View of a port in England, filled with Allied ships and boats to carry war materiel for Allied forces preparing to invade Europe during World War II. A barrage balloon aloft overhead. Yards full of military rolling stock. Scene shifts to wide street view in London including Whitehall Government buildings around the Cenotaph War Memorial (Whitehall, London SW1A 2ET, United Kingdom) in London, England. Inside the British military headquarters the Allied High Command is gathered to plan the invasion of Europe. Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower is pointing at a wall map, as senior Allied commanders, including British Marshal Bernard Montgomery, look on. Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft in D-Day paint stripes take off from an air base. Officers watch takeoffs from control tower porch. Views from Allied aircraft gun cameras show strafing from low altitudes destroying German ground targets, including railroads and airfields. A formation of Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft in flight overhead. Lines of communication such as road junctions being destroyed by bombing. Glimpse of copilot at controls in a bomber. Scene shifts to June 6, 1944 and the D-Day Allied invasion fleet underway across the English Channel. Allied warships bombarding the shores of Normandy, France. Landing Craft Tank (Rocket) firing salvos of rockets. Animated map shows the invasion forces striking the defenses of the German Atlantic Wall. View of British and American soldiers wading ashore from landing craft, and some falling to German gunfire at the shoreline beaches of Normandy. View of German defenders firing from inside a German fortifications. German soldiers firing machine guns from protected places overlooking the beaches of Normandy. Trapped American soldiers firing upwards toward the German positions in cliffs overlooking the beach. Later views of Allied troops in combat further inland. Animated map shows area of allied penetration after 19 days of bitter fighting. Allied Armor, trucks, and supplies moving inland from the beachhead. Barrage balloon above the improvised ports. Allied troops heading toward the port of Cherbourg and guns firing in that battle. American M8 Greyhound armored personnel carriers proceeding into the town of Cherbourg, Normandy, France. closeup of American soldiers firing small arms. Soldiers firing a howitzer point blank. The last of the German garrison troops surrender under a flag of truce, on June 27, 1944. Large group of German prisoners of war with hands clasped over their heads, being escorted under Allied guard from Cherbourg. Docks and facilities needing repair to make the port serviceable. U.S. Army engineers welding port facilities. Closeup of a locomotive operated by French railroad men, moving in the restored port.
U.S. and French troops parade in liberated Cherbourg on Bastille Day. The troops and civilians gathered in a city square. Men, women and children watch. Soldiers and civilians hold flags. The US, French Navy and French Forces of the Interior (FFI) march alongside. The band plays. People watch from their homes. General Charles De Gaulle present at the celebration. 'Vive De Gaulle' on a banner. The square is renamed 'Place General De Gaulle.' Soldiers and policemen salute. Children hold flowers. People sing and dance in the square. Musicians play their instruments. (World War II period).
Allied troops soon after D-Day landings at Normandy in World War 2. View of Cherbourg town destroyed by the Germans. A soldier near a wall. The destroyed docks. A soldier on a destroyed inland bridge. French women and a man welcome the Allied troops with bouquets on a destroyed bridge. Hundreds of German officers and soldiers taken prisoners marched on the street. A wounded prisoner in a wheel barrow.
Allied troops in Cherbourg after the Normandy Landings on D-Day in World War 2. A former German Headquarters in the town. A portrait of the German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. A U.S. soldier and MP (Military Police) point towards the portrait. The soldiers use it as a pin board, throwing darts at it.
Allied troops in Cherbourg after the Normandy Landings on D-Day in World War 2 . The first official ceremony in France after the Invasion of France. Allied soldiers lined up. A statue in the background. Dignitaries outside a building. U.S. General Joseph Collins presents the French tricolor flag to the Mayor of Cherbourg. Soldiers of the 7th Corps in clean uniforms for the ceremony. French people on the street. Colonel of the Signal Corps with war correspondents including Scripps-Howard Newspapers' Ernie Pyle, Burt Brandt, Cecil Cons, and John Leglinsee
U.S. Army soldiers and officers at the beachhead at Cherbourg Peninsula, France a little more than one week after D-Day invasion of France. Dignitaries on DUKW arrive at the beachhead. General Dwight D Eisenhower climbs over the side of the DUKW and jumps down to the ground. He walks in the area and then climbs into the back of a waiting Jeef. General Eisenhower, General George C Marshall, General Courtney Hodges and Admiral Ernest J King in jeep tour beachhead. Jeep moves along a street. Point of view shots from moving jeep as it drives between villages, passing a wrecked German tank and then a horsecart heading the other direction. Wrecked houses and buildings seen on the sides of the street as the jeeps enter Isigny-sur-Mer. The officers parked in a jeep in Isigny, driven by Private Louis E Kriston.