March 26, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Stephen Ambrose was one of America’s leading biographers and historians. While he passed away in 2002, his epic storytelling can now be heard here on Our American Stories, thanks to the efforts of those who manage his estate. Today, Stephen shares the stories of some of the most important weapons in WWII—barbed wire, mines, guns, and artillery.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
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
(00:22):
now be heard here on our American Stories, thanks to
those who run his estate. Our next story is the
story of weapons in World War Two. Here's Steven Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
There were all kind of ways in which people could
go about killing each other in the Second World War,
or in destroying other weapons, or in destroying buildings and
factories or bridges. Some of them were new, some of
them were of World War One venig Some of them
went back, although somewhat improved in designed to the American
(00:57):
Civil War. Some were as old as warfare itself. That
as a big generalization on the weaponry of World War Two.
For the most part, the war was fought with the
same weapons that were used in the First World War,
although there were significant improvements in many areas, but very
(01:18):
little of the weaponry that we associate with the Second
World War in fact originated with that war. Obviously, not
rifles or hand grenades or machine guns, but also tanks
had come along in the First World War. There even
were the bariest beginnings of aircraft carriers in the First
World War. There were bombers in the First World War.
(01:43):
There were weapons used in the First World Wars. You'll
see that we're not used in the Second World War.
Having said that, there were some tremendous breakthroughs in the
Second World War. Uh, perhaps most dramatic were the coming
of the intermediate range ballistic missile and the atomic bomb.
(02:10):
And there was some awfully big advances in transportation in
the Second World War. Well, the first thing you did
in the Second World War when you took up a
defensive position was to get the barbed wire stretched out
in front of you. Right there. You got the simplest
er type of weapon of war, not a weapon, really,
but an implement of war that was developed on the
(02:34):
Great Plains of North America because they didn't have any
trees out there on any other way of making fences.
So the barbed wire was developed not as a implement
of war, but as a means of pinning up cattle.
It proved to be ideal, however, to stop the momentum
of a charging enemy, and was used by every side
(02:55):
all over the world in the Second World War and
put up in front of your position, and then behind
that position and in front of it, if you could,
you put in those devices of the devil known as
land mines. Millions and millions of these awful things were
put in place in the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands,
(03:18):
if not millions, of them are still in place today,
still live in France today. Do you know that they
still lose between twenty five and fifty farmers every year
plowing fields, partly because they go over mines, others because
they go over artillery shells that didn't explode when they
penetrated the earth. They're just all kinds of live ordinates
(03:40):
all around the world. Vietnam, it's a terrible problem, all
the land mines that are left over from that war.
The land mines came and all types and sizes from
small anti personnel, just gruesome things, the s mind that
Rommel loved so much and the Germans used so widely,
(04:03):
especially in defending the Atlantic Wall. You stepped on or
near water, and it would trigger a device that would
pop the mine up into the air to just about
growing level, and then it would explode there. It's put
a bit of terror into the hearts of men who
saw happened to others, and it had a big effect,
very often on slowing up the speed of advance. Other
(04:28):
mines were big enough to blow up tank tracks and
stop a tank. These would not respond to the pressure
of a foot going over them. The soldiers stepping on
would and set them off, but the heavier pressure of
a weight coming from a tank or a truck would.
Then you'd put your machine gun in place. After you
(04:49):
had your barbed wire up in your minefield laid, you'd
put your machine gun in place to cover as broad
a field of fire as possible. The machine gun was
a development of the very the end of the nineteenth century,
and more so the first part of the twentieth century.
Was extensively used in the First World War. Was the
big killer in the First World War, and so too
(05:10):
in the Second World War. It was an improved weapon
in the Second World War it reached its peak. The
best of all the machine guns in the Second World
War was the German MG forty two, which had an
astonishing rate of fire and a heavy caliber, a lot
of hitting power to it, very high velocity, very accurate,
very reliable weapon, but very heavy, heavier than the American
(05:34):
machine gun. Much higher rate of fire. Americans complained about
the Germans having the better machine gun except when they
were having to lug their machine gun on an advance
or carry it back with him on a retreat, and
the American lighter machine gun was at that point to
(05:55):
be preferred. And I make that illustration to point out
that in weaponry is with any other manufacturer, product, or act,
or with anything, whenever you gain something, you lose something.
