A short U.S. Army feature entitled,"Black Widow" AND "Jato." Introduction is overlayed on map of Europe. Opening sequence features P-61 Black Widows of the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron, stationed at Florennes/Juzaine (A-78), Belgium, during World War 2, Some of the aircraft are identifiable: P-61A 42-5577 (later nicknamed "Tactless Texan") and "Wandering Wench" (P-61A 42-5590). Narrator states their mission is to intercept German "flying bombs." Mixed footage of P-61s at various places and times, includes some with D-Day invasion stripes. Separate JATO-related footage features USN personnel fitting jet-assisted takeoff bottles on a Grumman F6F-3, possibly at NAS Patuxent River facility, Maryland. Later sequences show a JATO takeoffs by a Douglas SBD, and an F6F-3; and normal takeoff by a Grumman TBF, and a JATO takeoff by a Grumman F4F.
German coastal defenses in Europe during World War 2. A map of Finland and Sweden. A map southward toward France and depiction of Atlantic Wall running Dutch, Belgium, and French coast facing the English Channel. Artillery and gun emplacements and fortifications along Atlantic Wall in Europe. A German soldier standing atop a fortification bunker looks through binoculars out across the English Channel. Forced laborers (slave labor) construct German coastal defenses at a beach. Concrete being mixed and poured and slave workers build the coastal defense reinforced concrete pillboxes. Massive guns and artillery being raised at the Atlantic Wall coastal defenses. The barrel of a large gun.
Early days of Operation Market Garden in Nijmegen, Holland, Netherlands during World war II. Animated map of France, Belgium, and Netherlands. Allied transport and resupply aircraft in flight over clouds. Aerial view of Nijmegen Netherlands. Allied parachutes carrying supplies floating toward ground. The aircraft drop supplies in the south of Nijmegen. First Allied Airborne Army troops arrive by parachutes and gliders. The parachutists jump from the aircraft and descend towards the land. Unusual scene from camera strapped to the chest of a paratrooper. Shows view upon first jumping, and then view from paratrooper in sky descending and surrounded by other paratroopers with aircraft overhead and ground nearing below. U.S. aircraft parked on a field. The sky if filled with parachutists who are landing. German antiaircraft fire targets Allied planes. An Allied aircraft plunges toward the earth and crashes with a fireball. The Allied troops advance. Explosion in the foreground due to bombing. The aircraft drops bombs. Smoke raises in the foreground due to the bombardment. Gliders in flight. British 1st Airborne Division soldiers advance, engaging in Battle of Arnhem.
German fortifications in the Maginot and Siegfried Lines in World War 2. Illustrated map of Western Europe depicting Great Britain, Netherlands, Ireland, Scandinavia, Belgium and Germany during World War 2. The Swastika symbol is shown on the German-occupied side. German soldiers and slave labor workers digging ditches for fortifications along Atlantic Wall. Shadows of men digging ditches. Men building tank barriers and roadblocks. A man twists a wire in place. Men constructing a bunker. German troops marching on the beach under watch by soldiers with guns. German troops enter a bunker. German soldiers ducking to go through a fortification bunker door one by one. Nazi German soldiers push a field gun to a camouflaged underground bunker. German soldier puts down his telephone. A howitzer in a German fortification facing the coast. Gun turrets moving up. German soldiers with a Karl-Gerät siege mortar called “Thor” during the Battle of Sevastopol. Nazi German railgun “Schwerer Gustav” during the Battle of Sevastopol. German soldiers load a 7.1 ton shell to the “Schwerer Gustav” railgun. A German officer uses a telescope. Dragon’s teeth tank obstacles in the Siegfred Line fortification in Western Germany. Barbed wire fences in a battlefield.
German propaganda film with English dubbing. Wehrmacht troops enter a recaptured town during the Battle of the Bulge during winter of World War II. A map showing cities in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Eastern France. German Wehrmacht infantry march through the snow on the Western Front. German troops arrive at a village after the Rundstedt-Offensive allowed Germany to regain some territories from the Allied forces. German soldiers find a woman hiding in a cellar or basement. Wehrmacht troops pass by burning wreckage of American Jeeps and debris. Sign reads “Civilian travel beyond this point is forbidden” in English, French and German. German soldiers carry supplies to areas restricted to civilians. British and French prisoners of war (POWs) are captured by Germans. The prisoners of war are led away through snow covered streets. Some men carry injured prisoners. A French soldier holds a small pennant of Free France. British and Free French Prisoners of War (POWs) are marched to the rear. A destroyed church and its bell tower. A Roman Catholic relic lies among wreckage. Upturned chair and cabinet with scattered papers on the floor. A damaged statuette of Jesus Christ with hands missing. Wreckage in German homes and churches allegedly caused by United States occupation forces is shown. German Panzer tanks roll into a village, pushing aside a cart that is blocking the road.. German troops arrive with horse-drawn carts, passing by a dead white horse. Closeup view of faces of German soldiers marching through village.
Soldiers of Allied army at a firing squad chamber used by the Nazi forces, during World War II in France (the Balard shooting range in Issy-les-Moulineaux). The stakes where people were tied prior to their execution. The soldiers imitate the execution practices used by the Germans. Pieces of clothes and a rosary of those who were executed by Nazi forces.