A review of significant events that occurred in the year 1945. Scenes from fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President. Wide view of snow covered lawn of the White House, and guards positioned on the south White House lawn. View of President Roosevelt as he is sworn in as President of the United States, on the south portico of the White House due to wartime austerity measures, on January 20, 1945. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin pose at the Yalta Conference. Death of Roosevelt in April 1945. Burial procession and funeral ceremony of Franklin Roosevelt. Men and women weeping. An African American woman waves her handkerchief as she mourns. Wreath on grave of President Roosevelt. Harry S. Truman sworn in as U.S. President on April 12, 1945. Surrender of the Germans signed by General Jodl and General W.B. Smith in Reims, France. Representatives of Russia, Britain, France and United States at the surrender. General Dwight Eisenhower smiles.
American soldiers and officers at a military cemetery in Ste Mere Eglise, France. Flags on grave markers. Soldiers stand with flags in hand. Officers stand. They pay respect to the graves of the American soldiers killed in World War 2 in the invasion of France. They place wreath on a grave. Children watch the officers paying respect to the graves. Soldiers stand with flags. Soldiers band. They fire in the air. They march with the band.
Allied Control Council meeting in Berlin-Schoneberg, attended by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, of United Kingdom; Marshal Georgy Zhukov, of Soviet Union; General Lucius D. Clay, of the United States, and General Jean se Lattre de Tassigny, of France. (World War II period).
Liberated American prisoner reading the Stars & Stripes newspaper, at German prison camp for allied airmen (Stalag 7A) near Moosburg, Germany. Several American former prisoners being interviewed, include African American 2nd Lt. Alexander Jefferson, of the Tuskegee Airmen. Former prisoners posing in a group for the camera. Former prisoners strolling around the grounds of the prison, and sitting outside its buildings. (They are awaiting transport to local airfields where they will board C-47s to Camp Lucky Strike near Le Havre, France, for processing home.)
Eastern Front battle of Soviet army as it repels the German Wehrmacht from a Soviet city, and captures German POW's. The German prisoners are marched into Soviet camps in winter snow covered landscape under guard of Russian Army soldiers. Aerial view of massive invasion force in English Channel on D-Day for the the Invasion of Normandy. View from landing craft of American infantry going ashore. Allied soldiers taking fire from German enemy during D-Day beach landings. Allied armies moving inland through France seen in combat with Germans in French villages and towns. Many German prisoners rounded-up and seen marching toward prison camps under British and U.S. Army guard.
Reminders of World War 2, in France, 1945. A high bridge of about eight masonry arches with two bombed out, in mountainous region of France. Camera pans right, showing a number of substantial homes scattered across the valley, with tall mountains behind. Scene shifts to a different, flatter landscape, where about a dozen U.S. Waco CG-4A gliders are seen abandoned in a field, in various states of disrepair. Writing in chalk on the side of one glider reads, "Whispering Yoddles, Fort Worth Texas, Little One Alice". There are no D-day stripes on these gliders, indicating they were probably used subsequent to the Normandy invasion, in other operations such as "Bluebird & Dove" in the South of France, in August, 1944.