Opening scene shows a large transport ship at a dock in Calcutta, India, during World War 2. It is surrounded by cranes unloading it. In the foreground, numerous sections of pipe are piled up on the dock. Closeup of group of pipe sections being lifted by crane from the ship's hold. Some individual pipes are seen moved by groups of Indian workers carrying them over their heads. Other Indian workers roll pipe sections onto barges that are seen clustered together near a steel bridge. A convoy of trucks is seen carrying the pipe sections along the Ledo road. Some bundles of pipe sections are carried on jeeps. View of an Army Air Forces C-47 transport plane taking off. Sections of pipe being offloaded from a C-47 plane. Numerous pipe sections in organized stacks near the airfield. Sections of pipe being fastened together. Engineers re-condition the road bed using construction equipment. Long connected pipe lines being pulled through water. Caterpillar tractors working on a muddy section of the road. Workers installing pipe near graves of workers who died from disease and other causes. Workers sending a bundle of pipe segments across a river by means of a Zip line. A worker's camp of tents in the background. Workers dressed in rain gear and boots carrying a pipe section through water during the Monsoon. Workers using machetes to chop their way through jungles. An open utility train moving Chinese troops along a single-track rail line, passes pipeline workers standing aside. Engineers and other pipeline workers distributing pipe sections along the rail line from railroad flatcars. Trucks driving the road, in Burma. Various views of the pipeline in including one showing lines of pipe forming a suspension bridge across a river. Other scenes show the pipeline crossing ravines, submerged under rivers, climbing vertical cliffs. Aerial views of the pipeline from low flying aircraft. A vehicle marshaling yard filled with army vehicles. M3A3 Stuart light tank moving past a yard filled with them. Army trucks moving out of their parking yard. Aerial view of large airfield with many parked Air Transport Command C-47 airplanes. B-29 bombers being refueled at an airfield. One is seen taking off. Lieutenant General Daniel Isom Sultan, Commander India-Burma theater, comments that the pipeline is a lifeline to our beleaguered ally and that the Chinese are in on this. Views of Chinese soldiers engaged against Japanese forces. They fire artillery pieces and heavy machine guns. British soldiers carrying Bren guns and struggling to move artillery pieces in the mud. They are seen firing artillery from under camouflage canopies and firing Vickers machine guns. Aerial view of the British controlled port in Calcutta, India, where war materiel is seen being unloaded. Tanks being transported on an Indian railroad. War supplies moving on a barge line and on roads. View of a British airfield in India. North Burma Chinese troops with their weapons and army vehicles. U.S. troops advancing on roads in the jungles. Chinese Marshal Chiang Kai-shek with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Cairo Conference of November 22–26, 1943. General Sultan concludes the film by reassuring American soldiers that they are in the China-Burma-India theater in the common allied effort to fight against Japan.
Activities of the Allied forces in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. Chinese Premier Chiang Kai Shek and his wife arrive to review troops in ChungKing, China. Chinese nurses and soldiers march as General Chinag Kai Shek reviews the United Nations troops. Troops carry portraits of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. Commander of China Burma India Theater General Joseph Stilwell arrives after attending a conference in Washington D.C. Reinforcements arrive in India as soldiers carry bags. Allied soldiers smoke with Indian soldiers. A soldier buys bananas from a vendor. In Indian state of Bengal mule pack trains cross Tibet as they carry supplies for China. Mule packs pass through the Himalayas.
Allied Commanders meet in Delhi, India during World War II. A transport aircraft lands at an airfield in Delhi. Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of the China-Burma-India Theater Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell gets off the aircraft. Officers greet General Stilwell. Stilwell smokes a cigar as he speaks to officers. U.S. Army General Brehon Somervell gets off an aircraft and is greeted by Lieutenant General Stilwell and others. Somervell smokes a cigarette. Another aircraft lands at the field. Supreme Allied commander of the China-Burma-India Theater, British Lord Louis Mountbatten is greeted by officers as he shakes hands.
Chinese troops trained by OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in China Burma India Theater during World War II. A flooded rice paddy field. They walk in a line and passing through the paddy field. The trainees cross the flooded paddy field. The troops carry rifles on their back and march forward. Farmers in the background harvest crops. Hay stack in the foreground and the troops walk past the stacks. They carry gun of their shoulders and advance. The troops advancing in the grassy area. They enter a town. The troops carry essential supplies for delivering it to the trained soldiers.
Chinese soldiers being decorated in China-Burma Theater during World War II. Formations of Chinese soldiers. A Chinese officer reads out a citation. U.S. Army General Joseph Stilwell and staff. General Stilwell pins up medals onto Chinese soldiers.