in tunisia. once again, he pulls eisenhower and gets his bacon out of the fire, so to say, and eisenhower, he turns to him, later in the war. he says, george, every time i get a promotion i get attacked. and george responds, every time you get attacked i save your

bacon. they knew each other very well. now, of course, george s. patton goes on from north africa to the invasion of sicily. he beats one of the finest units in the german army. it is given a verbal reference in the movie and he knows how to command. he knows how to use history. he knows everything there is to know about this. he has a trick up his sleeve, also. we will touch on that in a little bit. then, the great invasion is getting prepared. that patch, you see, it is a paton wore one. and then, a lot of g.i.'s, and others were. these it is the first united states army group. and i understand that you are going to find one of the originals of these. it is quite valuable and this

was the phantom army that was set up to keep the german 15th army away for the invasion. the german 15th army, if you have heard about it, there were 75,000 men. they said, just to the east of the province of normandy, they could have come right along the coastline and rolled up the allied invasion. if it was not for george paton with his phantom first army, there, the germans were convinced, especially hitler, that they would leave the assault in l.a. because it is only 20 miles from there to the english coastline. it is the most direct line to berlin. they are thinking, textbook, here is something to think about outside of the textbook. now, you see an aircraft there. that is a british typhoon. what happens to this, it is

this airplane here as he is back visiting his wife on june six in germany. why is he doing this, because it is her birthday? the german weather officer said, the english channel will be too rough for eisenhower to cross. not realizing that the captain stacked the scottish weather officer, and had given eisenhower a window of opportunity to do the landing. and, eisenhower rolled the dice and made the great decision for the landing on june six. this is after had pet already been postponed from june 5th. now, this is critically important because he has to brace back and open a staff car from one side of germany in south central germany to across the ryan. then through france to normandy. he gets there and find out that the allies have lodged a beach head.

remember what he told people, that the first 24 hours will be decisive. now, they are not fighting just eisenhower and the allies. he has to fight hitler micromanaging him from back in germany. he has to fight as to who is going to control what they are going to do. he had never fought against the allies and their overwhelming air superiority and overwhelming naval superiority. he had realizations, mentally, that he could not move his reserve units up to the front lines. you cannot do that in the daytime, over the local french roads if the allies, like this typhoon, tighter attack airline

is hitting the skies, and shooting of everything that moves. now, late in july there is arriving through the normandy countryside trying to patch work together as a defensive line against the allies. and a british typhoon sees him, as a target of opportunity. they come down on him with their rocket pods and machine guns, and it flips over. they suffer a cracked skull and lose his left eye. his cheek is crest. he is out of action. that is on the 17th of july. we know how the rest of the war goes as he drives to france and saves eisenhower and goes into germany, almost into czechoslovakia.

he does not make it that far, but both and up dying because of automobiles. now he is the first one to go. supposedly, according to his chief staff, who will become a big shot in the poorest war german army, he turns rommel's name over to the gestapo. he is up over his eyeballs in the assassination plot against. when that plot takes place on july 20th, three days after he was wounded. he tells the gestapo to come as he is interrogated. he says, hey, you ought to look here. maybe you can find out what is going on with the plot. he kind of acquiesced to it. et cetera, it's such era. so, he is later arrested, put in a concentration camp, he

escapes, almost, at the end of the war, and resurfaces, and becomes commanding general in this. it is very big. >> he is brought before to not see lackeys coming down from berlin. this is in october of 1944. and they tell him that he should go to a public trial and if that happens your family will be in jeopardy or you can take a sign like a capsule that we brought with us. your family will be spared. so, like the officer that he is, and was, he takes the cyanide to protect his family. this memorial that you see has been put up on the roadside down there. it is where he chucked the cyanide capsules. george patton up there, you see

the car from the accident. it was in december of 1945. it was when the war ends in may of 1945, and patton comes back to the states for a victory tour on the east and west coast. he also tells his daughters, the night before he flies back to germany for occupation duty, that i will not be coming home alive. strong premonition. i will not be coming home alive. he knows something is up, what is it? this accident takes place on december 9th, 1945. he seems to be recovering from it because he kept himself in excellent condition. both mentally and physically. that, he dies of a supposed embolism on december 21st, 1945. he is buried in the american military center in luxembourg. it is his choice.

