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World War II Military Operations (36)
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Battle of Europe1944 15 minThe story of air power over Europe that shows how night saturation raids by British and Canadian squadrons were coordinated with daylight precision bombing by American air forces during World War II. -
Banshees Over CanadaJames Beveridge 1943 19 minThis newsreel documentary made during WWII was used to illustrate Britain's preparations for an air attack. Scenes depict destruction wrought by enemy planes, the efficiency of retaliation by the Royal Air Force and the precautions taken in Canada against possible air attack. Part of the Canada Carries On series.
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Break-through1944 11 minAllied troops land on the Normandy coast and drive eastward to the gates of Germany. Opening scenes are of the D-Day landings and establishment of Canadian forces on the beachhead. Pictures of bitter street fighting and of pin-point bombing tell the story of Caen's capture and the advance towards Falaise. Made from footage filmed by units of the Canadian Army Overseas.
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Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 61942 9 minThis newsreel includes the following sequences: 1. Lady Patricia Ramsay Inspects PPCLI 2. Pigeon Post 3. Bringing in the Sheaves 4. Canadians Meet Norwegians in Soccer Play-Downs 5. British Mayors Visit Canadian Troops 6. Little Girls and Big Guns 7. Turn on the Heat 8. Massed Bands Open "Wings for Victory" Week
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Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 71943 9 minThis newsreel includes the following sequences: 1. Black Watch Easter Service 2. Medical Inspection 3. Army Soccer Finals 4. Baseball Season Opens 5. The King's Farm 6. Tunnellers Receive Gibraltar Keys 7. Khaki Close-ups 8. Man of Vimy
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Canada at War, Part 12: V Was for Victory1962 27 minApril-August 1945. Hitler had said: 'Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.' By 1945, Germany is beaten. V-Day celebrations verge on the hysterical, but occupying armies uncover the staggering atrocities of Belsen, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald. Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. The world's first atomic bomb is dropped on Japan.
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Canada at War, Part 6: Turn of the Tide1962 27 minOctober 1942 - July 1943. The inherent strength of the Allies begins to be felt. Canadian munitions factories operate at peak capacity. U.S. Marines land on Guadalcanal and the Solomons. Montgomery's 8th Army strikes Rommel at Alamein; the R.C.A.F. joins in air strikes against Germany.
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Canada at War, Part 11: Crisis on the Hill1962 27 minSeptember 1944 - March 1945. On the eve of victory Canada faces an internal crisis: an acute shortage of men for overseas service precipitates the conscription issue, threatens national unity and the King government. In Europe, Canadian divisions fight their way to the top of the Italian boot, then regroup for the final onslaught on Germany. They fight in the battles of the Reichswald and Hochwald forests, and finally cross the Siegfried Line.
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Canada at War, Part 2: Blitzkrieg1962 27 minApril - November 1940. With devastating speed Germany takes Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Italy declares war. The British withdraw from Dunkirk. Mackenzie King feels the Canadian pulse on conscription. England is strafed by the Luftwaffe, and Britons accept Churchill's challenge of 'blood, sweat and tears.'
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Canada at War, Part 4: Days of Infamy1962 27 minDecember 1941 - June 1942. The war is now global and pressures on Canada mount. Without warning Japan strikes at Pearl Harbor. Canadians adjust to food rationing, salvage drives. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is inaugurated in Canada. In Ottawa, Winston Churchill makes his 'some chicken, some neck' speech.
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Canada at War, Part 10: Cinderella on the Left1962 27 minJune - December 1944. V-1 rockets, and later V-2s, rain death and destruction on Britain; their launching sites are mopped up by Canadians advancing on Pas de Calais. The Third Division spearheads the attack on the Scheldt estuary. Germans make a last-ditch stand in the Battle of the Bulge. In the English Channel, Canadian sailors man swift motor torpedo boats against German E-boats.
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Churchill's IslandStuart Legg 1941 22 minIt presents the strategy of the Battle of Britain, showing with penetrating clarity the relationships between the various forces made up the island's defenses. Here is the Royal Air Force in its epic battle with the Luftwaffe, the Navy in its stubborn fight against the raiders of sea and sky, the coastal defenses, the mechanized cavalry, the merchant seamen and behind them all, Britain's tough, unbending civilian army.
