Anachronistic mixture of scenes from Germany, circa 1935, Italy, circa 1915, and World War 2. Opening sequence shows Waffen SS troops goosestepping on parade in Nuremberg,Bavaria, circa 1935. Then a scene is inserted of Italian Generalissimo Luigi Cadorna, Chief of Staff, Italian Army, in World War 1, who salutes while reviewing troops. This is followed by scenes of grim-faced civilians watching German forces occupy their countries in World War II. Finally a radio tower and antenna are shown.
Three P-47s of the U.S. Army Air Corps 66th Fighter Squadron, 57th Fighter Group, raise dust as they take off from Alto Air Base in Corsica,France, during World War 2. Pilot seen in bubble canopy of late model P-47D, named "Halliburtons Hellion" of the 64th Fighter Squadron, during flight over water. Flights of P-47s in formation maneuvers. A Squadron of P-47s in formation overhead. One P-47 dives. View over P-47 in flight over hilly terrain in Italy. View from a P-47 flying very low over some people with a small truck, examining destroyed vehicles and equipment on the ground
Map of Italy shows narrowest part of peninsula where U.S. and British armies are stationed. Map highlights Anzio and Cassino. A building on top of mountain. On island of Corsica, Lt Gen Ira C Eaker, commanding general of the Mediterranean Air Forces, Maj Gen John K Cannon, leader of the Twelfth Air Force, and Brig Gen Gordon Seville of the Twelfth Tactical Air Command, plan Operation Strangle. By animation the operation is explained where pilots of Fifty-Seventh Fighter Group is required to bomb behind enemy lines and cut off the transport of enemy supplies using the P-47 Thunderbolt. Shows destroyed bridges. P-47s taxi at airfield. P-47s parked in flight line. Crew chiefs in canopy of the plane and inspect other sections of plane. Pilots board planes. Planes take off from runway. P-47s in flight over sea, mountains and a castle. P-47s in flight behind squadron leader. P-47s in flight over clouds. P-47s peel off above the bridge. An incendiary bomb is dropped on a bridge. More bridges are bombed. Explosions on bridges. P-47 in flight over fields and railroad tracks. One train spotted. P-47 strafing moving trains. Trains explode. P-47 in flight over coastline and pilot in cockpit. P-47 strafing installations and ground targets. (World War II period).
(Audio only). Radio reporter John Charles Daly reports on U.S. Navy operations in Pacific Front War under command of Admiral Chester W Nimitz in World War II. News about bombardment of Okinawa and attack on Japan by U.S. troops. New York weather report and news about Easter celebrations. News about war in Italy.
Events after World War II. Harvesting in U.S. farms. Closeup view as a tractor plows fields. Men on horseback driving sheep. Woman serves a Thanksgiving turkey dinner to her family gathered at a nice dining room table in the United States. Her children look at the food with smiles. Contrasting scenes show Europeans starving and living in poverty amid post-war ruins. Hungry women and children looking for food. A child in a soup line. Women wait in a line to receive grain that is weighed on a scale (possibly Soviet area). Globe spins. Joseph Stalin and other Soviet officials watch a military parade in Red Square in Russia. Retrospective scenes of the meeting of Russian and U.S. troops at the Elbe River late in World War 2. Communist rally in Paris. A protester holds up a hammer and sickle symbol. A demonstration of protestors in Athens, Greece, around time of Greek Civil War, and another Communist demonstration in Rome, Italy. Map depicts communist control growing over Central and Eastern Europe early in Cold War. High aerial view of Washington DC with a lower altitude airplane flying over the U.S. Capitol. Exterior view of State Department (Old Executive Office Building) in Washington DC. View of Secretary of State James F Byrnes working at his desk. Byrnes speaks of U.S. role in world affairs while at a conference in Stuttgart, Germany. Scenes from a meeting of the Big Four foreign ministers in 1947. Scenes changes to North Portico of White House. Swearing in ceremony of George C. Marshall as Secretary of State. President Harry S Truman shakes hands with Secretary George Marshall. Night view of London landmark buildings. View of door at No. 10 Downing Street in London. View of brutal winter conditions in Europe in February 1947. Citizens try to dig out a train stuck in snow. Women in line in Britain for a rationed good, still saddled with its own postwar reconstruction. Narrator relates that Britain was unable to continue to provide massive military and economic aid to the Greek regime and appealed to the U.S. to handle the situation. Secretary of State Marshall and President Truman seen talking together in front of a fireplace mantle. Marshall boards aircraft for a visit to Moscow. Truman in a White House meeting, seated at oval table with his advisors and cabinet. Truman addressing joint session of congress unveiling Truman Doctrine on March 12, 1947. He asks for funds for Greece and Turkey. Globe highlights USSR. Door sign reads 'Policy Planning Staff - George F Kennan - Director'. Director Kennan seen at his desk. He advocates a long term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies. Reconstruction in Europe. Ground level and aerial views of bomb destroyed European cities, and workers cleaning up rubble from bombing in World War 2. Brief scene from the meeting of 16 nations in Paris on July 3, 1947. Scenes from United Nations meeting held in Lake Success New York in September 1947. George Marshall at podium addressing delegates of UN. Russian delegate Andrey Vyshinsky commenting on Marshall Plan. Signing of Marshall Plan agreement by international delegates meeting in Paris in September 1947.
Discussions between Germany and the Soviet Union in November 1940, about Russia joining the Axis together with Germany, Italy, and Japan. Diplomatic and military delegation stand at railway station in Berlin, Germany. A railway train arrives. Premier Vyacheslav Molotov of the Soviet Union arrives on the train at the railway station. German Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop, German High Command and Japanese representatives greet Molotov. A band plays as the men come out of the railway station. German soldiers stand in lines and Molotov passes the troops in reivew. Delegation takes Molotov to the Reich Chancellery to meet Adolf Hitler, War Minister Hermann Goering, and other German officers.
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