so they resourced and built a new army, an army that deterred soviet aggression, an army that won desert storm in 100 hours, an army that has fought so well against terrorism for the last two decades. in fact, the transformational change of the post-vietnam era built the army today that has 187,000 soldiers committed to support 140 countries around the world and accounts for more than 60% of our combatant commanders requirements. think about it. we began building the army of 2020 more than 40 years ago. and since then, we're incremental improved our weapons systems that we failed in the 1970's and 1980's and i would tell people we're starting to run out of letters. that's why we need new systems. when you get to the z model, you need something new. take the m2 bradley, one of our key fighting vehicles. over the last 40 years we've upgraded the bradley to m2, a-1, and improved it to one version after another. we have added improved armor. we made many other improvements. although the bradley is a formidable fighting vehicle, it will be the centerpiece of our mechanized infantry formations

then in the south is the seventh army. and the infantry army of the three armies much we guess. about 40 assault guns with the bulk of these tanks and assault guns into the north. that is mainly to protect the flank of the fifth panzer army. german preparations become known as -- it has a defensive name. it seems like they are going to be defending not an attack. where they position the troops looks like where you would position troops when the u.s. and british offenses started again for a counterattack. into the plan that the germans are trying to do. 300 thousand soldiers. 1800 tanks and assault guns. 1900 artillery pieces against this front. numbers. see the it's 11 divisions north versus eight divisions and fifth panzer army and seventh army. these numbers are a little misleading because of the type of troops that are up in the six panzer army. there will be 83,000 soldiers. 254 tanks. we teach that when you go on the offensive you need three to one odds for the offensive to be successful. germans, where they decide they have eightate, they to one odds in infantry and 41 our

army. now, with so many real and potential challenges on the horizon, our u.s. army has no choice but to adapt to an increasingly uncertain future. a future of complex and evolving threats and an environment of increasingly technology colonel sophistication, rapid change, and lethality. that is especially true of today's topic which is the indo-pacific region, although i know the secretary is focused with laser-like clarity not just on the indo-pacific but the middle east and north africa and europe and elsewhere, because the army is of course a global force. but today we will talk about the indo-pacific region. so to our program shortly, the secretary will offer us some of his own remarks, and then we'll be joined on the stage by brookings senior fellow mike o'hanlon. they'll cover a wide array of topics. but primarily it will be oriented on the indo-pacific region. once we've wrapped up that discussion we'll go to q&a. and of course we're very much on the record this morning. so again, si

in june of 1944, the soviet army launched a massive offensive against the germy army -- the german army on the eastern front. nazi defeat. next on american history tv, historians present talks on two aspects of what the soviets aspects of the operation. ready toow getting hand the stage over to an associate professor in the department of history at the university of windsor in canada. we met rob last year when he came down for our 2018 conference as an attendee. we are delighted to have him back with us to moderate our first session of the day. without delay, dr. nelson. [applause] >> good morning. bout.e to the heavyweight these three major fronts -- for those of us, he saved the biggest one for last. operation, one of the greatest, the most significant with a name that none of us can pronounce. i don't speak russian. i can say it in french way. then there is the funny, easy pneumonic device. operation bag of rations. can kind of spell it out along the way. words spelling out the with the emphasis on the final syllable. about the eastern front and how significant it is, difficult to br

our army to army partnerships build valuable relationships for the dod at large. these are more than simply steadfast partners. are key decision makers and influencers in their respective countries. furthermore, shared equipment builds interoperability and operating together easier while creating strategic depth. our operations in the indo-pacific include training with army forces, helping newland sand up their striker units as their striker vehicles, 15, in fact, are arriving right now. the philippines has asked for more help in training 72 infantry battalions as they upgrade their equipment and evolve their doctrine. we continue to do traditional security cooperation, we are also employing new capabilities and the indo-pacific as grounds to test our new concept multidomain operations or mdo. if conflict with a great power occurred, the united states would be unable to easily and strategic locations safely flow in forces. seeking to regain overmatch and alllution for converging domains, mdo creates an asymmetrical advantage. mdo sets the conditions in theater whi

command between 15th army and southern expeditionary army. i hope you can read it. the japanese did not have a core structure in their army, so their army command is actually about the same size of a corps in the u.s. army and their area army is -- i'm getting that right, i have it written down. so they don't have a corps structure. we army corps is equal to an corpsan core -- the army is equal to an american corps, and the burma area army is not as grand as it sounds. they set up this new command structure. and at the same time another change they made was they promoted mutaguchi to commander of 15th army. now, about the time mutaguchi was promoted to commander of 15th army, he did an absolute about face and he began to promote very strongly and forcefully and repeatedly the idea of an invasion into india. and mutaguchi was hoping to invade india and then go through nepal and maybe go all the way to the state of asam. i guess you can't see the laser pointer, i'm not going to try. asam is kind of in the upper left-hand corner of this map just

the tenth army.