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Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn1962 27 minAugust 1945 - 1946. Japan surrenders. World War II is over, but the scars are deep. Canadian prisoners are released from Japanese war camps. In Canada, as elsewhere, the monumental task of rehabilitation begins. In Ottawa the Gouzenko case shocks the nation. The trials at Nürenberg begin. The United Nations is formed. Canada, now a much stronger, independent nation, enters the Cold War.
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Canada at War, Part 3: Year of Siege1962 27 minSeptember 1940 - October 1941. The Battle of the Atlantic begins. German U-boats take their toll of Canadian convoys. The purge of Jews begins. German armies march into Russia. Mackenzie King is booed at Aldershot. Men of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Royal Rifles leave for a fateful mission in Hong Kong.
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Canada at War, Part 8: New Directions1962 27 minDecember 1943 - June 1944. Canada, war-seasoned, girds for the final assault. In London, Commonwealth prime ministers meet and Mackenzie King holds out for Canadian independence in foreign policy. In the Arctic, Canadian ships sail the Murmansk run with supplies for beleaguered Russia. The Italian campaign intensifies. In the south of England the Allies poise for attack.
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Canada at War, Part 1: Dusk1962 27 min1936 - March 1940. In Europe war clouds gather as Germany re-arms and Hitler propounds his 'master race' doctrine. Chamberlain's appeasement fails. Germany overruns Czechoslovakia. Britain declares war; Canada makes an independent decision to join. The first Canadian troopship sails from Halifax.
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Canada at War, Part 5: Ebbtide1962 27 minJuly - September 1942. A time of defeat and disaster. Hitler is at the apex of his power. A Canadian division probes at Dieppe and is repulsed with heavy casualties. Canadian factories take over production of the fabled Lancaster night bomber; Canadian bush pilots ferry the big planes across the Atlantic. German U-boats penetrate the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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Canada at War, Part 7: Road to Ortona1962 27 minJuly 1943 - January l944. The objective at last--Fortress Europe. The Canadian 1st Division, flanked by the British and Americans, pushes into Italy. Italians surrender but the Germans resist. Ortona, a 15th-century town, riddled with bullets and grenades, is taken by Canadians in fierce and costly street fighting.
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Canada at War, Part 9: The Norman Summer1962 27 minJune - September 1944. D-Day, June 6, 1944. In early morning hours, infantry carriers, including one hundred and ten ships of the Royal Canadian Navy, cross a seething, pitching sea to the coast of France while Allied air forces pound enemy positions from the air. Cherbourg, Caen, Carpiquet, Falaise, Paris are liberated. Canadians return, this time victorious, to the beaches of Dieppe.
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Death by Moonlight: Bomber CommandBrian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 minThis feature-length documentary focuses on the Canadian pilots who served in the air force bomber command in Britain during World War II. From the outset, it was clear to Britain that air combat would be the key factor in the battle against Hitler's Germany. Told they would be targeting factories and military targets, the airmen were actually ordered to drop their payloads on civilians in an attempt to annihilate the enemy. Using interviews, re-enactments, old footage and photographs, Brian McKenna's film depicts the war from the perspective of the pilots.
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Ferry Pilot1942 19 minThis wartime short examines the Royal Air Force Ferry Command, a ferry system created by the Allies to bridge the gap between the aircraft factory and the fighting front of World War II. As the film shows, former bush pilots and transport pilots risked their lives to keep the planes flowing in an endless stream across the Atlantic.
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Fighting NorwaySydney Newman 1943 10 minDuring World War II Norwegian patriots struck at Germany from the rear, linking Canada, the United States and Britain with Soviet Russia. Norwegian resources around the world were mobilized, and at Canadian training stations Norwegian airmen forged a lasting friendship between the two countries. Includes footage from the British film All for Norway.
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Fortress Japan1944 16 minThis short documentary examines the strength of the enemy forces in Japan towards the end of World War II. The mobilization of Japan's people and the consolidation of her fleets and armies along the front are weighed against the Allied Forces preparations for increasing attacks.