Germanys had a very reliable weapon that could throw out
a hell of a lot of lead, but it was heavy,
(06:15):
it was harder to produce. It was a lot more
involved in just the weight of the gun too. To
keep feeding that gun, you had to have almost continuous
belts of ammunition make you had to carry an awful
lot more ammunition with you, and you tend to be
far more wasteful in firing the weapon than you were
(06:36):
with American machine guns. Once that machine gun was put
in place with sandbags around it or whatever protection you
could get, and the field of fire was cleared out,
then you put your infantry into the ground doug holes
or a trench. Their primary job was to defend that
machine gun, who was the primary weapon for defending the
(06:59):
imubs position. Small arms in the Second World War were
not much improved from those of the First World War.
The American M one was a much better rifle than
the Springfield nineteen oh three, but not all that much better.
It was a semi automatic. The Springfield was bold action.
The M one was a very reliable weapon. You could
(07:22):
take it through a swamp, You could take it across
the sand of a beach like Omaha, you could immerse
it in salt water. You could punish that weapon in
every way imaginable when it would come up firing. Wonderfully
reliable weapon. But the German rifles were also very good,
so the Russians, just about everybody had good small arms.
(07:47):
Artillery in the Second World War was very similar to
and in many cases identical with the artillery of the
First World War. The most basic artillery piece of the
First World War was also the most basic of the second.
It was the seventy five milimeter cannon and had a
reek that went up into the four or five six
(08:09):
kilometers and more in some cases. The most feared artillery
piece of the Second World War, the most respected, was
the German eighty eight millimeter. It had a dual function.
It was both Germany's number one anti aircraft weapon and
their number one field artillery piece. The hilosophy of the
(08:32):
eighty eight was such that you could lay those baby
just flat out and fire straight across the field. And
the veloscity was sege that the power of gravity wouldn't
begin affecting it until it had gotten a long way
out there, a lot further off than the seventy five did.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And we have more of these stories from Steven Ambrose,
and a terrific job on this storytelling edity by our
own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to the Ambrose
estate for allowing us to hear these terrific stories. Put it,
there were all kinds of ways people went about killing
each other in World War Two. Some were new and
some were as old as warfare itself. But the improvements
(09:09):
in these weapons staggering, and but the same old deal.
You needed the barbed wire. Then there was, of course
the machine gun, and then there were the holes you
dig in the ground to protect that machine gun. The
story of the Weapons of World War Two with Stephen
Ambrose 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
(00:22):
now be heard here on our American Stories, thanks to
those who run his estate. Our next story is the
story of weapons in World War Two. Here's Steven Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
There were all kind of ways in which people could
go about killing each other in the Second World War,
or in destroying other weapons, or in destroying buildings and
factories or bridges. Some of them were new, some of
them were of World War One venig Some of them
went back, although somewhat improved in designed to the American
(00:57):
Civil War. Some were as old as warfare itself. That
as a big generalization on the weaponry of World War Two.
For the most part, the war was fought with the
same weapons that were used in the First World War,
although there were significant improvements in many areas, but very
(01:18):
little of the weaponry that we associate with the Second
World War in fact originated with that war. Obviously, not
rifles or hand grenades or machine guns, but also tanks
had come along in the First World War. There even
were the bariest beginnings of aircraft carriers in the First
World War. There were bombers in the First World War.
(01:43):
There were weapons used in the First World Wars. You'll
see that we're not used in the Second World War.
Having said that, there were some tremendous breakthroughs in the
Second World War. Uh, perhaps most dramatic were the coming
of the intermediate range ballistic missile and the atomic bomb.
(02:10):
And there was some awfully big advances in transportation in
the Second World War. Well, the first thing you did
in the Second World War when you took up a
defensive position was to get the barbed wire stretched out
in front of you. Right there. You got the simplest
er type of weapon of war, not a weapon, really,
but an implement of war that was developed on the
(02:34):
Great Plains of North America because they didn't have any
trees out there on any other way of making fences.
So the barbed wire was developed not as a implement
of war, but as a means of pinning up cattle.
It proved to be ideal, however, to stop the momentum
of a charging enemy, and was used by every side
(02:55):
all over the world in the Second World War and
put up in front of your position, and then behind
that position and in front of it, if you could,
you put in those devices of the devil known as
land mines. Millions and millions of these awful things were
put in place in the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands,
(03:18):
if not millions, of them are still in place today,
still live in France today. Do you know that they
still lose between twenty five and fifty farmers every year
plowing fields, partly because they go over mines, others because
they go over artillery shells that didn't explode when they
penetrated the earth. They're just all kinds of live ordinates
(03:40):
all around the world. Vietnam, it's a terrible problem, all
the land mines that are left over from that war.
