Algeria attains independence and Ben Bella becomes the President. Head of the provisional government Benyoucef Ben Khedda addresses the press as he informs them about the end of provisional rule and attainment of independence. Ben Bella the new President of free Algeria arrives after seven years of confinement. He gets off the plane and is given a warm welcome. People celebrate their independence. People loaded in trucks. Ben Bella with important statesmen.
General Jean De Lattre De Tassigny in Indochina. The French General gives a brief speech over a microphone. He explains that the French are still in Indochina not for colonial interests but to help the natives build their own independent country. The French are also fighting a war against the Communists.
Film begins showing an army truck filled with Viet Minh soldiers driving on a street in Hanoi, Indochina (Vietnam), during the Battle of Hanoi in December 1946 (early in First Indochina War). Next, French soldiers wearing berets are seen in defensive positions at a port. Bursting bombs from Viet Minh attack raise black smoke in the background as civilians run away from the area, and Viet Minh troops rush forward taking up positions in Hanoi. Views of civilians hunkering down behind trees, under cars, and other means of protection, while plumes of black smoke rise in the near background. More scenes of civilian refugees fleeing. A man carrying two young children runs by a building with sign "Chi-Thành" (denoting the Duong Chi Thanh street area and neighborhood of Hanoi). A fire raging in the background. Viet Minh troops in defensive positions behind a wall. Activity along a tree-lined avenue. A police van with French and Vietnamese identification driving along a road with a Red Cross flag flying above it. Injured youth lying on a sidewalk with another teenage boy beside him. A nurse in white attire, directing men carrying a wounded person on a litter. Jeep in background with text sign "Trung Liet" on its hood (denoting the Hanoi neighborhood of Trung Liệt). A makeshift outdoor first aid station. Smoke from fires obscuring part of the scene.
French newspapers report end of Indochina war. One article says: Enough blood shed, Peace in Viet-Nam. Ho Chi Minh stands beside a French official in rural Vietnam. They both look at a document.
Passenger ship S.S. Chicago, of the French line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique CGT, leaves New York harbor. Men aboard the ship. The ship getting underway toward the ocean. Other ships in the background.
American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during World War 2. United States Army soldiers on board an LST (Landing Ship Tank) docked in England, three days before D-Day. (Slate month is wrong.) Soldiers eat C rations on the deck of LST. They rinse their mess kits in hot water. Several soldiers assigned kitchen police duties wear helmets displaying "KP." Soldiers sit along gunwales of Landing Craft Infantry LCI(L) number 88. (This craft is one of five that will land on Omaha Beach on D-Day, as part of Assault Group O-1, Commanded overall by Captain Fritzche, U.S. Coast Guard. The LCI(L) 88 belongs to Flotilla 10, and is commanded by Lt. Henry K. Rigg, USCGR)
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