Opening scene shows international diplomats gathered at the 1919 Peace Conference in the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) at the Palace of Versailles, France. Next is an exterior view of the U.S. Capitol Building and then of the Congress in session inside. U.S. Army troops, with full field packs including bedrolls, are seen embarking on a troop ship bound for France. Others with full field gear are seen boarding a troop railroad train. A train filled with soldiers who wave to friends and family as they depart a railroad station. U.S. troops march along dirt road after arriving in France. French soldiers stand amidst piles of coal being shoveled into rail cars. French troops seen from the rear, advancing along a road, in large numbers. Next, they are seen from the fromt and them from the side. French artillerymen riding in horse-drawn wagons, pulling 75mm field pieces ("French 75s"). German Field Marshal August von Mackensen and aides walk casually past a relaxing group of German soldiers sitting on the ground during World War 1. Suddenly, a motorized column of German World War II armor is seen moving along a dirt road. Closeup of a German Panzer II tank (German Pz.Kpfw.II Ausf.F) is seen, passing the camera. A momentary glimpse of several German Messerschmitt Bf 109s in formation.
General Secretary of the Communist Party Joseph Stalin, President Franklin D Roosevelt of the U.S. and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the UK seated on porch of Soviet Embassy building in Tehran, Iran, 28 November 1943, during World War 2. Scene shifts to group of Yugoslav Partisans and closeup of their leader, Marshal Tito, at their mountain headquarters. Yugoslavian Marshal Tito smoking a pipe while standing on the porch of his headquarters with American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Officer, Army Major Linn M. Farish, U.S. Liaison to the Partisans, and British Brigadier General Fitzroy Maclean, Winston Churchill's special envoy to the Yugoslavia leader. Next scene shows French resistance fighters with their flag on a mountaineer's pick. It reads,""Vaincre ou Mourir"" and displays a cross of Lorraine. Closeups of French resistance fighters at attention and also relaxed, smiling, and singing. Scenes of various such groups joining in the June 6, 1944 Allied invasion at Normandy, France. Aerial glimpse of D-day task force crossing the English Channel. Animated map shows Germany being attacked by Russian forces from the East, by the other allies from Britain in the West and from Italy, in the South. Allied forces moving across a pontoon bridge and engaging German forces in France. A U.S. M3 Gun Motor Carriage firing its 75mm gun. American troops firing machine guns, carrying wounded on stretchers and using flame throwers. Troops, including ambulatory wounded moving under enemy fire. Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division in France. One carries a wounded buddy. American troops firing a variety of artillery from under camouflage netting. French underground forces engaged in Paris. Closeup of one wearing a French Adrian helmet firing a rifle. Another throws a grenade out an apartment window. An American tank moving under the base of the Eiffel Tower as French Resistance fighters run across the area. French citizens celebrating the liberation of Paris. View from an American jeep as French people cheer. Closeups of French people. A bombed out bridge. A battlefield cemetery. Destruction and death in the wake of combat. Fallen French civilians lying on pavement. A U.S. tank slowly driving through a masonry wall. Soviet forces advancing through destroyed buildings. Chinese troops marching along the Great Wall. British troops on parade in tropics. Asian ally troops marching. Huge formation of marching U.S. soldiers. United Nations flags in the breeze.
Nazi rally in Nuremberg, Germany ca.1934. Massed Storm troopers and spectators salute Hitler. An artillery piece is fired. Hitler personally recognizing loyal Storm troopers. Animated map of Asia, showing Japanese occupation of Manchuria, and Italian occupation of Ethiopia. Newspaper headlines describe Britain and France hesitating to support League of Nations oil sanctions against Italy; and U.S. increasing its oil exports to Italy by 600% (ca. 1935). Hitler and Hermann Goering looking pleased in Hitler's private railroad car. Adolf Hitler at a planning table covered with maps. German citizens traveling abroad and Joachim von Ribbentrop visiting London, as ambassador to Great Britain, in 1936. View of Léon Degrelle and his Catholic-fascist, Rexist party in Belgium (ca. 1936). View of Colonel Francois de la Rocque speaking at a Cross of Fire (Croix-de-Feu) party night rally in France. Konrad Henlein, leader of the Sudeten German Party in Czechoslovakia. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian National Socialist official, seen in an automobile during a parade. Sir Oswald Mosley addressing followers and defending Hitler. Street scenes of public disorder attributed to Nazi sympathizers in France and Belgium. Mass meeting of the German American Bund in Madison Square Garden, New York City,1939. U.S. flags and picture of George Washington decorate stage. Fritz Julius Kuhn addresses the gathering and members rough up a protester. Views of heavy industry in Germany, especially steel manufacturing for remilitarization. Persons working at a German concentration camp. Dramatized execution by machine gun. View of Heinrich Himmler. German President Paul von Hindenburg. German national conscription of 1935 during military mobilization efforts. German youth training pilots with gliders. German paratroopers, Junkers 52 aircraft, German soldiers goosestep, views of German tanks. Ju 87 Stuka plane. German invasion of Rhineland, 1936. Construction of Siegfried Line. Antitank barriers, bunkers, dragons teeth. Hitler visiting Westwall. German military parade.