here is an interesting fact. eight years later mrs. paton dies of a brain aneurysm. this is riding a horse. she was very much an equestrian. she is riding a horse. she has a plug crowd in the brain. she dies. she is cremated. her ashes are taken by the two borders, ruth ellen, and beatrice, over to papa's grave, as they called it. the night before they are to come back to the states they take the urn of ashes and quietly, and silently walk by the generals graveside. he has a standard headstone, nothing more, nothing less. they turn the can of ashes upside down. they spread her ashes over his grade side. the next morning, they have taken an army staff car back to the airport to fly back to the

states. they asked the driver to go by the american military cemetery in luxembourg one more time. that seems like a natural request. he drives by and they look out the window and there is a cat sitting on top of pop as gravestone. they are thrilled. why? because mrs. patton was a great believer in egyptian with-ology. in egyptian with-ology, ladies and gentlemen, the cat is the go-between for this life and the next. so, they knew it was another spirit visiting. it pleased them to know. now, most of you have seen the movie patton from 1970. it is a brilliant production. one my father had his first massive stroke after he was stabilized, next door here, at the old alexandria hospital, he

was transferred in early 1972 up to walter reed army medical center. his roommate was called dylan. he had been a staff officer with patton in the war. he was very truthful in the first war when he was in the navy. then he saw the light and came over to the army for the second war. he was a colonel. he was a tremendous, tremendous human being. and he said that when he saw the movie he said, kim, i thought it was the old man, himself. that is how good george c. scott got the movie. but, you have to be very careful of certain factors in the movie. because, the technical adviser was general of the army, omar bradley. there is a scene in there, just before the start of the german counter offensive in the battle

of the bulge. where patton is informed that he has to have the tenth army bridge -- there is a river into germany. you have to let me go through. now, george knew something was going on up north. he knew that he wanted them to go down tomorrow morning. be there at 10 am sharp. the meeting took place and that part of it is accurate. but, there is a little twist of history going on when the word came about the german counter attack and the force for the battle of the bulge to start. that was in december of 1944. bradley, and eisenhower, and montgomery, and some other senior officers, they are having a card game. bradley was eating his favorite food and he did not want to

have to leave the car game or the food. he pooh food the initial reports of the counter attack. eisenhower is the one who jumped up and said, no, this is something serious. i have to get to the phone right away. and then, everything followed from there. so, you have a little bit careful, you have to be, about that particular scene. now, this other one, james mason, he portrays rommel. he does it brilliantly. this is the desert fox. this is 1951. it is a complete british production. the brits really know how to get inside the german mindset. it is brilliant. mason does rommel than anyone else before or since. but, what is important about the movie is the man who wrote the book it was based on. and then, his technical adviser for the movie. the premiere, desmond young, he

had been a white colonel taken prisoner by the african court in north africa. he had a chance encounter with rommel that saves young's life. thereafter, he becomes fascinated with rommel because of his brilliant exports as a senior officer. and then, his tragic ending because of the not seize. so, after the war was over general young, you see this at the beginning of the movie, he goes to everybody that fought with or against rommel. especially in north africa. he goes through all the official records, such as they were declassified at the time. he puts together the story of erwin rommel, and the book, and the movie or first ranked. why? because they are done only six years after the end of the war.

