WAR, THE: EPISODE 6: THE GHOST FRONT (TV)
Summary
Part six of seven. One in this series of documentaries which uses archival footage and photos, present-day interviews with veterans, and celebrity readings of soldiers' letters and related material to tell how citizens in four American towns -- Luverne, Minnesota; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Waterbury, Connecticut -- experienced World War II.
As the program opens, Ray Leopold of Waterbury recalls conversing with an English-speaking prisoner-of-war in Germany and suddenly realizing that Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler planned to conquer America. Paul Fussell of Pasadena then tells how he would transport his meager belongings as a member of the infantry. Burnett Miller of Sacramento discusses how one became hardened to the horrors of war. Tom Galloway of Mobile notes the "scariness" of constantly trying to avoid being shelled. Galloway was among the U.S. troops in the Ardennes Forest, where Hitler was planning a massive counter-attack to divide and destroy the British and American forces, and turn the tide of war in Germany's favor. Leopold was also in the Ardennes, where he was hit by German fire and had to nurse his own wounds with a German medical kit, after which he became an army medic.
Galloway describes a massive German assault of 250,000 soldiers and 600 tanks on Dec. 16, 1944, which officially began "The Battle of the Bulge." Next, Leopold recounts the "Malmedy Massacre," wherein a German Panzer's ambush led to the capture of 150 Americans in Belgium's Malmedy, 86 of whom were then gunned down alongside scores of Belgian civilians. Leopold was told by his superior that, if captured, he should hide his Jewish origins. Galloway tells how Americans continued to hold the towns of Bastogne and St. Vith. Once surrounded by Germans in Bastogne, Galloway surrendered and was sent to a prison camp near Frankfurt. Katharine Phillips of Mobile recalls following the reports of how U.S. forces remained surrounded in Bastogne, and finally received supplies dropped from planes as other Allied troops moved to rescue them. Reinforcements finally broke through the German lines on Dec. 26.
In the Philippines, Sascha Weinzheimer of Sacramento remembers spending Christmas of 1944 as an eleven-year-old prisoner-of-war in Manila's Santo Tomas concentration camp, hoping to get a little more rice for dinner. She tells how her mother was bedridden after losing half her weight, and her father continued to go barefoot for six months after his shoes wore away. Burt Wilson of Sacramento states that, as a young newspaper carrier for The Sacramento Bee during wartime, he followed events via maps on the newspapers' front pages.
Miller tells about being among the troops ordered to the Ardennes to stop the siege of Bastogne, despite a major snowstorm. He reveals how the soldiers discovered "there were worse things than being killed," as frostbitten limbs, ever-wet clothes, and faulty equipment led to plunging morale. Herndon Inge of Mobile says the soldiers could only "keep moving ahead." Miller then tells of being asked to shoot twenty-five German prisoners-of-war, which he found "horrifying." Within a month, the Allies regained all ground which was lost during "the Bulge," ending Hitler's gamble for taking back Europe. In the east, the Russians were advancing on Berlin.
Daniel Inouye of Hawaii talks about the medics who were among those "truly deserving" of medals, a sentiment echoed by Leo Goldberg of Waterbury. As a medic, Leopold discusses the heartbreak of learning to triage, then describes the onset of soldiers' psychiatric disorders. Back on the home front, Dolores Silva of Sacramento talks about the advent of "pin-up girls" and how their photos inspired soldiers overseas. She tells of making her own pin-up for her boyfriend. Sam Hynes of Luverne then describes the manner in which women's brassieres were used as jokes for servicemen.
In February of 1945, Weinzheimer recalls hearing news that inmates at Santo Tomas would soon be getting "a belated Christmas." She states that the subsequent liberation of the camp was the highlight of her life. However, after a visit by General Douglas MacArthur, the Japanese began shelling the camp for two days, resulting in considerable bloodshed. A month later, the Allies took control of a completely destroyed Manila. Glenn Frazier of Mobile, who had remained a prisoner-of-war in the Philippines since the fall of Bataan, tells why he had thrown his dog tags in a mass grave at Bataan. When soldiers later uncovered the grave, they mistakenly informed Frazier's parents of his "death," though his father never believed him to be deceased.