Summary of World War II events and formation of the United Nations Organization. Soviet troops on Eastern Front of Europe fire artillery on German positions in 1944. Russian troops advance. German soldiers come out of buildings and surrender. Allied Forces land in France on D-Day. Allied troops and tanks fight Germans on streets in towns and villages of France. U.S. Army tanks fire at German positions. Various groups of German prisoners of war march along roads and are herded into prison camps operated by American and British forces. In 1945, the Allied leaders meet at Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula to discuss Allied military strategy in the final months of WWII. Leaders included British PM Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The meeting of U.S. and Soviet Russian troops at the Elbe River. German Nazi Swastika symbol blown up in explosion atop Zeppelinfeld Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. Aerial view of Berlin in ruins, as seen from low-flying aircraft flying directly over the Unter den Linden boulevard and the Brandenburg Gate. Wrecked and bombed German buildings seen everywhere. German officials signing surrender instrument at Rheims. U.S. President Harry S Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin at Potsdam Conference. U.S. Marines battling on beaches of Pacific Islands. Iconic shot of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima. Aerial view of bombed and ruined city of Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese surrender to MacArthur aboard the battleship USS Missouri. General MacArthur speaks aboard Missouri. Victory celebrations all across the world, with some scenes from earlier V-E Day (Victory in Europe) day in May 1945, including crowds celebrating in Paris, France, and some scenes on V-J Day (Victory over Japan day) in August 1945. Crowds on streets celebrate. Happy crowds jam streets. Delegates of Nations, among them Andrei Gromyko and Vyascheslav Molotov meet in San Francisco and create a United Nations organization. Truman arrives at signing of UN charter. Various delegates sign charter. U.S. troops disembark troop carrier ships at U.S. ports and are discharged after completing military service in World War 2. Group of U.S. Army soldiers exits a church (the Chapel at Fort Dix, New Jersey), waving their discharge papers in hand.
U.S. Army Air Forces C-47aircraft , number 42-93098, of the 9th Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder Group, and its crew. This is the first aircraft and crew to drop American paratroopers (pathfinders) over France during the Allied invasion, in World War 2. The aircraft taxis on a British airfield. Crew of the aircraft are seen in front of it, including pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Joel Crouch, Copilot, Captain Vito Pedone, Navigator, Captain William Culp, Radio Operator, Harold Coonrod, along with two crew chiefs. Crew members shake hands and board the aircraft. Colonel Crouch waves from the cockpit of the C-47 (but has not started engines). Major J.L. Sweetman boards another aircraft. Colonel Crouche's C-47 taxis to where the Pathfinders will load up. View of Control Tower at RAF North Witham, with ambulance parked outside it. Three hours before takeoff.Colonel Crouch, is seen on a path near the airfield, with a Pathfinder Captain and Lieutenant, who will be aboard his aircraft and be the first to jump into France. They kid around. The Pathfinder officers note that Colonel Crouch wears paratroop wings. Later, two Pathfinders, of the 101st Airborne Division , with camouflaged faces and American flag insignia on their right shoulders, step from woods and pose momentarily. Pathfinder Paratroopers line up to board C-47 aircraft as Lt. Col. Crouch rides a scooter at the airfield. Aircrews and Pathfinders pose for photographs before taking off. The lead aircraft, number 42-93098, with Lieutenant Colonel Crouch at the controls, takes off from RAF Station North Witham at 9:54 PM, on June 5, 1944. to begin the invasion of France. (Note: This C-47 was shot down on September 18, 1944, during Operation Market Garden, and crash landed on Haamstede Airbase, Netherlands. Although shot at by German troops on the ground, pilot, Maj Joseph A. Beck, and Navigator Lt. Vincent J. Paterno, survived as prisoners of war. Copilot Capt Fred O. Lorimer and another crew member were fatally shot.)
Preparations in year 1943 for the June 1944 invasion of Western Europe by Allied Force during World War 2. Conference at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in London. U.S. Generals George Marshall, Henry H. Arnold and British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery meet at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force). Montage of war scenes: British Lancaster bombers taking off. British men and women monitors working in a British Command and Intelligence Center, tracking aircraft positions on maps. U.S. B-17 bombers in daylight missions over Germany. Allied pilots and crew members in aircraft. U.S. Army Air Force B-17 aircraft at high altitudes leaving contrails behind. Bombs bursting on German industrial targets. Allied agents being airdropped over France. Allied one-man submarines or solo submarines, torpedo boats and Commandos sampling French beaches and soil conditions in the Normandy region for ability to support 30-ton tanks for the invasion of France. British airman loading reconnaissance camera into a British Spitfire reconnaissance aircraft for photographing the planned invasion region. Woman operating microscope analyzing film. Aerial reconnaissance film images being laid out and attached together to create a large overhead viewing map. Arms and equipment being air dropped to indigenous resistance forces in Nazi-occupied Europe. Mulberry floating harbor segments being designed and built to create invasion ports. Allied landing craft training in Devon, England. Allied aircraft strafing a German ship. Meteorological equipment assessing weather along the invasion coast. Wire netting to pave the beaches. Underwater pipelines to carry gasoline or petrol to France. Allied armored vehicles bearing the White Star. Troops being inoculated or vaccinated. Newly built ship going down the ways at an Allied ship yard that builds Navy warships. View of British intelligence officers with headsets at radio equipment, and personnel monitoring German radio broadcasts. Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran, where the Big Three are seen meeting at Tehran Conference to finalize invasion plans. Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill sitting on the porch of the Embassy building, in 1943. General Eisenhower and Allied Military leaders planning the D-Day invasion. General Omar Bradley, sitting with a British admiral. General Bernard Law Montgomery Aerial view of formation of U.S. Army Air Force B-17 aircraft, flying through Flak bursts. Pilots in B-17 cockpit .Bombs striking German targets. Polish, Scenes including gun camera footage of Czech, and British in Spitfire aircraft striking German railroads and marshaling yards. B-26 bombers and gunner attacking German Luftwaffe Me-109 aircraft.