Opening scene shows U.S. soldiers firing rifles as they advance in the hedge rows (Bocage) of Normandy after the D-Day invasion in World War 2. Lightning is seen as a storm begins. Various invasion ships and boats are seen being pummeled by wind and waves. Some ships are seen tilted against the shore and damage to beachhead installations is evident all across the shore the wake of the storm. Landing craft of various sizes are left where they had been driven by the storm onto the shore. Twisted steel and damaged boats are seen everywhere. Views of U.S. infantry advancing into the interior of Normandy, under fire. A Sherman tank camouflaged with foliage, moves past demolished building. Troops marching single file along the sides of a rural road. At TC: 00: 57, the film continues with enactments of German officers in conference. At TC: 01:06, the actual Normandy beachhead is seen again with troops and war materiel being delivered without port facilities. Amphibious 2 and a half ton trucks (DUKWs) are seen making their way from transport ships to the shore. View of cargoes being lowered from a transport ship to a DUKW. Views of crew on the ship's deck, including an African American operating the cargo hoist. Closeup of cargo net with supplies dropping into a DUKW. Closeup two soldiers (one an African American) riding in a DUKW. Trucks and cranes on the beach. A soldier operates a crane placing ammunition into a truck. Crew member on a transport ship passes Jerry cans of fuel to a soldier in a DUKW. An M36 tank destroyer (90 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M36) filled with soldier, drives from ashore from an LST. Numerous trucks gathered on the beachhead. Closeups of two soldiers at the front. Closeup of M36 tank destroyer moving toward the camera. Aerial overview of a beachhead. Soldiers with shovels fill holes in a roadway as trucks pass. A destroyed railroad yard. A destroyed airfield. A destroyed harbor. Destroyed rail line and communications lines at Valognes, in Normandy, France. African American soldiers using special equipment to string communications lines onto telephone poles. Closeups of them in vehicles designed for that purpose. Closeups of wires being unspooled. American soldiers connecting wires atop a pole. A group of African American soldiers working on telephone lines. Others are seen using mine detectors. An African American soldier operating a mobile crane. African American soldiers installing pierced steel plank (Marsden matting) on an airfield. A team of African American soldiers placing rails in place for a railroad. Others working on pipeline. One uses an acetylene torch to weld a pipe. Fuel gushing from a hose refueling an armored vehicle. The destroyed port of Cherbourg occupied by American troops. View a week later of the harbor in full operation. Cranes unloading a locomotive at the port. View of port operations on July 4, 1944. A German aircraft overhead and bombs exploding. More views of work being done on the port. Stockpiles of supplies at the port. A Sherman tank moving with infantry. Troops moving along sides of a road. An M36 tank destroyer is welcomed by local civilians as it moves through their town. A 75 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 moves through a town 25 miles from Paris. American infantry marching through a town. Heavy army trucks carry supplies. Sign posted for the "Red Ball Express." Columns of trucks carrying supplies from the port of Cherbourg to the front. Mines exploding nearby as the trucks move at night. Closeup of an African American soldier driving one of the trucks.
Air and Naval gunfire attacks by American Task Force against Tokyo, Japan, during World War 2. A Destroyer in the background fires its main battery. Battleship underway fires to the starboard. Fighter aircraft take off from carrier deck. Group of U.S. SB2Cs (Helldiver) in formation. Two U.S. Grumman F6F hellcats in flight. TBM Avengers in flight. Mount Fujiyama seen above cloud cover. Japanese installations on ground being struck. Noticeable absence of Japanese defensive actions.
Drivers climb aboard Two German Panzer VI Tiger tanks to demonstrate them at a proving ground in Germany. during World War 2. Views of the tanks moving rapidly across a field. One rolls over a fairly large tree. View of one descending a steep hill rolling over small trees. Closeup of the tread mechanism. Turret rotating on one as it moves forward. A tank backing up, setting into position, and firing its 88mm gun. Round bursting in the distance. Firing at a line of target vehicles. Round strikes a target tank. German Army officers observing through binoculars. Closeup of the target tank burning. Change of scene to an area of combat in Europe during World War 2. A machine gun is firing out the window of an abandoned house. German tank approaches with its gun pointed rearward. It runs over a tree and drives through the wall of the house. It then proceeds through the entire building which collapses around it as it moves. It emerges and drives away.
DesRon 2 ASW (anti-submarine warfare) "hunter killer" exercises of the USS Wallace L Lind (DD-703) and USS Charles P Cecil, (DD-835) underway in Guantanamo Bay. SH-3A helicopters in flight above water. Helicopter dips sonar in water. An S-2E Med Evac is seen in flight, flying toward signal flare in the water with its mad boom extended.
Battle of Grosswardein, precursor to Battle of Debrecen, in World War 2. In late September, 1944, the German 23rd Panzer division was ordered to clear Grosswardein (aka Oradea or Nagyvárad) and environs occupied by Soviet and Romanian forces (who had switched sides a month earlier). In late September, 1944, the German 23rd Panzer division was ordered to clear Grosswardein (aka Oradea or Nagyvárad) and environs occupied by Soviet and Romanian forces (who had switched sides a month earlier). This was prelude to the World War 2 Battle of Debrecen, in October, 1944. Map shows areas of interest and reflects German treatment of Grosswardein and Debrecen as part of Hungary (Northern Transylvania), A German 88mm artillery piece is seen being towed uphill by a SdKfz 6 half-track. Battery of German 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 cannons being fired from high ground. Their shells striking at edge of wooded area. View of shells being loaded. Chalk writing on one "trotzdem siegen win" or in English "We will win despite all this". German Panther medium tanks move at the head of a column that includes Stug III and other armor. A Stug III camouflaged with tree branches. German armor advancing across and open field. Two tanks parked, and their crew members watching the battlefield. Explosions in the field. German machine gunners firing against Soviet infantry. Romanian soldiers surrendering in a grove of trees, are searched and processed as prisoners of war. German infantry moving through field of corn stalks, along with armored personnel carriers (Schutzenpanzerwagen SdKfz 250/10 Neu). A truck burning in the field, with a field piece attached on a towbar.
Opening scene shows American soldiers gathered around a C-47 transport plane on a desert field in Oran, Algeria during World War 2. They walk away en masse from the plane. Another C-47 is seen with tail number tail number 42-23507 (Records show this aircraft was delivered to Oran on May 20, 1943 and supported Operation Torch- The Italian Campaign of World War 2.) Scene shifts to interior of a C-47 rigged as an air evacuation aircraft, with wounded American soldiers in stacked bunks on both sides of the aircraft. A nurse and corpsmen are attending to the wounded. Two soldiers carry one of the wounded soldiers on a litter to the aircraft door. View from the outside of the soldier being carried by others to a waiting field ambulance. More views of the wounded being transferred from the plane to waiting ambulances. Scene shifts to ambulances parked on the desert field with a large Red Cross flag above them. A Curtiss P-40 fighter plane taxis past the camera. A large open field tent with a large Red Cross flag flying above it. Nurses and medical corpsmen tend to wounded soldiers lying in ambulances. A nurse serves water to some wounded.
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