 Big Picture, an official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. Today the major American ground force in Europe is the 7th Army. It is a combat-ready fighting force, with traditions and standards of which it can be proud. To tell its story, let's go back to July 1943, when the 7th was one of the great armies formed to crack the walls of fortress Europe. The 7th Army is born at sea, on the way to its first campaign. This, the invasion of the not-so-soft underbelly of Europe, for which the whole world had been waiting. The target? Sicily. An early event in the life of the new 7th Army, a gale that threatens to postpone the landing. In spite of it, the invasion goes ahead. Of the troops chosen for Sicily, many are hardened veterans of North Africa, but even they are tense and uneasy as they endure the trip to the beaches. The defenses have been avoided. The landing on the south-central coast is a bold and successful stroke. Everything possible is done to speed the movement ashore. The Nazis have ordered Italian garrisons to hold firm until the Germans can drive the 7th into the sea. Look, Baba, praise upon the beaches. Prevent the 7th from establishing a beachhead. The commander of the 7th Army, colorful General George S. Patton Jr., joins leading elements of his troops. Italian prisoners, they are sick of Hitler and tired of five years of fighting. England begins, and the Villaroma, main street of town after town, rumbles to the weight of an army determined to take the island. But the hills of northern Sicily provide the Germans with rugged, natural defensive positions. The city of Troina, strongly fortified, holds firm against artillery and air bombings, blocking the 7th Army's advance for five days. The 7th has its share of casualties. The army is fighting against men who for years have been trained and indoctrinated with the Nazi philosophy. But the soldiers of the 7th Army beat the enemy to his knees, defeated from Troina. The 7th pursues the Hitler legions, who are now trying to save themselves by attempting to escape from the island. Along the steep north coast, they have wrecked the path of pursuit. Engineers perform road-building miracles, and the 7th uses amphibious landings to bypass some of the coastal roadblocks. Messina, last city to be taken, from it the enemy retreats to the mainland of Italy. The remnants of a badly beaten German and Italian army escape across the streets of Messina. Sicily has fallen in 38 days. The 7th Army has paved the way for the invasion of Italy. The Nazis have been driven from their outer stronghold on European soil. Now months are spent in planning an attack upon the southern coast of France, with the primary mission of seizing ports to aid the Allied invasion of northern France and the future of battle for Germany. Equipment is ready. Men have undergone intensive training, but others, slated for the invasion, are still fighting in the Italian campaign. Finally, at the Bay of Naples, and at other ports in Italy and North Africa, Operation Dragoon is underway. Veterans of Sicily, as well as Salerno and Anzio, a seasoned 7th Army. In action, airborne troops head for inland strong points. Their aim? To prevent enemy reinforcements from reaching a beachhead. Parachute and glider troops are successful in undermining the enemy's chance of a counterattack. Some gliders encounter obstacles planted by the Nazis on French farmlands. A key figure in the invasion, General Alexander M. Patch, replacing General Patton as the 7th commander, west of Nice. Beaches are rocky and treacherous as wave upon wave of troops storm ashore. Opposition is weak. The enemy has been stunned and overwhelmed. They are unprepared for an assault of this magnitude. The invasion proceeds, not entirely according to plan, but rather far better than anyone had anticipated. During the success is the work of French troops with the 7th Army and underground forces who have steadily harassed the enemy during the occupation. Now at last they are able to work in the open against the German troops and their collaborators. Troops, under General Patch, have been assigned the mission of attacking Marseille and Toulon. They meet strong opposition from the last ditched troops whose orders are not to withdraw or surrender. The estimated time for capture of the two vital ports is 40 days. The French finish the job in 13. The ports are severely damaged, but they are essential for landing supplies to be used in the future drive against Hitler's fortress. Campaign thus far has been one of the best coordinated efforts in military history. Sensing defeat, the German High Command orders the entire 19th Army to withdraw northward. The enemy retreats up their own valley toward a trap that the 7th Army is setting up north of Montelamar. In a drum-bowl, the 7th Army cuts off thousands of beaten troops. His hemmed in on every side are forced to leave behind a vast graveyard of vehicles and equipment. The 7th Army column, like a thermometer with the mercury at the bottom, rises steadily. After four long years, Leon, 3rd City of France, greets the 7th. French troops are wildly greeted by their kinsmen at Dijon. A French unit of Patches' Army joins a unit of Patton's 3rd. The invasions of northern and southern France are linked. A phase of the war comes to an end, but a difficult period is ahead. The enemy has withdrawn its lines to carefully chosen battlefields. Behind them lies their homeland. Here they will stand and fight against endless enemy strongholds, stubbornly defended, vigorously attacked, a long but final test of the stamina of nations and of men. Into the wilderness, the Vosges Mountains. In its darkness, lanes of fire have been prepared by the enemy. Every move is dangerous, gains a few yards a day. There is a breakthrough. Strasbourg, the gateway to the Rhineland. The victory is a grim pause in a city under constant threat of counterattack. The enemy is still strong, playing a game of giving a little to take more. The outskirts of Strasbourg are patrolled as the city becomes a headquarters for the 