German General Erwin Rommel inspects German bunkers and fortifications in North Africa. The General talks to a soldier and walks away. The German Army soldiers stand with their military tanks near their bunkers. General Rommel in a tank, having conversation with another officer. (Scenes are from 1941, but narrator is noting that Rommel has died, indicating that this is news form 1944, but is showing scenes from several years prior.)
Dutch war court in the Hague, Netherlands in 1948. Hanns Albin Rauter, Nazi police leader on trial for his crimes in German occupied Netherlands during World War II. Dignitaries and people in courtroom stand up as the judges arrive and take their seats. Session of trial begins. Views of prosecution desk and tribunal seen in turns. Hans Albin Rauter is being questioned by judges. 1942, 1943, or 1944 flashback scenes of Jewish, Dutch civilians being rounded up and deported on railroad trains to forced labor camps and concentration camps, while in background audio the prosecutor reads the charges. The round up footage first shows Jewish families with women and children being directed onto trains at a train station. A subsequent shot shows Jews exiting cramped railroad train cars and being lined up under Nazi guard at concentration camp. Documents about crimes committed by the accused are shown. Another man enters the courtroom, takes the oath and is questioned by the tribunal. The man is a supervisor of slave labor prisoners working for the Germans, and at the time of the trial was detained at a Rotterdam Penitentiary.
'Highlights of the War' depicts work by combat cameramen that has been honored with citations for outstanding photography. 'The Coast Guard at War' depicts the work of combat cameramen on the U.S. Coast Guard. U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Patrol. CG personnel aboard a cutter. Deck gun and the U.S. flag. A sailor communicates over the radio. Sailors on deck, the bow and deck. Combat cameramen record the CG activities including a religious ceremony. Sicily Invasion, 1943: Combat cameramen capture the scene as a German bomb hits an ammunition ship off the coast. Explosion on the ship, a mushroom cloud rises up. Sailors watch with binoculars. Normandy, 1944: Allied troops climb down rope ladders into Landing Craft Personnel (LCP). which deliver the men and cargo to the Normandy beaches. Soldiers wade through the water towards the shore under enemy fire.
Harry S Truman and other officials work on some documents. Truman's Vice Presidential campaign. People hold boards reading 'Truman for Vice President' during Democratic National Convention of 1944. Vice President Truman with President Franklin D Roosevelt. View of the exterior of the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC. Soldiers and horses with Roosevelt's casket during funeral of Franklin D. Roosevelt. A crowd at the Washington Monument. The United States flag at half staff on the White House. Truman addresses the Congress. He talks about cooperation and duty. Nazi German Axis soldiers surrender during World War II in Europe. A large crowd at Broadway celebrates VE Day in New York City. The first atomic bomb mushroom cloud billows into the sky over New Mexico during the Trinity atomic bomb test. Signing of Japanese surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri at the end of World War 2. Japanese official Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs documents, then General Douglas MacArthur signs documents, and presents a pen to General Wainwright standing behind him. An American official takes a seat and goes through some documents. An officer reads documents at a table as soldiers stand by and watch.
Development of aviation in the United States during 1940s. Transport and bomber aircraft under construction in factories staffed by World War II war production workers. P-38 lightning fighters under construction in a factory, in 1944. A train carries raw materials on railroad in arid area. A woman taps rubber trees in tropical area. Formation of C-47 aircraft with individual planes "peeling off" for landing. American C-47 transport aircraft being loaded. Soldiers load a jeep on one. Soldiers load an artillery gun on another. C-47 taxis for takeoff. Flight of 4 twin-engine bombers head-on view. The roof of a building reads 'radio range'. Interior cockpit view of aircraft instrument landing system (ILS) localizer and glide path needles moving toward center. A pilot in cockpit of a plane. A radio navigation transmitting tower. A ship in the ocean with a PBY Catalina flying over it. Flight engineer at his station in multi-engine aircraft. (World War II period).
Russian attacks on Warsaw and Poznan in World War II in late 1944 and early 1945. Soviet army using tanks, heavy artillery, machine guns and grenades advance forward. Marshal Zhukov and Marshal Rosokofskey inspecting Russian cossacks advancing on horses. A Soviet soldier is shot by a sniper while running through street intersection. A Russian machine gunner firing a Soviet DP-28 light machine gun shoots at building to take out a sniper's nest. Dead bodies of German snipers in rooms next to windows. Views of ruined city of Poznan. Liberated concentration camp victims, including a woman who has been blinded in one eye. Interior of a room in Poznan Prison loaded with torture equipment, including a guillotine. Piles of bodies of persons mass executed during German retreat. Women crying over bodies in coffins of three Polish men that were found hanging in the liberated prison. German Generalmajor Ernst Mattern and his fellow officers seen after surrendering Fort Winiary Citadel (Poznan Citadel). Soviet soldiers. Liberated civilians in Poznan hit and beat German soldier prisoners of war as they are marched under Soviet guard. Scenes of ruined Warsaw include a sign that reads, 'Adolf Hitler Platz.' A wrecked trolley or street car with signs on it that read, ''Wierzeno' and 'Ein u. Ausstieg nur fur Deutsche' which translates to English as, 'On and off exit points only for Germans' The ruined home of Frederic Chopin in Warsaw. The Polish flag flying again after battle.
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