July 17, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Stephen Ambrose was one of America’s leading biographers and historians. He passed away in 2002, but his epic storytelling can now be heard here on Our American Stories, thanks to the efforts of those who manage his estate. Our next segment features his account of the weapons used in World War II, this time focusing on poison gas and the various modes of transportation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories. Stephen Ambrose was
one of America's leading biographers and historians. He passed in
two thousand and two, but his epic storytelling accounts can
now be heard here in our American Stories, thanks to
those who run as estate. Our next story is the
story of weapons used in World War Two. Here is
(00:33):
Stephen Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Transport in the Second World War again utilized.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Nothing really new trucks were used. The cars.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Trucks have been used in the First World War, especially
at the Battle of Verdunn by Marshall pay Ten. The
railroad was extensively used in the Second World War. It
had also been extensively used in the First World War.
Much of the Second World War transport in the European armies,
especially the Red Army in the German Army was horse drawn.
(01:03):
Hitler tried to give the world the impression that he
had the most modern army, and and in a lot
of ways he did, but it wasn't as modern as
he liked to pretend that it was, and the German
par propaganda portrayed as being uh For all the pictures
that Gebels released of German tanks rolling down French roads.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
And German trucks following behind.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
For the most part, the logistical supply system of the
German Army was rail drawn from depot to depot, and
then from the depots out into the field was horse drawn.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That was even more the case with the Red.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Army, which in fact used horses as extensively in the
Second World War as it had in the First.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Although in the First World War there were still.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Some cavalry units that were attempting to join the battle
in the old fashioned way with the drawn saber and
the charge, and that came to a quick end even
in the First World War and was never used in
the Second World War. And it is a bit of
a side. There's a canard here that is repeated all
over the place and.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Is not true.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It is that the Poles in nineteen thirty nine tried
to fight German armor with cavalry charging tanks.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's a story told.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
To illustrate I guess how poorly prepared the Poles were,
And then it's very often told by people who want
to make you think that the Poles aren't very bright.
There was no Polish cavalry attack of German tanks in
the same World War.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
And its to brightness.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
The best mathematicians in the world, and the guys that
solved the whole enigmave thing were Polish, and I think
that's enoughset about the polls and intelligence. The best truck
of the war was a product of Detroit and General
Motors and others, the two and a half ton all
purpose truck, or deuce and a half as it was called.
(02:54):
And they were manufactured in the tens of thousands and
gotten over to the European theater and gave two through
the Allies and the campaign of Northwest Europe in nineteen
forty four forty five and unprecedented mobility, never before equaled,
never since matched. So great was the mobility of the
American army in Northwest Europe that in the crisis of
December nineteen forty four Eisenow was able to move six
(03:17):
hundred thousand men in two weeks.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
M that's way better than what schwartz Cloth had is
his capability in the desert. At the beginning of the
nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Another UH American vehicle that was widely loved was the
Jeep that was built by three or four different manufacturers,
all using the same blueprints, but developed in the United
States and the envy of the world and remains, of course,
uh the standard around the world for a light utility
(03:53):
truck for military purposes. It can get over any kind
of terrain, extraordinarily reliable, very simple design and easy to fix.
U terrible to ride in, but they got you to
where you wanted to go. It's interesting here that the
land of Mercedes and BMW and Volkswagen got out produced
(04:15):
by the land of Ford, Chrysler and Chevrolet.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
We outproduced them, we out designed.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Them better vehicles, and way more of them. Was one
of the triumphs of American industry. The most unusual transportation
vehicle of the war was the duck. These were amphibious
vehicles that could go up to ten knots in the
(04:42):
water and were much more reliable than swimming tanks. I mean,
these these babies really could swim and could handle even
a moderate open channel c and were fabulous for crossing rivers.
And then we're just a dream to ride on because
they had great big rubber w once they got on shore,
and they could go down an audubon at a top
(05:04):
speed of fifty miles an hour with a very soft,
cushy ride. For up to a squad of men on
each dock, or they could carry ammunition or other things.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Oh on weapons, I forgot to talk about grenades.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know, when you're setting up that defensive position, you're
also make sure all those infantry have plenty of grenades.
The American fragmentation grenade was probably the best grenade of
the war, although it had severe limitations, of which the
most obvious was you couldn't throw it very far because
it was so heavy. It damn your tear your socket
out when you.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Were throwing it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It was a lot heavier than a baseball, and it
was about not much bigger in baseball, and Americans tended
to want to throw it like a baseball, and they'd
throw their socket out very often.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
In doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And even that, you couldn't throw the darn thing very
far because it was so heavy. The German potato mashers
it was called. You all know what those looked like,
the brown canister, the explosive and the.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Steel around it.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And then the long wouldn't handle and you could take
those babies and really toss them a long way.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The problem was that if.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It landed over there and two gis are standing here
talking and they see a potato master land over there.
