Dover, United Kingdom: The town of Dover in Kent. Men, women and children move to underground shelters. Women play cards and knit. German artillery fired. British soldiers amid ruins. Scene changes to Calais, France: Calais under the liberating Canadian soldiers. Man cleans a room. Destroyed bridges. Canadian soldiers evacuate French civilians across the Calais Canal. Men, women, children, and wounded civilians helped across the canal by soldiers. Wounded lifted into military ambulances. A woman holds her wounded child. Allied airplanes drop bombs over enemy territory. Explosion and smoke due to bombardment. British and Canadian Army soldiers examine German artillery and coastal guns. A white flag put up at a surrendered German post.
Arnhem: Fleet of Allied planes in flight. The 1st Allied Airborne Corps troops descend and land near Arnhem, Netherlands. Ground forces march ahead. Members of the Allied corps from the American 82nd Airborne Division capture and cross the 2km long bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen. Dead German soldiers on the bridge. Landing of allied paratroopers near the town of Grave, targeting the bridges over the Maas. Scenes of the Glider Pilot Regiment landing in Holland near Arnhem in Operation Market Garden, including point of view shots from glider in flight under rope tow, and of many paratoopers filling sky during drop. Soldier in jeep being unloaded. A wrecked glider. Allied soldiers take German prisoners. Wounded soldiers. Dutch Resistance Movement officers reveal German troop movements to Allies. A member with an 'ORANJE' insignia on his uniform sleeve. View of German Garrison commander Major General Fridriech Kussin, dead, his body half fallen from his Citroen automobile as Allied troops march by. A bungalow used by the resistance as their headquarters. British soldiers attempting to defend their position near the Arnhem road bridge over the Lower Rhine (now the John Frost Bridge, named after the British Commander who led the forces that defended their position there for 9 days, and subject of the 1977 movie "A Bridge Too Far"). Wounded soldiers on stretchers, from fighting against the German 9th SS and 10th SS Panzer divisions. Views of supplies being dropped to the British forces and the soldiers retrieving dropped supplies. Allied Target Indicators go off at dusk. British soldier communicating on radio as they await arrival of British XXX Corps (who never arrive). Remaining British troops withdrawing after 9 days of battle. British Soldiers retire and walk on streets. Soldiers in military jeeps. The Nijmegen bridge over the Waal River protected by the Allied soldiers. In total 10,600 Allied airborne soldiers landed at Arnhem; 1500 were killed and all but 2398 were captured (World War II period).
United States Army forces rest in Pontaubault on their way to Paris. Soldiers seated on the roadside. They relax and smoke. Destroyed buildings and ruins in the city. U.S. Army soldiers march on the streets and enter St. James (Marche) France, widening the Brittany corridor, as crowds of French citizens welcome them. Soldiers in jeeps and trucks. Market area in the town. Civilians, nuns and children wave out to soldiers. Civilians with flowers and French flags welcome the troops. Soldiers on vehicles as people cheer for them. People gather around as a man pastes a proclamation on the city walls. (World War II period).
Rennes in Brittany falls to Allied troops. Civilians in the streets. Military vehicles pass by. Forces of U.S. General George S Patton liberate the city from Germans. U.S. soldiers in trucks and jeeps as the crowd welcomes them. French policemen among the crowd. U.S. paratroopers freed by the Germans are welcomed back. The troops are greeted and kissed by French women. (World War II period).
Allied forces entering the port city of Saint Malo, France, during World War II. Smoke from explosions. Allied soldiers load and fire artillery. Tanks, damaged buildings, and soldiers in the streets. Soldiers fire machine guns and rifles across a street in the city. Soldiers in a building. Two soldiers take a wounded comrade to safety. A soldier attends to a wounded comrade lying on the ground. Nazi German prisoners are marched on the streets.
Plywood used to make war material for the Invasion of Normandy. Birch, maple and mahogany logs are boiled for 24 hours. The logs are rounded on rollers and then peeled into long sheets of veneer. Women war production workers take out thin sheets of wood made from the logs. The sheets are then put into drying ovens to reduce the moisture. Women make an alternating wood and glue pile. These are stacked and put into a machine press to make the finished plywood. Workers put together and weld the prepared plywood. The plywood is used to make landing crafts, boats, pontoons, army holding boards, gliders and fighter planes. Men construct boats and crafts. A glider takes off. Worker under the plane. British de Havilland Mosquito bombers parked in a row. The plywood was a major component of the Mosquitoes .
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