command between 15th army and southern expeditionary army. i hope you can read it. the japanese did not have a core structure in their army, so their army command is actually about the same size of a corps in the u.s. army and their area army is -- i'm getting that right, i have it written down. so they don't have a corps structure. the army is equivalent to an american court. and the burma area army is not as grand as it sounds. they set up this new command structure. and at the same time another change they made was they promoted mutaguchi to commander of 15th army. now, about the time mutaguchi was promoted to commander of 15th army, he did an absolute about face and he began to promote very strongly and forcefully and repeatedly the idea of an invasion into india. and mutaguchi was hoping to invade india and then go through nepal and maybe go all the way to the state of asam. i guess you can't see the laser pointer, i'm not going to try. asam is kind of in the upper left-hand corner of this map just below the himalaya mountains. which are

he gets his army in line. then he advances toward the confederates on the morning of the 28th, expecting the rebels to still be in front of new hope church. he's pointed hit them. but during the night lee has pulled back behind mine run, which he considers to be a temporary position. he intends to pull back even further, but it takes him a while to get his troops here. he's going to pause. meade advances the entire army of the potomac through the wilderness in a very cold rain. a front's come through. the roads are disappearing. it has got to be 28 degrees that night. water's going to freeze in canteens. moving the batteries becomes exceptionally difficult work. and, by the time that meade gets his army into position, confronting the rebels, daylight's just about gone. but the federals come up fast enough to dissuade lee from retreat because he considers that to dangerouso. -- too dangerous. he puts his men to digging in. he saw some of it a few weeks earlier after the retreat fall in rappahannock station. for

on the right, the fifth army and the seventh army the -- army at the left-wing. while the operation was being prepared, it was important to keep this a secret from the allied forces. >> [speaking foreign language] >> movements were made during the night only. vehicles in the vicinity where rock and straw to keep the noise to a minimum. nobody could predict how the situation would go by december 16. >> [speaking foreign language] hitler's generals sought no guarantee of success. he was adamant. his plan was irrevocable. his key elements were surprise, speed, and to prevent allied air cover, bad weather, as specified in his order from the high command. >> [speaking foreign language] place operation will take under favorable weather conditions. these will be ordered by the fuhrer. i inquire whether his flare was ordering the weather -- whether fuhrer. hitler was ordering the weather. >> the weather did take sides. it was a confusing at any to combat command of the seventh division. the weather was a close ally of commander.rmy panzer december 1944, you and i saw , a

army. now with so many real and potential challenges on the horizon, our u.s. army has no choice but to adapt to an increasingly uncertain future, a future of complex and evolving threats and an environment of increasingly technological sophistication, rapid change and lethality and that is especially true of today's topic which is the indo-pacific region. although i know the secretary is focused with laser-like clarity not just on the indo-pacific but the middle east, north africa and europe and elsewhere, because the army is of course, a global force. but today, we will talk about the indo-pacific region. so to our program shortly, the secretary will offer us some of his own remarks and then we will be joined on the stage by brookings senior fellow mike o'hanlon. they will cover a wide array of topics, but primarily oriented on the indo-pacific region. once we have wrapped up that discussion, we will go to q & a and of course, we are very much on the record this morning. so again, sir, we

who is there, the federal army, the enemy. the army of the cumberland. you have to watch them, they're going to advance at some point and you're going to fight another battle with them. who is in tullahoma, where is the army of tennessee headquarters? it's tullahoma. so what hardy and polk are saying, we have two enemies. we have an enemy in the front, but we have an enemy in the rear as well our ostencible boss, braxton bragg. we will talk more about that as we get closer. over in murprees bro, all is not well with the forces either. rose kranz doesn't move out in force, he will send cavalry and parties here and there. sometimes they get the better of the confederates, others times they don't. they are in the area and won't move until june 1863. how does that look in washington, by the way, second largest army in the federal service doesn't move for practically six months. it does not look good, does it. rosekranz gets in trouble with washington. he can manage people below and above you. you are to manage your relationship with superiors. he finds time

army air for force. no time to waste, everywhere they're needed so the men trained in training can go off to fight, while wasp's get their ship started on the road overseas. >> for the women air force service pilot, she was, if you see some of them with the pictures, they have fifi, and this is fifinella and the symbol of the women air force service pilots. that was another incredible program, short lived, regrettably, and when the war ended in europe and all of those pilots came home, they disbanded the program, and they were another part of this effort in 1977 with legislation that went forward to give them veterans benefits and the women air force service pilots were part of that legislation as well. finally. another incredible group of people were the cadet nurses, 134,000 women were trained, three years of training as nurses. there was a concern that we would, because we were in a battle of two fronts, nurses were critically needs so they in 1943 established the cadet nurse core for this training of

