Last leg of transatlantic flight by Roger Q Williams and Captain Lewis A Yancey arriving land in Rome after brief stop in Spain, on their flight from Old Orchard, Maine. They are seen by their Bellanca monoplane named "Pathfinder." Another scene shows Benito Mussolini, dressed in white suit and hat, standing with other officials, awaiting arrival of the aviators. (After 2 hours he must leave and doesn't get to greet them personally.) Night scene of the aviators with Italian crowd of admirers. A large bonfire is lit nearby. Photographers in the crowd.
Film opens with Allied soldiers looking at an Fw 190A-5 of SchlG 2. (Schlachtgeschwader 2) Immelmann, a Luftwaffe Dive bomber-wing.The Gruppe insignia, of Mickey Mouse riding a bomb and brandishing an axe, is displayed on both sides of the plane, near the engine cowling. Inside a hangar, a Ju-88 bomber is seen with left wing elevator missing as well as other parts. Camera shifts to another Ju-88 sitting nearby. Scene shifts to two soldiers, in shorts and knee socks (British?) standing partially under a wrecked German plane. Some bombs sit on the ground under the plane. They watch as an American soldier digs on the side of a bomb, with a large knife, apparently trying to test the composition of the bomb, or possible remove something. Next, a soldier in shorts is seen descending from the Ju-88, onto a maintenance stand underneath it. He walks toward the camera holding his hand up (almost as if to ask the cameraman not to photograph him). Scene shifts to beneath a Junkers Ju-52 transport plane, with "Kaltstart,"stenciled on its fuselage. The American soldier, with the big knife, digs at a darkened area on the bottom of the plane, cutting away a patch that reveals a bullet hole that had been patched.
Allied bombing of the Strait of Messina during World War II. Aerial view of mountainous terrain and open sea. Bombs drop over the Strait of Messina. The coastline of Sicily. Rivers and roads amidst the mountainous terrain.
Allied drive towards Rome after the capture of Monte Casino during the end of World War II. Ruins of Cassino crushed by Allied war machines. Artillery shelled walls of Monte Cassino. Enemy mines and booby traps. Commanding officer of British, American and French army including British Army Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, U.S. Army General Mark W. Clark and Juin et al plan for the drive on Rome. Army tanks drive. Smoke rises. German prisoners are being taken.
Pope John XXIII elevates new cardinals in Vatican City. In St. Peter's Basilica, Pope John XXIII being carried on the sedia gestatoria chair with large white ostrich fans (flabella). The Pope is placed on a raised platform. The Archbishop of Tokyo, Cardinal Peter Tatsuo Doi, is elevated as the first Japanese cardinal in history. Cardinal Doi receives the Pope’s blessing. Pope John XXIII elevates Archbishop Laurean Rugambwa of Tanganyika (now known as Tanzania) as the first modern native African Cardinal. The new cardinals bend their head towards the altar.
German prisoners taken in Carrara during World War II. German prisoners are captured by Italian partisans and are loaded into trucks and driven to enclosure. A road sign 'Cararra' on a building wall. The town of Cararra. Trucks of U.S. 442nd Regiment pass on a road and ford Frigido River north of Massa.
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