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In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944Brian McKenna 1992 1 h 43 minThis documentary looks at the events of June 6, 1944, when a combined force of American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. The Allied invasion of occupied France was a turning point in the war against Hitler's Germany. From a tactical view, Canada's role was limited; strategically, it was pivotal. Part of the 3-part series The Valour and the Horror.
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Letter from Overseas1943 15 minIn this short film, a letter from a soldier stationed in Britain during World War II is sent home to his parents in Canada. The content of the letter is illustrated with scenes of military life - training, assault courses and recreation along with combat scenes from the Dieppe and Bruneval raids.
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Letter from AldershotJohn Taylor 1940 9 minPart of the Canada Carries On series, this short film portrays the First Division of the Canadian Active Service Force in Aldershot, England. Using an intimate letter home as a narrative device, this film reveals how the troops were received, what their living conditions were like, how they would get along with their English allies and how they spent their leisure time.
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Mutual Aid1944 5 minAn animated short about the work of Canada's Mutual Aid Board and the necessity for this cooperation between the Allied countries.
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No More HiroshimaMartin Duckworth 1984 25 minThis short documentary depicts the stories of two hibakusha, survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This film follows them on their mission to New York as representatives of the Japanese Peace Movement at the second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament held in June 1982.
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Road to the ReichTom Daly 1945 10 minThis short documentary includes highlights of the Allied advance from Normandy to Antwerp during WWII, including the bombing of Calais, the capture of V-2 launching sites, action on Walcheren Island and the arrival of Allied ships at Antwerp.
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Return to DresdenMartin Duckworth 1986 27 minIn 1945, Great Britain and the United States organized a bombing raid that devastated the ancient city of Dresden. This short documentary returns exactly 40 years after its destruction and celebrates its renaissance with the re-opening of one of the most beautiful opera houses in Europe. One guest at this gala was the Canadian navigator of one of the bomber planes, returning to Dresden on a mission of peace that brought him face-to-face with the people who were once his enemies.
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Soldiers All1941 20 minSoldiers All gives a panoramic view of the men of the British Commonwealth in training, featuring the operational training undergone by Canadian soldiers and airmen in Britain. Interesting shots of field maneuvres, of the daily activities of Canadian officials in Canada House, of Canadian bomber and fighter pilots on active service, and an amusing sequence at a camp concert party, give a realistic picture of Canadians overseas. The camera next shifts to the advanced training of officers at the Royal Military College, Kingston, and ends with the training of Australian and New Zealand airmen in Canada including their reactions to Canadian life.
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Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941Brian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 minIn the autumn of 1941, nearly 2,000 inexperienced Canadian soldiers were sent to Hong Kong at the request of the British government as a symbolic show of strength that would deter a Japanese attack on the colony. Canada's soldiers found themselves in the midst of a desperate battle they could not hope to win. On Christmas Day, 1941, the British colony of Hong Kong officially surrendered to Japan. The surviving defenders became prisoners of war. Over the next three and a half years, many of them would come to envy the dead.
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Wasp Wings1945 40 minThis documentary is a record of the role played by Spitfires in defeating the Axis during World War II. The film, which shows these planes in action during the Battle of Britain, in Italy, and on D-Day, also depicts the work of aeronautical engineers and ground crews who kept the Spitfires in the air.
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Women Are WarriorsJane Marsh 1942 14 minThis short film from WWII focuses on the increasingly important roles women occupy on the various war fronts. In England, their more active jobs include ferrying planes from factory to airfield and operating anti-aircraft guns. In Russia, they are fighting on the front lines as well as acting as parachute nurses, army doctors and technicians. In Canada women have joined active service auxiliaries, and thousands labour day and night in factories turning out the tools of war. From the Canada Carries On series.
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Warclouds in the PacificStuart Legg 1941 20 minThis short film examines the Japan that emerged at the beginning of the 1900s and was firmly established as an industrialized nation by the outbreak of World War II. Facing the greatest threat in their history, the democracies of the Pacific took careful stock of this new Japan and its strength, and erected a vast system of defence across the world's greatest ocean.
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Zero Hour1944 22 minThis short Second World War documentary from the World in Action series tells the story of the great Allied invasion of Northwest Europe in 1944. The film reviews the preparation, strategy and over-all campaign planning that went into this gigantic task.
