Formation of U.S. 8th Air Force B-17 bombers in flight over Germany during World War 2.Gunners firing 50 caliber machine guns from various positions in a B-17, as attacking German interceptor aircraft race past. One German aircraft is hit and pieces of it fall off. B-17 enters bombing run. View of bombardier and bomb sight image. German aircraft continue attacks and gunners continue defending as the bombardier announces "bombs away." This is a high altitude mission and all crew members are on oxygen. Glimpse of pilot and copilot in cockpit. Pilot alerts gunners to a German FW-190 aircraft attacking them. Waist gunners pause to look at a German fighter smoking, as it falls, and strikes the ground in an explosion. Sequence shifts to formation of B-24 Liberator bomber on a mission with bombs visible dropping from bomb bays. Sequence shifts again, rapidly, to a formation of B-29 Superfortress bombers dropping bombs. Nighttime view of incendiary clusters being dropped on Japan. (Note: One of the B-29s seen is serial number 42-24547, assigned to the 6th Bomb Group, 315th Bomb Wing. This B-29 crashed short of the runway on 31 Dec 1944, at Borinquen Field, Puerto Rico, where the 6th bomb Group underwent combat crew training. And the B-29s shown do not display any tail codes.)
German Army fights with the Allied infantry and tanks on the Western Front in France and England, during the summer of 1944 in World War 2. Animated maps show English and French invasion coastlines. During Battle of Caen, German soldiers load ammunition on a camouflaged truck. The truck driven on roads. A German soldier on truck observes American bombers in sky overhead. Truck parks to the side and German antiaircraft guns fired. Night view from ground of bombs being dropped and buildings burning in the distance in Caen, France. German military trucks move at night on roads passing by burning fires. View from inside cabs of moving German vehicles. Daytime view of heavily bombed and destroyed city of Caen with ruins of houses and shops; German infantry walk through the streets of the destroyed and empty city. German soldiers fully loaded with their weapons ready for a battle. Close views of their faces with determined expressions. German tanks, armored vehicles, and infantry move on roads. Among them are two Borgward IV remote-controlled demolition vehicles (Schwerer Ladungsträger Borgward B IV, or heavy explosive carrier Borgward B IV) each driven by one man. Soldiers of German Army observe approach of U.S. Army forces. A German soldier arranges shells for artillery to fire as they fire on Allied positions. Wehrmacht infantry soldiers advance cautiously along roads. German soldiers take cover and prepare to attack as American tanks pass through a village. German soldiers fire on U.S. Army tanks. German soldiers direct an unmanned, remote-controlled small armored vehicle laden with explosives across a field and detonate it near U.S. Army vehicles (it is known as a Goliath Tracked Mine, or Leichter Ladungsträger Goliath (Sd.Kfz. 302/303a/303b); also known as a "beetle tank" to Allied forces, or a German robot tank). Large explosion as the remote-controlled demolition vehicle is detonated. Dead U.S. Army soldier along a road side, and injured German soldiers are aided by other German soldier
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.
Victory in Europe day as huge crowds gather to celebrate end of World War II in Europe, in Paris and London. Crowd swarms around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Crowds celebrating at Piccadilly Circus in London. Flashback to scenes of World War II. U.S. troops training for D-Day invasion. B-17 bombers at high altitude over Germany leaving streams of contrails. A B-17 hit and falling. B-24 bombers of the 706th Squadron, 446th Bomb Group, on bombing mission. (One: tail number 41-29177, was shot down on August 26, 1944.) U.S. war materiel pouring into the UK. New P-38s and new P-47s. A German Me-109 aircraft hit and falling. The German pilot bails out and parachutes downward. Invasion fleet elements assembling in England.
