Views of Taormina,and the nearby Island of Isola Bella, in the Ionian Sea, Sicily, taken by U.S. Army photographers during World War 2. The Ionian Sea coast near Taormina, seen from a high point of land. A home with cantilevered porch on a hillside. A woman looking over the wall. View of a substantial building in the countryside on the side of a hill. The door of a building with "cleared of mines," written on it and a sign reading,"Reserved for USAAF." A waterfront home with a large deck and rooftop veranda overlooking the sea. The Island of Isola Bella with strip of sand crossing to it at low tide. The adjoining bay and small rocky peninsula. A substantial government or corporate complex high on a hill. View from high on a hill, of a speedboat underway in the sea.
U.S. soldiers in bomb-damaged port facilities at Messina, Sicily, during World War 2. A U.S. Army Technical Sergeant wearing a holstered sidearm, walks past an overturned railroad locomotive. He stops and picks up an abandoned Italian Breda 30 light machine gun. He checks the weapon's action and holds it up in firing position. Another U.S. soldier rummages amongst abandoned Italian small arms. The Tech Sergeant climbs aboard an abandoned port utility tug vehicle. The camera focuses on the side profile of the vehicle. A crane on a railway is seen near a damaged ship. Chunks of concrete pier are seen and damaged port machinery. A small fire burns at the base of a hill near a rail line at the port.
German Navy officers and sailors (including Walter Gerhold, who won the Knight's Cross for his one man mini-submarine [Neger] attack on the Polish Cruiser Dragon in July 1944) arrive by train and are greeted by affiliated Hitler youth in Berlin, during World War 2. Accompanied by a contingent of Navy-related Hitler youth boys, they board a bus and are waved at by a group of Hitler youth girls, as they depart. View inside the bus of a young Kriegsmarine (Navy) officer sitting with admiring Hitler youth in Navy-style uniforms. Next they are seen meeting the National German Youth Leader (Reichsjugendleiter) Artur Axmann, in uniform. One of the boys is then fitted out in flotation gear,helmet, and breathing apparatus of a Marder human torpedo operator. The boys gather around a Marder, one-man submarine. Closeup of some boys shows "11/184 Kiel,"on their hats, indicating the Youth unit to which they belong. The boy dressed in operators gear, now sits in the cockpit of the Marder submarine. A sailor shows him how to aim it. Those gathered around, tap on the plexiglass cockpit of the submarine. An experienced sailor tells the boys about using such a weapon against English ships and amuses them with personal stories.
German troops advance in Transcarpathian Oblast, Ukraine, during World War 2. Map shows the Polish-Ukrainian (Soviet Union) border. Narrator refers to the Battle in the East (the Eastern Front). German armored forces, camouflaged with branches of shrubbery, attack to the East, primarily from Poland, in Operation Barbarossa. Stug III self-propelled assault guns are seen, as well as towed artillery pieces moving along rural roads in agricultural areas. German officers look through binoculars. Spire of a church seen in distant rural village. German artillery firing at close to zero elevation. A small village with houses burning. Closeup of German tank commander looking out from his top hatch. German soldier receiving first aid for cut on face. German infantry engaging defenders in house-to-house combat with small arms. Houses ablaze in the village.
German troops fight the Allied forces in the Netherlands during World War 2. Animated map locates Arnhem and Nijmegen in the Netherlands. German troops fire at British parachutists and gliders as they descend from their transport aircraft. Afterwards they pursue and engage those who made it safely to the ground. Scattered Allied equipment, dead bodies and downed gliders. Burning gliders. Allied aircraft shot down and crashing. British prisoners of war seated in a group in a meadow.
Repair of telephone cables in a bomb ditch in Germany during World War 2. Telephone men splice cables. A bomb explodes. Scenes of operators and communication systems that have lost connections due to the blast. A man talks over a telephone and works on an instrument panel rerouting communications, and then researching to locate the outage. A truck arrives at the explosion site. Repair personnel locate the cut line and then install and solder a new line into place. After communications are restored, scenes of German women at typewriters and switchboards resuming communications.
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