View from a 4-engine airplane in flight over altocumulus clouds. Setting sun creates pink colors. Scene changes abruptly to views, inland from Omaha Beach, at Colleville-sur-Mer, France, of the temporary military battlefield cemetery established by the U.S. First Army, on June 8, 1944, right after the Allied invasion of Normandy, in World War 2. Simple wooden crosses mark the graves of the fallen Americans, each identified by one of their dog tags fastened to the marker.
A group of passengers waiting to go on board the American ocean liner SS Washington, standing at the port of Le Verdon Sur Mer, Bordeaux France. Passengers leaving France shortly before its fall to Nazi Germany are shown inspected for passport and searched before boarding. A car being hoisted onto the ship. View of the clock tower and loading areas at the port of Le Verdon Sur Mer (subsequently destroyed by Nazi Germany later in the war, in November 1944). Captain Manning standing on the bridge. View of ship SS Washington pulling away from dock. June 1940.
Soldiers on top of a tank in Normandy, France during World War 2. Soldiers moving carefully on the road to Saint-Lô, France. A road sign reads “Saint-Lô”. A United States soldier crouching roadside with rifle. Thick black smoke forming. Armored infantry from the 2nd Armored Division wearing camouflage jackets take cover against a tank. Bomb explosion in Saint-Lô. Soldier firing rifle. Soldiers move on a street with destroyed houses. United States tank fires during street fighting. Tank fire hits buildings in Saint-Lô, creating smoke. Soldiers running. A wall breaks apart and falls after being hit by artillery. Sherman Crab minesweepers (M4 Sherman tanks fitted with flails) moving through a field. Soldiers conduct a mop-up operation in Saint-Lô. Soldier enters a house. Soldiers walking on devastated streets of Saint-Lô, with destroyed houses and piles of debris. An M10 tank destroyer enters Saint-Lô. A soldier reading a road sign “SAINT-LO SA CATHEDRALE SON PANORAMA DON DE CLAUDEL”. The remains of a United States Army infantry commander lies in state, covered by the United States flag, on top of a pile of rubble of the Église Notre-Dame de Saint-Lô (2 Rue Carnot, 50000 Saint-Lô, France). Aerial view shows damaged building in Saint-Lo. Television host Alexander Scourby reads a book titled “Breakout and Pursuit” by Martin Blumenson. Alexander Scourby closes the book and speaks to the audience.
The first U.S. prison camp in Colleville-sur-Mer after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France during World War II. U.S. soldiers question German prisoners. Prisoners rest on the ground. One of the prisoner being interrogated at a map. American cemetery near Eterville, France shows a grave with flowers. Open graves. Dead bodies of U.S. soldiers on the ground await burial. Wrecked gliders in the background. A soldier writes out a tag for the dead.
A U.S. cemetery near Colleville-sur-Mer France after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France during World War II. American soldiers receive communion at a beach. American Honor Guard doing a 3-volley rifle salute for a burial ceremony. A U.S. soldier, a U.S. sailor and a British soldier open tinned rations and eat. A bugler sounds a call. U.S. soldiers assembled for the burial ceremony. The soldiers with their heads bowed. A chaplain speaks. A Catholic priest, Reverend Father William Dempsey, of New York City, prays at an altar set up on a jeep hood. French civilians with flowers at the ceremony, including the Mayor of Colleville, Mr. Poidevin.
Film opens with map showing lower France and Mediterranean areas. However, it shows images covering primarily the French Riviera (or Côte d'Azur) under German occupation during World War II, in 1943 or 1944. German infantry march along a road. A flight of German FW-190 Fighter airplanes flies inland from the Mediterranean Sea and crosses low above a harbor. Change of scene shows a single fighter plane buzzing the Marseille Port. (It looks like a P-47 with invasion stripes. But It does not draw any anti-aircraft fire.) Camera tracks it from vantage point at the Marseille Basilica, high above the harbor. Brief view of the Basilica as the aircraft passes. A glimpse of the Marseille Port below from the Basilica. View of the Marseille Transporter Bridge designed by Ferdinand Arnodin and built in 1905. (It was destroyed after these films were made, in 1944.) A German soldier peering through binoculars in front of a 2 cm Flak 30/38/Flakvierling, quad anti-aircraft gun position. Another one is seen in the background. Several more views of German anti-aircraft and other gun emplacements protecting the Marseille Port, including 88mm guns, heavy machine guns, and Atlantic Wall coastal defense guns. Scene shifts to German soldiers marching near the French Riviera beach and palm trees. Italian cavalry are seen riding in formation, ostensibly from Nice. Italian soldiers in trucks are being transported along the Riviera waterfront. A road sign points toward Toulon at 6.3 kilometers away. (So this location is probably near Sanary-sur-Mer.) View of the Toulon harbor, where the French battleship Provence, scuttled in 1942, is seen settled low in the water at a pier.
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