how about the army and mississippi? they can rely on the united states navy going up and down the mississippi river, right? good, short, secure, lines of supply. what about the army of the cumberland? the army of the cumberland forward base is national, northwest of--. you can supply enter through the cumberland river, but the river is very fickle, shall we say, and there are times when, because they are downstream you cannot get them up as well as you can, so what are the other options? you have the railroad, which parallels interstate 65, which runs southeast and paralyzed by interstate 24, you can see the mark there on the map. basically, everything will ride the rails. now, once you leave them, between nashville at 183 miles at best, you are going through neutral territory, even though kentucky has voted to remain loyal, it is at best neutral territory. loyal to the united states, it is at best neutral territory. morgan has made a career at this point of cutting that railroad. you know how much that railroad was ful

then within the army. mulligan longed for a battlefield command. he started off the war in 1861 as commander of a garrison in lexington, missouri, which gets surrounded by a large confederate force that outnumbered him four to one. he holds out for a week or so, and will earn a lot of praise at a time when bull run was going on and there was a lot of negativity and complaints about the commanders. he showed some gusto. he's surrounded, and forced to capitulate. while he's paroled, and in this ofole, an extended period six months, he's not allowed to take part in active military operations. so what he does is travel across the northern states and give talks to rouse the irish-american population to join the union because -- cause. he's very successful in this, giving rousing talks. before the war during the 1860 presidential elections, he became prominent in the democratic political machine of chicago, and was a stephen douglas democrat. so when that election was going on, back in the day there was no tv in

so they resourced and built a new army, an army that deterred soviet aggression, an army that won desert storm in 100 hours, an army that has fought so well against terrorism for the last two decades. in fact, the transformational change of the post-vietnam era built the army today that has 187,000 soldiers commissioned to support 140 countries around the world and accounts for more than 60% of our combatant commanders requirements. we began building the army of 2020 more than 40 years ago. and since then, we're incremental improved our weapons systems that we failed in the 1970's and 1980's and i would tell people we're starting to run out of letters. that's why we need new systems. when you get to the z model, you need something new. take the m-2 bradley, one of our key fighting vehicles. over the last 40 years we've upgraded the bradley to m-2, a-1, and improved it to one version after another. we added improved armor, increased the power capabilities, upgraded night vision sights and made many ther improvements. although the bradley is a formidable fighting vehicle, it will be the ce

army court. for the first time since federal forces had moved against -- black troops were headed to the front. federal reinforcements poured into the fort and the momentum shifted to the men in blue. troops werefederal fresh now, while the fort's defenders were far fewer number and nearing exhaustion. still, the fighting was bitter and bloody. it was cold steel at the but of a gun, in northern officer would remember. men would blaze the way in the darkness. then be seenw and by the flash of exploding shells . it was all like some kind of hideous stream. but, the fort's surviving defenders were exhausted. almost out of ammunition. the fort's chaplain had been collecting cartridges from the dead to supply though still fighting, but it was not enough. fort fisher had fought stubbornly, courageously. but now the fight was nearing an end. the breakthrough for the northern army came when fresh troops from new hampshire moved through the darkness along the the fort, flanking the fort's remaining defend

this was as true of the british army as any other. toward the end of the seven years war, and the five years of that followed, several regiments anticipated the royal clothing warrant of 1768 by moving to coats with narrower and lesser innate facing, cape colors and simplified rank insignia for officers, the fringed epaulet in place of the eggolet. once the 1768 uniform regulations went into effect, it took time for the british army to attain a relatively uniform appearance. regiments on foreign station had to wait for the delivery of new styles, since clothing, headgear, and various accessories did not always arrive in the same shipment, several units turned out in a mixture of current and obsolete items well into the early 1770s. even those regiments posted to the british isles, amidst a certain amount of ambiguity as their colonels appeared to interpret the clothing warrant's dictates differently. by the time the revolutionary war broke out, the british army had resolved these issues. it was about to undergo a new round of changes

here are three simultaneous threats, montgomery's big army coming up the tell, mark clark's big army landing at salerno, and the italian surrender, all happening, the trade by your ally while deep inside his country. what has to be called one of the great operational scrambles of all time, the wehrmacht, the german armed forces managed to counter all of these threats. to put it in shorthand, they placed just enough of a screen in calabria to delay monty, although monty was kind of a delimit a shame delay machine in his own right. all of the great captains would say you need to seize the moment, grab the initiative, but montgomery had an infinite capacity for being careful. he is coming up slowly. the germans put just enough of a screen in front of him to hold him off. the fact that calabria is mountainous and badly served screen in front ofroads had a a lot to do with that. at the same time the germans launched operation axis, rushing divisions down into italy from entire peninsula. it is one of the real lightning campaigns of world war ii, and disarming hundreds of tháuáp'ds of it

