Montage of scenes illustrating development of mechanized warfare beginning with American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) engaged in World War I. U.S. Army infantry soldiers moving out of trenches going "over the top" into "no man's land" and advancing on battlefield. U.S. troops firing Browning M1917 machine gun,1903 Springfield rifles, and Stokes mortar from trench positions. Soldiers firing mortar are wearing gas masks. AEF trucks and other vehicles ostensibly an improvement over horses, but seen having difficulty in mud. A truck pulling a large artillery gun. A German 80cm K (E) rail gun (developed in 1934) shown at the Rugenwalde Test Range in Germany. It moves along curving rails and is elevated to its maximum elevation (65 degrees). Two World War 1 rail guns firing. An American World War I Naval 14-inch rail gun firing. Allied heavy howitzers firing in World War 1 (one with gun crew in gas masks). American gunners with a French 75 field piece and caisson. French soldier advancing in no-mans-land. The Wright brothers brought warfare into the air with their Wright Flyer airplane, seen being maneuvered on the ground by U.S. Army personnel at Fort Myer, Virginia in July 1909. A De Havilland DH-4 airplane taking off in World War I. A German Fokker D.VIII in flight.Three U.S. Army Air Service Curtiss P-1B Hawk pursuit aircraft in flight, circa 1926. Aerial dog fight scene including view from behind a pilot in open cockpit biplane (from feature film, circa 1927). Brief view of Renault FT tank maneuvering in World War I. Narrative and clips shift to historical perspective of warfare, showing use of horse and chariot,starting in ancient Assyria and use of elephants in later years by Hannibal.Pictures of mounted soldiers, in the middle ages, waging war in armor, and being transported in a wagon. Shift to World War I showing British Mark IV tanks maneuvering in a field.
Opening scene shows a number of bridges destroyed by retreating German forces on the Eastern front during World War 2. Momentary view of Soviet infantry wading through water in a swamp. Soviet army engineers Driving pilings from a pontoon bridge across a river. Soviet Marshal Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky, accompanied by a Major General and other staff officers, cross a bridge being reconstructed. A steam locomotive pulls a long train of flat cars carrying Soviet T-34 tanks. A soldier stands near a moving train of tank cars on a railroad. Trees overhead hide the view from above. Glimpse of several camouflage screens. View from moving train passing under camouflage in a forest. Fuel pipelines are seen in the forest. Workers pass hoses to men on tank cars who fill them. Soviet army tank trucks drive out of the area. Momentary view of Soviet trucks passing over a low bridge. T-34 tanks moving through woods. An ISU-152 self-propelled gun in the woods. Army trucks moving across a bridge. Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns maneuvering in a wooded area. Soldier tells driver of ISU-152 to stop his self-propelled gun. Armor moving through woods. More views of trucks on bridges and armor moving through wooded areas.
NATO officers walk through a wooded area, led Alphonse Juin, Chief of Staff, Nato Infantry. General Juin was recently promoted to rank of Marshal of France, and wears corresponding seven-star rank insignia on his uniform. A U.S. Army Piper Cub aircraft takes off from a rough airfield, on which several other aircraft are parked.
Views of NATO forces in various places in Europe. A man sits on a step smoking a cigar. Nearby is a camouflaged tank, that demonstrates movement of its turret and gun. The gunner descends into the tank. Policeman directs tank and other traffic at an intersection. A Chimney Sweep in top hat, smoking a cigarette, stands by his bicycle, next to a NATO machine gun position, at a roadside. He gives a light to one of the soldiers in the gun emplacement. A tank rolls past the emplacement. An American gun crew runs to their heavy artillery gun and prepares it to fire. They demonstrate dry firing the gun. Another American gun crew mans an antiaircraft weapon and demonstrates its mobility.
A film on the logistics and the psychology of war. Primarily shows training exercises, combat simulations, and dramatizations. Images of soldier and explosions. A U.S. sailor firing a Mark 4, 20 mm. anti aircraft. Gun from a ship. A U.S. M3 Stuart light tank heading toward the camera. American soldiers ostensibly falling to enemy explosions and gunfire. A shell exploding where American troops are hunkered down. Artillery batteries firing at night. A soldier cutting barbed wire and triggering a booby trap. . Troops under fire during amphibious assault. Soldiers manning an M1919A4 .30-caliber Light Machine Gun. Troops advancing through forest under fire. Some fall. Staged encounter between U.S. infantrymen and German soldier. The kill each other. Entire battle front erupting in explosions and smoke. Newspaper article by Ernie Pyle about too little training of U.S. troops. New York reporter's article noting that U.S. soldiers in Europe don't understand why they aren't fighting the Japanese who attacked America. Staged hand to hand combat between a German soldier and two American soldiers.
Opening scene shows troops of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division engaged at Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, in 1944, during World War II. They advance through fires and set up defenses in buildings, firing rifles from apartment windows. Outside, riflemen fire from behind a concrete barrier. Closeup of one firing his M1 Garand rifle. Glimpses of infantry firing mortars and walls falling to mortar fire. Gun crews firing heavy field artillery pieces, some under camouflage nets and others in the open. Intervening slate reads: "VT." and introduces postwar discussion of Signal Corps-developed proximity fuse, using animated cartoon. Shows how it proximity shells increase their explosive envelope compared to regular time fused munitions. U.S. Army gunner fire a number of proximity shells that burst above ground targets in the distance. A cartoon shows the proximity fused munition being used by a fighter aircraft. A Republic P-47 fighter plane is seen firing VT munitions from guns in its wings. Aerial bombs falling. A line of VT bombs exploding above ground.