French Artillery Troops come back from the French Front Line. The troops cross a village. Houses in the background. A woman stands with children as the troops pass. The troops ride horses. Two young girls watch the soldiers as they pass through the village. Children gather on streets. Soldiers march through the streets. A child sits on a carriage and looks at the soldiers.
German forces engage in live fire exercises as they prepare to defend against anticipated Allied invasion. German gun crew fires artillery piece. Concealed German soldiers look through binoculars toward coastal terrain. .Soldiers climb hilly terrain behind bushes. Soldiers, in trench, hold their ears as they fire a mortar. Artillery guns beinf fired. Heavy smoke rises up due to explosions. Soldiers communicate through radio. View of Atlantic coast from camouflaged defensive position. Sky is filled with German paratrooper chutes. Paratroopers organizing on the ground and moving as a group. Firing a machine gun. German gun crew fires from concealed position. Crewman wipes shells clean before they are placed in gun. German officer looks through periscope. (World War II period).
Peaceful view of River Seine. Crowds gathered in streets. Tape strung across walks reads: "Honneur aux Forces Francaises de L'Interieur." General Charles de Gaulle walks through huge wreath arch that displays Free French symbolic Cross of Lorraine in white wood on each side of arch. The French tricolor flies from tall flag pole. A huge crowd gathered in a town square. Man with a little girl atop his shoulder. General Charles De Gaulle walks up to a platform in the center of the crowd and waves to them. The General speaks into several microphones. The officers with folded arms listen to the General. A reading 'Tribune Officielle' denotes official seating area. Several men seated on top of an entrance to a building. Several men on bicycles. The people are restrained and quiet, but applaud at the end of the speech.
Opening scene shows German LVG biwing airplane with gunner in rear cockpit, receiving bombs from ground crewmen and storing them in his cockpit during World War 1. The pilot is inspecting the front cockpit. Next is a view of the battlefield, from the air. White smoke drifts in places and troops on the ground scurry to new positions as if escaping gas. View from wing of German airplane, showing pilot and gunner in forward and rear cockpits, respectively. Gunner raises a bomb from his cockpit and drops it overboard. Explosion is seen on the ground. Several other explosions and white smoke are seen. Scene shifts to a dogfight taking place in the air, between Allied and German aircraft. View from inside the German airplane shows the gunner firing his machine gun. Glimpse of gunner and pilot seen in the airplane, from the rear. Airplanes maneuvering in flight. View from rear of pilot in cockpit of the German airplane. An allied airplane attacks a German blimp, setting it on fire. It plummets to the ground in flames., trailing heavy black smoke. Next French Niewport airplanes are seen in formation and then engaging in a large dogfight with German aircraft. .
Opening slate reads: "Leaving as friends the land they entered as foes." A large contingent of German soldiers is seen assembled for departure by a building, in a French city, along the Belgian and Luxembourg border, that Germany had occupied during World War 1 Next, a German army brass band parades along a street of the city, through a crowd of French inhabitants, many of whom walk along the sides of the street keeping up with the band. The last moment of the clip displays a slate reading: "Auf Wiedersehen."
Map shows French coast, English Channel and principal cities of interest, during the Allied invasion in World War 2. German Messerschitt Bf 109 aircraft on a flight line are starting up. Pilots getting buckled into cockpits and ME 109s taxiing for takeoff. Switch to German Focke-Wulf FW 190 aircraft taking off in formation from forward airfield. Contrails seen from high flying aircraft. Formations of American aircraft overhead, are fired at by German antiaircraft gun from hidden position. German antiaircraft batteries in operation. Wreckage of downed Allied aircraft, showing two left engines of a B-17; an A-20 or B-26, in D-day white stripes, with tail number 30148; and a crash-landed B-17 of the USAAF 96th Bombardment Group, 339th Bomb Squadron, with left horizontal stabilizer and elevator shot to pieces. Three surviving crew members stand behind the aircraft as they are approached by two German soldiers who check them for weapons.
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