The 8th Fighter Command Operations, European Theater. 27-May-1944; Lieutenant R L Baker of 82nd squadron 78th fighter group flies the aircraft. Attacking the ground targets as seen via gun camera footage. Strafing of two flak towers. A decoy aircraft in flight. 29-May-1944; Captain B L McGratten of 335th squadron 4th fighter group flies the aircraft. Attacking ME-109 and FE-190. Aircraft fly fighter protection for formation of B-17's. Chasing and hitting of FW-190. 30-May-1944; Lieutenant J R Cook of 360th squadron 356 fighter group flies the plane. Strafing of large freighter, schooner and two small targets. (World War II period).
American Troop Carrier crews gather for a briefing on August 14, 1944, the day before the Operation Dragoon invasion of Southern France, in World War 2. The captions then refer to their return to the United Kingdom later that month, and to the United States in October 1944. The air crews are seen assembled outdoors at an airfield in Italy. The weather is hot and some of them are shirtless. Some airmen are seen wearing Khaki shorts or singlets. Views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan, New York City skyline, taken when some aircrew members returned to the United States in October 1944.
Film title slate indicates "Operation Titanic" but it, in fact, depicts "Operation Frantic" with U.S. shuttle bombing operations over Germany from bases in Great Britain, Italy and Russia during World War II. United States Army Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses in flight. Aerial view of bombers in flight with several aircraft flying in formation leaving behind contrails. View inside bomber aircraft with bombardier preparing to drop bombs. View of bomb bay door opening and closeup of hand near bomb drop switch. Bombs awawy view as bombs are dropped from American aircraft. German defenses are bombed along the invasion coast of France (just prior to D-Day) on June 2, 1944. Aerial views of B-24 and B-17 bombers also in flight bombing German military installations in German-occupied northwestern Europe. Aerial view of a target area. Smoke rising up from bombardment. Two different U.S. Army Air Force B-17 Liberator aircraft are seen falling from the sky toward crashes after being hit by German enemy fire. One of them has smoke trailing from it, and the other is in a free fall. Railroad and marshaling yards are also bombed over Debrecen, Hungary on June 2, 1944, with aircraft continuing on (shuttle bombing) rather than returning to base. United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator flying in formation on June 21, 1944. Aerial view as they bomb the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 engine aircraft factory near Basdorf, Germany. German factories are bombed. B-17 aircraft on the same date are seeing in formation and bomb railway stations, freight yards, and factory targets, along with the Nazi German Ministry of War, Ministry of Propaganda, and Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, Germany. Heavy flak bursts seen in the air near the aircraft. Dogfight scenes as several German airplanes are shot down. Machine gunners aboard U.S. bomber aircraft firing at German fighter aircraft and shooting down 43 of them, according to narrator. Aerial view of ball turret rotating below bomber and firing guns at German fighter aircraft. The B-17s and B-24s bombing the targets. Synthetic oil plants and refineries are bombed at Ruhland Germany, east of Leipzig. Planning for the operation was done on December 7, 1943. A document about the operation is typed. Animated map shows Nazi positions and method of shuttle-bombing, allowing American aircraft to bomb from Soviet bases, and allies broadly to bomb German targets from bases in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Soviet Ukraine.
August 1944, Paris: Parisians along the streets of the city. A convoy of Allied troops and vehicles passes by. Civilians cheer and greet the troops. Men remove road blocks and barricades erected by the Germans. Tanks and military vehicles on the streets. 25 August 1944: A large crowd gathered to greet the French 2nd Armored Division led by General Philippe Leclerc. Soldiers on tanks wave to the crowd as they cheer and welcome the troops. U.S. soldiers and tanks amidst the crowd. The convoy approaches the Eiffel Tower. Girls, women and children kiss the soldiers. Street fighting between the FFI, Allied troops and German soldiers. Soldiers run across the street. Civilians take cover. A man clicks photographs. Germans fire. People take cover. The Allied convoy on the road. Soldiers in the streets fight back. German snipers shoot from a building. Nazi officers and soldiers taken prisoners. They are marched out of the Institute of German, used as their headquarters. Prisoners sweep the street outside Hotel Majestic. Allied soldiers and civilians watch. French and U.S. troops ride past Parisian monuments including the Notre Dame Cathedral, Palace De La Concorde, Champs Elysees, and approach the Arc De Triomphe. Collaborationists are rounded up, hissed at, and man handled. French crowd deals roughly with a female collaborationist: Men paint a woman's face and pull her by the hair. Male collaborationists are also led away. German General Dietrich Von Choltitz, Commander of the Paris region, and his German Garrison surrender. The German soldiers are marched through the streets past. The people of Paris celebrate. Civilians hold banners and read the newspaper headlines as they celebrate and cheer. (World War II period).
German propaganda newsreel depicting German perspective defending against Allied Invasion of northern France on D-Day (June 6, 1944). German citizens at newsstand reading newspaper headlines announcing the Allied invasion of France. A map of northern France. Scenes from June 6, 1944 as Allied bombers attack the French coast during D-Day operations. German sailors on ships monitoring incoming Allied invasion. German Navy sailors and German soldier radio operators communicate, listening with headphones and operating morse code transmitters and radios as the Germans sound the alarm. German soldiers take their positions at coastal fortifications of the Atlantic Wall. They pile up shells and use search lights. German coastal guns and submarines fire at the Allied fleet in the English Channel. Night fighting. Artillery and ship guns fired. Explosions as Allied crafts are hit. Soldiers fire machine guns as the enemy approaches the coast. German officers and soldiers in German pillboxes. German submarine fires torpedo and an Allied ship explodes far in the distance. A German officer looks through binoculars to survey the damage.
U.S. Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force, VIII Fighter Command operations in Germany during World War II. Gun camera views from 15 April 1944: Captain HL Fogg of the 359th Fighter Group 368th Squadron attacking ground targets, in one of their last combat missions in P-47s. (The unit converted to P-51s in April, 1944.) Captain Fogg strafes a train and an oil well. White smoke arises due to the firing and bombardment. An electric tower. The aircraft in flight over a field.
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