A German observation plane descends and crashes in the European Theater during World War I after a dogfight with a French aviator. View on ground of French troops and citizens gathered around the crash site and viewing the crashed German aircraft.
United States Army troops arrive and join with French forces during World War I. Open troop Trucks filled with American soldiers arriving in French town during World War 1. One of the soldiers clowns around, hanging off the truck. U.S. troops, armed with rifles, in a deep trench, watching one of their comrades firing his rifle over the top. Soldiers firing a Hotchkiss Model 1914 machine gun and a Vickers Mark I .303 water-cooled machine gun. French troops firing 320 mm railway guns. Artillery shells bursting on ground. Mortar Crew puts on gas masks and fires mortar. Artillerymen firing 155mm Howitzer M1917A4. Shells bursting on target in distance.
Close-ups of Soviet soldiers aiming their rifles. British soldiers, carrying Enfield rifles, advance in rocky terrain. Allied Colonial troops fighting in jungles. Paratroopers jumping from an airplane. American soldiers following an armored vehicle through heavy foliage, and then running through a street and taking defensive positions during combat in a battle damaged town. An American M3 Lee medium tank (with name “Andy” written on it) firing its heavy gun in the center of a town. Its Shell bursts in a building and blows part of it into the street. The troops continue advancing and walk over a sign on the ground,displaying a swastika. Scenes shift to home fronts of Allied countries, where people are working in machine shops, forges, welding shops, and war plants, fabricating weapons. Final scene shows two American soldiers firing a Browning M1917 water-cooled machine gun.
A stream of U.S. Army trucks heads along a highway as opening slate rolls, emphasizing the importance of logistics to wartime operations. Two U.S. Army small hatch M4 Sherman tanks (Possibly Ford built moels M4A3) rush down a hillside toward the camera. View from atop a tank with Browning M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun installed. It heads uphill, firing rounds from its gun, raising explosion of earth ahead of it. Barrel of a 240 mm howitzer gun swings up in front of the camera. A U.S. coastal defense gun firing from a fort. Rear view of 240 mm Howitzer being fired. Towed field artillery pieces being fired. Troops near water, firining a Bofars 40 mm anti aircraft gun. A U.S. soldier firing a Browning 1917 water cooled machine gun. A B-17 bomber in flight overhead. View of a bombardier at a Norden bomb sight inside the B-17 with his finger on the bomb controls. The bomb bays open and bombs fall, seen striking in a line on the ground. Ground level views of large explosions on the ground. A tank camouflaged in underbrush, firing its gun. A small hatch Sherman tank charging the camera. Several German Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft flying fast and low on strafing runs. A soldier firing an antiaircraft machine gun. Closeups of three Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft attacking at high speed, only several feet above ground. Bombs bursting in a field where a soldier in lying next fo barbed wire. A tank knocking trees over as it emerges from woods. Infantry following tanks across a field. A series of scenes showing armor and infantry charging. In one, troops are wearing gas masks. A huge explosion in a field. Paratroopers inside an airplane connect to a static line and jump from the plane. Lines of parachutes fill the sky as paratroopers jump from C-47 aircraft. Closeup of paratrooper as he descends and hits the ground. View of Polish cavalry riding in a loose formation. German gun crew fires at Polish city. Smoke rising from burning buildings. Norwegian flag flying over a fort in Norway. Views of German Ju-52 aircraft in flight over Athens, Greece. It flies over the Parthenon and other ancient buildings. German tanks and troops entering Belgium. Troops marching in Yugoslavia. The American flag flying over Bataan. Civilians grieving over dead in Poland. Dead victims of war in Norway, Greece, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Malaya, Singapore, Shanghai, and Mandalay. A group of civilians grieving over two dead children. The German (Nazi) flag flying from a flagpole. (World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
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.
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 aircraft in flight. Three U.S. Army Air Service Curtiss P-1B Hawk pursuit aircraft in flight, circa 1926. Aerial dogfight 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.