Map showing the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. German soldiers carry supplies and load them into trucks. German army trucks, heavily camouflaged with foliage on a road in France. Closeup of a soldier in truck. A soldier scanning skies above for Allied aircraft. The truck pulls to side of road and soldiers stand looking up at planes overhead. German antiaircraft batteries firing. Allied bombs exploding near a German installation. Contrails overhead from U.S. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Fires burning from Allied bombs. German trucks moving at night, through area of fires. Buildings in a city being destroyed by Allied bombing. German infantry moving past destroyed buildings. German troops pose at side of a road. Closeups of the battle-weary German soldiers. A German Stug IV tank destroyer. A German one-man armored car. Other German armor moving on road. German infantry and one soldier with a bicycle. Two soldiers carrying MG 42 machine guns with folded tripods, over their shoulders. One carrying a Panzerfaust recoilless anti tank weapon. Soldier putting foliage on his helmet. German troops moving through wooded areas and running while under fire. Shells or bombs exploding only yards away. German soldiers hunkered down in ditches. More explosions extremely close to the camera. Troops smoking cigarettes during a brief lull. German armor moving in foliage. Soldiers stacking artillery shells and firing artillery. A knocked out Allied Sherman tank. German soldiers moving cautiously along roadside ditches. An American Sherman tank seen passing a farm building. German troops carrying antitank Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust weapons. An American M4 Sherman tank moving rapidly and a soldier firing a Panzerschreck. More U.S. tanks and more Panzerschreck anti-tank rocket launchers are being fired. German soldiers covered in foliage crawling through underbrush and running past U.S. tank. Soldiers sending out a Goliath Sd.kfz 302 remote controlled mine. Knocked out American armor. Weary and wounded German soldiers.
German forces battle against invading Allies in France, during World War 2. German German ME-109 and FW-190 aircraft starting engines on an airfield. Three ME-109s take. Pilot point of view from inside cockpit as aircraft strafes ground targets. An FW-190 in flight. View from cockpit during strafing run. View of pilot's hand on control stick. View from cockpit of strafing run against targets on village streets. German machine gunners in trenches look through binoculars. Huge explosions nearby from Allied counterfire. German artillerymen fire heavy guns, at zero elevation, from positions in forest. Germans in assault guns and tanks covered with foliage camouflage. View from inside a tank as it crushes foliage in its way. Tank commander in Tiger tank of s.SS.Pz.Abt.101 talks on radio. Panther tanks firing. Marder III tank destroyer. Tiger tank of s.Pz.Abt.505 fires. Destroyed and disabled Allied armor, including Assault guns and Sherman tanks. GermanTanks and infantry fire at Allied positions. German infantry engaged in house-to-house battles and using flame thrower, in ruins of a French town. German rocket launchers obscured by smoke as they fire rapidly.
German soldiers climbing over a crash-landed B-17 bomber of the USAAF 96th Bomb Group, 337th Bomb Squadron, with tail number 42-3353. Its props are all bent and skin is peeled off its rudder and horizontal stabilizer. (This aircraft, named "Tar Fly," was hit by flak on September 9, 1943, and crash-landed west of Evreux, at Beamont-Le Roger, France. Two crew were killed and 8 taken as prisoners of war.) Smoking wreckage of an Allied aircraft in a field with two dead fliers lying on the ground about 50 yards away. Engines of a downed U.S. aircraft. Numerous views of wrecked American and British airplanes. Sign painted on one piece of wreckage reads: "When I go sightseeing in Tokyo, Tojo's gonna be my Ricksha Boy!" Piles of scrap alumunum from crashed airplanes piled up at a railroad siding, where German workers load it into rail freight cars. German army workers using tools to dismantle parts. Sequence shifts to a Messerschmitt Bf 109 that lands in a field. German airmen run to greet the pilot, who steps from the cockpit and describes some aerial maneuvers to a surrounding audience. Next, German ace, Adolf Galland is seen discussing tactics with other pilots. Several camouflaged Me Bf-109s lined up on a grass field, where ground crews are repairing and maintaining them. Closeups of German pilots climbing into cockpits of planes. Ground crews hand crank their starters. Next sequence shows Focke-Wulf FW-190 aircraft taxiing and then making a formation takeoff from grass field. Then an Me-Bf-109 is shown right after takeoff. FW-190s and Me-109s buzz the field. (World War II period)
Opening scene shows ground crew loading bombs on a Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft of the USAAF 323rd Bombardment Group at Denain-Prouvy Airdrome, France (A-83) in World War 2. The aircraft is parked on pierced steel planking (Marsden Matting). Glimpse of aircrew members, carrying their parachutes, as they climb into the back of an open truck. Next, ground crewman steadies a bomb as another man operates controls to lower it from an M6 bomb service truck. Ground crewman screws fins on the bomb. View shifts to inside the truck carrying aircrew members, as more climb aboard it. Several crew members climb down from the truck, as it arrives at their aircraft. Others are seen already at their respective aircraft parked nearby. Rough slate identifies the airfield as A-83, and day as 22 April. An officer, bombardier, is seen strapping himself into the nose of a B-26. Bombardier makes adjustments to his bomb sight. Pilot and copilot close their respective canopies. Name: "Wild-Bill" seen painted below copilot's window.
Film opens showing armorers riding atop bombs being towed by an M6 Bomb Service Truck, at Denain-Prouvy Airdrome, France (A-83) in March, 1945. The truck drives slowly along the field, past parked Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers of the 323rd Bombardment Group. One of the airmen plays a harmonica as he rides along. After a while the truck turns to a parked B-26, tail number 41-34942, where the armorers climb down and begin loading bombs on the aircraft.
Opening slate cites location as A-83 (Denain-Prouvy Airdrome, France). Aircrew members step from back of an open crew transport truck and walk to their parked Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft, of the U.S. Army Air Forces 323rd Bombardment Group. The entire side fuselage of the aircraft is covered with painted bombs indicating the many missions it had completed, thus far, during World War 2. Crew members place their gear on the ground in front of the aircraft as a Staff Sergeant (Maintenance Chief) brings the plane's Form 1 (Flight Report and Maintenance Record) for the pilot to review and sign. (This segment is repeated twice for the camera.) Closeup of the pilot discussing the aircraft status with an enlisted man. Meanwhile other crew members stand around. One crew member lights the Tech Sergeant's cigarette. Closeup of an officer crew member, with Marsden Matting on ground in background. Closeup of pilot annotating and signing the aircraft Form 1. Next, the pilot distributes mail to members of the crew. An airman brings a pet dog to one of the crew who plays with it. Pilot takes a final drag on a cigarette and rubs it out on a bomb sitting nearby. (Sequence is repeated twice.) Glimpse of trash caught in pierced steel planking (Marsden matting) on the ground. Next scene shows pilot speaking from cockpit window to Sergeant on the ground. View of pilot and copilot settling into their seats in the cockpit. They don their radio headsets.
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