Activities of American first Army in Germany. Aerial and ground views of an Allied supply depot at Liege, Belgium. U.S. Army soldiers arrange supply boxes. Signal Corps engineers work on readying communication lines from the rear to the front and are seen stringing communication lines and preparing communication hubs. New transmission equipment of various kinds are received and installed for news. U.S. Army engineers supervise steel manufacture and sawmill operation in Luxembourg at a protected steel works facility that was taken over by the Allied Supreme Command. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel walk on finished steel beams and check them before shipment front. Plank boards are cut and stacked for use in road projects. U.S. engineers repair a bridge over the Meuse in Belgium that had been damaged in the Battle of Belgium. Train crosses a repaired bridge over the Meuse, and U.S. military and civilian pedestrian traffic seen on the bridge road. Track connectors are installed to better grip in mud and allow passage of Allied tanks and tracked vehicles. Aerial view of Siegfried line and Dragons Teeth. U.S. forces seen using a tank bulldozer and mud to effectively bury Dragon's Teeth tank traps to allow passage through the Siegfried Line. Allied trucks and vehicles are repaired. A convoy of Allied supply trucks passes by through a snowy landscape bringing supplies to the front in preparation for invasion into Germany.
U.S. Army General Dwight David Eisenhower meets dignitaries in Brussels, Belgium during World War II. He meets Prince Charles and the Prime Minister of Belgium and other officials. The officials standing on the steps of a building. Eisenhower shaking hands with them.
USAAF P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes operating at Florennes/Juzaine Airfield (A-78), Belgium, during World War 2. Identifiable units include the 411th Fighter Squadron (U9); the 373rd Fighter Group; the 387th Fighter Squadron (B4) and 388th Fighter Squadron (C4) of the 365th Fighter Group. A number of P-47s, (mostly bubble canopy D models) seen taxiing. (The second one's tail number looks like 42-26571, but that aircraft was downed in October 1944. So it is probably 26579.) Crew chiefs ride the wings of most P-47s to guide the pilots during low speed taxi when they would otherwise have to zig-zag to see ahead. Destroyed building silhouetted against the sky.Two flights of four P-38s circle overhead and peel off for landing.View through breached wall of a jeep towing a bomb cart past a parked P-47. Airmen walking across the field. Clear view of 388th Fighter Squadron P-47 taxiing. Another P-47 taxiing past a small damaged building
Opening slate identifies site of World War 2 combat as Stavelot, Belgium, 20 miles from the German frontier. American soldiers of the 30th Infantry Division are seen digging protective field positions. M1917 Browning 30mm machine guns are at their positions. U.S. troops set up 90mm guns along the roads, as fog begins to obscure the area. On 21 December, 1944, Two U.S. soldiers walk across a square in the town of Stavelot where American and German forces clashed on December 20th. Views of destroyed buildings, abandoned Tiger II tank of s.SS.Pz.Abt.101 and Stummel half-track and wreckage. Civilians run for cover into a substantial building as German forces renew an attack on the town. (World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
World War II P-47 aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) take off and land at Chievres Airfield (A-84) in Chièvres Belgium. Airplanes take off from the muddy air base. Trees in the background. Second plane landing has nose art that is difficult to read, but the aircraft serial number 42-76114 (which was piloted by George Swink of the 396th Squadron. Swink's aircraft was downed by flak on 25 December, 1944 and his status after was POW). Various scenes of P-47 Thunderbolts taking off and landing.
A sign identifies the village of Bande, in Belgium, during World War 2. View of snow-covered village rooftops from a distance. Closeup of a cafe in the village. Bodies of 34 young men from the village are seen lying in the cellar of the cafe. All had been executed on Christmas Eve, by a unit of the Nazi SD (Sicherheitsdienst) affiliated with the SS (Schutzstaffel) in retribution for the deaths of three German soldiers killed by Belgian maquis (Resistance fighters) on September 5, 1944. (Bande had been occupied by U.S. forces soon thereafter, but was retaken by German forces in the December Ardennes offensive, setting the stage for the massacre.) British troops that re-occupied the village on January 10th, 1945, are seen removing the bodies from the cellar and placing them on the snow-covered street. Wooden coffins are stacked up at the side of the building. Some closeups of the victims are seen. Scene shifts to a snowy field where the bodies are on the ground and men wrap them in sheets and place them in coffins. Closeup of British soldiers placing cover on a coffin and affixing an identification tag on it. Next, the Village Priest presides over a mass funeral for the victims, as villagers stand along the line of coffins. Women in black grieve over the victims. British soldiers carry the coffins to army trucks.The villagers follow behind the trucks as they proceed to the graveyard for burial. The coffins are placed on the ground at the cemetery.
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