resourced and built a new army, an army that deterred thatt aggression, an army won desert storm in 100 hours, an army that has fought so well for the lastrism two decades. transformational change of the post-vietnam era built the army today that has to,000 soldiers commissioned support 140 countries around the world and accounts for more than combatant commanders recirmts. building the army of 2020 more than 40 years ago. and since then, we're incremental improved our weapons theems that we failed in 1970's and 1980's and i would tell people we're starting to run out of letters. why we need new systems. when you get to the z model, you need something new. m2 bradley, one of our key fighting vehicles. over the last 40 years we've upgraded the bradley to m2, a-1, versionoved it to one after another. we gen. mcconville: we made many other improvements. although the bradley is a formidable fighting vehicle, it will be the centerpiece of our mechanized infantry formations. we are reaching the limits of technology and designs in the 1970's. we can only add so much weight, can only make our h

then in the south is the seventh army. and the infantry army of the three armies much we guess. it only has about 40 assault guns with the bulk of these tanks and assault guns into the north. that is mainly to protect the flank of the fifth panzer army. german preparations become known as -- it has a defensive name. it seems like they are going to be defending not an attack. where they position the troops looks like where you would position troops when the u.s. and british offenses started again for a counterattack. all this goes into the plan that the germans are trying to do. they mass 300 thousand soldiers. 1800 tanks and assault guns. 1900 artillery pieces against this front. you could see the numbers. it's 11 divisions north versus eight divisions and fifth panzer army and seventh army. these numbers are a little misleading because of the type of troops that are up in the six panzer army. there will be 83,000 soldiers. 254 tanks. we teach that when you go on the offensive you need three to one odds for the offensive to be successful. germans, where they decide they will pen

that man has half my army! mead who is also an engineer looks at that confederate positions and realizes that warren is right, that the confederate position looks impregnable. and so he, as commander of army chooses to hold off. he takes warren's recommendation. and as they ride back, they pass william blinky french who is like where's your wonder kid now, ah. and mead is like i don't want to hear it and continues back. meanwhile, he calls off the attack down here. sedgewick was supposed to go forward. in fact his men started to go forward. a courier goes riding in. the horse falls. he's trapped. it's mead's own sun. he sends his own son to call off the attack. the men down here who also has patches pinned to their shirts recognizing they are about to march into the teeth of death feel this huge relief. the two armies sort of stare at each other for the rest of the day taking pot shots and artillery shots across the open d distance between them. and mead will try to find some other opportunity that might allow

army had responsibility for code breaking by the japanese army, which is now spread out on all these islands and landmasses around the pacific ocean. so the u.s. army had to figure out, where are we going to get our women? if the navy has now approached all these women's colleges and sewn up the northeastern seaboard, where are we going to get our educated minds to work on the japanese army ciphers? the army decr"ed to recruit schoolteachers. this is dot braden, from lynchburg, virginia, not far from my hometown of roanoke, virginia. she was teaching school in 1942, eldest daughter in a family of four, mom a single mother, her mother, her parents were separated, her mother was supporting their household and dot's salary of $900 a year was supporting her mother at household, and her two younger brothers were already in the u.s. army. she was overburdened by work and what i love about her story is, it shows how u.s. army recruiting strategy was wrongheaded, even as it worked. the u.s. army approach to recruiting schoolteachers whizz to send their handsomest young army officers out to l

army, whiting had been seen as a rising star in the army engineering corps. his family was from the north but when war came, he chose to serve the south. in confederate service, he had risen in rank rapidly from major to general in six months. whiting had been at the opening shots in charleston, promoted on the field at first manassas, made brigade commander by the seven days campaign. chase whiting seemed destined for war-time glory, and then his fortunes suddenly crashed. whiting's troubles began when he offended confederate president jefferson davis by describing one of davis' presidential directives publicly as foolish. davis was incensed. it was said of the president that he never forgot a friend, nor forgave an enemy. so in 1862, general whiting was posted to wilmington as departmental commander of a department that at the time seemed to be a place where nothing was happening. even so, as colonel lamb's superior and mentor, whiting helped forge fort fisher's mighty reputation. however, when news of a pending federal attack on wilmington reached presiden

you then have from ninth army in from third army, eisenhower "in began moving the seventh army division and the 10th armored division up to bastogne. eisenhower will also start moving the 101st and 82nd airborne up to the region. you already, on the evening of the first day, 18 hours after the offensive started, you see all this movement come together to these two key road intersections. when we talk about how successful, what the germans expect the offense is going to be like, the panzer division is really the a pitta me of what -- tghe opitome of what the germans expect. on the day of the 16th, the division, a german paratrooper division will fight against the 99th division. it will open a whole and in the morning of the 17th they will punch through. they will, by the end of the day, have gone 26 miles deep into the american lines. notice the one intersection. they will come through. at the same time, as they are moving 26 miles deep into the american lines, the seventh armored division begins its move south. there are two routes coming from holland and germany. they have a 70 mile tr

