The city of Breslau being fortified and prepared to defend against surrounding soviet forces in January, 1945, World War 2. Armed sentries patrolling the city streets. Snow on ground in some places. Poster announces the situation and requests cooperation of all Men, women, and children (over the age of 10). A poster being nailed to a pole, showing a defender with a panzerfaust anti-tank weapon confronting a tank. German soldiers shouldering panzerhaust on patrol in the snow. Closeup of insignia on sleeves on defenders' overcoats reading,"Volkssturm Wehrmacht." Men on defensive barricades. Others hauling material for defenses in wheel barrows. Tram cars being overturned and placed as impediments to invading forces. Closeup of Karl August Hanke, Gauleiter of Silesia, the city's Battle Commander (Kampfkommandant), mingling with other officers, and various groups of defenders. Hatless, he shakes hands with a defender who is dressed in heavy white cold weather coat. A car riding on road laced with tram tracks. view from inside the car of streets, building, and barriers contrived from overturned vehicles. Tram cars being set up as barriers. View from inside a defensive position, of a woman and man walking in the snow. Men setting up boxes of explosives and hooking them up to detonators along railroad tracks on a bridge. Closeups of the boxes and detonators. The charges are ignited and a large destructive explosion results raising dust and smoke. Civilian residents of Breslau, under orders to evacuate, are seen leaving the city with their belongings. Some of the refugees ride in army trucks, others use any means available to transport their belongings, including , wagons, bicycles, carts, and even baby carriages. As they leave, German soldiers including Volkssturm (Peoples' Militia) enter to reinforce the city defenses, Views of the reinforcements, some carrying panzerfaust anti-tank weapons, but most shouldering rifles as they march into the city. Cases of small arms being offloaded from army trucks to supply the reinforcements. A Goliath, SdKfz. 303 remote controlled tracked mine is seen scurrying across the ground as soldiers watch it in operation. A contingent of Volkssturm carrying panzerfaust weapons. City defenders setting up a large artillery field piece. A supply train carrying heavy armor and artillery to the city. A German Hetzer light tank destroyer (JagdPanzer 38) being maneuvered into position with other armor on a dirt road. A line of Panther tanks on a roadway behind supply trucks. Closeup of one with crew members visible. Scene shifts to a dirt airfield where a German Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft is taking off. It is followed by several Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft. Some raise considerable dust during takeoff. Closeup of one passing the camera on takeoff. Next, one is seen nosing over in the soft dirt of the airfield. But the pilot manages to right it again and continue the takeoff. Some Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft taking off in the dust. German airmen look up to watch the departing airplanes. Aircraft are barely seen in distance above, possibly engaged in dogfights with Soviet aircraft. Black smoke rising from Soviet bombing or shelling. German Army soldier on the airfield, shouldering a panzerfaust, looks skyward, with a comrade. View of sky shows aircraft engaged above, but barely discernible. White smoke rises from the ground, possibly from a crashed airplane.
U.S. Army Air Forces C-47aircraft , number 42-93098, of the 9th Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder Group, and its crew. This is the first aircraft and crew to drop American paratroopers (pathfinders) over France during the Allied invasion, in World War 2. The aircraft taxis on a British airfield. Crew of the aircraft are seen in front of it, including pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Joel Crouch, Copilot, Captain Vito Pedone, Navigator, Captain William Culp, Radio Operator, Harold Coonrod, along with two crew chiefs. Crew members shake hands and board the aircraft. Colonel Crouch waves from the cockpit of the C-47 (but has not started engines). Major J.L. Sweetman boards another aircraft. Colonel Crouche's C-47 taxis to where the Pathfinders will load up. View of Control Tower at RAF North Witham, with ambulance parked outside it. Three hours before takeoff.Colonel Crouch, is seen on a path near the airfield, with a Pathfinder Captain and Lieutenant, who will be aboard his aircraft and be the first to jump into France. They kid around. The Pathfinder officers note that Colonel Crouch wears paratroop wings. Later, two Pathfinders, of the 101st Airborne Division , with camouflaged faces and American flag insignia on their right shoulders, step from woods and pose momentarily. Pathfinder Paratroopers line up to board C-47 aircraft as Lt. Col. Crouch rides a scooter at the airfield. Aircrews and Pathfinders pose for photographs before taking off. The lead aircraft, number 42-93098, with Lieutenant Colonel Crouch at the controls, takes off from RAF Station North Witham at 9:54 PM, on June 5, 1944. to begin the invasion of France. (Note: This C-47 was shot down on September 18, 1944, during Operation Market Garden, and crash landed on Haamstede Airbase, Netherlands. Although shot at by German troops on the ground, pilot, Maj Joseph A. Beck, and Navigator Lt. Vincent J. Paterno, survived as prisoners of war. Copilot Capt Fred O. Lorimer and another crew member were fatally shot.)
