Allied capture of Cherbourg, France, on June 25th, 1944, in World War 2. German prisoners of war marching under guard, with hands on their heads following surrender. Aerial vies of the Cherbourg harbor, extensively sabotaged by the Germans. Allied engineers working to repair the port. Power shovels, welders, and divers seen at work. Troops moving up the peninsula from Cherbourg. Weapons being distributed to French members of the Maquis guerilla resistance, in Allied occupied areas. French irregular soldiers firing against German forces in mountains, and sabotaging German facilities. Numerous dead bodies of French civilian villagers, killed by a Battalion of the Nazi SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment "Der Führer" (an infantry regiment of 2. SS-Panzer-Division "Das Reich"), and destroyed buildings in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane where the massacre took place. Temporary stakes marking their graves.
General Henry H. Arnold, Commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces, seated in front of world map, reports that since start of World War 2, the U.S. Air Force has gone from number 7, to number 1, in the world. Defense plant workers are shown walking near their place of work. A college football game shown in progress. Individual young men who left civilian life to became pilots, bombardiers, radio technicians, and gunners, in the Air Forces. A commercial DC-3 aircraft taxing to park at an airport. Shown are people who make the Air Forces possible, including many men and women workers at factories and manufacturing plants making aircraft and parts for the World War 2 effort: Steel workers, a woman working on a plane fuselage, actor James Stewart (in uniform), a welder at work, a typist, a machinist using a caliper, and an older couple at home, who forgoe driving their private car, shown covered in their garage. The flaming wreckage of U.S. aircraft at Hickam Field, on December 7, 1941. Large formation of German Heinkel He-111 bombers in flight. Formation of Japanese Mitsubishi G3M (Nell) bombers. U.S. P-40 pursuit planes taxiing out from parking places. Assembly line in U.S. aircraft manufacturing plant. U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress planes on assembly lines. Workmen work on engines and aircraft fuselages. At the Douglas plant U.S. Army Air Forces B-26 Marauder bombers being assembled. Workmen inserting machine guns into a wing.
U.S. Air Force operations in the European Theater during World War 2. A bombardier gets out of the nose of a U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress bomber plane. Pilots talk beside a B-17. An animation of number of sorties and tons of bomb drops over enemy target. Aerial point of view (POV) shots from cockpit of a US Army air force aircraft in flight on an attack run flying low over houses and industry of enemy territory in Europe during World War 2. An aerial formation of B-17s, P-39 Airacobra fighters, B-24 Liberator bombers and P-38 Lightning fighters. Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler giving an impassioned, animated, emotional speech. German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in a conference. American men and women war production workers inside a factory making war materiel. U.S. firing squad fires salute over a grave. An airplane burns and a crew member face down on the grass. U.S. Army Air Force fighters and bombers in flight and bombs away views as bombers drop bombs on German targets .
View of U.S. Army Field Hospital set up in Normandy, France, following the Allied invasion in World War 2. U.S. DUKW (six-wheel-drive amphibious truck) passes along a road. American wounded being carried on stretchers to hospital tent. Intravenous treatment being administered to a wounded soldier; man standing holds IV bag. American Army nurses and corpsman preparing bandages inside a field hospital tent. Nurses seated near a tent. One drinks coffee from her metal mess cup. Nurses comforting and assisted wounded soldiers. Two German prisoners of war (POWs) pose for camera. It is unusual that two of the German soldiers appear to be of East Asian descent. (It has been reported that there was a Korean man named Yang Kyoungjong who was three times captured and conscripted into the Japanese army, then the Soviet Army, and then the German Wehrmacht during World War 2. He was captured by the U.S. Army during the invasion of Normandy. The identify of the two German soldiers of Asian descent seen in this footage is unknown.) German POWs carrying a wounded comrade toward a treatment tent. A German POW Army doctor and his assistant treating a soldier for shrapnel wounds. The doctor waves toward German POWs to bring their wounded, on a litter, to him. POWs carrying wounded on a litter. Paratrooper of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, with bandages across his face, carries a wounded buddy to treatment area. Closeup of the trooper smiling in spite of his bandaged face. Ambulatory wounded U.S. soldier being registered by Army nurse. Corpsman of 101st Airborne, on stretcher on the ground.
U.S. Rhino barge in Plymouth harbor, England during World War 2. Rhino ferry screws turn at the harbor. U.S. Navy PB2Y Coronado flying boat patrol bomber in the background. Landing craft around barges. A few other ships and tugs seen in the harbor area.
At start, the film shows coal miners riding on electric-powered open railway cars at the Westland Mine in Pennsylvania, owned by the Pittsburgh Coal Company. The miners wear hats with lights on them. A train of open hopper cars filled with coal is being pulled by the last railway car carrying miners. Scene changes to above ground where a string of minecarts filled with coal are emerging from the mine into a railroad yard. Closeup of large chunks of coal in the hopper cars. Another view of filled mine carts being pulled out of the mine. View of full-size open rail cars lined up underneath an overhanging wooden tipple discharging coal into them. Closeup from underneath the tipple showing coal dropping into full size open hopper cars. Next, a long train of full hopper cars are seen moving along a railroad track, being pushed by several electric-powered locomotives. They pass on tracks near other cars being loaded with coal. A miner writes: "Mon Dec 9," with chalk on a brick structure. (This is the day the miners returned to work, following announcement by United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis, on December 7, 1946, calling an end to a walkout of 400,000 coal miners that he had called on November 20). Two 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotives owned by the Montour Railroad pull a long train of coal cars. View in background of duplex homes of the coal town in Westland, Pennsylvania. Next scene shows elevated view of city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from approximately Duquesne Heights area, with distant view of downtown buildings, and steel bridges over the three rivers area (Monongahela River, Ohio River, and Allegheny River). Next scene shows many industrial smoke stacks emitting smoke. Final scene shows a train of empty hopper cars returning to the coal mines.
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