Scenes of the first daylight strategic bombing by the United States Air Forces against targets in German-controlled Europe. A dozen B-17s execute the first mission against railroad marshaling yards in German-held Rouen, France, on August 17, 1942. A year later, large numbers of U.S. bombers attack Schweinfurt, Germany during World War II. U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress planes take off from U.S. Air Base in England. A formation of B-17s in flight. They head towards Germany. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his aides confer. Unescorted B-17s over Schweinfurt under heavy attack by German FW-190 fighter planes. The B-17s drop bombs over the target area. Ruins of Schweinfurt after bombings. A FW-190 goes down after facing attack. Dead and wounded men unloaded from B-17s which return from the Schweinfurt raid. Panoramic views of ruined Schweinfurt on August 20, 1943.
Opening slate reads: "Quebec Conference August 1943." The English battleship, Prince of Wales, is seen in fog off the Coast of Newfoundland, in August 1941. View of sailor on fore-deck of the British ship. View inside engine room of the ship where sailor manipulates her power. Closeup of engine crankshaft stopping as she drops anchor in Placentia Bay. View of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, greeting U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard the Prince of Wales. He proffers a letter to the President, from the King of England. View of Roosevelt and Churchill seated on deck with their respective military leaders standing behind them. Admiral Ernest King, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations converses with U.S. Army Chief of Staff, George Marshall, as they stand behind Churchill and Roosevelt. Wider camera view shows the larger military entourage accompanying the Prime Minister and the President. Glimpse of prisoners and enslaved workers taken by Nazi Germans in Europe. Glimpse of bombs falling from an airplane. Classic film views of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941. Bombs exploding along "Battleship Row." Heavy smoke rising from the bombed ships. The USS Arizona tilted heavily and burning. Camera pans along the path of destruction, as the voice of President Roosevelt is heard in the background, asking the Congress to declare that the Japanese attack created a state of War between the United States and the Japanese Empire. View of President Roosevelt speaking to the U.S. Congress. Seated behind him are Vice-President Henry Wallace and Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn. Glimpse of Congress members applauding. Change of scene shows President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meeting in Washington, DC, in December of 1941, during World War 2. Views of war preparations in the United States, including the building of new war production plants and facilities. A large steel ingot being forged into an artillery gun barrel. Machinist at work turning a gun barrel on a lathe in a munitions factory. Views of manufacturing plants in operation and steel being made. A railroad train carrying new Army trucks. Another meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt in Washington, D.C. June, 1942. Standing behind them is President Roosevelt's special assistant, Harry Hopkins, a British naval officer, and an American navy Captain. American soldiers boarding a troop ship, and closeups of them as they enter the ship, looking out of portholes, and waving from the ship's deck. Glimpse of Washington Monument and its image in the reflecting pool in Washington DC. Closeup of a book entitled, "Time Table for Invasion." General George Marshall with several of his generals doing preliminary planning. Series of scenes involving senior military officers engaged in war planning. A convoy of warships is seen at sea during the Operation Torch Allied invasion of French North Africa during 8–16 November, 1942. Views of Allied Navy ship guns firing. Allied troops riding in landing craft, and advancing from beached craft on shore of Algiers. Aerial view of a flight of Douglas Dauntless bombers in formation. "Bombs away" view from Allied airplane dropping bombs. Allied troops firing camouflaged antiaircraft guns from sandy positions near shore. Enemy shells or bombs exploding nearby. Two U.S. Army soldiers holding a document in French entitled, "Message from the President of the United States.
Film titled ‘D-Day Convoy’ based on invasion of Normandy (D-Day) by Allied Forces during World War II. Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Prime Minister of UK Winston Churchill seated at Tehran Conference in December 1943. Other officials stand behind the big three. U.S. General George Marshall, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe Dwight Eisenhower and other officials seated at a conference table. Map of France details cross channel assault of France by Allied Forces. Map shows coastal locations to be attacked by Allies. Weapons and equipment from America pouring into England. U.S. soldiers arrive in England and train, for the invasion, on southern coast of England. U.S. B-26 bombers hitting German targets and smoke billowing up from exploding bombs. B-17 bomber in flight and bombs falling on German industrial targets. Gunners on B-17s defend against German fighter aircraft. American bomber explodes in flight after attack by German fighter airplane. German Messerschmitt fighter is destroyed. From edited film produced in 1947.