it has what the germans call, zeitgeist. the spirit of the times. you cannot capture it today. daryl, what the longest day, and the bridge too far, they are to hollywood a version. you go back and watch this movie on a desert fox. then you will find out about rommel. the man, and the officer, and how he stood up to hitler. what about books? years ago, there used to be a great tv series. it was a major film production by the library of congress. at the end of these they would say, the library of congress recommends that these are a few recommendations, here. this is superb because it is

one of the reasons why it is the most up-to-date biography. they were both west pointers. there is a whole series done on the war in europe. basically, centering around, but not exclusively, on paton. also, highly recommended, a mystery book on paton. if you want to find out about him, the human being, the man, or as rommel says in the movie, the meant, tell him about the match, the man. do not just give me a bio sheet to his aid. the buttoned box by ruth ellen paton, his daughter, it is more insight and definition in that book then you could shake a stick at. also, anything by martin bloom who was on the staff as a historian. i knew him at the center of military history as a

crackerjack person willing to sit down and share history and explain history. what are we doing here? we have cliff robertson and david soul. they are belly dancers. remember, a few moments ago i mentioned an ace of the sleeve that rommel later montgomery had a north africa. and that patton had, also. it signals intelligence. now, we know, today, the cold phrase, ultra, i will be one of the very few people you ever meet who worked on ultra when it was still ultra. and every time, and i had a top secret clearance in the national archives, every time we ran across the ultra on a page, just like in a hollywood movie, we had to stop and close

the ledger book where the cables were. we had to raise our hand. a person known as a team leader, who had a clearance above top secret, top secret is not the highest level of clearance, believe me. they would come and open up the ledger book with the brands in them. and they would take out that's page, put in a blank page, state and stamp it, and michelin it, put a marker on that ledger, and then, he, the team leader and i, we would then go to a big safe and he would open the sucker up, like something out of a holiday -- he would put the page in their. and so, i could certify that he had done it. because, ultra was still classified above top secret, at the time. here is the ace up the sleeve. the american military attaché

in cairo, in the early part of world war ii, there was a very fine officer by fellows. he was sending back all of the information the british gave them to general marshall. he was the chief of staff across the river in washington. he was with the war department. he was using the british code to do it. unbeknownst to general fellows, unbeknownst to the british high command, unbeknownst to general moisture here in washington. the gentleman's had broken this cold. so, it is like sitting at a table playing a game of poker and your opponent is sitting behind you as well as in front of you. he can read every card you have. but, you do not know that he is reading it. what an intelligence coup. and bumble is able to get that information out of cairo and he

goes all the way to alam in. and then the british figure out what is going on. it took him only two years. and what happens? they pulled the code, change codes, and all of the sudden rumble is operating blind. what am i to do? at the same time, the british and americans have broken the german code. and so now they know everything communication wise going from berlin and rome to rumble in north africa. so now the tables are reversed. and they can sink all of rumbles supplies coming from the mediterranean into north africa. so ramallah is always short on gasoline, always short on ammunition, always short on tanks, short on everything.

and the americans are pumping huge amounts of supplies into the british army. huge amounts. they outnumber rumble in tanks something like 10 to 1. in artillery, something like 12 to 1. aircraft, 7 to 1. it is just astronomical. so ramallah is forced to retreat. patton will use the signal and intelligence about degraded manage. both in north africa, sicily, and then in. france and into germany. he is a connoisseur of the use of intelligence. i will tell you how he did it. this is the first time anybody will hear about this because i was told from the source themselves. a very good friend of mine at the center -- history, doctor robert, right was good friends with kent roberts greenfield at the center military history before

i got there. benny particular, doctor paul was with the american army in europe in 1933, 40, four and 45 as chief historian. in the european theater. and he said, every night in france and in germany, after dinner paton and colonel bratton would walk out into the middle field and they would talk and then they would walk back to the headquarters. colonel brenton is someone that you are familiar with from the movie torch oratory. once again, pearl harbor comes into play because he is the army signals intelligence officer in the movie who tries to alert president roosevelt and general marshall about the japanese attack coming forth on december 7th 1941. so later in the war, the real

