Londoners gather as their government makes momentous decisions on the eve of British entry into world War 2. Crowds gathered in London near Whitehall and Downing Streets. Bobbies hold traffic for an official car leaving Downing Street and turning right on Whitehall. Soon they repeat the process for another car leaving Downing Street. Soon the crowds on the opposite side of Whitehall move en masse across the street and cluster at the corner of Whitehall and Downing. Mounted police and other Bobbies maintain order. Some folks are seen relaxing on the lawn in St. James Park. The crowds gradually disperse and are seen walking along Whitehall, past the Cenotaph.
British antiaircraft batteries fire furiously at German V-1 Buzz bombs over London. One V-1 is seen running out of fuel, with a puff of smoke, and then descending to strike the city. Other V-1s are seen descending to strike. View of the Thames River with Tower of London, Southwark and Cannon Street Rail Bridges in view. Wrecked buildings and rubble on streets. Views of terrible destruction from the Buzz bombs.
Aftermath of London bombings by Nazi Germany during World War II. Lord Halifax, British Foreign Secretary, visits the damaged houses in East end of London. Rubble collected along roads. Pile of rubble in a park. Halifax and two men confer in a street.
Aftermath of London blitz or blitzkrieg bombings by Nazi German Luftwaffe during World War II. Rubble outside a shop with a sign 'Bombed but not beaten' other signs read 'We are open' 'open for business'. As people walk past the shops in London. Bourne and Hollingsworth on Oxford Street.
Scenes from British feature film "The Somme" made in 1927, about the Battle of the Somme in World War 1. Part of it depicts events involving the South African Brigade in the battle. The extract opens with shells bursting all along No Man's Land among fragments of trees. Explosions and smoke everywhere. On July 18, 1916, Nine German Battalions deploy to drive the South African Brigade from the Delville Wood. Several soldiers of the Brigade seen entrenched in a sand-bagged position as a German shell explodes only yards from them. German soldiers advance through the broken trees and brush, while under fire by British gunners using Vickers machine guns. Some German soldiers falling and others seeking cover in abandoned trench. A line of South African troops firing their rifles from a trench, as several German soldiers reach them and are shot dead just feet away. A British soldier is shot while climbing out of a trench containing several fallen comrades. Other British (or South African) troops scrambling to find a safer place. One crawling across the ground. A British gunner firing a Lewis gun. German troops starting to go over-the-top, from their trench. British soldiers advancing. German gunner firing Maxim gun from fortified position, as shells burst in the distant background. A horizontal line of British troops advancing toward the German position. Some are cut down by the machine gun fire. German gunner firing a captured British Vickers machine gun. British soldiers hunkered down in a deep shell hole behind a ridge. They use their trenching tools to dig in deeper. Several German shells burst in the air. Two British soldiers watch as a tank approaches through the smoke. Large numbers of British troops attack downhill through smoke and haze. German soldiers preparing to defend an occupied structure, as more British troops charge forward. Post-battle view of the area, with fallen soldiers marked by rifles stuck in the ground with helmets on them. (Note: The tanks shown in this film are models Mark V which did not enter service until 1918.)
Opening scene shows a motor launch being lowered from the transport ship, USS Bayfield (APA-33). View of a Coast Guard Crewman with many U.S. soldiers on deck behind him. Next, the troops are seen descending a landing net over the side of the ship, into Higgins boat landing craft. Waves cause the net to sway out over the water with several soldiers on it. Silhoutttes of landing craft underway in the water with sun rising through haze in background. Landing craft heading toward a beach, and then troops charging ashore over the beach. (World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
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