here are three simultaneous threats, montgomery's big army coming up the tell, mark clark's big army landing at salerno, and the italian surrender, all happening, the trade by your ally while deep inside his country. what has to be called one of the great operational scrambles of all time, the wehrmacht, the german armed forces managed to counter all of these threats. to put it in shorthand, they played just enough of a screen monty,bria to delay although monty was kind of a delimit a shame -- delay machine in his own right. all of the great captains would say you need to seize the moment, grab the initiative, but montgomery had an infinite capacity for being careful. he is coming up slowly. germans put just enough of a screen in front of him to hold him off. the fact that calabria is mountainous and badly served by germans put just enough of a screen in front ofroads had a l. at the same time the germans launched operation axis, rushing divisions down into italy from the north, overrunning the entire peninsula. it is one of the real lightning campaigns of world war ii, and disarming

the federal army. the enemy. the army of the cumberland. you need to watch them. they're going to advance at some point and you're going to fight another battle with them. who's in tullahoma? where's the army of tennessee headquarters? it's tullahoma. so what hardy and polk are basically saying is, we have two enemies, we have an enemy in the front, but we have an enemy in the rear as well, our boss, bragg. these seeds that were planted in january of 1863 are bearing bitter fruit and they will bear bitter fruit as the campaign progresses. and we will talk more about that as we get closer. over in murphryboro all is not well either. it doesn't move out of there in force. he will send infantry parties here and there. sometimes they get the better of the confederates. a lot of times they don't. they will be in that area and they won't move until june of 1863. how do you think that looks in washington, by the way? second largest army in the federal service, doesn't move for six months. that does not look good, does it? rosecrans gets in trouble with washington. he can

this time the israeli army were in search of militants and weapons. usually the army has left by the morning but last night's raids have proved unsuccessful and they have decided to stay put i believe for the war for the land for the privilege. of over a 4 week period we have been following the lives of the teachers and students of how jewish the girls school and can tell our boys all. the foot the bill for the teachers on their way to work they can only assume it's business as usual you get the feeling that with the israeli army out on the streets the clashes could flare up as any moment there. is going to be a very tense day for the schools of nablus. to come to focus on a bus america is the head teacher of how to reach the girls school. she is worried because her school is next to a lie enough e.g. camp. i. believe that the israeli army have encircled the camp and the soldiers are near the school does not sit in. the madness of the next measure to mark the one. who should have the bomb into. the methodist church. and this was. because. he. was i wi

if i am being kind of vague with the union and confederate armies and the armies of the potomac, but in the fall, both of the armies are called the army of the potomapotomac, and so i wil confusion sake just call them the army and the confederates. and so coming down, the soldiers were waiting for orders. the slides here is of one of the union soldiers. this is charles vail of the 9th pennsylvania reserves. and he going to fight at the battle of dranesville. and so he and his force had been formed, but the war department had turned them down. they had raised too many soldiers for the initial roll, and the war department said that we don't need that many people, because the war is going to be over in 90 days or whatever it s and the governor of pennsylvania has a great idea of turning it into a reserve corps and calling in for the battle at harrisburg, and so you will get this quote of the boxcars or the cattle cars bringing all of the union soldiers from harrisburg to washington and the defenses of washington are bufd up a little bit. again, he is going to fight at the battle of dran

army. it is self-critical, self-aware, it plays no favorites and is the best place to learn from the experience and history of the battlefield and with extraordinary teaching and technology, to learn from today's battlefields and commanders. it is also a school for our allies and partners and the future military leaders from around the world, a place where the future chief of staff of the pakistani army might rub shoulders with a future defense minister from india. a place where future communication might and indeed has been incubated. it is a place of impeccable scholarship, socratic learning, and i see a few regular audience members, as you know, frequently, expressing itself with a fine sense of humor. i want to thank our early sponsors and creators of the series. none of whom i think are here tonight. i have to say this because this may be my one chance, bob, bud, jim wilbanks, for starting and sustaining this great series, a series which will never die. thank you. tonight we have the r

don't lose the army losing corinth. beauregard was smart enough to get the army out. johnson is telling pemberton, get out of vicksburg. it's a trap. you are going to lose the place. don't lose the army losing vicksburg. what does jefferson davis tell pemberton? hold vicksburg. it probably doesn't hurt that ation isn davis' plant just a few miles south on the mississippi river -- i don't know if that is part of it or not. union forces are already around brier field and so on, but jefferson davis says the nail that holds the two halves of the south together is vicksburg. hold vicksburg. so you've got conflicting orders coming here. who do you choose? you've got to pick -- you can't see the future, you don't know who is going to come out ahead. you've got to go one or the other. and when it comes down to it, davis outranks johnson. of course, pemberton remains in vicksburg. looking down the chain of command, while grant has the situation under control with his subordinates, pemberton will not. pemberton has five divisions. he crosses the big black river and bakers creek

