On 12 December, 1944, at an airport in Naples, Italy, British General Sir Henry Nathan Wilson inspects an honor guard of American Military Policemen in formation. (Narrator states he is en route to replace the late Field Marshal Sir John Dill, in Washington, DC, USA) A contingent of British troops is also present as part of the honor guard, on the wet airport tarmac. (Narrator states that Wilson will head the British Joint Staff Mission and be personal military representative for Prime Minister Winston Churchill.) He approaches a line of U.S. military officers who salute him. Closeup of General Wilson With U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, next to U.S. Vice Admiral Kent Hewitt. Also with them (back to camera) is British Admiral Sir John Henry Dacres Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief for the Mediterranean Fleet. Next, General Wilson and his party are seen boarding a British Avro York four-engine Heavy Transport aircraft. View from the ground, of the aircraft cockpit and the engines running as it taxis out for takeoff. Change of scene shows troops gathered in open air battlefield environment. General Mark Clark, now Commander-in-Chief of the Allied 15th Army Group, decorates some members of the 5th Army, as General Lucian King Truscott Jr. (new 5th Army Commander) stands by his side. General Clark says farewell to members of the 5th Army and shakes hands with many of them. (World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1944. Lava in the city. Smoke rises from lava. People pose. Crowd gathers near lava. Civilians kneel in prayer as church services are held before an outdoor shrine. The crowd praying around a Virgin Mary statue. Candles lit in front of statue and priest speaks. Lava flow interrupts services. A man pushes lava rock with a stick. The crowd breaks up and carries the shrine forward. Men carry statue and priest go with them. View of city with cloud of smoke in the background.
Allied Forces with mechanized units and tanks enter Florence, Italy in World War II. British Army soldiers moving across Tuscan hills and countryside towards Florence. French, Indian, South African, British and Polish Allied soldiers under the command of General Harold Alexander resting and riding on top of tanks to Florence. Italian civilians greet the British and Allied troops in Florence. King George VI of the United Kingdom arrives in Italy and is greeted by General Maitland Wilson. King George VI inspects the Royal Navy Units aboard ships in Naples, Italy on July 23, 1944. Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham accompany King George VI on motorboat inspecting the port of Naples. British Royal Marines and soldiers of the United States 5th Army form a guard of honor for the king’s return. The king boards a British cruiser. King George VI takes a ride in a car with Commander-in-Chief General Alexander. King George VI inspects the 8th Army of United States and Indian troops. He reviews Polish Units with Polish General Władysław Anders and General Oliver Leese. King George VI confers knighthood on General Leese in the field.
Undersecretary of War, Robert Porter Patterson, Sr. speaks about a report from the General staff outlining the needs for combating Germany and Japan in World War 2. He cites Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, as an example of what will be needed. He continues to narrate in the background as an animated map appears showing the buildup of supplies and Allied forces in North Africa; Allied air forces flying 60 thousand sorties over Sicily and, the direct amphibious assault using 3,200 vessels. Map also depicts opposing forces of 12 (“unwilling”) Italian Divisions and 3-1/2 German Divisions. View of Allied troops carrying some of their 31 thousand casualties on stretchers from field ambulances. Allied medics attending to the wounded. Some are seen lying on stretchers in a row on the ground near a wall. Interior of a field hospital where surgeons and other medical personnel treat the wounded. Animated map shifts to Europe with Germany at its center, showing , in contrast to Sicily that was only an “outpost,”, the heavily fortified perimeter of Axis controlled areas; the axis industrial might; and the disposition of 300 German Divisions (mostly on the Eastern front) defending the region. Next, the map illustrates Japan’s defended regions in the Pacific Image returns to Undersecretary Patterson i n his office, speaking of the Allied offensives planned for next year (1944), and emphasizing their challenge and difficulty. Scene shifts to General Jonathan Wainwright and his garrison at Corregidor, in the Philippines, surrendering to Japanese forces in 1941. Japanese military camera pans over the Americans being taken prisoner. Other Americans and Filipinos are seen being marched together under guard. Scene shifts to classic views of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. View of Japanese soldiers executing two Chinese civilians in 1937. Dangling bodies of persons hung by Nazis during Operation Barbarossa in Russia, in 1941 A Russian soldier comforts a little girl as he escorts her across a snowy landscape. Time bomb left by German forces retreating from Naples, Italy, in 1943, blows up a Post office building . Views of damage to building and bodies of victims. American Military Police assisting a victim. American soldiers carrying an injured civilian on a litter. Scene shifts to British Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, and U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, entering a hall in the Spiridonovka Palace, during the 1943 Moscow Conference in Russia. Close-up of the American, Soviet, and British flags on a table. View of many delegates seated around the table. Close-up of Molotov, Eden, and Hull signing conference document.
Mount Vesuvius erupts. Clouds of smoke and lava erupt from crater of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy. Aerial view of countryside engulfed by lava flow. Black smoke emerges from volcano. Aerial view of buildings, water and coast.
Mount Vesuvius erupts. Clouds of smoke and lava erupt from crater of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy. Cloud of smoke emerges from the volcano. Aerial view of buildings and forest. View of houses. Black clouds from volcano erupt.