Activities of American First Army advancing eastward in Germany in December of 1944 during World War 2. Units of the 9th Divisions are moved up by truck and meet retiring units of the 1st Division at a road intersection. They enter town of Lucherberg after an artillery barrage, then attack through Inden and close in on Pier Germany. View of ruined buildings and wreckage in Pier, Germany. Sign of 'Duren'. U.S. Army 3rd Armored Division enters into German town on trucks and army tanks. 3rd Armored Division fires artillery at town of Schlich Germany, and are joined in the attack by soldiers of newly arrived 9th Infantry Division. Artillery barrage underway, with targets in Schlich visible in distance. Armored vehicles and soldiers move through mud advancing on Schlich with new piece of equipment known as a rotary mine exploder. German troops are rounded up as prisoners by U.S. Infantry. Gunners fire. On December 11, German prisoners assemble for inspection. Some of the German prisoners appear to be young boys. Smoke screen thrown up by Allies to cover movement of armored column heading into German towns across open field. U.S. Army soldiers enter into wrecked town of Geich, Germany, where buildings are destroyed and still burning. Armor and supply vehicles move through mud. Infantry of 83rd Division arrive as reinforcements and march in snow covered area toward a suburb of Duren. U.S. mortar fire pins Germans retreating toward Ruhr. Infantry attack to clear town outside Duren, and Infantry mop up, clearing German snipers. German troops and female collaborators are rounded up as prisoners. American First Army infantry forces marching on a road, continuing eastward.
Air and Ground Forces cooperation in Aachen, Germany. The ruins and collapsed buildings of Aachen Germany on October 15, 1944, following Allied bombing. Smoke rises from ruins. View of a field area and then a giant explosion as a ground target is detonated with explosives. Large cloud of smoke rises. U.S. Army soldiers inspect exploded area.
Activities of American First Army from Aachen to Roer River in Germany. Animated map shows First Army entering into Hurtgen Forest and arrive Cologne plain going through the Roer River. 28th Division controls key roadways of Vossenack and Schmidt. Engineers build roads through the Hurtgen Forest. Large tree trunks are laid into place as foundation and then milled wooden planks are nailed atop to quickly create a usable road surface. Jeep passes over the newly built road. U.S. Army forces start a fire for protection against the cold. 28th Division troops with mortar and machine gun support advance (November, 1944) through a wooded area. Infantry columns move to the front. Smoke clouds rise. Ground forces move out from wooded area. German POW's file into an assembly area and are evacuated by truck. U.S. Army soldier hangs a sign around the neck of a Germany prisoner of war that says "200,000th prisoner of war captured by troops of U.S. First Army." Artillery and antitank guns are placed for defense. Soldiers work on telephone tower. Underground emplacements are built as snow falls. (World War II period).
German military preparations to fortify the Italian coast near Anzio and Nettuno, during World War 2. Thousands of German heavy artillery shells stacked in an ammunition dump in Italy during World War 2. German soldiers form line and pass shells and other ammunition to each other for loading into trucks. View from German Coastal shore guns overlooking the Anzio-Nettuno areas in Italy, before the Allied amphibious attack of January 22, 1944. German soldiers attend to their guns. German soldiers preparing more gun positions on side of a mountain. A German tank being covered with foliage, on a mountainside.
Activities of Allied troops during invasion of Rome and invasion of France in Europe during World War 2. An animated map of Italy illustrates belligerents and battle lines. U.S. troops entering Rome. Buildings and streets in Rome. U.S. Army General Mark Clark shown. Russian troops proceeding from the East. Lines of Soviet Army troops marching. Russian Marshal Zhukov at a desk, reviewing battle maps. Views of Joseph Stalin smiling. Allied landing craft approaching the Cherbourg Penninsula during D-Day invasion of June 1944. American B-26 aircraft of the 9th Air Force flying over battle field and drop areas. Formation of B-26s painted in D-Day white stripes. Gun camera footage from Allied aircraft strafing German aircraft on the ground and in the air in lead-up to invasion. U.S. paratroopers dropping from C-47 aircraft. Close-up views of paratroopers jumping out of aircraft. On the ground, U.S. soldiers crawling in fields, taking up positions, and advancing while receiving and returning fire from enemy Germans. Some American troops firing a mortar on the ground. Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, together with British Field marshal Bernard Law Montgomery and British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Teddar, at a conference table with key staff.
Film opens showing destruction being inflicted on city of Caen, France, from fighting between the British Second Army and German Panzergruppe West for control of the city and vicinity, during the World War 2 Battle of Normandy in June, 1944. Walls of a building collapse from shell fire. Refugees, flee the city carrying belongings in cart. Numerous destroyed buildings seen in the background. Retreating German soldiers are seen, most carrying M42 machine guns. Next, German troops, assembled for a counter offensive, are lined up informally and briefed by an officer. Their helmets are covered in netting. Closeups of some, one shouldering an M42 machine gun, and a junior officer briefing them. A Tiger I tank rolls along a dirt road towards the camera. This is followed by a DW19 Katzchen APC, another Tiger I tank, a motorcycle, and several heavily camouflaged half tracks, and a tracked APC. A Panzer tank and another Tiger I continue the column. Closeup of a bearded junior officer, who is then seen from short distance walking a bicycle past a column of smiling troops. Some soldiers shouldering M 42 machine guns as they walk past a field of grain. Others in column carry small arms. One carries a panzerfaust anti tank weapon. Glimpse of soldier placing foliage into netting of his steel helmet. German soldiers begin running as shelling and gunfire from American Army forces are heard. They seek cover at side of a berm as a shell explodes nearby. Soldiers lying prone as shells burst all around them. Some German soldiers smoke cigarettes as barrage abates. German officer communication by field telephone. German Self-propelled gun (8.8cm Pak43 Geshtzwagen III Sd.Kfz.164) moves into firing position at a tree line. Gun crew includes one tending large supply of shells. Closeup of shells stacked in the vehicle. Gun commander signals and crew fires the gun. Other guns also firing from the tree line. Officer looks through binoculars. A knocked out U.S. Army Sherman tank. German soldiers moving quickly and cautiously along the side of a road. One hunkers down over the body of a dead German soldier. Brief view, between a building and a tree,of a Sherman tank passing in the background. German troops, carrying antitank weapons (Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust), moving among damaged buildings. A Sherman tank passes in background. Soldier fires a Panzerschreck which explodes. Sherman tanks continue to pass on dirt road in background. German soldiers rush to a damaged Sherman tank. German soldier throws a hand grenade. A dead American soldier is seen in the turret. German soldiers release an unmanned, remote-controlled Goliath Tracked Mine, or Leichter Ladungsträger Goliath, also known as a "beetle tank" to Allied forces (or German robot tank). Watching from tree line, German soldiers see an explosion across the field. Closeup of destroyed Sherman tank. German officer signals for soldiers to follow him. A German soldier, carrying a Schmeisser Mp40 submachine gun, points to a dead American soldier lying beside the road. Views of the site as soldier examines it. Camera focuses on a small round hole in the earth. Scene shift entirely to American soldiers at side of a road. They examine a spot where a trenching tool and some soldier's gear is seen. Scene changes showing knocked out armor atop a hill. Closeup of a knocked out German Tiger I tank, with American soldier looking out through a lower porthole. Closeup of American soldier with foliage topped helmet and belt of machine gun ammunition around his neck. Closing scenes show ambulatory wounded German army prisoners, including some assisting others, as they proceed away from the battleground.
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