colonel bratton, not eeg march and of course, is then assigned to patents headquarters as his ultra liaison officer. and that is how it is done. now, the key to rebecca was made from can full its brilliant novel, in the old adage many of truth a sudden just, i am here to tell you many a true this just southern fiction. read can full it, q3 back in, david seoul and cliff robinson did a excellent job on it. i was lucky enough to have a private lunch with david so many years ago when he was going to do a six part miniseries on the civil war and he asked me to be his technical adviser. unfortunately, he sold the rights to a to that many serious to gregory peck soul,

play lincoln. but he was a very serious amateur historian and he really wanted to do a good job, much like he did at the catering baucum. this will give you insights outside of normal history books on how wars are really won and lost. remember sun suit, the chinese warrior from 2500 years ago wrote that all warfare is one by deception and deflection. that is what intelligence is all about. who the legacy, the legacy of paton and rumbled lives on and on and on in the top right hand corner, top of dan corner you've seen patton son, major general jordan george paton and he is commanding u.s. army's courtyard.

and he is being greeted by the lord mayor. and they became best friends and mansfield rumble became best friends with field marshal montgomery's some. now they have all passed away, but they took a legacy like a baton in a relay race and they turned it over to their daughters. and the lady holding the dog's general paton's daughter, the granddaughter of the world war ii general patton. and that lady in the white trenchcoat is ronald's granddaughter. the daughter of midfield roemer. and here they are getting an american world war ii veteran at a commemoration ceremony. so they are passing the torch of the western nato countries, which today we find so critical with the tragedies ongoing in

the ukraine. and that is the legacy of herman rubble and george paton. thank you. yes, sir, if you have questions, please come over to the microphone and ask them so they can be picked up. thank you. yes, sir? >> if you have questions please go over to the microphone enough them so they can get picked up. >> thank you. >> i was wondering if you had any theories regarding why patton never made it to where he should have been and how he could have been dispatched with a leg injury? >> everyone thinks that, on the outside, but looking into the military that it is one happy band into brothers. no. there is a tremendous amount of

rivalries, depending upon where you got your undergraduate degree. was it west point, bmi, norwich, the citadel, et cetera. colin powell, were are ntc? and it is like fraternities. so it is not a happy band of brothers, and there is a tremendous amount of rivalry. so that is, you are asking our patents death. >> how did he survive that? injury >> while he was surviving, he was recovering, they even had told him that he was doing well enough and had stabilized and they were going to can prepare a medical back flight from luxembourg, from germany back to the states. and the family thought that he

would be home in time if not for christmas for new year's. all the sudden, he develops an embolism in and he is gone. there are many unanswered questions about patton's accident and his death. i can tell you from having worked two and a half years chop secret in the national archives that it is, to me, very assist suspicious at the accident report went missing almost right away. that the army young soldiers involved in the truck part of the accident were flown out to england the next day. there's a lot of loose ends that leave me itching. and my personal philosophy as a professional historian for 34

plus years, i approach every situation as sherlock homes. and i try to use that plus my top secret background and work. i spent nine years with the army general staff in the pentagon. i flew with them on helicopter missions. my father was a career army officer. he went from buck privates to lieutenant colonel for five years. so i was raised in that environment. and there's just too many loose ends from patents accident and his hospitalization, and then the follow-up or lack thereof. it leads me itching a scratch. and i am not satisfied with what we have seen so far we

used to have an expression of the archives. am i. i know that means missing in action but in the archives it is called missing in archives. i will give you an example. i haven't talked about this publicly. i worked at susan. we had at that time eight football fields of national archives records in sullen. that is a long time ago and they might have 1 million football fields now. it looks just like what you see in raiders of the lost ark accept it is all paper. floor to ceiling. . we had a fellow out there who is a heck of a nice guy. young college graduate, everybody enjoyed his company. he did manage work in my section he worked in an unclassified section.