Training and motivational film for U.S. Army Air Force crews preparing for the bombing of the Ploesti (or Ploiesti) oil fields in Romania, (Operation Tidal Wave) of August 1943. Final part of a training film to brief U.S. Army Air Forces aircrews in preparation for their bombing raid on the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania during World War 2. Formation of bombers is seen flying toward oil derricks in the oil fields. Aerial views of the oil fields and refineries. Oil storage facilities. Closeup of oil workers at a drilling rig. German officers walking in snow, ostensibly seeking places to obtain oil to fuel their wartime operations. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and other Nazi officers examine a chart in Africa. German prisoners taken in North Africa. Large numbers of German prisoners walking across the desert. A flight of several German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes in formation. Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini, walking with an entourage in an Italian colonial region of Africa. He climbs aboard an open rail car on a small gauge railway. Accompanied by others, the rail car is pushed along the track by Colonials in white garb. German Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, who commanded German forces attacking the Soviet Union in Operation Typhoon, is seen visiting a German base. Next, Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle has his hands on the fins of a bomb while posing with his flyers when underway in the Pacific, aboard the USS Hornet (CV-8) for their daring raid B-25 bombing raid on Tokyo, Japan. View of a B-25 taking off from the Hornet. An American B-17 flying fortress, bomber taking off for a daylight raid in Europe. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, speaking on radio, saying "We believe the Nazis and fascists have asked for it. And they're going to get it." Oil storage tanks ablaze with heavy black smoke rising.
American correspondents in Netherlands to mark 25th anniversary of Allied invasion of Europe in World War II. A steamer underway in a canal. Views in the village of Opijnen, in Gelderland, the Netherlands. A correspondent and his wife come out of a house. American correspondents near a bus. Houses along a road. An American flag at the walled cemetery in Opijnen, beside its 17th century Dutch Reformed Church, where the crew members of an American B-17 bomber from the 323 Squadron of the 91st Bomb Group (H) of the U.S. 8th Army Air Force are buried; shot down July 30, 1943 by the German Luftwaffe. Gravestones bearing the names of American soldiers who lost their lives when their crippled B-17 was shot down, including: Mike Anthony Perrotta, Hermon Daines Poling, Harold Royce Sparks, Robert Urquhart Duggan, Douglas Victor Blackwood, Americo Cianfichi. U.S. Color Guard marches from a town building toward the cemetery. A woman correspondent takes pictures. An American flag flies at half mast. Men, women and children at the cemetery. Dutch children carry flowers in their hands. The mayor of Opijnen speaks into a microphone. He and a woman place flowered wreaths at the graves of dead American soldiers. Two groups of four U.S. Convair F-102 Delta Dagger aircraft fly overhead followed by four F-104 Starfighters of the Royal Netherlands Airforce. Children walk past the graves. Additional propeller aircraft pass overhead honoring the airmen.
World War 2 era film that also includes some World War 1 scenes. Show girls or chorus girls in follies-like show, costumed as U.S. silver dollars and marching to tune and lyrics alluding to dramatic increase of currency in circulation, over the years. Animation with stacks of coins shows increase in national income from $46 billion,in 1933, to $71 billion, in 1939, and $142 billion in 1943. Back to the "follies dollars," a boy asks why, and then scenes of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,are shown, with U.S. battleships being sunk. Wartime arms plants are shown. An M2A3 Light Tank rolls off a production line. Ships being constructed in a shipyard. B-24 Liberator bombers being built in a factory. Artillery shells being produced. Defense workers receiving their pay. The "follies dollars" group themselves to illustrate the fractions of income devoted to taxes and savings. But other spending is curtailed by wartime shortages. A woman talking with clerk in a drug store. U.S. Army troops crossing a pontoon bridge in open trucks, towing 75mm M1A1 howitzers. Infantry on the march. Animation showing industrial production devoted to war materiel and lots of dollars chasing few civilian goods. A grocery clerk offers to sell a woman customer butter for more than the established price, and she agrees. The "follies" performers then introduce the idea of an "inflationary dollar," and some history of past U.S. inflations. Animated examples of price inflation are shown. Glimpses of World War I scenes are seen, circa 1917 -1918, including: a 12-inch railway gun firing; a huge explosion from shell bursting near the camera; various scenes of United States infantry soldiers and French soldiers in battle action, running to bomb craters for cover and emerging from trenches to go up "over the top" into no-mans land during combat. Meanwhile, singing narration refers to the home front inflation due to competition for limited civilian goods. Map shows Europe and singing narration cites rising prices for food in occupied France and other countries suffering ravages of World War II. Montage of scenes showing needy civilians obtaining food in those countries. Animation shows increases, by 1944, in cost of U.S. civilian goods since the Pearl Harbor attack. "Follies" character called "Double-duty dollar," appears explaining he serves the war and curtails inflation on the home front by being saved through investments in War Bonds and stamps.