Summary of World War II events and formation of the United Nations Organization. Soviet troops on Eastern Front of Europe fire artillery on German positions in 1944. Russian troops advance. German soldiers come out of buildings and surrender. Allied Forces land in France on D-Day. Allied troops and tanks fight Germans on streets in towns and villages of France. U.S. Army tanks fire at German positions. Various groups of German prisoners of war march along roads and are herded into prison camps operated by American and British forces. In 1945, the Allied leaders meet at Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula to discuss Allied military strategy in the final months of WWII. Leaders included British PM Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The meeting of U.S. and Soviet Russian troops at the Elbe River. German Nazi Swastika symbol blown up in explosion atop Zeppelinfeld Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. Aerial view of Berlin in ruins, as seen from low-flying aircraft flying directly over the Unter den Linden boulevard and the Brandenburg Gate. Wrecked and bombed German buildings seen everywhere. German officials signing surrender instrument at Rheims. U.S. President Harry S Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin at Potsdam Conference. U.S. Marines battling on beaches of Pacific Islands. Iconic shot of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima. Aerial view of bombed and ruined city of Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese surrender to MacArthur aboard the battleship USS Missouri. General MacArthur speaks aboard Missouri. Victory celebrations all across the world, with some scenes from earlier V-E Day (Victory in Europe) day in May 1945, including crowds celebrating in Paris, France, and some scenes on V-J Day (Victory over Japan day) in August 1945. Crowds on streets celebrate. Happy crowds jam streets. Delegates of Nations, among them Andrei Gromyko and Vyascheslav Molotov meet in San Francisco and create a United Nations organization. Truman arrives at signing of UN charter. Various delegates sign charter. U.S. troops disembark troop carrier ships at U.S. ports and are discharged after completing military service in World War 2. Group of U.S. Army soldiers exits a church (the Chapel at Fort Dix, New Jersey), waving their discharge papers in hand.
Preparations in year 1943 for the June 1944 invasion of Western Europe by Allied Force during World War 2. Conference at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in London. U.S. Generals George Marshall, Henry H. Arnold and British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery meet at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force). Montage of war scenes: British Lancaster bombers taking off. British men and women monitors working in a British Command and Intelligence Center, tracking aircraft positions on maps. U.S. B-17 bombers in daylight missions over Germany. Allied pilots and crew members in aircraft. U.S. Army Air Force B-17 aircraft at high altitudes leaving contrails behind. Bombs bursting on German industrial targets. Allied agents being airdropped over France. Allied one-man submarines or solo submarines, torpedo boats and Commandos sampling French beaches and soil conditions in the Normandy region for ability to support 30-ton tanks for the invasion of France. British airman loading reconnaissance camera into a British Spitfire reconnaissance aircraft for photographing the planned invasion region. Woman operating microscope analyzing film. Aerial reconnaissance film images being laid out and attached together to create a large overhead viewing map. Arms and equipment being air dropped to indigenous resistance forces in Nazi-occupied Europe. Mulberry floating harbor segments being designed and built to create invasion ports. Allied landing craft training in Devon, England. Allied aircraft strafing a German ship. Meteorological equipment assessing weather along the invasion coast. Wire netting to pave the beaches. Underwater pipelines to carry gasoline or petrol to France. Allied armored vehicles bearing the White Star. Troops being inoculated or vaccinated. Newly built ship going down the ways at an Allied ship yard that builds Navy warships. View of British intelligence officers with headsets at radio equipment, and personnel monitoring German radio broadcasts. Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran, where the Big Three are seen meeting at Tehran Conference to finalize invasion plans. Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill sitting on the porch of the Embassy building, in 1943. General Eisenhower and Allied Military leaders planning the D-Day invasion. General Omar Bradley, sitting with a British admiral. General Bernard Law Montgomery Aerial view of formation of U.S. Army Air Force B-17 aircraft, flying through Flak bursts. Pilots in B-17 cockpit .Bombs striking German targets. Polish, Scenes including gun camera footage of Czech, and British in Spitfire aircraft striking German railroads and marshaling yards. B-26 bombers and gunner attacking German Luftwaffe Me-109 aircraft.