An Allied tank drives past the Eiffel Tower in Paris, on August 25, 1944, during World War 2. Cheering Parisians hold up a newspaper reading: "Paris is delivered"and mentions French Forces entering Paris. A jeep filled with American soldiers passes through the celebrating crowd. View of American soldiers, including an Army chaplain, mingling with the citizens. More views of the people, including some carrying a large banner reading: "Liberated." They are followed by others carrying French tricolor national flags. Some carry placards thanking the Allies Some cite the Free French and display the Cross of Lorraine. Other placards contain the name "DeGaulle." American M4 Sherman tanks and jeeps drive along a tree-lined street. Closeups of children clapping their hands. A soldier drinks wine from a bottle. American soldiers kissing French girls. More scenes of celebration. A huge crowd gathered at Place de la Concorde with the Egyptian obelisk clearly visible. At this point, the film shifts to images of Paris before the war showing the gay night life of the city. Sidewalks in the artist section. Cafes with outdoor seating. Night clubs with risque shows. Fire works and displays that illustrate why Paris was called the City of Lights. Street open air markets with flowers, foods, and various other commodities for sale. A street vendor on a 3-wheel bicycle cart. The Egyptian obelisk at Place de la Concorde with the Arch of Triumph in the far background. Cars driving on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées near the Arch of Triumph. Notre Dame Cathedral. Sign for Metropolitan (subway). Imposing building along the River Seine with sightseeing boats plying the waters. Monumental bridges. A bus carries passengers along a city street. Men and boys carrying fresh newspapers for delivery. Parisians gather around the eternal flame at the Unknown Soldier Memorial under the Arc de Triomphe monument. A soldier memorial sculpture on the monument. Here the film reverts back to World War II. A German flag flying on a ship. Adolf Hitler showing delight at bringing the French to surrender on 22 June 1940, at the same railroad car of Compiegne, in which the armistice ending World War I was signed on Nov. 11, 1918. The Nazi German flag placed over the French monument in the “Glade of the Armistice”at Compiegne. German officers driving in staff cars past the Arc de Triomphe as German forces occupy Paris on June 14, 1940 in World War II. Views of French citizens listening to the voice of General Dwight D. Eisenhower over their radios, as he broadcasted from London, on June 6, 1944. Naval guns firing. Americans hitting the beach in Normandy (famous image, showing some soldiers falling to enemy fire). Members of the French forces of the Interior (FFI) preparing to engage occupying German forces. The Cross of Lorraine being placed on the sleeve of a woman member. The FFI setting up baricades and defenses in Paris. A tree being cut down for use in defense works. Young boys with shovels helping build fortifications. FFI members hunkered down behind sand-bagged defense positions. FFI firing their rifles and retrieving dead and wounded. German Panzer tanks in the streets. FFI engaged in Guerrilla warfare, sniper against sniper. FFI firing rifles in streets and one firing a machine gun from a building. A German tank burning on a street. Civilians hunkering down as snipers exchange fire. A German soldier captured and escorted by FFI. An Army M8 Greyhound armored car and jeeps and trucks, and M4 Sherman tanks, occupied by de Gaulle's Free French forces, head toward Paris. General de Gaulle standing in a jeep as it moves along a Paris street. FFI remove street barriers to allow an M4 Sherman tank to enter Paris. Free French soldiers and and Americans, accompanied by tanks, race under the Eiffel Tower. A line of Allied armored vehicles held up by last ditch defense actions by German forces. Explosions are heard. Gun fire seen emanating from many windows in a large building. Soldiers firing at the windows. German soldiers emerge from the building with arms raised. Surrendering German soldiers and officers are paraded with arms over their heads headed to prison camps. Some are put to work sweeping debris from a street. General de Gaulle leads a parade of Frenchman along the Champs-Élysées. He places a wreath near the eternal flame under the Arch of Triumph. French people sitting atop a line of Allied armored vehicles. More views of celebrating French people. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Omar Bradley speaking with a soldier. The French tricolor being raised on a flag pole.
