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- [Narrator] Leaving trails of steaming vapor in their wake, United States bombers bound
for Berlin to destroy armament industries in and around the Nazi war capital.
In their first daylight mission over the heart of Hitler's fortress, American bombers combined
with British Air Forces are pounding Germany with raids around the clock.
[explosions]
One propeller out, a bomber limps home.
In all, 68 American planes failed to return, but the next day and the next, American bombers
returned in follow-up raids.
Today, squadrons like these in ever- increasing numbers are taking the war
home to Germany itself.
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Back from her fourth wartime journey of mercy, the Swedish exchange ship, Gripsholm, arrives
in New York Harbor.
Aboard are 663 Americans home from Nazi internment and prison camps.
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Wounded soldiers, war correspondents, and diplomats are among her passenger list.
They bring first hand news of conditions in Nazi-occupied countries.
Douglas MacArthur, nephew of General MacArthur, was attached to the American Embassy at Bishi.
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Ralph Heinzen was Paris correspondent for an American news service.
- [Ralph] We're very glad to get home.
We've been 13 months interned in Germany, and 13 bad months for the Germans as well
as for ourselves because, in those 13 months, Germany has lost the war.
They know they're whipped, but they're wondering how they're going to get out of it.
Last year, Hitler has lost tremendously his prestige, particularly as a military leader.
All through Europe, there is a very fierce underground warfare going on against Germany.
In every occupied country of Europe, but particularly in France, there is this mighty organization
of courageous patriots who are waging a war, day and night, against the forces of occupation.
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- Home on leave after four years of battle, units of Australian fighting men get a thundering
welcome as they parade through the streets of Sydney.
[cheering]
Veterans of fierce desert campaigns in North Africa and rugged fighters fresh from victories
in New Guinea, these gallant men fought side by side with their American allies.
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Australia's General, Sir Thomas Blamey, takes the official salute as the nation pays tribute
to its heroic sons.
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A transport plane lands at a Caribbean port.
Aboard is Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, wife of the president, making the first stop in
her latest tour of American Army Outposts.
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With General Shedd, commanding garrisons in the Puerto Rican theater of operations,
she reviews troops on guard in the Caribbean.
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In Australia, Mrs. Douglas MacArthur, wife of the Allied Commander in the Southwest Pacific,
sponsors a new destroyer built by Australian workmen.
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- [Jean] Let them lead Bataan and may God bless you.
[cheering]
- And his Majesty's Australian ship, Bataan, goes down the ways, dedicated to avenge the
gallant fighters in the Philippines whose heroism will never be forgotten.
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Nazi prisoners of war at a camp in Northern United States, in full accord with the Geneva
Convention, prisoners are well-housed, well-clothed, and well-fed.
Although prisoners are not required to work, many volunteer as lumberjacks, for which they
are paid 80 cents a day.
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A snow-shoveling detail.
Prisoners keep their own camp in order.
By doing work like this in the shoe shop, captives are able to buy cigarettes and other
luxuries.
War prisoners receive the same rations as American soldiers, or an equivalent
in their own type of food, if they prefer.
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These Signal Corps pictures show a fully-equipped recreation room provided for the captives,
who even have their own band.
America scrupulously observes the principles of humanity in her treatment of war prisoners.
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Officers of The Allied Military Government draw up plans for the evacuation of thousands
of homeless civilians from Italian battle areas.
At one large estate, more than 10,000 Italians found refuge from fighting zones.
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Along every road in endless procession, refugees stream toward collecting stations set up by
The Allied Military Government.
Many helpless families made homeless by the German seizure of their country were forced
north during the Nazi retreat.
Stripped of most of their possessions, only a few were adequately clothed or fed until
the Allied Fifth Army landed.
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Moving these helpless people from the ruins of their shattered homes is one of the great
rescue achievements of the war.
The real tragedy is the plight of the very young.
The world into which they were born has been a world of suffering and sorrow.
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Now the Allied authorities open the way to a new haven.
A haven where they may wait in safety for the day of peace.
As swiftly as possible, Army trucks take them to ports of embarkation.
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Here, giant LSTs, landing ships built to carry huge 30-ton tanks, take on their trucks and
their human cargos for transportation to Naples, a hundred miles down the coast.
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Sanctuary in Southern Italy.
Here, many Italians find new hope and new lives in liberated territory.
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Chiefs of the Allied Invasion Command at headquarters in England.
America's General Eisenhower in supreme command as the United Nations concentrate the most
powerfully armed force in history.
Warehouses bulge with tons of supplies.
Agreements reached at Tehran now being put into action.
Hundreds of military depots, thousands of trucks, command cars, Jeeps, all kinds of
mechanized equipment are assembled for the day of invasion.
With General Montgomery and Air Marshal Tedder, deputy commander, Eisenhower
sees new equipment in action.
[tank firing]
Today, great fleets of troop carriers soar over Britain, releasing their hoards of parachutists.
Spectacular rehearsal of things to come.
[airplane engines roaring]
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Montgomery, victor over Rommel.
Tedder, master of air tactics.
Eisenhower, liberator of North Africa.
The power and might of the United Nations, trained and ready to strike a decisive blow
from the West.
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