German Air Force (Luftwaffe) operations in support of the German 990th Regiment (990th Volksgrenadier Regiment of the 277th Infantry Division) during battle of Normandy, following Allied invasion in World War 2. German Focke-Wulf FW-190s take off from a field in France and proceed on tactical mission interdicting Allied lines of communication in Normandy. View of FW-190 dropping bombs, and of others strafing roads, and ground targets where Allied military movements are underway.
German forces defending against Soviet attacks on the Eastern Front in WW2. German officers in the field confer over maps. German infantry walking through mist in a forest. German halftrack Camouflaged with foliage, pulling camouflaged artillery field piece. A halftrack pulling an 88mm Flak gun. Closeup of German soldier smoking a cigarette. German Stug IVs moving through forest. Infantry walking along a dirt road interspersed with Stug IV tank destroyers camouflaged with foliage.German soldiers carrying MG 42 machine guns. German tank camouflaged in branches and foliage. Tank destroyers and infantry armed with panzerfaust, to combat Soviet armor. A Soviet tank hit and smoking across a field, and two more burning on a dirt road. An MG34 machine gun. German infantry hunkered down in woods. A lone Soviet tank speeding along a dirt road, as a German soldier, armed with panzerfaust, watches while lying in grass. Explosion as tank is ostensibly hit by panzerfaust. Shell striking Soviet tank. Closeups of several knocked out Soviet tanks. German soldiers examine wrecked Soviet T-34 tank and SU-100 tank destroyer. German Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-87 dive bomber aircraft flying low overhead and then bombing a building near Warsaw. Close up views of Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers in flight during dives. Spectacular explosion following a strike by Stuka.
At start, the film shows a formation of American C-47 transport aircraft with paratroopers starting to jump from them during World War 2. Viewed moments later from the ground, the sky is filled with trooper' open chutes, descending. An animated map shows Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. It shows location of the Allied paratroopers drop in Holland, intended to spearhead a drive around the Main River into Germany. The map then shows German forces encircling the paratroopers and the Second British Army heading North to the rescue. Next, a huge number of American Soldiers are seen assembled out of doors in England. Closeup of General Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking in a microphone to the assembly. Closeups of soldiers including some who are American Army Air Corps pilots, and other aircrew members, mostly Lieutenants. Senior Paratrooper officers stand at attention in front of formation of troopers with American flag beside them.(Narrator says these were the men who made up the "lost division," heroes who fought alone for seven terrible days.) General Eisenhower makes his way between close ranks of the paratroopers. He is followed by Brigadier General and a Colonel. Lieutenant General Lewis H Bereton also makes his way through the ranks. Scene shifts to a base in England where many British Airspeed AS.51 Horsa gliders are seen with paratroopers heading across the airfield to board. American C-47 aircraft are seen in the background. All aircraft are painted with D-Day stripes. Several British and American paratroop officers review a map together. At a tent camp, A military policeman and two U.S. paratroopers checking their weapons and ammunition. Some troopers sharpen their knives. A trooper is issued Dutch and German money. A British and and American trooper in camouflaged helmets, pose before a glider with a huge British roundel on its side. British paratroopers boarding a Horsa glider, named "Gertie." A Horsa glider moving as it is towed by a British Whitley twin-engine bomber. View from side of runway as the bomber takes off with its towed glider behind. (Narrator comments: "Destination, Holland.") Formations of tow planes and gliders in flight. View of pilot in cockpit of a Whitley bomber. Formations of fighter aircraft in flight overhead. View from inside an aircraft as paratroopers exit through a side door. Sky filled with paratroopers in chutes descending. (Note: This Allied thrust into Holland to launch a drive around the German Siegfried Line was known as the Allied joint American-British "Operation Market Garden," which took place 17 to 25 September 1944, the 7 days referred to by the film Narrator. )
Formations of B-24 Liberator bombers are seen in flight, headed for Ploesti, Romania, on August 1, 1943, during World War 2. Next, vertical columns of bombs are seen falling from the planes. Animated map of Europe shows Romania and Ploesti. It show paths of oil from the Ploesti oil fields to Germany. (Narrator states Ploesti provides 30% of Axis oil.) Map show path of 9th Air Force bombers from Libya to the Ploesti oil fields. Scenes shift to captured German films from 1944, showing the fires and destruction resulting from the constant B-24 raids. Huge black clouds rise from the area. Firefighters rush to combat flames. They direct streams of water on the conflagrations. (Commenter states: "Delayed action bombs prevented firefighters from rushing in, until too late.") Nighttime views of large fires and heavy smoke from 6 of Ploesti's 7 refineries ripped wide open. Film advances to August, 1944, showing Ploesti with the fires out, following Rumania's capitulation. Next, with some fires still burning, King Michael I of Romania, tours the site with military officers. They walk amidst the debris. Smoke rising near a rail marshaling yard. Against a background of dense smoke rising, a Slate is displayed showing the cost to the United States of the Ploesti raids, as 300 bombers and 3000 American airmen were lost.
Allied forces raid the coast of Normandy in France on the D-Day invasion, during World War 2. North Shore Regiment (3rd Canadian Division) soldiers land at the Nan sector of Juno beach. The Canadian soldiers aboard a landing vehicle approach gutted coastal houses and Nazi bunkers on the Normandy beach. The gates of landing craft open and soldiers advance facing intense open fire by the Nazis. Soldiers carrying their weapons run in shallow sea waters to reach the land. One soldier pats the back of the next in front of him as they prepare to wade ashore. Several other beach landings shown by Allied soldiers. Some wrecked boats and dead bodies of Allied soldiers in the sea. Injured American soldier tended by a medic, and infantrymen take guard close to sea wall to protect themselves from German gun fire. Paratroopers including 101st Airborne land ten miles inside the coast, free French villages and talk to natives about whereabouts of Nazis. American soldiers talk to a French boy and girl and French women and men indicating German soldier whereabouts.
German Army fights with the Allied infantry and tanks on the Western Front in France and England, during the summer of 1944 in World War 2. Animated maps show English and French invasion coastlines. During Battle of Caen, German soldiers load ammunition on a camouflaged truck. The truck driven on roads. A German soldier on truck observes American bombers in sky overhead. Truck parks to the side and German antiaircraft guns fired. Night view from ground of bombs being dropped and buildings burning in the distance in Caen, France. German military trucks move at night on roads passing by burning fires. View from inside cabs of moving German vehicles. Daytime view of heavily bombed and destroyed city of Caen with ruins of houses and shops; German infantry walk through the streets of the destroyed and empty city. German soldiers fully loaded with their weapons ready for a battle. Close views of their faces with determined expressions. German tanks, armored vehicles, and infantry move on roads. Among them are two Borgward IV remote-controlled demolition vehicles (Schwerer Ladungsträger Borgward B IV, or heavy explosive carrier Borgward B IV) each driven by one man. Soldiers of German Army observe approach of U.S. Army forces. A German soldier arranges shells for artillery to fire as they fire on Allied positions. Wehrmacht infantry soldiers advance cautiously along roads. German soldiers take cover and prepare to attack as American tanks pass through a village. German soldiers fire on U.S. Army tanks. German soldiers direct an unmanned, remote-controlled small armored vehicle laden with explosives across a field and detonate it near U.S. Army vehicles (it is known as a Goliath Tracked Mine, or Leichter Ladungsträger Goliath (Sd.Kfz. 302/303a/303b); also known as a "beetle tank" to Allied forces, or a German robot tank). Large explosion as the remote-controlled demolition vehicle is detonated. Dead U.S. Army soldier along a road side, and injured German soldiers are aided by other German soldier
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