 of Normandy storms ahead, American forces have cut a wide path from coast to coast across the Cherbourg Peninsula. The feet of putting ashore a highly mechanized army is stupendous beyond anything in the history of warfare. American troops stream to the battlefield, fleets of tanks and guns and transport of all kind continue to pour across the channel, virtually unblessed. The conquest of Cherbourg Peninsula is up to the highest expectations. Huge pontoons help swarms of trucks move to their assignments ashore. Shifting beaches are transformed into solid roads by steel runways. Allied ingenuity has created a port where none existed before. German prisoners stream to the beaches, bewildered hopelessly depressed men. This is the march upon Britain, version 1944. These men are evidence that the allies are chewing deeper and deeper into the Atlantic Wall. Those highly touted defenses are now a mockery to the Nazi generals who conceived them and to the German news reels which released these pictures. When Marshal Rommel inspected the fortifications last spring, he announced to the world they were invulnerable. Following his complete defeat in Africa, Rommel strutted about the concrete emplacements. He assured Hitler and the German people that no allied forces could hope to prevail against them. But both Rommel and Rundstedt arrogantly overlooked the fact that fortifications are no stronger than the spirit of the troops who manned them. Yes, the German defenses were tough, but not tough enough. They were manned skillfully, but not so skillfully as they were attacked. The strength through concrete theory of the Nazi high command has suffered again. Overwhelming power in the air is no respecter of concrete and barbed wire. The coastal batteries of the Atlantic Wall were silenced during the early stages of the great offensive. Beach defenses were wrecked. There are many more formidable defense systems yet to be stormed, but the first line has been broken. After four years, the Allies have secured themselves on the soil of France. As the American War Secretary said, we are here to stay until France is liberated and Germany defeated. Into the Normandy countryside, the troops of freedom-loving nations march against the forces of tyranny. The faces of liberated Frenchmen tell their own stories. These children, whose entire lives have known nothing but Nazi rule, meet a new kind of warrior. Yet the Normandy people had not felt German oppression at its worst. It was here that Germans rested their troops after their mauling in Russia, numbering bulldozers set about at once to construct airstrips. In a miraculously short time, Allied fighters were putting them to effective purpose. This is not the first time in history the French peasant has reaped his crops from the battlefields on all sides. Entire air units, formally based in England, moved at once to the beachhead airstrips, and today they provide instantaneous support for the ground troops only a few kilometers away. Of the first soldiers to land on the fields was the Allied Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower. With him was United States Chief of Staff General George Marshall. Together they tour the Normandy battlefield and plan new surprises for the Nazi command. Both expressed complete satisfaction with what they saw. The eye of the laymen, these gliders appear hopeless wrecks, but they performed their job and performed it well. This is not German damage. The fuselage is detachable to disembark men and heavy equipment in record time. Some day the full story of the service of the airborne troops behind the German lines will be told. It will be an heroic story. Batteries of Allied big guns take up their powerful duties. Self-propelled guns move inland and keep the retreating full within range. American trucks and transport of many varieties keep the forward troops well supplied. Bind and forelike are given expert medical care at frontline first aid stations. Germany has forced the men of many races to fight her battles. Thanks to modern medical science, 99% of the wounded in France have lived. American nurses treat the injured behind the lines. The first 10 days of the battle claimed 16,000 American casualties, over 3,000 of them killed. Fighter planes have given the enemy no rest. They strike relentlessly, carrying their onslaught deep into the Nazi communication system. Trains and staff cars, tanks, gun batteries, and ammunition dumps are picked out with amazing accuracy. British commandos push their salient deeper. As these pictures were made, United Nations troops held firm to 600 square miles of Western Europe. People of Old Bayeur, the first sizable town captured by the Allies, throng the streets. A French correspondent speaks to his countrymen and the thrilling music of the Marseillais takes on new meaning. Liverance has come so suddenly to these people, they are slow to realize the nightmare of occupation is over. This is but a foretaste of things to come as the Allies move forward. The V for victory sign, once the symbol of a hope, is now a reality. The man with whom that symbol is chiefly associated comes to the soil of France. Winston Churchill brings with him Field Marshal Smuts and the Chief of the General Staff. The Field Marshal records these historic scenes unfilmed. The Prime Minister was quick to satisfy himself that all was going well. It took only one week for the Allied forces to explode the Atlantic Wall, the work of years of Germany's greatest military scientists. Prime Minister Nisparti returned when Allied destroyer, returned with complete confidence of still greater victories to come. Sporting May Wests, the great British leaders proceed across the narrow waters of the Channel. Nowhere is the Luftwaffe to be seen as the mighty battleships ride back to Britain. Here is impressive evidence of United Nations sea power moving at will, free of enemy challenge. The Man of War fires a parting shot and the architects of victory return home.