The land mines came and all types and sizes from
small anti personnel, just gruesome things, the s mind that
Rommel loved so much and the Germans used so widely,
(04:03):
especially in defending the Atlantic Wall. You stepped on or
near water, and it would trigger a device that would
pop the mine up into the air to just about
growing level, and then it would explode there. It's put
a bit of terror into the hearts of men who
saw happened to others, and it had a big effect,
very often on slowing up the speed of advance. Other
(04:28):
mines were big enough to blow up tank tracks and
stop a tank. These would not respond to the pressure
of a foot going over them. The soldiers stepping on
would and set them off, but the heavier pressure of
a weight coming from a tank or a truck would.
Then you'd put your machine gun in place. After you
(04:49):
had your barbed wire up in your minefield laid, you'd
put your machine gun in place to cover as broad
a field of fire as possible. The machine gun was
a development of the very the end of the nineteenth century,
and more so the first part of the twentieth century.
Was extensively used in the First World War. Was the
big killer in the First World War, and so too
(05:10):
in the Second World War. It was an improved weapon
in the Second World War it reached its peak. The
best of all the machine guns in the Second World
War was the German MG forty two, which had an
astonishing rate of fire and a heavy caliber, a lot
of hitting power to it, very high velocity, very accurate,
very reliable weapon, but very heavy, heavier than the American
(05:34):
machine gun. Much higher rate of fire. Americans complained about
the Germans having the better machine gun except when they
were having to lug their machine gun on an advance
or carry it back with him on a retreat, and
the American lighter machine gun was at that point to
(05:55):
be preferred. And I make that illustration to point out
that in weaponry is with any other manufacturer, product, or act,
or with anything, whenever you gain something, you lose something.
Germanys had a very reliable weapon that could throw out
a hell of a lot of lead, but it was heavy,
(06:15):
it was harder to produce. It was a lot more
involved in just the weight of the gun too. To
keep feeding that gun, you had to have almost continuous
belts of ammunition make you had to carry an awful
lot more ammunition with you, and you tend to be
far more wasteful in firing the weapon than you were
(06:36):
with American machine guns. Once that machine gun was put
in place with sandbags around it or whatever protection you
could get, and the field of fire was cleared out,
then you put your infantry into the ground doug holes
or a trench. Their primary job was to defend that
machine gun, who was the primary weapon for defending the
(06:59):
imubs position. Small arms in the Second World War were
not much improved from those of the First World War.
The American M one was a much better rifle than
the Springfield nineteen oh three, but not all that much better.
It was a semi automatic. The Springfield was bold action.
The M one was a very reliable weapon. You could
(07:22):
take it through a swamp, You could take it across
the sand of a beach like Omaha, you could immerse
it in salt water. You could punish that weapon in
every way imaginable when it would come up firing. Wonderfully
reliable weapon. But the German rifles were also very good,
so the Russians, just about everybody had good small arms.
(07:47):
Artillery in the Second World War was very similar to
and in many cases identical with the artillery of the
First World War. The most basic artillery piece of the
First World War was also the most basic of the second.
It was the seventy five milimeter cannon and had a
reek that went up into the four or five six
(08:09):
kilometers and more in some cases. The most feared artillery
piece of the Second World War, the most respected, was
the German eighty eight millimeter. It had a dual function.
It was both Germany's number one anti aircraft weapon and
their number one field artillery piece. The hilosophy of the
(08:32):
eighty eight was such that you could lay those baby
just flat out and fire straight across the field. And
the veloscity was sege that the power of gravity wouldn't
begin affecting it until it had gotten a long way
out there, a lot further off than the seventy five did.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And we have more of these stories from Steven Ambrose,
and a terrific job on this storytelling edity by our
own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to the Ambrose
estate for allowing us to hear these terrific stories. Put it,
there were all kinds of ways people went about killing
each other in World War Two. Some were new and
some were as old as warfare itself. But the improvements
(09:09):
in these weapons staggering, and but the same old deal.
You needed the barbed wire. Then there was, of course
the machine gun, and then there were the holes you
dig in the ground to protect that machine gun. The
story of the Weapons of World War Two with Stephen
Ambrose here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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