This photograph was taken in May 1944 in London and belongs to the opening sequence of Lieb’s film, which documents everyday life in the British capital in the weeks immediately before D-Day. Marble Arch, the Gothic Revival triumphal arch at the northeastern entrance to Hyde Park, served Lieb as a distinctive urban landmark showing London as the starting point of the Allied invasion preparations. Barrage balloons are visible over the city – a characteristic feature of London’s air defense system of that period. These color photographs are a rare document of the London cityscape immediately before the greatest amphibious assault in history.