At start of film, Allied forces are digging in after retreating from counterattacks by German forces in Tunis, during World War 2.. Rains create mud everywhere. A Lockheed P-38 fighter plane parked in foreground. Ground crews use shovels to free nose wheel of a B-24 Liberator bomber with engines running. A truck tows a C-47 transport plane from mud. Army trucks travel over road inundated by running streams. Soldiers standing in a jeep submerged in water. M2 tanks stuck in mud. Airmen huddled around an outdoor fire. P-38 fighter aircraft parked in the background. Soldiers eating around an outdoor fire. Animated map shows Allied battle lines stabilized in Algerian mountains, while German forces occupy the plains in Tunisia. German artillery batteries firing. British troops sheltering in damaged building. Allied wounded being transported atop, as well as inside a field ambulance. Interior of a transport plane configured for evacuation of wounded on litters. U.S. airmen including a woman in leather flying jacket, presumably an Army flight nurse, tend to the wounded aboard the medical evacuation flight. Wounded being transferred from an airplane to an ambulance. British patrols moving through the night. Heavy artillery firing. British soldiers silhouetted at dawn. They return carrying a wounded comrade on a litter. The British soldiers ("Tommies.") trying to clean mud from themselves and their weapons before heading out on patrols again at dusk. Allied soldiers moving on mules in a long line to obtain needed food and supplies. More views of the interminable mud. A British Hawker Hunter fighter plane taking off. A formation of Hawker Hurricanes peeling off to engage German aircraft. Closeup of one rolling over. A German Heinkel 111 bomber being attacked and trailing smoke. Pilot pressing gun firing button in cockpit and a German Dornier Do 17 bomber hit as British fighter plane passes it in cloud of black smoke. The German plane diving to crash in a fireball on the ground. U.S. B-24 Liberator bombers taking off and flying in formation. Formation of American B-17 bombers in flight. The American planes dropping bombs on Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily. Gunners in the bombers firing machine guns at attacking German fighter planes as their bombs keep dropping. Back on land in Algeria, mud still halted any Allied advance. Animated map showing both Allied and German forces building up on their respective sides of the front. Supply lines illustrated all the way back to factories in the United States and Britain. Allied war plants making bombers and munitions. Allied Soldiers assembling Army vehicles at a port. Lockheed lightning fighters being rolled out of a factory. Sign reading "Railroad Equipment Assembly Plant No. 1." Complete trains from locomotives to freight cars being completely assembled, loaded with freight and sent on their way. A formation of P-38 aircraft equipped with long range fuel tanks being ferried in flight from Brazil. It is led by a B-17 flying fortress bomber providing navigation. British Spitfire and Hawker Hunter airplanes heading to the front are seen taking off from an airfield in Gibraltar. A caterpillar tractor moving earth for a new road at the front. Trucks dropping materials for the road bed as soldiers with shovels smooth them on the surface. Soldiers installing Mardsen Matting pierced steel planking for an airfield surface as C-47 transport planes operate on the field. Crates of food supplies being unloaded at a port. War materiel stored in a large yard at a port.
B-25 aircrafts of U.S. Army Air Force in formation in Tunisia. A-30 aircrafts in formation. B-26 aircrafts in formation. A-30s flying. A -30s in background. B-25s flying. Three A-30s and six B-25s in formation. A-30s flying. B-25s flying diagonally. Nose of B-24 aircraft. B-25 and four A-30s. Five B-25s flying. Nose of a B-25. Vehicles moving across desert. A B-25 aircraft. 6 B-25s dropping bombs on desert. Scenes of desert showing bursts. Four B-25s. Bombs falling through open bomb bay door then bomb bay doors close. Bomb bursts seen in desert. Line of smoke rising from bomb bursts in desert. Enemy planes fleeing in desert. B-25 flying. Oil dump blazing in desert. B-24 flying. View of desert. B-25 flying, drops bombs, bomb bay doors close. (World War II period).
Six Pursuit planes flying against white clouds in Tunisia. B-25 aircraft under wing. B-25 flying. Six Pursuits flying. Eight Pursuits in formation. B-25 dropping bombs. Six Pursuits in background. Bomb bursts on city roads. B-25 accompanied by six Pursuits. B-25 dropping bombs. Bombs falling through open bomb bay doors. Doors close. B-25 accompanied by seven pursuits dropping bombs and flying. Ten B-25s flying. Formation of B-25s with occasional bursts of flak. Cloud formations. Bomb bursts on road. A-20s aircrafts flying. (World War II period).
Funeral of Bey of Tunis, Ahmad II ibn Ali. French tricolor flag at half staff atop a building. Tunisian and French flags at half staff atop another building. Photograph of Bey of Tunis, Ahmad II ibn Ali. Honor Guard of Tunisian mounted Lancers leads funeral procession. French Admiral Jean-Pierre Esteva steps from car and walks in front of formation of French sailors. He greets French naval officers and Tunisian officials, including successor Bey of Tunis, Muhammad VII al-Munsif. Tunisian tribesmen carry coffin as French and Tunisian officers stand at attention. Closeup of coffin and pallbearers as they pass the camera.
Activities of German soldiers on the Tunisian front in North Africa during World War II. A map of the Tunisian front. German officers ride in automobiles on a street. Ruins of buildings along the sides of the street. A herd of cattle on the road. View from inside German moving car as it drives fast on dirt roads. A German soldier flags down and stops the car in which German officials are seated. The officials discuss amongst themselves. Local Arab workers carrying ammunition and gasoline cans stack supplies in an area. German soldiers wash their clothes and engage in other activities at the front. A German soldier gets a hair cut. Other German soldiers eating food.
Activities of German soldiers on the Tunisian front in North Africa during World War 2. Beginning of film shows several German infantrymen moving along a trench . German soldiers are crouched down in defensive positions in a section of the trench. One soldier is seen using a periscopic binocular to view beyond an earthen berm. At a campsite, one soldier looks through binoculars. a tent is in the background. He appears to have an MG 42 machine gun at his position. Another soldier climbs the steel tower of a windmill, while its rotor is spinning, to get a better look at Allied positions. American forces are raising dust as they maneuver, in the distance. German soldiers roll back coverings from their fox holes and emerge to man their defensive positions. One appears to have a Bren gun at his at his position. German artillerymen raise their field pieces from camouflaged places. One appears to be a 10 cm Kanone 17, and the other a lighter field piece. A soldier firing his MG 42 machine gun. German infantry casually advancing through an orchard. Glimpse of German soldier making annotations in some documents. Captured American prisoners of war, under guard, entering a trench as a temporary holding place. One of them is being assisted by two others. Scene shifts to destroyed British Crusader tanks in a field. German soldiers examine one closely. A white flag is placed next to it. More views of knocked out tanks. A soldier, standing next to one, unsheathes a long bladed knife and proceeds to sharpen it.