A documentary depicts combat activities of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division during World War II. The Battle of Leyte in 1944. The troops in landing craft underway in the Philippines Sea. A close up of the U.S. troops on the landing craft. The U.S. ships underway and set on fire by the Japanese. A Japanese aircraft in flight. The U.S. troops get off from the landing craft on a shore. A tank being unloaded from the craft. The troops in prone position at the shore, pinned down by enemy fire. A seated soldier holds the wrist of a wounded U.S. soldier. The troops in a jungle and a U.S. Sherman tank moves at the field. They advance in a jungle. Two troops carry supplies. The soldiers fire rifles, bazooka and a rifle grenade. The dead Japanese troops. The soldiers on tanks enter Tacloban City in Philippines. The civilians greet the soldiers. Two soldiers and a civilian smoke cigarettes.
Three crew members stand on deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier, anchored off Ulithi Atoll during World War 2. One holds an anemometer, with its buckets spinning. A TBF avenger aircraft on deck ready to be catapulted. It launches and is seen flying away above a variety of naval vessels at anchor. View from an aircraft flying fast and low, past Ulithi Atoll. A TBF avenger landing on the Ulithi airstrip. (Note: At TC 00:28 through 00:36, the Destroyer Tender, USS Prairie AD15, is seen with several destroyers tied to it. She rescued survivors from the sinking of the Oiler, USS Mississinewa, AO-59, by a Japanese Kaiten suicide submarine, on November 20, 1944.)
Activities of U.S. ship yard workers and soldiers aboard USS Wakefield in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. Scenes in May 1944 as ship yard workers repair the fire damaged ship. Workers weld parts of the ship. A stern view of the ship. The ship at sea carrying thousands of troops. Bags hanging in the quarters of the troops. Soldiers rest in their quarters. Men look through binoculars and see an aircraft. Mounted guns aboard the ship. The troops standing near railings wave at the aircraft. The soldiers aboard the ship attend religious services. Ration is issued to the soldiers. The ship is underway at sea. A Coast Guard officer makes an announcement for all army personnel. The army personnel seated and resting on the deck listen to the announcement.
Film opens with a map showing the Ardennes forest with cities Aachen, Maastricht, Eschweiler in the north and Saarburg and Strassburg to the south. (Elements of the American VII Corps have penetrated the Siegfried line (West Wall) in the vicinity of Roetgen, Germany, in September, 1944, when this film depicts German defense responses, from their perspective. Numerous German rockets are seen speeding through the black night sky. In daylight, German gunners fire large artillery pieces as well as more rockets (Nebelwerfer) which also can be heard as the streak past. German gunners firing a 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 or sFH 18 heavy howitzer. Shells exploding in the distance. Closeup of German soldiers observing the shells exploding. American soldiers being taken as prisoners of war, march past dragons teeth of the Siegfried line. German Panzer tanks rolling along a road as Allied prisoners march the opposite way, under guard, with their hands over their heads. German troops slogging along a muddy road. Some carry panzerfaust anti-tank weapons. One carries an MG-42 machine gun. Bodies of dead U.S. Army soldiers on the ground. Wide field with a distant Panzer V "Panther" tank advancing across the field. German tanks maneuvering and firing their guns. German soldiers in a village engaged in house-to-house combat with American soldiers.
The New York Yankees train at Atlantic City New Jersey for the 1944 baseball season, during World War 2. Yankees players, wearing long sleeves, jog around the infield. Manager Joe McCarthy addresses the club. Players warm up with throwing and batting drills. Outfielder Ed Levy (#9) swings in batting cage. Second baseman Stuffy Sternweiss (#2) takes a swing. Manager McCarthy clowns around with movie camera. Action shifts to New York Giants spring training camp in Lakewood, New Jersey. Catcher Gus Mancuso takes part in camera tricks. Manager and Hall of Fame slugger Mel Ott looks over his squad. Shortshop Billy Jurges hits a ground ball. (Note: Spring training for all Major League Baseball clubs was in the north that year because of travel restrictions during World War II.)
U.S. Navy film entitled, "the Battle for the Beaches." Several Higgins boat landing craft arrive at a shore and U.S. soldiers leave them to run ashore. Scene is then overlayed by the title slate. View of the White Cliffs of Dover, England. British civilians preparing defenses during World War 2. Civil Youth loading sand bags and erecting sand bag parapets around buildings. Home guard troops march up a road carrying rifles. British defenders occupying fortified positions They stand along a coastline looking out at sea. Street scene in an English village. Guards walking up along a barbed wire fence erected on the outskirts of the village. Film shifts to the German coastal Atlantic Wall defenses. German troops march along sandy shores containing all manner of obstacles at the water's edge. German officers stand on an overlooking cliff, and peer through binoculars. German sentry and large coastal gun barrel under camouflage net are silhouetted against light sky. Three German officers confer over plans for coastal defenses. View from above of slave laborers working and shoveling sand as they build defenses. German soldiers dismantling wooden forms around completed concrete fortifications. Glimpse of a huge German coastal gun being raised by a crane with heavy steel cables, as it is steadied by dozens of workers with hands on its barrel. German troops manning a machine gun in coastal defense position where a twin mounted antiaircraft gun is also seen. Momentary view of two German soldiers walk past rotating barrel of a huge coastal defense gun under a camouflage net. Workers, with shovels, placing fresh concrete to build up a section of concrete barriers along the coast. Allied troops storming a sandy shore from landing craft, as shells explode near them; possibly related to 1944 D-Day. One contingent are British soldiers. American troops landing at a beach from landing craft. Dead allied soldiers lying in the surf. Film shifts abruptly to U.S. Lieutenant General Mark Clark with some officers in Italy. In another switch of war theaters, General Douglas MacArthur is seen congratulating crew of a B-25 named "Smiling Jack." U.S. troops, in a training exercise, storming ashore from Higgins boats directly and closeup at the camera. They take up defensive positions in the sand, and move a jeep towing a field artillery piece.
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