American aircraft in flight strafing factory area and town through clouds and attacking railroad marshalling yards, in 1945, near end of World War II in Europe.
A number of Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft of 323rd Bombardment Group (9th Air Force) are lined up for takeoff. As they taxi past camera, tail number of one: 43-34344, is visible. All aircraft display the distinctive White Tail identifying the 323rd BG. (The Group is known to some as Wood's Rocket Raiders, so-named for their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Wilson r. Wood.) The location is Denain Airfield (A-83), near the City of Valenciennes, France. The time is April, 7,1945, a month before VE Day. Several airmen are pitching horseshoes, while others watch. They use a shoe to measure how close one came to the pin. Two airment use a two-man saw to saw a timber while a third sits on it to hold it still.
A mob, seeking revenge against Fascist leaders, fills a city square. They pound on steel gates of a government building. Soldiers and police attempt to protect various persons from the mobs. Others are unprotected and suffer beatings and death. Bodies of Benito Mussolini and his Mistress Clara Petacci are seen hung upside down by Italian Partisans in Milan, Italy, on 28 April 1945. Scene shifts to image of postwar occupying powers, United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain, whose flags are displayed in the center of a conference table during the Third Moscow Conference. Principals signing agreements, in November, 1943, providing, among other things, for lawful and orderly trials of war criminals, following World War 2. Seen signing are: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov; U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull; and British foreign Secretary, Sir Anthony Eden. View of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, leading a contingent of American wartime Generals on a mission to document Nazi atrocities at liberated German concentration camps. Closeup of a man directing local German citizens who were forced to observe the horrors of the camp. Closeup of an oven used to dispose of bodies of victims. Dead bodies of concentration camp victims strewn in a heap. A room filled with documentary evidence to be analyzed and used in war crimes trials. the body of German General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg , and of Heinrich Himmler, both of whom committed suicide. A hand holding cyanide capsules. Body of Leipzig City Council deputy mayor Dr. Ernst Kurt Lisso slumped over his desk, following suicide. Body of his daughter, Regina Lisso also a suicide victim. Nazi war criminals being rounded up by Allied military.One being carried on a stretcher. Another, a German officer, is taken into custody. Next, Josef Kramer, the Commandant of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is seen under guard by a British soldier. British soldiers guarding the court room of the second Belsen trial, convened by the Allied occupational forces, in the Gymnasium building of Luneburg. View of the courtroom with defendants wearing numbers. Closeup of numbers 1 and 2, Josef Kramer, and Fritz Klein, respectively. View of Allied military officers sitting in judgment. Closeups of women defendants, including Irma Grese (number 9) and Elisabeth Volkenrath (number 11). Camera pans around the courtroom.
Film begins with nighttime bombardments of rockets and artillery. Then at one minute after midnight, on May 9th, 1945, the guns stop. Next, a day earlier, German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel enters a conference room on May 8th, accompanied by German staff officers. He salutes with his Marshal's baton and takes a seat. He signs surrender document. Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov stands before being seated. British Air Marshal, Sir Arthur Tedder, is seen signing the document along with Marshal Zhukov. General Carl Spaatz, Commander of Strategic Air Forces in Europe, shakes hands with Marshal Zhukov. Several scenes of battlefield cemeteries are seen next. German officer prisoners are seen from the back as they walk with hands behind their heads. Views of Surrendered German senior military officers, including: German Admiral Erich Raeder; German Marshal Walter Model; German Marshal Wilhelm Keitel; and Marshal Hermann Goering (being disarmed).
Gun camera footage from USAAF P-47 of the 378th Fighter Squadron, 362nd Fighter Group, operating from Verdun Airfield, France, during World War 2. The aircraft flown by pilot named Bullock, on March 31, 1945, strafes lines of communication, striking vehicles on roads and trains moving on rail lines. In second sequence, the same pilot, now identified on slate, with the 377th Fighter Squadron, on April 4th, attacks a lone German Me-109 seen flying in thin cloud below him.
British Royal Air Force Gloster Meteor twin jet aircraft taking off and landing at an airfield in Britain, in June, 1945, right after the end of World War II in Europe. Several American soldiers sit on grass beside the runway and watch. One takes pictures. The clip shows a Meteor, so wrong clip!
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