Historian Stephen Ambrose on D-Day: 'We're not going to forget'

Ambrose

A national D-Day memorial will be dedicated Wednesday in Bedford, Virginia, a community that lost more men per capita on June 6, 1944 than any other community in the United States. Historian Stephen Ambrose, author of the national bestseller "D-Day" and "Band of Brothers," joined CNN's Leon Harris from Paris Tuesday morning.

HARRIS: Good morning, sir, glad to have you with us. I'd like to know why you're in Paris today knowing that tomorrow was going to be the dedication of the memorial here in Virginia -- an effort to which you have lent your name and support for some time?

AMBROSE: Why am I in Paris? I'm in Paris because I'm here with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division and we're all going to Utah Beach tomorrow. These guys landed just behind Utah Beach, and we're going to be participating with HBO on a series on "Band of Brothers," the designation given to this company. So I'm here with the company from the 101st Airborne.

HARRIS: Well, give us a highlight, if you can, or a little bit of a headline about this "Band of Brothers" for those of us who don't want to wait until September for the movie to come out.

MESSAGE BOARD The U.S. military    ALSO Town that lost 21 troops hosts D-Day memorial

AMBROSE: Well, it was a company of men who volunteered to be paratroopers. They were trained at Toccoa, Georgia. They went through a very long training period and then over to England for even more training. And then on the night of June 5-6, 1944, they took off at about 10:00, flying over and across the channel and then over the top of Sainte-Mere-Eglise where they dropped and participated in the action on D-Day. And they managed to knock out four German 105- millimeter cannon that were looking right down on Utah Beach and a great feat of arms on the part of the men. And thus it would be a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much, to say they saved the day for the Americans at Utah and at Omaha Beach.

HARRIS: Yes, it's amazing that there seems to be no shortage of those kinds of stories. I've told thousands of people who have asked me what my favorite movie was and I've said it -- my favorite movie of all-time is "Saving Private Ryan" and that is -- that is the absolute truth. That movie meant more to me after watching that on Memorial Day a couple of years ago. It changed my perception of the way things are today and of that generation.

Is there -- is there a concern that you have that people, despite the fact there are so many stories like that that come from that war, that people have forgotten?

AMBROSE: No, I have no concern. I am often asked: Do you think that the current interest in the Second World War will continue into the future? And my reply is: Have you ever been to the battlefield of Gettysburg? Have you ever seen the crowds that go there? That happened 150 years ago.

Nobody is going to forget World War II. It's the greatest event of the 20th century. It changed everything. So we're not going to forget. And we have the opportunity now to honor the men who did it and we're doing it here in Paris and at Utah Beach in Normandy tomorrow.

HARRIS: Yes, and you're going to be with some of those men.

AMBROSE: They're not -- they're not going to -- I promise you, they're not going to be forgotten.

HARRIS: And we'll...

AMBROSE: Yes, I'm going to be with them -- sure.

HARRIS: We'll make sure that they are not forgotten -- no doubt at all. And you're going to be there with those -- with those men as they go back to that beach. And you've been through this sort of thing before. What do you - how do you - can you describe to us what a moment like that must be like?

AMBROSE: It's thrilling. It's inspiring. It's awesome. To be with the men - I mean we talk about them as men. These guys were 18 and 19 and, at most, 20 years old.

They were kids. They should have been in college. They should have been throwing softballs not hand grenades. They should have been firing .22s at rabbits, not M-1s at other young men. But freedom was at stake and it became their duty to go out and save freedom and they did. And that's why we remember them and why we will always remember so long as our republic lasts and so long as we live in a free world.

HARRIS: Yes, we will always remember them and we will always thank you and people like you for reminding us and for delivering that story so eloquently. Stephen Ambrose -- Dr. Ambrose, thank you very much. Always a pleasure to talk with you. Take care and enjoy yourself over there.