Chartres captured by Allied forces during World War II. A sign reads 'Chartres'. Press correspondents and civilians behind trucks. They dodge snipers. United States soldiers fire tommy guns and rifles at snipers. A soldier firing a rifle near a closed Epicerie (French grocery shop). A soldier stands behind an iron gate and fires. U.S. Soldiers and French soldiers run. Crowd stands behind gates of prefecture. FFI (French Forces of the Interior) and Gendarmes (French national police) with a collaborator. A group of men and women collaborators. Women collaborators with heads shaved are paraded in front of the town hall (Mairie). Cathedral Notre Dame de Chartres or Chartres Cathedral (16 CloƮtre Notre Dame, 28000 Chartres, France). Cathedral spires in view. Snipers march on streets. They are marched to jail. Nazi German snipers with hands on their heads. Crowd waves behind jail. Group of snipers are taken through streets. A priest looks up. (World War II period).
Gestapo torture chambers in Paris, France. Interior of torture chambers of Gestapo (German Secret State Police). French soldier and policemen near boxes. French soldier and policemen hold a cloth. Ropes and blind fold used on victims. A Nazi prisoner. French men with Nazi prisoner look at post. Burial posts. French soldier stands in a burial pit. Policemen stand in the background. (World War II period).
Canadian De Havilland DH.98 Mosquito aircraft is shown to the public for the first time, in Canada, early in World War 2. Air Force officers stand near the aircraft. British test pilot Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland Jr., son of the famed British aviation pioneer and aircraft designer, pilots the airplane in a demonstration flight. The plane taxis for takeoff. De Havilland circles and buzzes the field several times to demonstrate its speed and maneuverability. At one point, he feathers the right engine and demonstrates its excellent single-engine flight characteristics. Complete change of scene, to Wayne, Michigan, in the United States and a snow-covered air field where a Stinson Model 76 observation aircraft (registered NX27772) demonstrates its extreme short takeoff and steep climb capability.. Aerial view of the airplane maneuvering aloft and then landing in the snow, whereupon, it spins about in a 180 degree turn and immediately takes off, again, in very short distance and a steep climb. (Note: NX27772 was the final prototype for the L-5 Sentinel airplane, as it was named, when delivered to the U.S. Army.)
British pilots in hospitals, England. A man gets out of a car and stands in front of a building. Several men stand in a room. The wounded members of Royal Air Force admitted in hospital quarters. Two pilots use crutches and sticks to walk. A doctor administers exercises to the pilots. Orphans and other youngsters wounded in blitz air raids by German Luftwaffe are also admitted. Children lay on beds. Nurses give a girl a mug of milk and she cries when it is taken away before she is done.
Opening scene shows crowds of Parisians surrounding tanks of Free French General Philippe Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division and elements of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division enter Paris, on August 25, 1944, during World War 2. General Charles de Gaulle is seen with French officials in the crowd during liberation of Paris. A Free French soldier speaks to a tank driver and points to the source of some lingering German resistance gunfire. The crowds drop to the ground as gunfire erupts. A French tank fires its gun at a building harboring the German resistance elements. Some persons take shelter behind jeeps. People scramble for shelter in the courtyard of the Notre Dame cathedral. Smoke rising from targeted buildings. People lying down en masse on the ground as gunfire continues.
A large cathedral dominates the opening scene. It seems relatively undamaged although their are destroyed buildings all around it from bombing during World War 2. People are seen carrying their belongings as they flee the area. They pass through narrow corridors between destroyed buildings. View of an orphanage named St. Catharina. View of infants in cribs inside the orphanage. Staff and nurses leading the children out of the building and then loading them aboard a bus. One attendant giving treats to very small infants. Staff waving goodbye to the children and caregivers on the bus, as it departs. Refugees using wagons pulled by cattle to transport them and their belongings. Livestock on the hoof being herded along a road.
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