President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic Charles de Gaulle makes inspection trip through the country at end of World War 2. Crowds line the sidewalks waving French flags. A Free-French tank named: "L'Audacieux." Numerous destroyed and damaged buildings and rubble lining the streets where his motorcade proceeds. At one stop, he is greeted by an honor guard of Colonial troops. His motorcade passes through a section of the Maginot line where rows of anti-tank dragon's teeth appear intact. At entry of one town a welcoming banner across the road reads: "Soyez Les Bienvenus." De Gaulle steps from a car near a sidewalk filled with French school girls, accompanied by Nuns, in habit. He shakes hands with some girls dressed in traditional local costumes. More views of destruction and rubble. Only the street is clear and rubble lines the edges. Armored cars and other armor pass through twin gates of a city and proceed down a main street, followed by marching French infantry, as people watch and cheer from sidewalks. A Cadillac automobile carries De Gaulle to a French Naval marina. Sailors present arms and he proceeds down a ramp to a floating dock, where he boards a motor launch that takes him along a river. More scenes of cheering French crowds.
World War One British Tank crew wearing protective leather helmets enter Mark I Male Tank through access door adjacent to sponson. Officer, carrying his black cat mascot on his shoulder, follows. Tank's sponson (also called barbette) is seen rotating with its 6 pounder gun changing elevation.
Camera pans along a road and railroad, show a truck convoy moving on the road past camouflaged barracks and hangars of a French airbase in World War 1. De Havilland DH-4s and other aircraft are parked on the field. An American and a French officer walk together across the field. Mechanics and helpers work to restrain a Spad XIII moving with engine running. Several of them hold it back by pulling on wing struts. Finally the pilot (or mechanic) in the cockpit stops the plane, and several other men catch up with it.
U.S. flyers, who escaped from Swiss internment, examine remains of destroyed German warplanes at a French airfield. A swastika seen on the tail of an airplane and a German cross on the wing of another. Men stand on the tail of a Nazi airplane. A group stands near the wrecked tail of a large German airplane. A U.S. P-47 aircraft is parked in the background. It has a red cowling, identifying it as belonging to the 56th Fighter Group (likely to the 63rd Fighter Squadron, which in Spring of 1944, showed no squadron color on the tail). .Army Air Force L-5 Sentinel aircraft in flight over a field.
U.S. soldier stands on top of a railroad car as another on a platform operates controls to lower the barrel of a 14 inch railway gun.
U.S.Seaplane operations during World War 1. Curtiss F-5L seaplane being moved out of a hangar. Several Curtiss HS-2L seaplanes being launched from the shore by teams of sailors who use long lines to retrieve rolling dollies after the seaplanes float. Crew starts engines on a flying boat which then taxis out in the water. The seaplane has three propellers (one a pusher) and a triple box tail (similar to later Curtiss NC series seaplanes). View from above of the flying boat in flight with gunner visible in front cockpit. View from below of a Curtiss HS-2L seaplane dropping a bomb. (World War I; World War 1; WWI; WW1)
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