6 August 1944: A U.S. armored column on the outskirts of Mayenne on their way to Paris, France in World War II. Soldiers in trucks, jeeps and half tracks. Soldiers prepare to fight, push artillery across a field. Troops march into Mayenne. Civilians welcome and greet the soldiers. U.S. troops and a van on the road. The troops and tanks enter Laval. Civilians greet the soldiers. Civilians on bicycles wave to soldiers in a truck. Soldiers and civilians at a bombed bridge. Soldiers fire at Nazis across the river from behind a wall. Civilians with French flags on the streets. A woman collaborationist surrounded by French men, holds pictures and has a Swastika on her dress front. A woman holds a broken picture of German leader Adolf Hitler. People with US, British, and French flags in a building window.
Allied forces entering the port city of Saint Malo, France, during World War II. Smoke from explosions. Allied soldiers load and fire artillery. Tanks, damaged buildings, and soldiers in the streets. Soldiers fire machine guns and rifles across a street in the city. Soldiers in a building. Two soldiers take a wounded comrade to safety. A soldier attends to a wounded comrade lying on the ground. Nazi German prisoners are marched on the streets.
August 1944: Allied troops in Caen, France. Aerial view of the Allied 21st Army Group Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery's armor advancing in the Normandy countryside. Tanks and artillery advance in fields. A tank on fire. Field Marshal Montgomery shakes hands with three little French girls and accepts flowers from them. He talks to the local residents. Refugees in a church. Children, women, men and elderly people are given food. They take rest. Refugees transferred in trucks. A soldier lights a smoke. French underground soldiers in the street. Women collaborationists who aided the Germans are rounded up and their heads shaved. The bald men and women in a truck. Russian troops near a railway track. The troops march back towards Caen. (World War II period).
Plywood used to make war material for the Invasion of Normandy. Birch, maple and mahogany logs are boiled for 24 hours. The logs are rounded on rollers and then peeled into long sheets of veneer. Women war production workers take out thin sheets of wood made from the logs. The sheets are then put into drying ovens to reduce the moisture. Women make an alternating wood and glue pile. These are stacked and put into a machine press to make the finished plywood. Workers put together and weld the prepared plywood. The plywood is used to make landing crafts, boats, pontoons, army holding boards, gliders and fighter planes. Men construct boats and crafts. A glider takes off. Worker under the plane. British de Havilland Mosquito bombers parked in a row. The plywood was a major component of the Mosquitoes .
U.S. and French troops parade in liberated Cherbourg on Bastille Day. The troops and civilians gathered in a city square. Men, women and children watch. Soldiers and civilians hold flags. The US, French Navy and French Forces of the Interior (FFI) march alongside. The band plays. People watch from their homes. General Charles De Gaulle present at the celebration. 'Vive De Gaulle' on a banner. The square is renamed 'Place General De Gaulle.' Soldiers and policemen salute. Children hold flowers. People sing and dance in the square. Musicians play their instruments. (World War II period).
The German Swastika flag. Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and Commander of the Luftwaffe Hermann Goring inspect air raid damage in Berlin. Soldiers prepare to fire an antiaircraft gun. A gathering in Berlin. Hitler takes the stage. Military officers, dignitaries and soldiers at the gathering. Soldiers with flags. Hitler and other officers stand at attention. (World War II period).
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