Animated map depicts principal positions of British and French forces on the French-Belgian border in September, 1939 at the start of World War 2, It shows assembly and movement of some forces in Belgium and Holland. Adolf Hitler looks over a planning map with Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch and other officers. Animated map illustrates the disposition of German forces under Generals Bock and Von Rundstedt, and their plan of attack across the Rhine River into Belgium. At German headquarters communications center switchboard operators connect military units to send orders. German soldiers and equipment starts moving with motorcycles, trucks, halftracks and other vehicles. General Franz Halder, Commmander-in-Chief of all German forces, climbs into an open army utility vehicle, after arriving by plane at an airport. An aircraft engine being started. Marshal Hermann Goering, Chief of the airforce (Luftwaffe) converses with an officer at an airport. Junkers Ju 88 bombers taking off and flying in loose formation high overhead. Views from inside one of the aircraft. Closeup of a Heinkel He 111 bomber in flight. View from greenhouse of the aircraft. German paratroopers in the cabin of a Junkers Ju 52 transport plane. Two Ju 52s flying overhead. View from inside a Ju 52 of Belgium and Holland waterways below. Pilot informs the troopers who stand and begin the parachute from the plane into Rotterdam. Closeup of the troopers exiting with chutes starting to open. Three Ju 52s dropping paratroops. Shots of troopers descending under fully open chutes. Aerial view of Rotterdam. German troops running along street and discarding border obstacles with sledge hammers.Military vehicles crossing the border. Tanks used to destroy obstacles. A Stug III crossing the border. German infantry moving cautiously through wooded area. A group drops down to the ground as a shot is heard to ricochet past them. German soldiers firing machine gun. Infantry under fire moving across fields flanking a village. German soldiers under small arms fire, scurry along a deserted steet in a town and seek shelter in doorways. Two carry a wounded comrade. A soldier fires an MG 42 machine gun resting on the shoulder of another soldier. German soldiers stand over two wounded. More German troops running close to buildings for cover.
Invasion of Belgium and the Netherlands by Germany on 10th May, 1940. Belgium: Nazi troops enter Belgian border crossing with armor and infantry, and invade Belgium. Netherlands: German Ju 52 trimotor transport aircraft carry paratroopers who jump over Rotterdam, Netherlands. They land and move against defenders on the ground. Defenders surrendering under white flags. German aircraft bomb parts of Rotterdam and cause a large conflagration at Rotterdam Port. Fires burning in Rotterdam. civilians leaving areas of fire carrying belongings. (World War II period).
The Empire State Building (20 W 34th St., New York, NY 10001, United States) in New York City. Views of the Empire State Building in 1970. Views of the Empire State Building under construction in 1930 and 1931. A blimp passing near the Empire State building in the 1930s. People gathered in front of the Empire State Building for its grand opening in May 1931. Next scene shows the 79th floor of the Empire State Building engulfed in flames after a B-25 aircraft crashed into the building in 1945. Views of the fire from the ground and from the 79th floor areas as firemen extinguish flames. The final scene is street levels views of the Empire State building from a moving vehicle, again in 1970.
Allied troops move against German counterattacks in Belgium and Western Germany during World War II. United States troops move along a muddy road in Belgium. Incendiary explosion. Tire on fire from incendiary. A soldier looks at wrecked American military jeeps and ruined buildings. Heavy smoke rises from a pile of wreckage. Fleeing civilians and refugees walk on the road on foot. Some of the civilians bring bicycles. Belgian Roman Catholic priests wearing Cappello romano hats are seen moving with the group. African American motorized infantry moving into Belgium. An African American soldier smoking cigarette on passing truck. Soldiers in the Ardennes Forest. A soldier plants M1 anti-tank mines in the Ardennes. He places a mine in a hole in the ground. The soldier covers the mine with a pile of dried leaves. Soldiers setting up roadblocks and covering tanks with foliage for camouflage. An M3 Stuart light tank is covered with hay to disguise as a haystack. United States soldiers carefully search the field for Nazi paratroopers. A soldier finds abandoned parachute equipment and white snow cape. Soldiers inspect passing trucks at an intersection between Bastogne and Martelange in Wallonia, Belgium. Belgian civilians fleeing a German advance on Highway 15. American Military Police personnel diligently searching for disguised German soldiers to prevent infiltration. A Military Police officer inspects a Belgian man’s identification paper. Military Police personnel questions a driver of a Jeep. Soldiers digging a dugout. Soldier with an M1917 Browning Machine gun. Artillery crew firing a M101 105 mm Howitzer. A pile of shells stands beside the Howitzer. An officer gives out orders to fire over telephone. Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 tanks firing in the Ardennes. A soldier inspects with binoculars. Infantry troops moving across a field and village. Soldiers firing rifles from behind a stone fence. A soldier deposits a charge into a basement window, followed by explosion. Soldier fires bazooka in haze. Soldiers looking up to the sky searching for air support. Allied bombers flying over Belgium. British Royal Air Force bombers dropping bombs over a road junction as seen from bomb bay view.
Film starts showing animated map of American forces driving East from France and British forces.including the 53rd Infantry Division, from Belgium toward the Rhein (Rhine) River in Germany. Allied infantry and armor gathering on a street in France. Closeups of some soldiers in berets mingling with American troops. Left shoulder of a soldier with Engineers patch. Another with white cross in white circle. American troops entering Bad Godesburg, where many white flags are displayed. An M4A3 Sherman tank moves along a street. "Adolf Schmitz" written on building in background U.S. infantry and armor moving through the town cautiously subject to lingering sniper fire. Views of signs identifying shops and commercial establishments in the town. U.S. soldiers silhouetted looking out of an upper story of a building where they are firing a machine gun towards a sniper's nest. German soldier surrendering and being searched briefly. A wounded person being carried on a litter by two civilian men, accompanied by a woman wearing a Red Cross armband. Scene shifts to road in countryside, clogged with long line of German prisoners of war being escorted under armed guard. Closeups of some of the prisoners and guards. Views of the Rhein river with many bridges destroyed by retreating German forces. Closeup of an American tank crew in their M4A3 Sherman tank. The Bridge at Remagen, with a sign on it reading: "Cross the Rhine with dry feet courtesy of the 9th ARMD Div." American soldiers guarding the bridge against air attack man an M33 twin mount 50 caliber antiaircraft machine gun. Another gun crew firing an M45 quad mount 50 caliber antiaircraft machine gun at attacking German aircraft attempting to destroy the Remagen bridge. Another antiaircraft gun defending the bridge. View from some distance of bomb bursting near the bridge, raising a geyser of water. Back at the bridge, itself, American infantry and vehicles continue to pour across it. Closeups of some and of soldiers in the vehicles. An M4A3 Sherman tank completing the crossing and moving on the German side of the river. Infantry walking along the roadside.
Allied campaign against the Axis in 1944 during World War II. Exteriors of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC. Representatives of the United Nations at a meeting inside the mansion. A railroad train arrives and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gets off the train in Quebec, Canada for the Quebec Conference. Churchill confers with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt about Allied plans during the war. French FFI or Maquis groups in France. President Roosevelt acknowledges a large crowd in the U.S. after being reelected President for a third term. People celebrate his victory and hold signs cheering. American Civilians (mostly women war production workers) work in war production plants to produce aircraft, tanks and other equipment in the United States. Rows of aircraft engines, cockpits, and gun turrets being produced. On December 16, 1944, German forces launch a major-counter attack through the Ardennes forests, resulting in the "Battle of the Bulge" in Belgium. View of German soldiers and a German Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyer rolling by. German soldiers advance past destroyed Allied tanks and trucks.
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