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.
Portions of a damaged film. Excerpted from original shown during the Nuremburg trials and submitted as "Exhibit USA 280." Nuremberg trial transcripts of 13 December, 1945 include the following excerpted descriptions of the footage spoken by U.S. Commander William J. Donovan: "This is a strip of motion pictures taken, we believe, by a member of the S.S., and captured by the United States military forces in an S.S. barracks near Augsburg, Germany...We have not been able to establish beyond doubt in which area these films were made...The film offers undeniable evidence, made by Germans themselves, of almost incredible brutality to Jewish people in the custody of the Nazis, including German military units. It is believed by the prosecution that the scene is the extermination of a ghetto by Gestapo agents, assisted by military units...This film was made on an eight millimetre home camera...The pictures obviously were taken by an amateur photographer...it is burned...This is a silent film....I wish to...direct the Tribunal's attention to certain of the scenes. Scene 2: A naked girl running across the courtyard. Scene 3: An older woman being pushed past the camera, and a man in S.S. uniform standing at the right of the scene. Scene 5: A man with a skull-cap and a woman are manhandled. Scene 14: A half naked woman runs out of the crowd. Scene 15: Another half-naked woman runs through the house. Scene 16: Two men drag an old man out. Scene 18: A man in German military uniform, with his back to the camera, watches. Scene 24: A general shot of the street, showing fallen bodies and naked women running. Scene 32: A shot of the street, showing five fallen bodies. Scene 37: A man with a bleeding head is hit again. Scene 39: A soldier in German military uniform, with a rifle, stands by as a crowd concentrates on a man coming out of the house. Scene 44: A soldier with a rifle, in German military uniform, walks past a woman clinging to a torn blouse. Scene 45: A woman is dragged by her hair across the street.
United States and Soviet Union soldiers celebrate their victory as world War 2 comes to an end in Germany. "Elbe Day": Soviet and American soldiers meet at the River Elbe on 25-26 April, 1945. View of Nazi swastika being blown up at Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg Germany in 1945. Scenes of celebration in the streets of Paris with French civilians cheering American and French soldiers and celebrating the end of World War 2. French women kiss soldiers. Crowd gathered in Times Square in New York celebrating VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day). Foreign Ministers of fifty nations arrive at San Francisco to sign the United Nations Charter. United States President Harry S. Truman addresses the delegates at the closing ceremony of the conference on June 26, 1946. Ships bring American soldiers back home, including some wounded, after World War 2. Women and families on dock at harbor wave and smile at arriving troop ship with American soldiers returning home. Also seen are soldiers of other countries including Soviet Russian soldiers returning to their families at a train station, with smiling and tearful family reunions. Cemeteries with headstones honoring soldiers who died in the war. Military hardware being scrapped to make peacetime goods. Views of explosive charges being set and military aircraft being blown up for scrap. Piles of scrapped military vehicles. A woman in a factory organizes newly manufactured clothes irons. Workers in a factory perform final assembly on newly manufactured ovens and stoves for homes.
With the surrender of Germany, World War 2 in Europe ends, on VE (Victory in Europe) Day, May 8, 1945. Scene opens with church bells ringing and view of west front of St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, in London, England. Crowd is celebrating in the square. around the statue of Queen Anne. Amongst the crowd are men and women in uniform. Here and there Union Jack flags are seen, one held by a little girl hoisted upon a man's shoulder. Camera pans across various parts of the celebrating crowds. View from above, of several couples dancing within a circle of people. Several uniformed U.S. Air Force officers in a jeep celebrate with the crowd. High altitude view of Trafalgar Square in London, England. 'Victory over Germany 1945' banner draped on base of Nelson's Column. Crowd of British citizens celebrating on streets of Whitehall and closeup of the Cenotaph with inscription "The Glorious Dead".
A huge crowd cheering and celebrating the news of victory over Germany, ending World War 2, in Europe, on May 8, 1945 (VE Day). Cheering crowds gathering at Times Square and Wall Street in lower Manhattan, New York City. American flags on display.
Scenes from May 8, 1945 in London as England hears news of the surrender by Germany in World War II. Winston Churchill seated at desk and preparing to make a 3:00pm (15:00) radio broadcast about the German surrender. Churchill along with a British Naval officer greeted by Secretaries who clap and cheer as Churchill gets into a car and doffs his hat as he smokes a cigar. The car pulls away. View of Big Ben clock tower in London, showing the time of 3 o'clock pm, (15:00) which was the time of the broadcast by Churchill.