View of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria. Cremation ovens used to execute the prisoners. A German guard held at gun point by the American troops. Liberated American speaks, surrounded by a group of prisoners. He is U.S. Navy Lieutenant Jack H. Taylor of Hollywood, California. Filmed by Lt. Col. George C. Stevens, he says that in October 1944 he was the first allied officer to drop into Austria. He says he was captured December 1, 1944 by the Gestapo, and severely beaten. He details his imprisonment time in Austria and then at Mauthausen. He shows insignia and dog tags of two American soldiers who were executed in a gas chamber of the camp by the Germans. He details the multiple methods used by the Germans to kill prisoners, including shooting, gas chamber, beating, exposure in the snow for 48 hours with cold water thrown on them, starvation, dogs, and pushing off a hundred foot cliff. He thanks the American 11th Armored Division for rescuing them. (World War II period).
The U.S. Naval fleet underway in the Pacific before Pearl Harbor. Italian narrator describing names and sizes of various ships including the USS Arizona,USS Oklahoma, USS West Virginia, USS California and USS New Mexico. Footage of the U.S. Pacific fleet ships in heavy seas with water crashing over their bows. Army Air Force biplanes take off from the deck of the USS Langley Aircraft Carrier. Sailors stand by as a biplane aircraft lands on the deck of the USS Langley (CV-1). Biplane aircraft on the deck of the USS Langley. Topic then changes to Air-Raid Defenses in and around Italian naval bases. Italian Sailors roll helium barrage balloon inflation tanks into ships. Sailors direct air into a balloon. Numerous barrage balloons in the sky. Soldiers prepare to release a balloon from a boat and fasten the metal cables. Deck guns in position. Soldiers observe through binoculars, telescopes, other instruments and monitor gauges and radar on a machine. A soldier talks on the radio from amidst sand bag barricades. Soldiers watch as two play a bacci ball game. They run to take their positions as a soldier signals incoming enemy aircraft. Enemy planes attack the Italian base. Explosions near ships in the water. A barrage balloon is hit and bursts into flames. Sailors fire anti aircraft artillery from behind a barricade. Mobile units dash to substitute the destroyed barrage balloon with a new one. Soldiers in a truck hold onto the new balloon and then release it. (World War II period).
Interview with Doreen Garwick, wife of United States Navy officer Warren Garwick from Los Angeles, California. Garwick recounts her experience taken as a prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II in Manila, Philippines. During the interview she hopes of meeting her husband soon after the liberation of Manila.
An American soldier named Gene Kneebone from Grass Valley City, California being interviewed in Manila, Philippines. Kneebone recounts his experience as prisoner by Japanese forces in World War II during the interview. He states how he was beaten up at military police headquarters after two of his friends escaped from the Japanese prison camp.
An American couple, Mr and Mrs Donald Zimmerman, from Yorba Linda California, with orphans of World War II, Dennis and Garnet Morris (or Mars), who have been adopted by them in Manila,Philippines after their father was imprisoned by the Japanese and their mother died in a prison camp. The couple states that they plan to take the children to their grandparents in Seattle Washington.
United States Navy FJ-3 aircraft being towed by a yellow tractor up the deck of USS Bonhomme Richard (CV-31) in waters off coast of California. The aircraft is from Navy Squadron VF-211 (Red Checkertails). It carries tail code "G" of Carrier Group 21. Ordnance men load Sidewinder missile on underside of wings of FJ-3 aircraft. A man polishes nose of the missile as another man conducts flashlight test check on the nose. The FJ-3 aircraft is catapulted from the carrier.
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