Millions of Chinese people migrating west and invoking a "scorched earth" policy to slow advance of Japanese forces invading from Shanghai and Nanking, during the second Sino-Japanese war. Long line of Chinese refugees making the trek on foot and transporting their belongings on hand-pulled carts. Chinese entering a library, a school, and a hospital to salvage contents and take them west. Chinese people pulling amazing large loads on carts. Narrator says they salvaged hundreds of millions of pounds of machinery from factories. Trucks and oxen being employed to move goods and equipment on a two thousand mile journey westward. A huge crowd of refugees gathered along a railroad, all rise up from the ground as a steam locomotive appears in the distance. Closeup of Chinese people climbing into rail cars. A glimpse of some intrepid travelers climbing atop the cars. Next, the crowd works to dismantle the railroad, placing rails and ties aboard the train for future use and to deprive the Japanese of them. View of the train, moving slowly, with people occupying every imaginable place. Many crowd the front of the locomotive, itself. Scenes of other trains show many persons riding on tarpaulins that have been tied across the tops of rail cars. Some simply sit on the car roofs. Others are Jam-packed together on open air flat cars. Sampans and barges loaded with refugees and supplies are seen moving westward on China's rivers. Closeups of vessels filled with people. Passengers rowing and working to move the boats. Lines of Chinese crewmen pulling their boats upstream through narrow river gorges. Closeups of gangs of men pulling on tow ropes, as men on the boats assist using long poles to push the boats forward. People walking with backpacks. Narrator speaks of 30 million people moving westward. More scenes of the masses of humanity on the trek.
The Republic of China establishes its wartime capital at Chungking (Chongqing), China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Animated map depicts areas of Japanese occupation and highlights cities including Lanchow (Lanzhou), Chengtu (Chengdu), and Kunming. It highlights Chungking (Chongqing) as the new capital of Nationalist China. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek is seen leading a group of Chinese leaders as they walk through an arched gate in Chungking (Chongqing). A busy street with shops and apartment houses, in the commercial district. It is filled with pedestrians, cart traffic along the curbs, and automobiles in the road center. Boatmen on the Yangtze River are seen below long steep steps leading up to the streets above. Views of houses clustered along the cliffs, and workmen digging bomb shelters into the cliffs. View from inside a shelter being hollowed out of the rock. Back in the Japanese occupied area, a car brings a Japanese Air Force leader who addresses a large group of fliers at an airbase. Next, Japanese air crews are seen running to their airplanes from their camp on the airfield and taking off in their Mitsubishi G3M bombers, to attack Chungking (Chongqing). Nakajima Ki-27 airplanes take off from the field and join in large formations overhead. A formation of Chinese World War 1 era is seen inflight, ostensibly to engage incoming Japanese bombers. Japanese crew member in a bomber sees the Chinese fighters and gunners in the bombers get ready to fire on them. The Chinese fighter planes dive at the bombers but are intercepted by Nakajima Ki-27 airplanes flying cover. Aerial dogfights ensue with Chinese planes being shot down, and the bombers continuing their way. Air raid sirens sound in Chungking and people run to their shelters, including many school children. Views of bomber crews at their stations and then of bombs falling with the Yangtze River below. Bombs exploding along the riverfront and inland, along the cliffs. View of machinery operating, and Chinese workers occupied in underground factories in Chungking (Chongqing). Fires burning throughout the city, from the bombing, and Chinese fire fighters working to extinguish them.