he was all the sudden not there. and i thought gee, maybe something happened to him. so i made an inquiry. my acquaintance friend, what had happened to him. i was, told didn't you know? he got quietly transferred because he burned a cart load of permanent records that were court quart marshall biles. never supposed to be burned never never. and he had taken them to the incinerator and meet a student was taken from them. so yeah promoted and transferred. so eventually he recycle back to suit, and he was there, while that he was gone. again nothing said. so i made an inquiry again through a mutual friend. gee, what happened to someone so. didn't you know, he burned another car load of permanent records. these were colorado territorial

land records. permanent records never supposed to be burnt. so things like that to happen. next question? >> was that common in the german general staff? >> yes ramon was a tradesmen. he was from the prospect of written bergen south central germany. he wasn't depression. he wasn't divine. he was not a nasty power party, member never was. he was under hitler's spell.

hitler was like the pied piper of hamilton. he was a magician. i will tell you what happened to me at the center military history. i am walking down the hallway and approaching me is mr. vaughan looting child. he had been a german officer. a mid level staff in combat out officer he had fought throughout europe in the warm. his family was german nobility. they were impression but they weren't fonds. he was the most handsome and i ever saw. he came right out of hollywood central casting and he had 1 million dollar personality. and i was born in stuttgart. and we got to talking many times so one day and i stopped him and i said, can you tell me

what was hitler like. because you had lunch with him many times before he took power when you are a student in munich in the 1920s. and he would sit there at the beer garden, or at the restaurant and you would discuss politics and the german situation economically. he looked at me, and he said kim, he is your height, 5:10. but he said he is thinner by 20 pounds, at that time i weighed one 70. so put him out about 1:50 which was my football playing weight up here in him and i will. but he said everything that hitler had was in his eyes. he said once his eyes locked on you, he had you. he had the mesmerization ability. he could almost cast a spell on

you and will do you with his ice. this goes to abraham lincoln in that lincoln said, you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. hitler took in ramallah on a personality level initially. but ramallah eventually came to see the light of the evil and the corruption in the not see regime yes, sir? >> this is not a path to romney question. rather a question about historians in the military and i'm wondering. you mentioned that there was a -- assigned in europe world war ii. i was just wondering if you

could sort of comment on what sort of, what would their role be and what access would they have? >> doctor forest poll had complete access to the high command. but, you have to remember that the high command is fighting a war. so they just can't sit down at the lunch table and lean back and talk with you. they had full access to the staff officers to do the work, make it flow. they could see the commanding general inaction and maybe occasionally get in a question of q&a with them. eisenhower himself set up the entire army history program because of the civil war official records of war that we value. after world war i, eisenhower is chosen by the persian

operational corrections structure to be his eighth in the panama canal zone. so they would go up on weekends on horseback trips. you can't believe how primitive the canal zone was in the early 19 twenties and they would go out on tours inspecting areas for defense and preparation camps and training. the first night, outfox hunters as to ike, what do you think of history? and i jumped up. i guess the million dollar personality. he also similar temper. and he jumps up and says, i hate his stream. corners really taken back because eisenhower is considered an up and comer and he says i, why do you hate history? because when they taught it at west point it was nothing but memorization updates and names of places.

there wasn't any flash to dry bones. fox connor said, ike, i want you to go over to my saddle bags. i want you to get out the two books in their, bring them over here, and he goes and gets remembering some of her memoirs of phil sheridan. he says i would like for you to read those. and when we go out on an inspection, two weeks from now we will discuss it over the campfire. well, anybody who has been in the military knows that when this senior person says that when i would like for you to read, thus you are gonna memorize every word, believe. me well, two weeks later they got again. and he says ike, what did you think of sheridan's memoirs? it says, general counter-i loved them. all the problems he had we have

today. and i was able to read in his memoirs how he worked through the solutions on these various problems. and it is so helpful it gave me great insight. fox connor says now i can want you to over to my saddle bags, put the book in. there he comes back, memoirs by john brown gordon of the confederate army who went from buck private to lieutenant governor. and was a big collar feud reunification at the end of the civil war. he says, i would like for you to read general gordon's memoirs and tell me what you think in two weeks. and that is how eisenhower became a connoisseur of history. so, when will what she starts and he has made supremely commander for the european theater of operations, he tells general marshall in a cable, i