British, Canadian and United States soldiers clear up beachheads, receive reinforcements in Normandy after D-Day in World War 2. Soldiers sit on the beach, a sign says “Navy Beach C.P.”. Infantrymen dig in on the beach for protection. Sitting behind sandbags, a soldier fixes his belongings. Reinforcements and new supplies arrive in Normandy. Reinforcement troops and equipment land on beach. Soldiers in moving US Army truck. M4 Sherman-dozer, a tank with a bulldozer blade and outfitted with snorkel exhaust to make it a wading tank, also known as a tank dozer, clears the beach. This M4 dozer was named "Double Trouble" and operated by the 70th Tank Battalion. A body is seen in the foreground. Soldiers land on beach from LCM (Landing Craft Mechanized). Reinforcements carry supplies on their backs. Heavy machinery and vehicles land on beach from ships. GMC CCKW cargo trucks on beachhead in Normandy. Armored tanks (M4 Sherman tanks) move into a French town. Soldiers walk in meadow. A light tank enters a road towards Ver-sur-Mer. The location might be La Platine, just outside Courseulles-Sur-Mer. A sign reading “Dump Mae West” indicates to soldiers where to drop their life preservers. An M10 tank destroyer crosses a bridge. Infantrymen move into beach and grassy field. A Mk IV Centaur tank crosses a bridge. United States soldiers march along wall, one carrying a metal detector. A soldier carries carries a heavy machine gun, possibly a Browning M1917, and ammunition belt on his shoulders. United States Infantrymen wade through muddy water, passing by the corpse of a German soldier.
U.S. Marines of 1st Battalion, 26th Division, move through thick grass and climb up Hill 557, Khe Sanh, Vietnam. Arms include M-16 rifles and equipment includes PRC-25 back pack radio. U.S. Marines prepare a demolition charge of C-4 explosive, and insert fuse into the C-4 and place it along with other explosives at the base of a tree. Two Marines pull the pins on fuses of C-4, and smoke rises from the burning fuses. The resulting explosion destroys the tree. Marines return to the site with entrenching tool. (Vietnam War period).
While World War 1 was already underway in Europe, before the United States Air Service began to build up. Two U.S. DeHavilland DH-4 aircraft taking off. A formation of DH-4s in flight. A DH-4 upside down on the ground with soldiers all around it, including one sitting on a rock. Airplanes attacking a barrage balloon aloft, which burns and plummets to earth trailing dark black smoke. A candidate United States pilot undergoing physical testing. He is placed in a spinning chair and spun at high speed. Another pilot candidate performs a visual test with an array of lights on a panel being lit. Prospective Army pilots in U.S. Army uniforms marching and on a flight line with JN-4 Jenny training aircraft. Cadet turns propeller of a Curtiss JN-4 training airplane and the engine starts. Formation of DH-4 aircraft in flight. Lumberjacks in American northwest area of Oregon or Washington state felling a giant spruce tree after cutting it with a two man saw in the Cascade mountain forests. Massive Logs being transported by railroad to logging mills for eventual use in airplane factories. Men and many women war production workers busy working at an American airplane fabricating plant or factory during World War 1.