They saw a fragmentation grenade and American fragmentation grain over there.
Who they're on the ground, they see a potato masher
over there, and they just watch an interest. It's really
not much more explosive power than a firecracker, so you
could throw it a long way, but it didn't do
an awful lot of damage.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Before leaving the land.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Weapons of war one other one poison gas.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The one weapon that was not used in the Second
World War.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
There had been agreements signed between the wars, really the
first time that sovereign nations had agreed to limit their
ability to kill other people in a war situation, agreements
to ban poison gas. It was very much an open question, however,
as World War Two began whether this.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Agreement would be adhered to. It was in general.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I think the reason that it was is, at first
of all, poison gas isn't all that good a weapon,
At least the poison gases that were available in the
First World War. It didn't have a long lasting effect.
A man rec recovery was fairly quick from uh poison gas.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It had the.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Very big disadvantage that it depended upon the wind. Yeah,
you could fire poison gas shells and they would go off.
But then obviously your weapon, which is the gas itself,
is dependent on the wind. If the wind dies or
if the wind shifts, and it very often happened the
wind would shift, you fire off some poison gas and
it comes back in the face of your guys because
(07:50):
of the next shift in the wind. That's one reason
poison gas wasn't used in the Second World War. But
I think the bigger reason was, uh, the experience of
the combatants of the First World War with gas. After
what I've just said, let me add to this, it's terrible,
just an awful thing for human being to be gassed.
And almost everybody was in the First World War was
(08:10):
and they all had an agree, including and probably most
important of Allidolf Hitler, and they all of them this
is an inhumane weapon.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And if Hitler wasn't going to use it, nobody else
was going to use it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Everybody kept up their stockpiles, everybody was ready to retaliate
if the other guy began using poison gas. But if
it was going to be used, it was going to
be the Germans who would do it, and they didn't
and apparently the reason is because Hitler himself had the
experience of being gassed.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And you've been listening to Steven Ambrose talking about the
weapons of World War two. Go to our American Stories
and type in Steven Ambrose and you can hear more
of these stories about the weapons of World War two
as well, my goodness, on the transportation front, the deuce
and a half, of course, the cheap and of course
the way we produced planes will run just knocking out
a plane every minute, and not just any plane with
(09:00):
the B twenty four Liberator, And of course then his
discussion about poisoned gas and how even Hitler thought this
was unbecoming and just a devastating weapon of war. Thankfully
and luckily no one used this weapon of war in
World War two. Stephen Ambrose on the weapons of war
here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American Stories. Stephen Ambrose was
one of America's leading biographers and historians. He passed in
two thousand and two, but his epic storytelling accounts can
now be heard here in our American Stories, thanks to
those who run as estate. Our next story is the
story of weapons used in World War Two. Here is
(00:33):
Stephen Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Transport in the Second World War again utilized.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Nothing really new trucks were used. The cars.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Trucks have been used in the First World War, especially
at the Battle of Verdunn by Marshall pay Ten. The
railroad was extensively used in the Second World War. It
had also been extensively used in the First World War.
Much of the Second World War transport in the European armies,
especially the Red Army in the German Army was horse drawn.
(01:03):
Hitler tried to give the world the impression that he
had the most modern army, and and in a lot
of ways he did, but it wasn't as modern as
he liked to pretend that it was, and the German
par propaganda portrayed as being uh For all the pictures
that Gebels released of German tanks rolling down French roads.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
And German trucks following behind.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
For the most part, the logistical supply system of the
German Army was rail drawn from depot to depot, and
then from the depots out into the field was horse drawn.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That was even more the case with the Red.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Army, which in fact used horses as extensively in the
Second World War as it had in the First.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Although in the First World War there were still.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Some cavalry units that were attempting to join the battle
in the old fashioned way with the drawn saber and
the charge, and that came to a quick end even
in the First World War and was never used in
the Second World War. And it is a bit of
a side. There's a canard here that is repeated all
over the place and.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Is not true.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It is that the Poles in nineteen thirty nine tried
to fight German armor with cavalry charging tanks.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's a story told.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
To illustrate I guess how poorly prepared the Poles were,
And then it's very often told by people who want
to make you think that the Poles aren't very bright.
There was no Polish cavalry attack of German tanks in
the same World War.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
And its to brightness.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
The best mathematicians in the world, and the guys that
solved the whole enigmave thing were Polish, and I think
that's enoughset about the polls and intelligence. The best truck
of the war was a product of Detroit and General
Motors and others, the two and a half ton all
purpose truck, or deuce and a half as it was called.