would like to set up a history program to set up a history of books all of the official records of the war the rebellion. well, general marshall knew exactly what he was talking about. because marshall was a connoisseur of history having gone to the imam and graduated from the mi and his favorite book was on the civil war. so he knew exactly where eisenhower was coming from. and eisenhower was his protegee. hook line and sinker top to bottom. so he said, by all means. they went to the various universities throughout america, pulled out outstanding history historians and military historians and put them to work. people like martin blooms, forrest poe, can't roberts, who turned out the 80 volume green serious nosy army green books on world war ii. now the only shortcoming that

those two books have, and it is not their fault, they didn't know about it couldn't help it. they don't include anything on ultra. because it was all classified. and it wasn't let loose until around lucy, i love the archives in that 79 so sometime after that. 80, 81, 82. because the british let loose on it. otherwise, it would probably still be classified. so those historians, martin payments and was with patton's third army. and so i knew him very well. he wrote anything you can find that he wrote in the military or history journal. any book that he did is going to be a plus. can't roberts greenfield was a+. forrest pope did the for volume and mars of general marshall. those guys are a plus

historians, but again, they didn't have access to ultra. now i can tell you, every month that the center military history we would have a brown bank lunch. we would get an outside speaker to come in. that marine corps history. one time we had the germany naval attaché come just after ultra was let loose. and one of the questions that he answered was, how did this new information about ultra change the naval history writing world war ii? and he set, it changes everything. we have to go back and rewrite everything. he said, aren't you doing the same? no. we have known back and incompetent ultra into our official histories. which i think is a shortcoming. but then i am not in charge of

the program. >> this will be a last. question but i'm going to combine to from zoom. we have two questions. when was that picture on the top of taken and stuck guard and second, what role did ronald really play in the hitler prod? >> the picture in the top left a major general paton and mount freed renault was taken in the 70s. i talked with general paton once on the telephone. professionally curious, very brisk. you would not enjoy having a lunch with that person. i never got to meet lord may remove. but he had 1 million dollar personality from what i

understand. >> and romo? >> ramos roller plot on july 20th to kill hitler i have mentioned spindles role in turning rumbles name over to the gestapo. now of course, never having been interrogated with the gestapo and never having been a married man and not see germany where the gestapo would never think twice about going after your family, you have to be very careful how you think people should react in that situation. the fact that rumbled knew that something was going on probably sold, yes. he may have heard rumors,

rumblings, been approached once or twice and what are they pushing about? and secretive medias are going on. it is overplayed a little bit in the 1951 movie the doesn't box. but then again, if you take a look at the picture of the dedication of the rubble bearings in the late 50s early 50s, and prowl ramallah is standing on the left of the photo next to her spinal. the look she is giving him would have very turn 20 feet down. a picture says 1000 words. tim i think he knew about it. what rum stint says in the movie doesn't box, he says when

asked to participate actively in applied, he says i'm 70 years. old i am too old to change. but tell your friends i wish them well. perhaps it was a long rumbles line. remember, again and again, rumble was not oppression and he wasn't a novelty. he was asleep in and south germans think and have a completely different cultural mindset then north germans or the prussian class. i can tell you that when i went back to visit germany after i graduated, one of the people that my parents would be funded significantly and look next to down at augsburg specifically took me one day on a trip up in the alps. and i can still recall walking

down this mountain path to a beautiful wooden shell they can't build and coming out of it was again a guy that looked like he was from central casting tall, muscular, handsome outdoor features. and carl host turned to me and said, this was the reason for the trip by the way. he said, this is a mountain vine. he said kim, this man wasn't am ceo in the african corps. they still had that much pride in ramallah as a man and serving with him, under him. and the 90s, poof. a bunch of strangers. that lad, cheated, and took over. and then they had a secret police system and it is very

hard to buck the secret police especially if you have a family to protect. >> thank you. >> thank you. and the mccracken lead search library is proud to present today another installment of our local lore events with