General Eisenhower visits the Third Army, which is doggedly battling its way toward
heavily fortified Mets, another key to the Siegfried Line. Our big guns open up. In the
Mets area, everything in the arsenal is used. Signal Corps pictures show the devastation wrought
by General Patton's Armored Divisions as they batter their way forward yard by yard. And some
of the battering is a real pleasure. The battle for Mets is rugged, but its fall is inevitable.
The day of Greek liberation is at hand as a flotilla of British war vessels and transports
nears Piraeus, the port of Athens. A landing in force is made for a campaign that was to be of
short duration. As British troops enter Athens, they're greeted by citizens wild with joy after
four years under the Nazi heel. Constitution Square is the center of celebration for a people
who have known starvation and misery. Greek partisans who fought relentlessly joined the
welcoming throng. Premier Papandreou lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The glory that
was Greece, Athens, the city eternal, with the famed Acropolis miraculously undamaged by the
Nazis. Greece, to whom civilization owes so much, is free. While Marines captured another island in
the Palau, mopping up is completed on Peleliu. Armor and flamethrowers methodically blast the
Japs from their hiding places. Watch this Jap carefully, he won't go far. These Marine Corps
pictures show the ruthlessness of war in the Pacific. A cave is blown up. A flock of sons
of heaven who found their war in the Pacific a little too rugged after the Yanks got going.
Our ambassador returns to Paris and France. Jefferson Capri sees the stars and stripes
unfurled once more at our embassy on the Place de la Concorde. The return of our ambassador to
France is symbolic of the end of Nazi tyranny in Europe. A brave nation has risen again. Mohandas
Gandhi meets with Muhammad Ali Jinnah in an attempt to bring the Hindus and the Muslims together. In
an India always torn by the strife of castes, Mahatma Gandhi has tried for some semblance of
unity. Again, it is something he failed to achieve. He parted friends with Jinnah, he says, but the
Indian problem remains. Official Army Air Force pictures reveal General Twining and General Acre
being received by Romanian Army and Air Force officers as they arrive at Bucharest. The Ploesti
oil fields are their immediate destination. These were the famed oil fields which received
repeated air poundings from the US Army Air Corps in a plan calculated to deprive the Nazis of one
of their main sources of petroleum. That the plan succeeded is evidenced on every hand.
Two years and six months after he was forced to flee from the Philippines, General McArthur
makes good his promise to return. Vice admirals Wilkinson and Kincaid and Lieutenant General
Krueger head up the greatest amphibious force ever assembled in the Pacific. Leyte Island midway
between Luzon and Mindanao is the target. The Japs expected this attack at Mindanao,
but McArthur smashed at the middle and split the enemy's forces. McArthur and Sutherland
watch the landings from the flagship. The Jap Air Force is conspicuous by its absence as is the
Jap Navy. The enemy lost 2,600 planes to our carrier forces in two months and the Jap Navy
arrived a little late just in time to suffer its greatest defeat. The commander-in-chief goes
ashore with Sergio Osmania, president of the Philippines. This is a great day for all the
Filipinos, not only those being liberated on Leyte, but also the gallant Philippine guerrillas who have
never given up fighting the invaders. It's a day of hope for all the islanders who were forced into
Japan's greater East Asia prosperity sphere only to find themselves enslaved. The rich Leyte Valley
is the objective of these armored forces. Others head for the airfields at Dulag and Tacloban,
the island's capital. Since the original landings, other forces have gone ashore on
Samar Island between Leyte and Luzon. Except for isolated enemy groups, both islands are
now well under our control. As the battle rages beyond Dulag, Filipinos start the job of rebuilding
their shattered town. These pictures were taken by Universals Irving Smith and Earl Crotches and by
other newsreel and Navy cameramen. In front of the provincial capital at Tacloban, ceremonies
precede the installation of the new cabinet by President Osmania and the friendly stars and
stripes witness the momentous event.