United States and Soviet Union soldiers celebrate their victory as world War 2 comes to an end in Germany. "Elbe Day": Soviet and American soldiers meet at the River Elbe on 25-26 April, 1945. View of Nazi swastika being blown up at Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg Germany in 1945. Scenes of celebration in the streets of Paris with French civilians cheering American and French soldiers and celebrating the end of World War 2. French women kiss soldiers. Crowd gathered in Times Square in New York celebrating VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day). Foreign Ministers of fifty nations arrive at San Francisco to sign the United Nations Charter. United States President Harry S. Truman addresses the delegates at the closing ceremony of the conference on June 26, 1946. Ships bring American soldiers back home, including some wounded, after World War 2. Women and families on dock at harbor wave and smile at arriving troop ship with American soldiers returning home. Also seen are soldiers of other countries including Soviet Russian soldiers returning to their families at a train station, with smiling and tearful family reunions. Cemeteries with headstones honoring soldiers who died in the war. Military hardware being scrapped to make peacetime goods. Views of explosive charges being set and military aircraft being blown up for scrap. Piles of scrapped military vehicles. A woman in a factory organizes newly manufactured clothes irons. Workers in a factory perform final assembly on newly manufactured ovens and stoves for homes.
With the surrender of Germany, World War 2 in Europe ends, on VE (Victory in Europe) Day, May 8, 1945. Scene opens with church bells ringing and view of west front of St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, in London, England. Crowd is celebrating in the square. around the statue of Queen Anne. Amongst the crowd are men and women in uniform. Here and there Union Jack flags are seen, one held by a little girl hoisted upon a man's shoulder. Camera pans across various parts of the celebrating crowds. View from above, of several couples dancing within a circle of people. Several uniformed U.S. Air Force officers in a jeep celebrate with the crowd. High altitude view of Trafalgar Square in London, England. 'Victory over Germany 1945' banner draped on base of Nelson's Column. Crowd of British citizens celebrating on streets of Whitehall and closeup of the Cenotaph with inscription "The Glorious Dead".
Nazi Kreisleiter Franz Strasser on trial in Dachau, Germany, before a U.S. Army military commission, for the shooting of unarmed United States Army Air Force flyer prisoners on December 9, 1945. Other officers and soldiers in the courtroom. Defendant Franz Strasser is questioned about landing of an American plane, call to the police, the American flyers in custody of Police Chief Lindemeyer, and Strasser's knowledge of whether the flyers were unarmed. Frans Strasser answers the questions through an interpreter. Commission officers and United States flag seen on stage. U.S. Army commission judge delivers the commission verdict of guilty, and states that Strasser is sentenced to death by hanging. The interpreter reads aloud in German the verdict and sentence to Strasser. (World War II period).
A U.S. Army Captain examines bodies of American soldiers of the 46th Tank Battalion, 13th Armored Division, killed when their Sherman M4 tank was struck by panzerfaust anti-tank weapons and 20mm fire, on April 17, 1945, in the final days of World War 2, in Europe. The wrecked tank and human remains are seen at the intersection of Ellerstraße & Hülsenstraße, in Hilden Germany. Closeup of the Captain looking closely at the dog tags of one dead soldier. Next, he is seen checking the dog tags of other dead tank crew members, as local German townspeople watch from nearby. He and another officer cover the bodies with a large tarpaulin.
On February 23, 1945, Allies commence operations to cross the Ruhr River in Germany, during World War 2. U.S. artillery soldiers fire 155mm guns from West bank of Ruhr River, against German lines on the East bank. Troops of Allied 1st and 9th Armies await signal to follow advance platoons that crossed the Ruhr earlier. Compelling close-up views of serious expressions on faces of U.S. Army soldiers as they prepare to move forward. M4 Sherman tanks fire guns at the river edge. Through misty conditions, troops of 104th Infantry Division, 415th Regiment, carry assault craft and begin crossing the river and attacking the industrial area of North Duren. U.S. soldiers are seen running across fields near large factory buildings and firing from them. Troops walk along street in Duren, after its capture. U.S. troops seen entrenched. A medic adjusts his personal flotation belt. Two U.S. Army soldiers smoking cigarettes while standing in a ditch with flotation devices around their waists as they wait the moment for the river crossing. They leave their positions and move along a road to cross the river at Linnich. All soldiers are wearing personal flotation belts as they paddle small assault boats across the swift moving river under enemy fire. One assault boat is overturned. Drenched soldiers make it to land and continue their advance. Army engineers construct a floating footbridge, under enemy fire. A soldier runs across the bridge as an American light airplane flies low overhead, surveying the operation. U.S. troops move through destroyed towns and villages. Large column of captured German prisoners of war is marched toward the rear, with arms held above their heads, passing by giant piles of debris and wreckage from bombing of the town.
Internees at a concentration camp in Buchenwald, Germany. Jean Blume, leader of socialist national movement against occupation in Belgium, shares his experiences of the days spent as a prisoner at Breendonk concentration camp in Belgium. He expresses joy at being liberated by American Army from Buchenwald concentration camp. (Note: Jean Blume was a Resistance Leader during the Nazi occupation in World War 2. The Gestapo arrested him on January 19, 1943 and he was imprisoned in Breendonk. In May 1944, he and many others, were sent to Buchenwald. They were released on April 11, 1945.)
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