so they are elements of the 19th army corps. so he's set up to command all of the reinforcements that are set to prove and reinforce it. so literally reaching for the stars. so what is in d.c. at this point? 108 men and invalids we have here and you can defend washington and scarcely baltimore. so what do we have in washington, d.c.? we have elements of the u.s. treasury department guard. [ laughter ] not the most elite force and this is a cool image. you have elements of the federal reserve corps. they'll see pretty heavy action during the battle, and here's another image of the invalid corps wearing their famous uniforms and you can see the officer there is missing his arm. and they see them unattached and there will be a couple of regiments in defense of the capital. you have 100 day national guard troops organized in 1864 to fill quotas. these men men if they sign up they'll avoid the draft and the soldiers from port stephens are the 150th ohio national guard and they're normally college students. the earliest veterans. so w

army 76th reconnaissance troop. it was mechanized in the european theater, including the ardennes campaign, during the battle of the bulge. thank you, sir. our final speaker today, army lieutenant general andrew poppas. the general is the director for operations j-3 for the joint chiefs of staff. he serves as the principal assistant to the chairman of joint chiefs of staff for global integration initiatives. general poppas previously served as the commanding general of the 101st airborne division at fort campbell, kentucky. 101st airborne as you know, sir, played a wonderful role today in world war ii. deputy chief of staff of operations for operation resolute, support in afghanistan. please welcome. i would like to give you a great welcome, general poppas. thank you. gen. poppas: thank you for that introduction. and thank you very much everyone for coming out on this day. chaplain, i want to thank you personally for providing the weather for such a wonderful backdrop as we reflect back 75 years ago and pay tribute

to pans armies, and a line of infantry army. that's over 400,000 german soldiers, committed to the fight over 500 tanks. and all the aircraft that they can muster for the entire front, committed against an element. of the allies. this was an allied army that was preparing for their own offensive, had taken them by surprise as we were blind, we did not have our own echo ability for reconnaissance. it was under the next six days that this german army pushback the allied army further into belgium, deeper back into luxembourg, creating a scene known as the bulge. it was 50 miles wide and over 70 miles deep. penetrating the american and allied lines. this is where it shows that the allies are the most adaptable and tenacious, the leaders and commanders at the time knew they had to make it bold action and they committed over 60,000 troops moving over 100 to hundred miles in a single day in order to thwart this offensive moving forward. key to that commitment at the time? the tenth armored division, pushing the 101st airborne division

you then have from ninth army in from third army, eisenhower began moving the seventh army division and the 10th armored division up to bastogne. eisenhower will also start moving the 101st and 82nd airborne up to the region. you already, on the evening of the first day, 18 hours after the offensive started, you see all this movement come together to these two key road intersections. when we talk about how successful, what the germans expect the offense is going to be like, the panzer division is really the epitome of what the germans expect. on the day of the 16th, the division, a german paratrooper division, will fight against the 99th division. they will open a hole and in the morning of the 17th, they will punch through. they will, by the end of the day, have gone 26 miles deep into the american lines. notice the one intersection. they will come through. at the same time, as they are moving 26 miles deep into the american lines, the seventh armored division begins its move south. there are two routes coming from holland and germany. they have a 70 mile trip. portions of the division

with the german army and this is something us the french have to look after because losing our army means losing our sovereignty means losing our identity so i think we're probably going to come back in the 2nd part on what is the real combat today it's not communism any more we'll know what the civilization issue is and obviously nato is not the one up for it so that's my point of view on that i would say with a lot of market in oxford but i would make the argument that all 27 from united states being the 28 member of nato their sovereignty is compromised as well and if you look at public opinion polls it's been pretty. trending. more and more people in western europe in the united states have doubts about you know having a collective security treaty organization for a countries that are so far away. and then what you know what's france in the u.k. in the united states want to get into a military conflict over you know a country like. a stone ian i mean is that something people are interested in to poll say people aren't go ahead mark or i think this is always the problem with a la

the army. he had inherited a small amount of money. three years later, he and his two brothers and a sister immigrated to the united states. they originally settled in cincinnati, ohio, but he moved on by himself to helena, arkansas in 1849 where he obtained employment as a pharmacist, and was accepted in the town's social order. in 1860, he had become a naturalized citizen of the united states and began the practice of law. and was a very popular, was very popular with local residents. during this time, he became close friends with thomas hyndman, another future confederate general from helena and a local democratic politician. when the war started, he readily joined the confederate army, was elected captain almost immediately of the rifles, and -- of the yellow rifles and soon became colonel of the first arkansas. just before shiloh, he is promoted to general. his service at shiloh is mixed, as everyone else's was at shiloh. no one came out of that battle looking very good, but he was promote

