President Franklin D. Roosevelt, looking frail, after his election to a 4th term, late in 1944. Newspapers announce his death, on April 12, 1945. View from high above, of funeral procession for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Crowds of mourners line sidewalks in Washington, DC, along the funeral route. Members of the military, in the crowd, salute as the flag-covered coffin of the President passes. Military pallbearers carry the coffin into the White House for a funeral service in the East Room. On April 15, 1945, Pallbearers carry Roosevelt’s coffin to a gravesite at the Roosevelt family home, Springwood, in Hyde Park, New York. Eleanor Roosevelt at President Roosevelt’s gravesite (4097 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, NY 12538, United States) with her children, including sons, James and Elliott, both in military uniforms.
German civilian Matthias Gierens, a 37 year old railroad worker, is hanged in Rheinbach Germany for the August 15, 1944 murder of a downed American flyer, who was later identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lieutenant Lester E. Reuss, from Forsythe, Montana. Reuss was the navigator on U.S. Army B-17 bomber #42-31183 which was downed by German aircraft after it attacked the Airdrome at Wiesbaden, Germany. Gierens and three other German civilian men, Peter Kohn, Peter Back, and Matthias Krein, were convicted on June 2, 1945 in Ahrweiler, Germany, for the murder of the American airman after his parachute landing near Priest, Germany. The trial was the first Allied trial in Germany of civilians charged with a war crime. Military police are seen escorting Gierens toward the gallows in a prison yard in Rheinbach. A German Catholic priest performs the rites. U.S military officer reads charges as Gierens is readied for execution (the officer is possibly Lt. Col J.V. Roddy, of San Francisco, who was in charge of the hanging). Trap door opens and Gierens is hung. The U.S. Army executioners were Master Sgt. John C. Woods, a former Texas State executioner, and Staff Sgt. Thomas Robinson, of Bronx, New York. Witnesses present included seven U.S. Lieutenant Colonels and one British officer, a number of Military Police, news correspondents, and photographers.
Decoration of a technical sergeant of U.S. Army in Darmstadt, Olm Area soon after end of World War II in Europe. Soldiers lined up. An aircraft taxiing on a field. Commanding-General of 7th U.S. Army General Wade Haislip presents Congressional Medal of Honor to T/Sgt (Technical Sergeant) Charles H. Coolidge of Signal Mountain, Tennessee for outstanding duty with 141st Infantry, 36th Division the "Lost Battalion" in October 1944. Troops and Honor Guard parade along field.
The USS Crevalle (SS-291) on war patrols in East China Sea and Sea of Japan in final days of World War II. Crew members hold a flag they made depicting their engagements with Japanese shipping. It shows Japanese Navy Rising Sun flag with marks below for five Japanese Navy ships. It also shows the Japanese Red Ball flag and fourteen marks for other Japanese ships. As the film continues, it reveals more of the flag, showing more encounters with enemy shipping. A Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) passing by. Sailors standing on deck in bright sunlight with breeze blowing. One of the sailors is drinking from a mug. Sailor Robert Schwarz has grown a notable full beard and smokes a pipe. Toward the end of the film, the boat's Captain, Navy Captain Everett Hartwell Steinmetz, is seen from the back and in profile, standing on deck. Another aircraft passes overhead. (Note: Sailors holding flag in opening frames has been identified as James A. Katchis who served on the boat beginning as a Seaman 1st Class in August 1944 and Robert Schwarz of St. Louis, MO)
A film depicts the Battle of the Bulge in the area of Bastogne, Belgium by U.S. troops during World War II. Belgian civilians are evacuated from an area. Civilians and soldiers in an area. Guns on a field. U.S. aircraft flying in formation to deliver supplies, ammunition, and food to U.S. Army forces including 101st Airborne Infantry soldiers fighting in the battle of the Bulge. Soldiers watching the airplanes through binoculars. Point of view shot from inside a glider hooked via a tow rope to an aircraft in flight, preparing to cut loose for glide to the ground. Aerial view of the target area. The airplanes in flight overhead. Supplies are being dropped via parachutes. View inside supply aircraft as troops push supplies out of doors. Gliders loaded with supplies and equipment landing in a snow covered area in time for Christmas 1944. Combat in the snow with a night artillery barrage by American soldiers firing at the Germans. U.S. soldiers using flame throwers at night directed at Germans. Dead bodies of German soldiers lying on the snow covered battlefield the next day. German prisoners of war standing under the guard of the U.S. soldiers, some of German prisoners found wearing civilian clothing or wearing pieces of U.S. uniforms. The 101st Airborne Infantry soldiers march in a victory celebration in town. A board reads: "Bastogne Bastion of the Battered Bastards of the 101st."
An interview of United States Air Force Lieutenant General Ira Eaker conducted by Dr. Maurer in the United States. Dr Maurer and General Eaker seated at a desk. Dr Maurer talks about the work and the contribution of General Eaker in the U.S. Air Force. He says that General Eaker was the Commander of the 8th Air Force. In 1944, he became the Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Allied Air Force. Then from 1945 until his retirement in 1947, he was the deputy commander of the Army Air Forces and chief of the Air Staff. General Eaker talks about his experiences. He talks about the first airplane flight he saw. He further speaks that he was sent to a training camp in 1917. A man came in the camp looking for some fliers. He was already selected for an examination of regular army. He says that in November 1917, he was on a parade grounds. An airplane was in flight overhead. The aircraft landed and he looked at the engine of the aircraft.
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