August 1944: Liberation ceremony by the Mayor of Rennes in France. The Mayor, Allied officers and other city officials on a balcony. The U.S. and French flag hung from the balcony. People of the city gathered below to celebrate the liberation. French patriots round up collaborationists. Collaborationist men and women with torn clothes and painted faces paraded through the streets. An elderly man and woman with the French flag. (World War II period).
A ceremony at a military cemetery near the site of the Allied invasion of Normandy, France(6th June 1944) to mark the 30th anniversary of the D-Day. British and French Army units parade. Gravestones and memorials in the foreground. Spectators stand holding flags. The troops salute. French President Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing lights a flame with others.
A ceremony at a military cemetery near the site of the Allied invasion of Normandy, France(6th June 1944) to mark the 30th anniversary of the D-Day. A band of the United States Air Forces in Europe(USAFE) marches. Girls bring wreaths. U.S. Army General Omar Nelson Bradley and other Allied officers lay wreaths at a memorial. The officers salute.
U.S. Army Air Forces C-47aircraft , number 42-93098, of the 9th Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder Group, and its crew. This is the first aircraft and crew to drop American paratroopers (pathfinders) over France during the Allied invasion, in World War 2. The aircraft taxis on a British airfield. Crew of the aircraft are seen in front of it, including pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Joel Crouch, Copilot, Captain Vito Pedone, Navigator, Captain William Culp, Radio Operator, Harold Coonrod, along with two crew chiefs. Crew members shake hands and board the aircraft. Colonel Crouch waves from the cockpit of the C-47 (but has not started engines). Major J.L. Sweetman boards another aircraft. Colonel Crouche's C-47 taxis to where the Pathfinders will load up. View of Control Tower at RAF North Witham, with ambulance parked outside it. Three hours before takeoff.Colonel Crouch, is seen on a path near the airfield, with a Pathfinder Captain and Lieutenant, who will be aboard his aircraft and be the first to jump into France. They kid around. The Pathfinder officers note that Colonel Crouch wears paratroop wings. Later, two Pathfinders, of the 101st Airborne Division , with camouflaged faces and American flag insignia on their right shoulders, step from woods and pose momentarily. Pathfinder Paratroopers line up to board C-47 aircraft as Lt. Col. Crouch rides a scooter at the airfield. Aircrews and Pathfinders pose for photographs before taking off. The lead aircraft, number 42-93098, with Lieutenant Colonel Crouch at the controls, takes off from RAF Station North Witham at 9:54 PM, on June 5, 1944. to begin the invasion of France. (Note: This C-47 was shot down on September 18, 1944, during Operation Market Garden, and crash landed on Haamstede Airbase, Netherlands. Although shot at by German troops on the ground, pilot, Maj Joseph A. Beck, and Navigator Lt. Vincent J. Paterno, survived as prisoners of war. Copilot Capt Fred O. Lorimer and another crew member were fatally shot.)
Results of selective strategic bombing by the British Royal and United States Eighth Air Forces in German-occupied Paris and surrounding areas during World War II. September 1944: Pont de Grenelle bridge over the Seine river. Eiffel Tower (Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France) in the background. The Statue of Liberty replica on the Ile aux Cygnes Island (Pont de Grenelle, 75015 Paris, France). Shell blast damaged buildings and the Obelisk at Place de la Concorde (75008 Paris, France). Cyclists and motorists at the Place. Military cars pass the Arc de Triomphe (Place Charles de Gaulle, 75008 Paris, France) at Champs Elysees. Civilians around the Eiffel Tower. The French flag atop the undamaged tower. Unscathed Notre Dame de Paris (6 Parvis Notre-Dame - Pl. Jean-Paul II, 75004 Paris, France). United States military vehicles in the square before the cathedral. U.S. Army soldiers and French civilians crowding in front of the Cathedral. An FFI (French Forces of the Interior) flag at Notre Dame.
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.