he is issuing orders to the soldiers and the army and marching orders and he says, "soldiers of the army of tennessee," and he exudes with confidence, "soldiers of the army of tennessee, and exuding will deliver the crowning victory and may we fight them dutifully and fight them bravely. a great country will rejoice in great success and history will record with immortal honor." this is what pemberton was writing. the men are fatigued, and i don't think that he is talking to jocelyn, but i don't believe that the victory at vicksburg will be left in, but i comply with the order, and you don't see it with anything other than exuding desperation. i think it due to myself, they will bring it to the report that the advanced movement of the army from edwards' depot to the afternoon of the 15th, is made in judgment to my previous ly given judgments, and you can see the confederate and the high command at champion hill. obviously, difference of leadership there. and the leadership is, i'm concerned, and not getting into the nit ti grittics of the tactic, but that is how the battle turned out the

he wants no reenforcements to be shifted from confederate army to con ffederate army. we'll narrow in on virginia. of course there were pressure and campaigns happening on other areas. let's focus on virginia for this talk. in virginia itself, there were three campaigns that grant wanted to see happen. the first one is going to have right in the area where we're standing right now. we call it now the overland campaign. that's going to be general meade taking the army of the pa tom mack and driving toward richm d richmond. grant will accompany meade's army. benjamin butler is supposed to attack richmond from the south, right in here. we now call that the bermuda hundred campaign. meanwhile, to prevent c confederate troops to help lee or defend richmond, frans sigel is supposed to tie up the confederates in that region. that was the plan. how did that work out? that will be the discussion of the next few minutes. one of the ways that i approach history is from the premise that history is about real people and the real things they did. with that premise, you have to under

like the army experimented with. licensing prostitutes in some of the western towns during the war, you don't want the criticism, of the local community, for bidding licensing saying for this kind of activity. so as a result. what you had is a typical kind of brothel, which again will be run by a woman, in this case are hypothetical missed black, would she basically comes, out as you heard, me a fancy man we set it up, like we would approach some order house, here in the middle of what we call a parlor, this is where the gentleman will come, and they would be, entertained by me, the other option, the other obligation i have, this also as a security man, i provide security for the ladies, including this is black, quote i'm a former military man. i would in many cases be upfront for her, or a go-between, between the men of society, in this case the commander, since i am a former army person, i can go to them and help negotiate, establishment of the business, near the camp. they are more likely to deal with me that miss

and infantry army. out of the three armies, it's the weakest, it only has 40 assault guns with the bulk of the tanks and saw guns at the north. that is mainly to protect the flank of the fifth fans are army. german pressure preparations, and has a defensive name, it seems like they're going to be defending, not an attack. where they position the troops looks like where you would position the troops where the u.s. and british offensives start counterattacks. this all goes into the inception plant the germans are trying to do. they mass 300,000 soldiers, 1800 tanks and assault guns, 1900 artillery pieces against this front you can see the numbers. 11 divisions in the north, those numbers are a little misleading because of the type of troops that are up in the six pounds or army. facing them in the eighth core will be 83,000 soldiers,. today we teach when you go on the offensive you need three to one odds to be successful. germans where they decided was going to penetrate, they had eight to one odds and in

and not just a militia of the army national army leads. the israeli army is already preparing for a new war with hezbollah. this is footage of a maneuver conducted in the north of the country has been reportedly has more than 120000 missiles at its disposal all of them potentially pointed at israel. i think it's safe to say that lebanon will probably be turned into a car park in the next war but israel will be. it's like they haven't been heard since $948.00 the missiles and weaponry at the disposal of hezbollah now will bring the entire country of israel to. a standstill. there will be no civilian traffic you know civilian maritime traffic people will all be in the bunkers will be no one going to schools universities work for the duration of the conflict so this is a very sobering picture for any prime minister in israel as it is indeed for for hezbollah we know what hizbullah is planning we know that they have precise weaponry that can hit with carried out a lot of explosive they are going to devastate our cities and to kill people in hi

seventh army. approximately 300 tanks and 50,000 men whose mission in addition to taking the towns was to take bastogne and to take a fast. >> it was very important to capture bastogne fast. it was the most important road junction in the southern area of the combat section. general eisenhower's reserve forces which we expected were near arrived to attack and they would have to pass bastogne. >> i'm a former general of the panzer troops and commander in -chief. >> we completed as tableting the defenses about midnight. the defense was a routine traditional type defense. we set out roadblocks to the east, one to the north, and one to the northwest, because these were the directions that we expected the germans to attack us. the fighting throughout the night was sporadic. it was a piecemeal attack. they would has with small units from the north and then they would hit us with small units from the east. >> terry who is not here one out to one town and came back at midnight and found me asleep. he asked

