Elements of U.S. Army arriving in a town in France, in August, 1944, during World War 2. Local people line the sides of the roads to welcome them. Young French women reach up to American soldiers in the back of an open stake truck and later mingle with them on the ground. Some of them kiss the soldiers. Some American flags are displayed by people in the crowd of well-wishers. One American soldier holds up a souvenir Nazi flag.Large crowds of French people gathered in a square to welcome the Americans. Many display the "V for Victory" sign with their hands. Film fades to a brief glimpse of a fallen soldier, and new slate reads: "Counterattack." Next, U.S. Medical Corpsmen are seen carrying American wounded to ambulances in the field in December, 1944.Several views of medics attending to American wounded soldiers. American infantrymen advancing across a field beside a Pershing T26E3 tank. (Note: It has 6 bogey wheels. Not designated M26 until 1945.) American infantry advancing into area of burning buildings and then into built up part of town, where they take up defensive positions inside a building. A U.S. soldier firing out a building window. Other U.S. soldiers firing from positions behind a wall. One is next to a mortar. Buildings burning and destroyed all around them. Close-up of American soldiers firing M1 Garand rifles from behind the wall. Infantrymen hunkered down behind a stone wall with light snow atop it. An explosion from a hand grenade raises smoke. A medical Corpsman checks a fallen American soldier for sign of life. Next, a Chaplain is seen reading from a small bible or prayer book, as he stoops over the fallen soldier. Fallen and wounded soldiers are carried to a truck, from the battlefield, on stretchers. Scene shifts abruptly to captured German film depicting two junior officers conversing in the field and then to German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel conversing with an artillery assault gun officer. Rommel holds a pair of eyeglasses in his right hand. The gun officer wears binoculars around his neck. A war torn city. German Volkssturm (People's Militia) parading. Some carry panzerfaust anti-tank weapons over their shoulders. A field full of German King Tiger II Ausf. B Heavy Tanks. One being driven out of the field. A German SdKfz 251 halftrack maneuvering in woods. it is covered with foliage for camouflage. German soldier in an open single seat courier car. It and he are spattered with mud. Close-ups of the mud-spattered driver smoking an cigar. German infantry moving across a field and moving along a road, in the mist. German infantry moving along a muddy road near a forest. A German V-1 Buzz bomb seen overhead with engine running. It flames out. Next an explosion and rising smoke is seen inside a town.
Thanksgiving 1944 in Northeastern France, with the U.S. 26th Infantry Division, during World War 2. Several U.S. Army women nurses walk through muddy snow covered field in Northeastern France, during World War II. One of them pulls a small sled. At the same time,US troops march along sides of a nearby road. A U.S. soldier is issued a winter coat by a quartermaster.Other soldiers putting on new overcoats. U.S. troops in overcoats march along a wet road. A soldier holds up a sign reading," 26 'Yankee' Infantry Division, HAPPY- THANKSGIVING !, Europe 1944." The troops huddle over field cook stoves in a field. They smoke cigarettes. Large group of U.S. soldiers in a chow line near a cemetery in a French town (probably Dieuze, which they captured on November 20th). They receive a Thanksgiving dinner. Soldiers playing football on a snow covered field.
View of Canadian troops on D-Day huddled in a landing craft approaching Juno beach in Normandy, France, during Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944, in World War 2. The landing craft reaches the beach and all the Canadian infantry leave the boat, two or three at a time, and wade ashore during the invasion of Europe by Allied forces. Steel obstacles placed by the German forces can be seen on the beach. Several houses, stand along the beach. Two other landing craft with Canadian soldiers arrive near beach and soldiers wade ashore. The troops advance on the beach.
U.S. Army soldier reads newspaper while listening to radio. Soldiers doing their respective chores, listen to AFN (American Forces Network) Radio. General Marshall and General Eisenhower announce the creation of AFN, in 1942. July 4, 1943, the first broadcast of AFN. General Eisenhower mingling with paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division, on the eve of D-day. U.S. B-26 aircraft in flight. United States soldiers aboard landing craft and wading ashore at Normandy, France, on D-day, June 6, 1944. Soldiers tuning radios in the field. United States Sherman tanks and infantry move along country road in France. Audio includes portions from AFN broadcasts, including an announcer saying "You are listening to AFN Paris. This is the American Forces Network, on the road to Berlin." Road sign points to St. Lo. Group of U.S. soldiers gathered around a jeep with a radio, listening to AFN, in Germany. (World War II period).
'Problems of Peace in Europe' produced in 1948, depicts reconstruction problems in aftermath of World War II and includes footage from during the war and soon after the war. Scene of desperate and hungry civilian people (possibly in Germany but could be elsewhere in Europe) scrambling over each other and trying to find food on the ground among garbage or wreckage, circa 1945 or 1946. European peoples massing to reestablish political order and seek relief in post-war Europe. Montage of images of people from all walks of life. Reminders of war showing aircrews in bombers and bombs falling. Batteries of rockets being fired. A formation of U.S. B-17s and a B-26 aircraft with D-day stripes, in flight. Allied bombing of cities with devastating effect (likely 1944-1945). Aerial view of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Aerial view of a major U.S. industrial complex, with many smoke stacks and industrial pollution. Mass of workers leaving at end of shift at a U.S. manufacturing plant or factory. Views of two different streamlined locomotives pulling passenger trains at high speed, approaching camera position. Freight trains speeding on railroads. Farmers harvesting and baling hay by machine and cultivating fields with tractor. Multiple wide views of the K-25 building of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, in Oak Ridge Tennessee, the world's largest building in 1944 when it was built, and an instrumental part of the Manhattan Project effort to develop the atomic bomb in World War 2. Huge sprawling industrial sites in America. Map of Europe. Street scene in Germany with destroyed buildings and rubble cleaned from street, but still piled up in places. Desperate, hungry, and poverty stricken German citizens rummaging through garbage piles for anything to eat or anything of value. Two very young German boys standing together on a street, with one boy smoking a cigarette. Children scrambling over trash and rubbish heaps.
Allies bomb Nazi targets in France and Netherlands during World War II. An animated map shows France and Germany. Allied squadrons move towards the bombers. Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft taxi and take off from a British airfield in England, United Kingdom. Interior cockpit view of a B-26 A pilot in the cockpit as he puts on a steel combat helmet and wears a steel jacket. A formation of bombers drops bombs on a Nazi German controlled airfield in Holland. Ground crew watches as a bomber comes in for landing. An aircraft sends off flares shortly before landing, indicating to ground crews that there are wounded soldiers on board. The bomber lands on its belly. Ground crew moves towards the bomber. A row of bombers. Crew members work on the bomber. Multiple shots of more bomber aircraft as they take off (some shots from the side, and some with the aircraft approaching the camera position). View of bombs attached to the bomber with bomb bay open. Bombs away view as bomb clusters are released through open aircraft bomb bay doors. Bombs dropped on Nazi installations in France. Aerial view of explosions on the ground.