Dresden was the first of many eastern German cities bombed by U.S. and British forces following the Yalta Conference in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet Premiere Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill brainstormed on Europe's future. Quentin Aanenson of Luverne, recently promoted to an Air Force captain, was planning U.S. airstrikes while housed in a castle off the Ruhr River. He recalls how the castle was bombed during one of his strategy sessions, with the brains of a nearby enlisted man splashing all over him and his maps. Aanenson recalls how the gravity of his task forced him to proceed regardless.
In the Pacific, planes headed to Tokyo to decimate the city with bombs, as had recently occurred across eastern Germany. Meanwhile, the volcanic island of Iwo Jima contained an airstrip which the Allies sought. After days of shelling from the Navy, Marines headed toward the island, including Ray Pittman and Maurice Bell, both of Mobile. Bell recalls how the Japanese forces, hidden in caves and tunnels, opened fire on the Marines. Pittman describes the four weeks of brutal fighting and many casualties that ensued before the Allies claimed victory. The U.S. subsequently firebombed Tokyo, leaving 100,000 dead. Phillips tells how Marines from Iwo Jima arrived in Mobile and chased her, along with other girls working at the canteen, for kisses.
As the infantry routed yet more Germans, Fussell recalls when he first realized that America was going to win the war. After crossing the Rhine, General George S. Patton learned that his son-in-law was being held in a prisoner-of-war camp in Hammelburg. He arranged a special task force to rescue him. Galloway and Inge were also among the prisoners there. In the shooting that ensued after the Allies' arrival, Patton's son-in-law was hit and had to be taken to a hospital. Inge was immediately recaptured, while Galloway made a run for the American lines. He recalls how he tried to break into a barn before also being recaptured.
Marines Bill Lansford and Pete Arias, both of Los Angeles, also fought on Iwo Jima. Lansford calls it the worst of his many wartime experiences, which included being part of "Carlson's Raiders" on Guadalcanal. Lansford tells how a fellow soldier -- a total stranger -- heroically died on Iwo Jima's beach to save the wounded Lansford's life. Includes three program-sponsored commercials.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: October 1, 2007 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 2:00:14
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 101177
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; World War II; Education/Information
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 2007
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Anheuser-Busch beer
- TV - Commercials - Bank of America banking
- TV - Commercials - General Motors products
CREDITS
- Ken Burns … Executive Producer, Producer, Director
- Pam Tubridy Baucom … Coordinating Producer
- Sarah Botstein … Producer
- Delfeayo Marsalis … Producer
- Karen Kenton … Producer
- Lynn Novick … Producer, Director
- Peter Miller … Co-Producer
- David McMahon … Co-Producer
- Taylor Krauss … Co-Producer
- Meghan Horvath … Associate Producer
- Vivian Connolly … Animation Producer
- Ben Spivak … Animation Producer
- Dayton Duncan … Consulting Producer
- Geoffrey C. Ward … Writer
- Wynton Marsalis … Music by
- Keith David … Narrator
- Tom Hanks … Voice
- Rebecca Holtz … Voice
- Samuel L. Jackson … Voice
- Quentin Aanenson
- Pete Arias
- Maurice Bell
- Winston Churchill
- Glenn Frazier
- Paul Fussell
- Leo Goldberg
- Tom Galloway
- Adolf Hitler
- Herndon Inge
- Daniel Inouye
- Bill Lansford
- Ray Leopold
- Douglas MacArthur
- Burnett Miller
- George S. Patton
- Katharine Phillips
- Ray Pittman
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Dolores Silva
- Joseph Stalin
- Sascha Weinzheimer
- Burt Wilson