A USAAF B-17 bomber taxis in after landing at Vivigani Airfield on Goodenough Island in New Guinea. General MacArthur steps from the aircraft and is greeted by the American Air Base Commander. Closeup of General MacArthur. Next, a jeep carrying him and several others is seen from the rear as it drives over roads literally hacked from the jungles. Views of friendly native tribesmen, engaged by the Allies, carrying supplies toward the front. as Australian troops march along side them. View of rough water tumbling in a river and native bearers crossing it on a suspension bridge. View from above of long line of New Guinea native bearers moving along a path. Back at Vivigani Airfield , MacArthur greets some of the American fliers who have been attacking Japanese shipping from there. His B-17E, tail number 41-12633, ("Sally") is parked in the background. General MacArthur salutes and heads to his B-17 (that will take him to 7-Mile Drome near Port Moresby). View of a USAAF B24 Liberator bomber taxiing on the airfield. Another B-24 (named "Connebb's Speciab" is being loaded with bombs. Crew of a B-24 getting briefed as they stand under the wing of their aircraft. A pilot sticking his head out of the cockpit window. A B-24 airborne after takeoff. View from B-24 of a Japanese ship in sea below. Gunners inside the B-24 strafing the ship as the B-24 flies low over it. Bombs dropping during the Aircraft' second pass over the Japanese ship. View of the bombs exploding at port and starboard of the ship. View of clouds and then interior of the B-24 as crew members converse on their way back to their base.
First American air raid on German positions in Rouen, France during World War II. U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 aircraft on an airfield in England. Ground crew work on the aircraft. Bomb bay door opens up. Fuel tank as men refuel the aircraft. Combat crew members arrive at the briefing hut and being instructed by an officer. He instructs the pilots and other flight about the targets to be bombed. Radio men being instructed. After the briefing crew members head towards the airfield. Flight crew board B-17s. Aircraft take off from the field. B-17s in formation flight. Bomb bay door opens and bombs are dropped. Bombs hit the target and smoke rises. Aircraft head for England after the air raid. Aircraft arrive at the airfield in England. Major General Carl Spaatz , Head of the USAAF in England greet the pilots after a successful air raid. Crew members share their experiences of the mission with an intelligence officer. A pilot talks about how his aircraft was attacked by a German ME-109 aircraft during the air raid.
USAAF (United States Army Air Forces) bombing operations over Germany during World War 2. Aircrews leave briefing room. Aircrew on jeep being taken to U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress bomber plane. Ground crews waving to pilot. B-17 engine starts and plane taxis. B-17 takes off. U.S. B-24 Liberator bomber takes off. B-17 takes off. Formation of B-17s. USAAF P-47 Thunderbolt fighters taxiing. Airman fires gun. P-47s and F-38s take off from an airfield. Formations of B-17s with USAAF P-38 Lightning fighters overhead escorting. P-47s escorting B-17s. Interiors showing German raid alert room as word comes of an American raid. German anti-aircraft gunners in action. Formation of B-17s as flak bursts around them. German crew chief helping pilot into a parachute, pilot gets into a plane. German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes take off from airfield. Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter planes and Messerschmitt Bf 109 planes buzz airfield. Formation of B-17s escorted by P-47s and P-38s. Aerial view of German fighter being shot down. P-38s and P-47s peel off to meet a German fighter plane in aerial dogfight. Several views of German aircraft exploding and catching fire in air. Aerial formations of B-17s in sky leaving vapor trails. Interiors of aircraft showing gunners. B-17 with tail shot away. German fighter planes attack B-17 formations. B-17 on fire spinning towards the ground. B-17 formations flying through flak. Bombs being dropped by B-17s over German targets. Close view of bomb bay doors opened and bombs being released from bombers.
U.S. P-40 Warhawks bomb Japanese positions in Myitkina, Burma during World War 2. Chinese and U.S. officers at an airfield in Burma. U.S. P-40s take off from the airfield to bomb Japanese positions. Formation of p-40s airplanes. They peel off and drop bombs on Japanese positions. Smoke billows up from explosions. U.S. Army General Joseph (Vinegar Joe) Stilwell steps from his C-47 transport airplane (named "Uncle Joe's Chariot") and is greeted by U.S. Army Brigadier General Frank Merrill (of Merrill's Marauders) on an airfield in Kandy, Ceylon, where he is to consult with Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia (SACSEA).