(02:54):
And they were manufactured in the tens of thousands and
gotten over to the European theater and gave two through
the Allies and the campaign of Northwest Europe in nineteen
forty four forty five and unprecedented mobility, never before equaled,
never since matched. So great was the mobility of the
American army in Northwest Europe that in the crisis of
December nineteen forty four Eisenow was able to move six
(03:17):
hundred thousand men in two weeks.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
M that's way better than what schwartz Cloth had is
his capability in the desert. At the beginning of the
nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Another UH American vehicle that was widely loved was the
Jeep that was built by three or four different manufacturers,
all using the same blueprints, but developed in the United
States and the envy of the world and remains, of course,
uh the standard around the world for a light utility
(03:53):
truck for military purposes. It can get over any kind
of terrain, extraordinarily reliable, very simple design and easy to fix.
U terrible to ride in, but they got you to
where you wanted to go. It's interesting here that the
land of Mercedes and BMW and Volkswagen got out produced
(04:15):
by the land of Ford, Chrysler and Chevrolet.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
We outproduced them, we out designed.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Them better vehicles, and way more of them. Was one
of the triumphs of American industry. The most unusual transportation
vehicle of the war was the duck. These were amphibious
vehicles that could go up to ten knots in the
(04:42):
water and were much more reliable than swimming tanks. I mean,
these these babies really could swim and could handle even
a moderate open channel c and were fabulous for crossing rivers.
And then we're just a dream to ride on because
they had great big rubber w once they got on shore,
and they could go down an audubon at a top
(05:04):
speed of fifty miles an hour with a very soft,
cushy ride. For up to a squad of men on
each dock, or they could carry ammunition or other things.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Oh on weapons, I forgot to talk about grenades.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know, when you're setting up that defensive position, you're
also make sure all those infantry have plenty of grenades.
The American fragmentation grenade was probably the best grenade of
the war, although it had severe limitations, of which the
most obvious was you couldn't throw it very far because
it was so heavy. It damn your tear your socket
out when you.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Were throwing it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It was a lot heavier than a baseball, and it
was about not much bigger in baseball, and Americans tended
to want to throw it like a baseball, and they'd
throw their socket out very often.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
In doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And even that, you couldn't throw the darn thing very
far because it was so heavy. The German potato mashers
it was called. You all know what those looked like,
the brown canister, the explosive and the.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Steel around it.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And then the long wouldn't handle and you could take
those babies and really toss them a long way.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The problem was that if.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It landed over there and two gis are standing here
talking and they see a potato master land over there.
They saw a fragmentation grenade and American fragmentation grain over there.
Who they're on the ground, they see a potato masher
over there, and they just watch an interest. It's really
not much more explosive power than a firecracker, so you
could throw it a long way, but it didn't do
an awful lot of damage.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Before leaving the land.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Weapons of war one other one poison gas.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The one weapon that was not used in the Second
World War.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
There had been agreements signed between the wars, really the
first time that sovereign nations had agreed to limit their
ability to kill other people in a war situation, agreements
to ban poison gas. It was very much an open question, however,
as World War Two began whether this.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Agreement would be adhered to. It was in general.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I think the reason that it was is, at first
of all, poison gas isn't all that good a weapon,
At least the poison gases that were available in the
First World War. It didn't have a long lasting effect.
A man rec recovery was fairly quick from uh poison gas.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It had the.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Very big disadvantage that it depended upon the wind. Yeah,
you could fire poison gas shells and they would go off.
But then obviously your weapon, which is the gas itself,
is dependent on the wind. If the wind dies or
if the wind shifts, and it very often happened the
wind would shift, you fire off some poison gas and
it comes back in the face of your guys because
(07:50):
of the next shift in the wind. That's one reason
poison gas wasn't used in the Second World War. But
I think the bigger reason was, uh, the experience of
the combatants of the First World War with gas. After
what I've just said, let me add to this, it's terrible,
just an awful thing for human being to be gassed.
And almost everybody was in the First World War was
(08:10):
and they all had an agree, including and probably most
important of Allidolf Hitler, and they all of them this
is an inhumane weapon.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And if Hitler wasn't going to use it, nobody else
was going to use it.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Everybody kept up their stockpiles, everybody was ready to retaliate
if the other guy began using poison gas. But if
it was going to be used, it was going to
be the Germans who would do it, and they didn't
and apparently the reason is because Hitler himself had the
experience of being gassed.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And you've been listening to Steven Ambrose talking about the
weapons of World War two. Go to our American Stories
and type in Steven Ambrose and you can hear more
of these stories about the weapons of World War two
as well, my goodness, on the transportation front, the deuce
and a half, of course, the cheap and of course
the way we produced planes will run just knocking out
a plane every minute, and not just any plane with
(09:00):
the B twenty four Liberator, And of course then his
discussion about poisoned gas and how even Hitler thought this
was unbecoming and just a devastating weapon of war. Thankfully
and luckily no one used this weapon of war in
World War two. Stephen Ambrose on the weapons of war
here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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