Opening scene shows bow of the American transport ship, USS Bayfield (APA-33), anchored in a bay in Scottish waters. United States Coast Guard crews, from the Bayfield, practice maneuvering their Higgins boats landing craft in the bay. Snow can be seen on the surrounding terrain. Various landing craft speed about in the bay. A Coast Guardsman seated at the edge of a landing craft. A crewman on one craft is signaling by hand. His craft display a three striped pennant.(World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
Opening scene shows a motor launch being lowered from the transport ship, USS Bayfield (APA-33). View of a Coast Guard Crewman with many U.S. soldiers on deck behind him. Next, the troops are seen descending a landing net over the side of the ship, into Higgins boat landing craft. Waves cause the net to sway out over the water with several soldiers on it. Silhoutttes of landing craft underway in the water with sun rising through haze in background. Landing craft heading toward a beach, and then troops charging ashore over the beach. (World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
Finland attacked by the Soviets during the "Winter War" or Russo-Finnish War of 1939-1940, coinciding with World War 2. Vyacheslav Molotov addresses Soviet men in a hall. View of Stalin seated near a wall. Soviet Men applaud. Soviet planes in flight. Soviet Paratroopers jump from the plane and descend with the help of parachutes towards Finland. Soviet army soldiers place and fire a line of artillery on the battlefield. Soviet airplanes in flight over Helsinki. The city of Helsinki being bombed by Soviet aircraft. People flee from the area. Damage in the area due to the bombardment. Destroyed houses, buildings and rubble on the ground in Finland from aerial bombing. A wrecked airplane on the street.
German attacks on other nations during World War 2. A sign reads 'Belgique' near a building. Germans in Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and France. German soldiers on tanks and other military vehicles as they advance in blitzkrieg (lightning war). They advance through the Dutch farmlands. German Ju-52 aircraft fly in formation and drop paratroopers. The destruction of Rotterdam by heavy German bombardment. People in Netherlands bury their dead at cemetery. French refugees leave their cities. Adolf Hitler looks at the Eiffel tower in Paris, with other German officials, during occupation of France. Aerial view of the city. German bombers attack London, England during the blitz. Shattered equipment on the ground and destroyed buildings in London, England. Hitler observes the German Atlantic Wall defenses. The battle and Allied evacuation of Dunkirk. White cliffs of Dover Sea shore in view. Map depicts German positions. The Battle of Britain. British spitfire planes attack German bombers. Children being evacuated from London and Paris. Fires and aerial bombardment at night by German aircraft during blitzkrieg. Rubble being cleared by British following bombing by German aircraft. British men and women war production workers in munitions and aircraft factories. Hitler and Goering with others in the railroad carriage where French authorities surrender at Compiegne in June, 1940. German forces attacking the Soviet Union, with tanks, infantry and aircraft during Operation Barbarossa, on June 22, 1941.The mobilization of Soviet defense forces depicted with scenes of Soviet citizens listening to radio updates and reading newspapers about invasion. Soviet men mobilizing for military training. New recruits in Russia prepare for military action.
German troops advance on the Eastern Front during World War 2. Russians employ scorched earth policy . Oil tanks ablaze and dams and structures blown up. Germans lay siege to Stalingrad. A Soviet troops in urban combat in Stalingrad. A German soldier is shot and falls. Views of awful destruction. Animated map showing Leningrad and the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga on either side. Views of Leningrad in snow. Citizens bundled against the cold, walk near historic structures. Food being distributed. Soviet troops in defensive positions. Animated map shows outbreak of Soviet forces in pincer movement that surrounds the German 6th Army. Two Soviet armies meet as they close the pincer. German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendering to Soviet forces on 31 January 1943. Troops of the German 6th Army make their way through the snow as they surrender. Battlefield cemetery, with markers of German soldier's graves. Numerous Soviet citizens, victims of the fighting, seen lying in the snow, as relatives grieve. Scene shifts to the Pacific theater with view of Japanese bombers flying over an installation flying the Rising Sun flag. Scenes of the Pearl Harbor attack. American workers fill yard near a war plant during shift change. Defense industry workers in the plants. Liberty ships being launched. American forces in amphibious assaults. U.S. forces engaged in North Africa and on Pacific islands. American soldiers at battlefield gravesite. General Dwight D. Eisenhower with General Omar Bradley and Allied military leaders, look over a map of Europe, following the June 6th invasion in Normandy. Fields filled with Sherman tanks and other war materiel, in England. The wing of an American airplane in D-day stripes as it takes off. Views from cockpit of an American bomber striking targets on D-day. B-17 bombers in formation at high altitude, leaving condensation trails in the sky. Pilots in cockpit of an American bomber, as they drop bombs. Allied fighters in D-day stripes peeling off to attack. Gun camera views of fighters strafing German targets. Explosions and fires.
During World War 1, in 1918, American Expeditionary Force's 1st Aero Squadron members, including a mascot dog, pose on airfield. Airplanes in the background. Crewman pastes paper iron cross over enemy bullet hole in tail of airplane. Colonel Billy Mitchell decorating a flyer. General Benjamin Foulois in cockpit of a DH-4. United States officers shake hands with Colonel Thomas D. Milling. Colonel Frank Laub talks with a French officer. Members of the Lafayette Escadrille converted to the American 103rd Aero Squadron. July 1918 - Major William Thaw, steps forward and salutes, followed by Lieutenant Gordon D. Larner, Lieutenant Charles I. Merrick, and Lieutenant Edgar G. Tobin. Ace Captain Field Kindley, stands by a Sopwith Camel, supporting a small dog perched on its propeller. Ace Major Raoul Lufbery, smoking a cigarette, poses in front of a Nieuport 28c.1. Ace Captain Elliot Springs, also smoking a cigarette, poses in front of another airplane. Ace of Aces, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, poses by SPAD S.XIII, number 5 ( its number not seen in this image) with "Hat in Ring" insignia painted on fuselage. (WWI,WW1, World War One, First World War)
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