Shot by an unknown USA serviceman, these silent home movies show homecoming from Europe in 1945 or more likely, early 1946. The film starts at sea and about :30 you will see the vessel which he rode on to return from the ETO. It’s most likely a Liberty or Victory ship but could have been some other kind of auxiliary. At :58 the crew does a gunnery exercise, firing off anti-aircraft rounds at a non-existent target. At 1:22 the film shows several officers on the deck of the ship, presumably the man in the middle is the vessel’s captain. At 1:56 passengers crowd the rail. At 2:05 a tanker slips by. At 2:14 the ship is approaching New York Harbor. it is met by a U.S. Army Transportation Corps. ship with a big “Welcome Home Well Done” sign on the upper deck. This is the ferry Miss America which greeted thousands of Americans outside NY Harbor. The ferry is seen closer at 2:45.
At 3:15 the Statue of Liberty is seen. New York harbor is teeming with ships returning from the war, and you’ll see them throughout the film. At 3;56 an ocean going tug comes past. At 4:00, a large hull is seen on the horizon. This is most likely the hull of the ruined French liner SS Normandie, which was gutted by a fire while at anchor. At 4:13 two aircraft carriers, their decks loaded with planes, are seen. One of them is USS Princeton CV-37 — the name can be seen at 4:34. She was one of the Essex Class carriers built in 1945 and missed the war. At 4:15 a landing craft is used to transport personnel to the docks. At 5:00, views from on land, you will see USS Midway CV-41, another carrier that missed action in WWII.
At 5:30 a battleship is seen in the harbor with its crew at the rails. It turns out to be USS Missouri, and the surrender plaque is shown at 5:46. At 6:45 a woman, possibly the cameraman’s wife, poses on the Missouri. At 7:00 a victory parade is shown on the streets of Manhattan.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