A U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) Waco CG-4A-WO glider is seen descending and landing in a grass field. Upon touchdown, its front pops open and and an army jeep drives out. USAAF C-47 aircraft are seen next, offloading jeeps pulling small artillery pieces, and infantry who move rapidly from the parked aircraft. Jeeps traversing a high hump in a dirt road. A jeep towing an M-3 Antitank Gun 37mm, and others driving through underbrush and bouncing over rough road while towing 37mm guns and trailers. Soldiers stepping from jeeps to set up machine guns. American soldiers playing a game of horse and rider, during a break in duties. Soldiers setting up mortars. Jeeps driving through bodies of water. Two M4A1 (76)W Sherman tanks, with cast steel hulls, drive into a stream. Troops setting up several 37mm guns on a river bank. Two soldiers in a communications jeep. Army officers perusing a map laid out on the hood of a jeep. U.S. field artillerymen using periscopic binoculars on tripods, to spot and direct gunfire. Military vehicles, including jeeps, moving across desert terrain. Artillery crews firing M59 (M2 Long Tom) 155mm guns. A Douglas A-26 Invader aircraft flying overhead. Jeeps in various roles, bouncing along in the desert and laying smoke screens. Jeeps equipped with M3 anti-aircraft guns and others with stretchers for wounded affixed to their sides. U.S. Army Ford GPA "Seep" amphibious jeeps plunging into water and continuing on as boats. A jeep production and assembly line in a U.S. factory showing stages of assembly and finished jeeps driving out of the plant into yards containing hundreds of them. A convoy of jeeps driving over a bridge, and others carrying a U.S. military brass band in a parade in England. A Hollywood actress (Gloria Swanson?) being lifted into a jeep by several men. Glimpse of an unidentified actress with an American soldier, in a jeep. Hollywood stars, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy clowning in the front seat of a jeep with Desi Arnaz and two women riding in the back. Several jeeps carrying these and other Hollywood personalities during a war bond parade in Washington DC. The Capitol looming in the background as the jeeps move away from it toward the camera. Jeeps being prepared for transport to overseas destinations. Some being enclosed in wooden crates and placed on rail cars. Jeeps being hauled by cranes and placed aboard ships. Landing crafts mechanized (LCMs) transporting infantry and vehicles, including jeeps. An M4A1 Sherman tank driving out of a landing craft into surf. A jeep being driven onto beach at Adak,in the Aleutians,from a landing craft of the USS J.Franklin Bell (AP-34), in 1942. In 1943, this transport ship was reclassified as APA-16.) American troops with jeep on a South Pacific island in World War 2. A soldier on motorcycle, skids in mud on road in North Africa, and jeeps drive past him. American soldiers ride camels and some drive in a jeep near the Great pyramid and Sphinx in Egypt. Jeeps seen in China, with Generals Joseph Stilwell and Claire Chennault. One parked next to a Flying Tiger P-40 airplane. Soldiers in a jeep in Alaska, next to a tent and sign pointing to "Tokyo." Local tribesmen literally carrying a jeep, on long poles, across a river in Timor. General Douglas MacArthur, accompanied by staff officers, being driven in a jeep along a jungle road in New Guinea, past a line of local tribesmen. Wendell Wilkie, serving as Ambassador-at-large, during the war, speaks to U.S. officers in a jeep. Britain's King George VI in a jeep followed by another carrying Queen Elizabeth. President Franklin D. Roosevelt riding in a jeep to review troops. He removes his hat as they pass the American flag. Sign on a building in North Africa reads "Bizerte." General George S. Patton, standing in a jeep during a victory parade in North Africa. Soldiers at an outdoor religious service during the war with the hood of a jeep serving as a make shift altar.Various views of jeeps driving with soldiers in them.
M4 Sherman tanks of the U.S. Army 1st. Platoon, A Company, 710th Tank Battalion provide fire support to Marines of 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, at Horseshoe Valley in Peleliu Island, Palau during World War 2. View from Marine position overlooking the valley, as M4 tanks slowly move through the valley battleground. The tanks are accompanied by Marine infantry. Explosions and smoke rise from hillsides as shells fired by tanks (unseen) explode. View from behind Marines watching the explosions. Glimpse of an M4 Sherman tank with name, "Honey Rose" on its side. Camera pans over smoke rising from shelling. Brief closer view of tanks moving slowly in the valley and firing their guns. Infantry moving beside and behind a tank. Three tanks together firing their guns. More explosions and smoke in the hillsides. Closer view of tanks. Another view of the three tanks firing together. (Note: Reportedly, the tank named "Honey Rose" was driven by Sergeant James A. "Jack" dayton, Jr. of Wheeling, West Virginia, who named the tank after his wife, "Rose." It was later struck by a Japanese anti-tank round that killed their machine gunner.The rest of the crew left the crippled tank with minor injuries.)
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