A passenger airplane of the American Overseas Airlines in Frankfurt, Germany. It is on a multi-leg journey carrying 45 former War Correspondents back to Europe for celebrations commemorating the 5th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of World War II. Views of Frankfurt from a moving vehicle, high atop a ridge, looking down at the city, and winery grape fields. Many Frankfurt buildings visible and the Main River running beside the city. Views of some buildings still destroyed from World War II, five years prior. Several African American U.S. Army soldiers beside cars greet the party of former war correspondents. The correspondents meet with a U.S. Army General -- possibly J. Lawton Collins or Thomas Handy. A correspondent looks out from a window at a war-damaged building in the background. A street car with the sign "Nied Hochst" arrives at a stop and civilians get into it. Exterior and interior views of the main train station, the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. Some cakes and pastries in a bakery. Correspondents meeting with a local Frankfurt official and his wife. Remains of a largely destroyed church, likely either Frankfurt Cathedral (Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew) (German: Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus) or Katharinenkirche (the Church of St. Katherine). Views of the wrecked exterior and interior of the church. A West German flag draped over an interior balcony. Sign outside the church door indicates "Entrance to the Exhibition" (Eingang zur Ausstellung). A Germany girl selling trinkets at a market cart. German boys and girls in a market square and fair area, possibly Romerberg. Correspondents approach a booth selling cigars and cigarettes. More partially destroyed buildings in Frankfurt. Correspondents boarding a plane at Rhein Main Airbase. View of the airport terminal. Sign on a building reads 'Rhein Main Base Operations. Elev 358'. The correspondents boarding the American Overseas Airlines aircraft, and seated inside the aircraft. Aerial view of the German countryside below. Passengers sleep and relax aboard the airborne aircraft.
View of situation map showing various actions by U.S. forces during the battle for Peleliu Island, Palau, from September 15th to October 15th, 1944. Key events are marked on the map in terms of D+days. View of tents on ground.
Elements of the U.S. 36th Infantry Division engaging in the Battle of San Pietro, during World War 2. Opening scene shows U.S. infantrymen of the 141st Infantry Regiment synchronizing their watches on H-Hour, D-Day, the 15th of December, 1943. Next they move forward 400 yards from their positions and are immediately pinned down by heavy artillery fire from German defenders. Soldiers of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 143rd Infantry Regiment advance 100 yards and hunker down at barbed wire barrier close to German defense line. They also come under heavy German artillery fire. American Sherman tanks enter the Town of San Pietro to find and destroy the German artillery interfering with the American advances. Views of U.S. tanks on the move. Narrator states that 16 tanks were dispatched along the road to San Pietro. Three reached the outskirts. German gunfire destroys two of these. Smoke rising from a struck tank. Views of pieces of destroyed tanks. Destroyed and abandoned American tanks. American infantrymen carrying a wounded on a litter past a knocked out Sherman tank. View of one (of four) tanks returning to the Regimental Bivouac area. Parachute flares illuminate the battlefield at night, where small American units succeed in penetrating German defenses, but are forced to move back again due to flanking German artillery and machine gun fire. Closeups of several wounded American infantry being moved on stretchers.
U.S. Army soldiers on road to Saint Marcouf, after invading Normandy in the D-Day invasion of France during World War 2. Paratroopers from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division take German prisoners. A U.S. soldier talks to small French boy and girl. The girl smiles. 101st Airborne troopers display a captured Nazi flag. Allied supplies and reinforcements coming ashore on the Normandy beachheads. German prisoners of war being escorted under guard and loaded aboard USS LCI(L) 584. Disabled USS LCI-30 and some dead U.S. soldiers on the beach.
Rabbi, Lieutenant Leon Rosenberg of the Chaplain Corps, conducts services on March 11 (D-day + 20) for Jewish Marines of the 4th Marine Division, on Iwo Jima, during World War 2. He stands in front of a makeshift altar containing a pair of candles and a cloth displaying the Star of David. He reads aloud from a small book. Marines are seated on the ground in a group. A truck in background drives away as a Marine photographer in background takes a picture of the seated marines. While Chaplain Rosenberg is reading, a jeep and another vehicle drive past in background. After break in sequence, the seated marines are seen with individual prayer books containing Hebrew script. They refer to the books during the service. In final sequence, the Chaplain continues to lead the service, with the marines now standing. (Note: Chaplain L. W. Rosenberg was the first Jewish chaplain to see actual combat with the Marines.. He went overseas with the Fourth Marine Division and was the, only Jewish chaplain to receive the Purple Heart, having been wounded on Tinian, 25 July 1944. Chaplain Rosenberg was in more Marine amphibious landings than any other chaplain. Among these were,assaults on Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima.
U.S. M-4 medium tanks crossing a field in St Lo, France, about a month after D-Day in World War 2. Hedgerow clearing devices are seen on the M4 Sherman tanks. (These particular 'pronged' types of tank are designed to be rammed into the hedgerows, creating holes for demolition charges. Then, once the tank has reversed clear, TNT was packed into the holes and detonated.) Tank commanders are visible in the turret hatches. Trees in the background.
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