Victory in Europe day as huge crowds gather to celebrate end of World War II in Europe, in Paris and London. Crowd swarms around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Crowds celebrating at Piccadilly Circus in London. Flashback to scenes of World War II. U.S. troops training for D-Day invasion. B-17 bombers at high altitude over Germany leaving streams of contrails. A B-17 hit and falling. B-24 bombers of the 706th Squadron, 446th Bomb Group, on bombing mission. (One: tail number 41-29177, was shot down on August 26, 1944.) U.S. war materiel pouring into the UK. New P-38s and new P-47s. A German Me-109 aircraft hit and falling. The German pilot bails out and parachutes downward. Invasion fleet elements assembling in England.
Summary of World War II events and formation of the United Nations Organization. Soviet troops on Eastern Front of Europe fire artillery on German positions in 1944. Russian troops advance. German soldiers come out of buildings and surrender. Allied Forces land in France on D-Day. Allied troops and tanks fight Germans on streets in towns and villages of France. U.S. Army tanks fire at German positions. Various groups of German prisoners of war march along roads and are herded into prison camps operated by American and British forces. In 1945, the Allied leaders meet at Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula to discuss Allied military strategy in the final months of WWII. Leaders included British PM Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The meeting of U.S. and Soviet Russian troops at the Elbe River. German Nazi Swastika symbol blown up in explosion atop Zeppelinfeld Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. Aerial view of Berlin in ruins, as seen from low-flying aircraft flying directly over the Unter den Linden boulevard and the Brandenburg Gate. Wrecked and bombed German buildings seen everywhere. German officials signing surrender instrument at Rheims. U.S. President Harry S Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin at Potsdam Conference. U.S. Marines battling on beaches of Pacific Islands. Iconic shot of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima. Aerial view of bombed and ruined city of Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese surrender to MacArthur aboard the battleship USS Missouri. General MacArthur speaks aboard Missouri. Victory celebrations all across the world, with some scenes from earlier V-E Day (Victory in Europe) day in May 1945, including crowds celebrating in Paris, France, and some scenes on V-J Day (Victory over Japan day) in August 1945. Crowds on streets celebrate. Happy crowds jam streets. Delegates of Nations, among them Andrei Gromyko and Vyascheslav Molotov meet in San Francisco and create a United Nations organization. Truman arrives at signing of UN charter. Various delegates sign charter. U.S. troops disembark troop carrier ships at U.S. ports and are discharged after completing military service in World War 2. Group of U.S. Army soldiers exits a church (the Chapel at Fort Dix, New Jersey), waving their discharge papers in hand.
At start, the film shows a formation of American C-47 transport aircraft with paratroopers starting to jump from them during World War 2. Viewed moments later from the ground, the sky is filled with trooper' open chutes, descending. An animated map shows Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. It shows location of the Allied paratroopers drop in Holland, intended to spearhead a drive around the Main River into Germany. The map then shows German forces encircling the paratroopers and the Second British Army heading North to the rescue. Next, a huge number of American Soldiers are seen assembled out of doors in England. Closeup of General Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking in a microphone to the assembly. Closeups of soldiers including some who are American Army Air Corps pilots, and other aircrew members, mostly Lieutenants. Senior Paratrooper officers stand at attention in front of formation of troopers with American flag beside them.(Narrator says these were the men who made up the "lost division," heroes who fought alone for seven terrible days.) General Eisenhower makes his way between close ranks of the paratroopers. He is followed by Brigadier General and a Colonel. Lieutenant General Lewis H Bereton also makes his way through the ranks. Scene shifts to a base in England where many British Airspeed AS.51 Horsa gliders are seen with paratroopers heading across the airfield to board. American C-47 aircraft are seen in the background. All aircraft are painted with D-Day stripes. Several British and American paratroop officers review a map together. At a tent camp, A military policeman and two U.S. paratroopers checking their weapons and ammunition. Some troopers sharpen their knives. A trooper is issued Dutch and German money. A British and and American trooper in camouflaged helmets, pose before a glider with a huge British roundel on its side. British paratroopers boarding a Horsa glider, named "Gertie." A Horsa glider moving as it is towed by a British Whitley twin-engine bomber. View from side of runway as the bomber takes off with its towed glider behind. (Narrator comments: "Destination, Holland.") Formations of tow planes and gliders in flight. View of pilot in cockpit of a Whitley bomber. Formations of fighter aircraft in flight overhead. View from inside an aircraft as paratroopers exit through a side door. Sky filled with paratroopers in chutes descending. (Note: This Allied thrust into Holland to launch a drive around the German Siegfried Line was known as the Allied joint American-British "Operation Market Garden," which took place 17 to 25 September 1944, the 7 days referred to by the film Narrator. )
Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight Eisenhower talks to paratroopers of U.S. 101st Airborne Division in England, a day before the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France during World War II. General Eisenhower talks to Commander of 101st Airborne Division General Maxwell D. Taylor and other officers in front of a building. General Eisenhower inspects and talks to paratroopers. He walks through a crowd.
British Royal Navy minelayer HMS Apollo during the Normandy D-Day landings in World War II with barrage balloons in the background. Mast of the HMS Apollo with a four-star flag. Allied commanders such as Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Naval Commander in Chief Admiral Bertram Ramsay, and staff officers from SHAEF meet onboard the HMS Apollo a day after Allied landings in Normandy. United States General Omar Bradley arrives at the HMS Apollo in an LCM. General Bradley climbs aboard the HMS Apollo. He is greeted by General Eisenhower. British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery later joins the Allied commanders onboard the HMS Apollo. Montgomery salutes as he is welcomed by the crew. General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery smile and talk.
Landing Ship, Tank No. 532, The USS Chase County, at Polgwidden (AKA Trebah) on the Helford River, near Falmouth, Cornwall, England during World War 2. The LST moves up the river at Trebah. The USS Chase County is seen docked and ready for troops and equipment to embark. (Note: Later this same day, Allied troops and equipment did embark on the USS Chase County for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. However, they spent the next 5 very uncomfortable days afloat in bad weather that actually delayed the operation.)
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