Peaceful scenes of pre-war England, showing a church with sheep grazing on its lawn, and a college building with ivy growing on the walls. In contrast, explosion and results of German bombing is shown, with buildings collapsing and ruined from the German blitz over England. A long line of Chinese soldiers marching along the Great Wall of china. Shadows of three Japanese bombers flying over Chinese landscape. On May 4, 1942, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek decorates American fliers who made the first attack on Tokyo in World War 2. Wearing a Chinese decoration around his neck, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, who led that raid by U.S. B-25 bombers from the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet, poses with Madame Chiang and others of his group. Scenes of Moscow, Soviet Russia, including a T-70 light tank moving rapidly along a city street. A Soviet Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bomber taking off in a snow storm. U.S. troops on a halftrack in North Africa. British artillerymen firing a 25 pounder in the desert. Glimpses of smoke rising from enemy strikes at cities in England, Russia, and China. Scenes of destruction from bombing. Brief street scenes of unharmed and intact towns and cities in the United States, including brief New York City scene of pedestrians and traffic in Times Square. Defense workers in America going to work at Ranger Aircraft Engines factory (later part of Fairchild Aircraft and Engine Corporation), and a star flag showing war service by worker families. Farmers in Western U.S. harvesting grain. Railroad trains and river barges carrying harvest from U.S. farms. Herds of cattle and sheep being raised for the war effort in Western U.S. Aerial view of orchards and farms in America. A mining bucket filled with iron ore. Barge carrying the ore. A steel mill in operation. Scrap iron being recycled. View from production floor of U.S. bomber aircraft being built in a defense plant. Countless freight cars in a railroad marshaling yard at a port, where a tug boat and a freighter are seen in the water. War materiel piled up at the port. A convoy of supply ships underway.
Clip opens with brief World War I scene, circa 1917, of new American army recruits receiving army uniforms being issued by a U.S. Army Quartermaster. Clip then covers U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps' combat operations in various Theaters of Operations during World War II. Quartermaster Corps soldiers with rifles under the cover of a military truck during battle. Troops in trucks. An aircraft in low flight over a field. A U.S. Army truck. A Quartermaster fires an anti aircraft gun. Explosions occur and smoke rises. A British tank in a field. Soldiers beside a truck. Cans and barrels stacked on the ground. An enemy German tank in a field. Soldiers take cover. Quartermasters with guns in a trench. They come up the trench in prone positions. Dramatized battle scene with several Quartermaster corps casualties beside a wire fence. Soldiers prepare a mortar gun. An anti aircraft gun on an army truck. A soldier takes aim and fires a rifle during training. The Quartermaster flag hoisted on a pole. Actual footage shows aerial view of Bataan, and then ground views of groups of remaining U.S. Army soldiers around time of surrender of Bataan in April 1942. American soldier seen with their hands up and under guard of Japanese soldiers during Bataan surrender. Landing crafts arrive at a beach in North Africa. Supplies being offloaded at various battle fronts of World War 2. Soldiers and supplies off-loaded on the beach. Quartermasters seated on supplies boxes. Landing crafts arrive at a beach in the South West Pacific. Troops move across the beach. Troops disembark from landing crafts and move across a beach in Sicily, Italy. The Quartermasters unload boxes of supplies during various beach landings. They unload supplies and fire artillery on a beach head in Italy. Troops in trucks. A convoy of trucks loaded with supplies. Ammunition, ration and personnel in trucks move from Algeria to the front in Tunisia. Explosions occur and smoke rises. Trucks advance through smoke at night and in difficult conditions. Quartermaster General Major General E. B. Gregory speaks about the Quartermaster Corps. He says that the Quartermasters distribute goods to the army during training and combat. The movement of the Corps should be so regulated so as to deliver the goods at the right time in the right quantity.
U.S. Naval officers on bridge of the American Attack Transport Ship, USS Samuel Chase (APA-26) en route to North Africa during Operation Torch (Allied invasion of North Africa) during World War 2. Officers make observations of sun with instruments to confirm ship position. A destroyer in the background. Views of convoy including destroyers, supply ships, and barrage balloons. U.S. Submarine Chaser, PC 557 comes close to port side of the Samuel Chase, and then pulls away at high speed. View of crowded deck of the USS Samuel Chase.
Allied convoy of troop and supply ships en route to North Africa during Operation Torch, in World War 2. A couple of destroyers are seen escorting the convoy. Barrage balloons are pulled along, tethered to ships. Views of large convoy underway. A barrage balloon loses gas and falls into the sea.
Plans and preparations made by the Germans for the campaign in North Africa during World War II. Animated map shows the territories occupied by the Allies and the Axis powers during the war. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel along with his troops establishes new forward positions. The troops working to build a canal to transport water. A number of ships in harbor of Tobruk, Libya. German war supplies being loaded on rail cars. Camels crossing a railroad track. Rommel and Marshal Kesselring shown in discussion in North Africa. Animated map showing routes controlled by Axis forces. Scene shift to active battle footage with the British Eighth Army attacking German positions. Night battle with artillery fire. Aerial view of a formation of United States bomber aircraft in flight. They drop bombs over German positions on the ground in North Africa. Explosions on the ground with British tanks and soldiers advancing. A British soldier stands in front of signboards at a former German encampment captured by British forces. Low aerial view of convoy of German army trucks on a road, which narrator implies were captured by Allied forces. Destroyed German airplanes parked on an airfield. Captured German troops walking on a desert road, along with their General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma.
The German Army attacks British positions in Africa during World War II. Visiting Japanese officers deplane at a German airstrip in Sicily, Italy. German and Japanese military officers greet each other. Troops and equipment loaded into German Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft. The transport aircraft fly troops reinforcements to Axis forces in North Africa. Troops in the aircraft. Aerial view of a field as the aircraft approach for landing. A soldier looks out of an aircraft. The aircraft stationed on the field. Luftwaffe General Albert Kesselring inspects German air units. German bombers including Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers escorted by Italian fighters take off. The aircraft in flight. They bomb a British supply dump. Junkers Ju 87s dive and bomb the target at Tobruk.