Japanese surrender in Southeast Asia during World War II. Airplanes in formation flight. Two Japanese Mitsubishi G4M-1 'Betty' twin-engine bombers painted white with green crosses on their wings, fuselage and tail land at Ie Shima Ryukyu Islands near Okinawa carrying Japanese delegates. The planes land at Nichols Field at 1813 hours. The planes are dubbed 'Bataan number 1' and 'Bataan number 2.' Lt. Gen. Torasirou Kawabe, the vice chief of the Japanese Army's General Staff and his surrender party disembark from the airplanes. Members of the surrender party include Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama Representative, Imperial Japanese Navy Staff., Colonel Yashima Terai General Staff, Colonel Orato Yamoto General Staff, Mr. Morio Yakawa Secretary, Japanese foreign office. Kawabe leads the surrender party. Army C-54 transport airplanes parked. Japanese surrender delegates board the airplanes which take off for Manila, Philippines. United States Army General Douglas MacArthur speaks to his troops from a balcony at the war damaged Manila City Hall (Padre Burgos Ave, Ermita, Manila, 1000 Metro Manila) on 20 August 1945. He notes that he is hopeful that they will all be able to return home soon.
Views of the nuclear test device nicknamed, "Gadget", showing network of wires going to detonators surrounding core. The first ever atomic bomb device is in position at the top of its test tower, the day before it produced the first nuclear detonation in history. This device was detonated in the early morning of the next day, July 16, 1945. The detonation test event was named Trinity. (World War II period).
Wreckage of U.S. Air Forces P-47D-30, tail number 44-33495, of the 368th Fighter Group, 397th Fighter Squadron in a field, near Munnerstadt, Germany, a month after the end of World War 2, in Europe. Women work around the wreckage, turning hay. Street scene in a nearby small German village. Workers come home from fields. Buildings on either side of the street. Civilians move on an ox cart. Person carries hay in a wooden hand cart. Water running from faucet in the village square. (Reportedly, the pilot of the P-47 was William T. Wright, who was killed in the crash, on April 15, 1945.)
German civilian Matthias Gierens, a 37 year old railroad worker, is hanged in Rheinbach Germany for the August 15, 1944 murder of a downed American flyer, who was later identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lieutenant Lester E. Reuss, from Forsythe, Montana. Reuss was the navigator on U.S. Army B-17 bomber #42-31183 which was downed by German aircraft after it attacked the Airdrome at Wiesbaden, Germany. Gierens and three other German civilian men, Peter Kohn, Peter Back, and Matthias Krein, were convicted on June 2, 1945 in Ahrweiler, Germany, for the murder of the American airman after his parachute landing near Priest, Germany. The trial was the first Allied trial in Germany of civilians charged with a war crime. Military police are seen escorting Gierens toward the gallows in a prison yard in Rheinbach. A German Catholic priest performs the rites. U.S military officer reads charges as Gierens is readied for execution (the officer is possibly Lt. Col J.V. Roddy, of San Francisco, who was in charge of the hanging). Trap door opens and Gierens is hung. The U.S. Army executioners were Master Sgt. John C. Woods, a former Texas State executioner, and Staff Sgt. Thomas Robinson, of Bronx, New York. Witnesses present included seven U.S. Lieutenant Colonels and one British officer, a number of Military Police, news correspondents, and photographers.
U.S. Army 77th Infantry Division soldier looks at sign board in the Pacific Theater during Ryukyu Campaign of World War II. Soldier walks on field towards the commemorating spot. He looks at sign board which reads 'at this spot the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy,Ernie Pyle,18 April 1945'.
Film opens with a slate reading: "Strip Y 46 3/24/45." This refers to Allied Advance Landing Ground, "Y-46 Aachen, Germany." The ensuing film shows numerous gun camera footage clips from U.S. Army Air Force P-47 aircraft of the 365th Fighter Group operating from Y-46 during 16 March through 13 April, 1945, near the end of World War 2. The clips show strafing attacks by the P-47s on German cities. Several of the final attacks seem to be hitting the same city located on a river.
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