7th Army. Some predict that with the oncoming of winter, there will be nothing much happening in this section of the front. The Nazis' main defenses, the Siegfried Line. Each town is a tough outpost, a barricade that must be broken through to reach even heavier defenses. With an inch is given, every foot must be taken, which is the strongly defended town of Hegenau. Patches soldiers are tested as never before against mines, booby traps and snipers. The strong point in the old Maginot Line, the town falls, and the 7th has moved a step nearer the Nazis' main line of defense. Christmas arrives, but there is not much of it in this sector of the western front. Hatch constantly roams his front line. He is deeply concerned over a new development, what might be a major threat. Finally, he decides to accept an evaluation of information collected by his G2, who even today remembers the episode as a high point in his military experience. Some days before Christmas, we suspected that the enemy in our area was reinforcing his position heavily. Now, this was surprising, since at this time, he was throwing almost all he had into the Battle of the Bulge. Then, the day after Christmas, aerial photographs revealed new enemy forward in placements for artillery. Also, we captured two German parachutists and some other agents who were trying to find out the location of our reserves to determine how they could isolate these forces after a breakthrough. I reported to General Patch that I believe that a major enemy attack by elements of over 20 divisions against our 6th was no longer an enemy capability. It was, in fact, a probability. As a result, 7th Army was put on the defensive. We improved our communications. We planted mines. We dug in all along the line. Positions were shifted to strengthen areas where we expected the attack to have its greatest impact. We estimated the German operation, so-called North Wind, for New Year's Eve. The attack came on schedule and continued for 23 days. The 7th Army is able to cover attack in some sectors, or it must withdraw to gain more favorable defensive terrain. The last German offensive of the war does not achieve its objective. The 7th Army holds, but Nazi operation North Wind has failed. Patch's army cannot begin its own offensive until it helps eliminate the Colmar pocket, a large concentration of German troops within France, a thorn in the side of the entire Allied advance. A final phase of the operation is the attack upon Colmar itself. It is launched by the French 1st Army and 7th Army units. Colmar becomes a liberated city. The town of Biche is reoccupied, as the 7th straightens its line for their new offensive toward the Siegfried Defenses. Some of the toughest battles of the war are fought here, penetrating the net of fortifications defending Germany. Soften by the artillery is taken by the infantry, this time for keeps. Some flags are unfurled. The terrain is wet, but the Allies are moving ahead. The Siegfried line, behind it the Nazis are retreating, it is no longer a bulwark. The 7th is in Germany, having won its frontal attack against the strongest fortifications ever constructed by man. Enemy supply trains are wrecked, while the 7th has become, for the first time in weeks, well supplied for the final job of overcoming the enemy. The steady advance reaches Worms on the Rhine River. The enemy opposition at the water's edge has been overcome. Vital supply line is continued for the final drive on Germany. Eastward, the campaign for Central Europe gathers momentum. Enemy tank and its crew is captured at Zügerheim. Soon there are masses of prisoners along the Autobahn. General Eisenhower states, the Germans as a military force on the western front are a whipped army. The 7th Army's prisoner of war stockade at Worms. The faces of the enemy tell what is happening better than words. But in cities such as Aschaffenburg, the Hitler legions fight on fanatically. The battle here is a week long and no quarter given. Patches army sweeps on across the Bavarian plains. In a small town, Nasig, half the garrison gives up. After a prisoner has volunteered to go within the town to persuade their surrender. But the volunteer is never seen again. The defenders, 16 to 18 years old, have had but 15 days of training. The Shrine City of Nuremberg, a city pounded to a pulp, remains dangerous. In its wreckage, the remnants of a Wehrmacht division fight for five days. Up operation continues south toward Austria. Victory comes for the men of the 7th Army. There are formalities that provide a special satisfaction. The disarming of Hermann Gehring. Frigstadium, full of cruelty and hate, the bad taste of war is tempered by pleasant moments. The joy, the gratitude on the faces of thousands of slave laborers about to be liberated, makes it seem worthwhile. American flag, flying over an ex-Nazi camp, spells out freedom. Berchtesgaden, Hitler's modern home. The Nazi Fuhrer, his myth, the might of his armies, these two are gone. The view remains. And a memory remains of those in the 7th Army who fell during the rugged fighting of two long years. It's over. But in the years that follow, a new danger arises. East Germany, with her Russian friends, makes threatening gestures and becomes a potential avenue of attack against the Western allies. After a period of service on occupation duties, the 7th Army, reactivated, becomes the major U.S. ground force of the NATO armies. With frequent practice maneuvers, the 7th is again a combat-ready fighting army. Today, in exercises such as Winterschild in Germany, the 7th trains with other NATO forces. The training emphasis is on combat readiness, and the training continues in terrain and under weather conditions as rugged as any of the 7th Army encountered during World War II. In training, the spirit that emerged on the battlefields of Sicily, France and Germany sets a standard for the troops of today's 7th Army. They are aware of their huge responsibility as the major American fighting force in Europe. They stand ready, a pyramid of fighting strength to resist aggression.