this time the israeli army were in search of militants and weapons. usually the army has left by the morning but last night's raids have proved unsuccessful and they have decided to stay put i believe that was the land of the free overnight. over a 4 week period we have been following the lives of the teachers and students of how jewish the girls' school and can tell our boys on. the 4th of it for the teachers on their way to work they can only assume it's business as usual that you get the feeling that with the israeli army out on the streets the clashes could flare up as any moment that. is going to be a very tense day for the schools of nablus. you can call this a bus america is the head teacher of how to reach the girls school. she is warry because her school is next to a lie enough e.g. camp. i. have been in the israeli army have encircled the camp and the soldiers are near the school does not sit in. the madness said that magic to mark the one. who should have gone into. the methodist church. and this was it was you think. i was i wish was being

the army of the west had a staggering 24% loss, a quarter of their army. many of the wounded are being treated at springfield and those left on the battlefield are taken by the southerners and the federals who are able to be evacuated from the battlefield ultimately get sent back up to st. louis for further treatment at places like jefferson barracks. many of them are buried at jefferson barracks or later on at springfield national cemetery. now, why is this battle forgotten? why do we need to remember it? just real quick, lyon at least from the research that i've done is the most successful union general in 1861. in 1861, not over the course of one year, but he is the most successful in terms of what he's able to accomplish. he's going to force both the lincoln and davis administrations to react, to send more troops to missouri, to arkansas in response to this battle. fremont will declare martial law throughout the state including his infamous emancipation order that's then rejected by lincoln. two state governments will also be -- would be in control of

so the confederate army is already beginning to shove the union army back away from these earth works. as wilcox's brigade goes down into the ravine, hooker's next brigade is the new jersey brigade under francis paterson. they can see grover's brigade down in the ravine. they can see the wounded coming back up from it, but they can't see it, about you they can see across the top of the ravine and they go down into the ravine. it's a mirror image on both sides of the field and you can't see the fighting, but you can see the guys who are about to go into it, and four regiments file off to the left of grover's brigade and they slowly descend down into the ravine. >> i also say richard prior, but roger pryor's brigade, was there no fighting in the earth works so down they go into the ravine. at this point, francis patterson is feeling a little bit of pressure. his four regiments are now stacked up against six? it's a confusing fight. the rain gets worse and the smoke gets heavier. the ravine is not cleared and it's the only area where you can get around the fort mcgruder and on either sid

the continental army really needed a win. washington was afraid that the british were going to invade philadelphia and take over the capital. and he really knew that what he needed was a bold action. and after meeting with his war counsel, they made the decision that on christmas night, they would cross the delaware and march to trenton to attack a hessian outpost at trenton. as they began to march from the thompson neely house down here, a snowstorm started and the weather was terrible, there was snow and hail and it was basically a pretty bad nor'easter, and all of these all, had to cross the delaware and began their march. there were other regiments who were supposed to cross at two other locations, at the trenton ferry and at the bristol ferry, and they were not able to get across for a variety of reasons. the weather was absolutely a major part of that. ♪ >> make way for the general. >> general washington, i know it is a secret mission, but could you tell us about this operation? >> this is our final chance. this is ou

this time the israeli army were in search of militants and weapons. usually the army has left by the morning but last night's raids have proved unsuccessful and they have decided to stay put i believe that was the land of the free overnight. over a 4 week period we have been following the lives of the teachers and students of how jewish the girls' school and can tell our boys all. the food for the teachers on their way to work they can only assume it's business as usual but you get the feel that with the israeli army out on the streets the clashes could flare up as any moment there. is going to be a very tense day for the schools of nablus. you can call this a bus america is the head teacher of how to reach the girls school. she is warry because her school is next to allow enough e.g. camp. i. believe that the israeli army have encircled the camp and the soldiers are near the school there's more to. come and the said that measure to mark the one. who should have the bomb into. the methodist church. and if that was. the case then you think. it was i wi

so it was unusual for a young man of my age to join the army because our fathers have been in the army me i'm i was born in 1040 it's on a war p.p. and when i got to my regiment i discovered there were 25 young navy spend the same as me who'd left fail fast and very to join the british army so that was an unusual ok it will be seen is unusual maybe on in the end derry around 177 the republicans they enter what you call an anti capitalist phase tell me about you witnessing that because. you didn't seem to support their anticapitalist phases around the time the ira killed jeffrey i gate of juda want to point of course in from as for supplying agent orange vietnam which killed a thing a war that killed 4000000 somebody made the decision some where the thumb people time the normal a's our society in north with big factories and lots of jobs was the wrong way to go on i remember really well been at home one night on a knock came to the door and my neighbor said to me this young guy here looking for your sister. and i think is the trouble so we brought him and we looked after him as it turne