Events in 2nd Sino-Japanese War covering late 1930's through 1943 in World War 2 Scene opens with two Chinese army buglers sounding a call. Next, a line of recruits is seen marching on a field. Chinese officers sit at a table with civilian officials. A Huge crowd of army volunteers are seated, each holding a small white flag. Two more buglers sounding a call. Crowd of recruits move through a gate. Northern Chinese soldiers in fur hats march. Recruits are shown from the East and West of China. Recruits in formation. Bugler sounding a call. Chinese cavalrymen joining the army. More scenes of Chinese people joining together to fight the Japanese. Recruits engaged in close order drill and physical training. Uniformed soldiers in helmets, performing Calisthenics with rifles. Platoons of Chinese soldiers practicing marching and tactical maneuvers. Chinese youth training as first aid workers, carrying stretchers and learning first aid techniques. Chinese women in uniform marching with rifles. A Chinese girl kneels down behind a Maxim machine gun, as an officer instructs and other girls sit around in a group. Glimpse of girls training with rifles on an outdoor firing range. Claire Lee Chennault and his American "Flying Tigers" pilots and P-40 airplanes at an airfield. The American flag flying from a flagpole behind them. Pilots scrambling to their aircraft. Chenneult, now a U.S.A.A.F Major General, commander of 14th Air Force in China, in seen congratulating Chinese army aviators. He is accompanied by a Chinese Air Force General. Behind them is parked a B-24 Liberator bomber of the 308th Bombardment Group. A Chinese Nationalist P-40 with tiger teeth logo on air intake, starts its engine and taxis out for takeoff. View from cockpit of a P-40 pursuing and shooting down a Japanese Nakajima Ki-27 aircraft. Chinese soldiers in precision drills at a garrison.
Japanese officials meeting in strategy session. Japanese infantry on mission to cut Chinese supply lines during 2nd Sino-Japanese war. Black smoke rises as they move along a river bank. Chinese prisoner-workers are forced to rebuild railroads destroyed by the Chinese people during their great Westward trek. Japanese soldier closely guards workers. A Japanese army armored train underway on the rebuilt railroad, as Japanese soldiers cheer. Animated map shows China's supply lines by sea, to Tsingtao, Hangchow, and Amoy, cut off by Japanese naval blockade. Japanese Navy launch with officers and crew moving near commercial ships as they take over Chinese river ports. War materiel and other supplies destined for China, including trucks, sit idle, unable to be transported to their destinations. Large oil tanks and drums of gasoline are shown, as well as gun barrels and a flightline filled with parked Curtiss P-36 Hawk aircraft. The Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Asakaze (DD-3) and another, next to it, in a Chinese river port. A Japanese freighter with anchored weighed, secured by long lines to a wharf. Small boats flying Japanese Naval ensigns are next to it. View of map showing china, Burma, Indo-China, and Chungking, with Japanese blockading fleet stationed in the South China Sea. It traces path of narrow gauge rail line from Indo-china to Kumming,China, where it connected to an overland road to Chungking. Next it traced the old Camel Caravan route, across China, from Russia. Narrator notes these were to small to be useful and too close to Japanese-occupied territory. Next, the map traces a railroad that from the port of Rangoon to Lashio, Burma. It is separated from the road to Chungking, by mountains and gorges. Views of the actual mountainous terrain. Animal pack trains moving through the area. Construction engineers in a large drafting room designing a road to transit the area. View of modern road-building caterpillar tractor equipment of the type needed to accomplish this. View of Chinese laborers using manpower instead. They push large rollers and employ pickaxes and other hand-held tools to carve away and dig road beds. Masses of Chinese laborers at work, carving a road along the edge of a mountain. Two-men teams using manual tampers to pound down the roadbed. Children are employed along with adults. A woman with a baby on her back, pounding large rocks into gravel, surrounded by other children doing the same. View from above of the "Burma Road," the product of their labors, winding its way through the mountains and gorges. Many scenes of trucks moving along portions of the Burma Road. P-40 airplanes flying past white cumulus clouds, overhead. Animated map shows continued expansion of Japanese occupied areas to encompass two thirds of the rail lines in China with goal of controlling the remainder, starting at Chengchow, in Summer, 1938. View of Chengchow region, on banks of the Yellow River. Map illustrates flow pattern of the Yellow River. View from past of the Yellow River's Spring floods toward the Sea, with Chinese people throwing rocks onto dikes that keep the river flowing in a more Northerly direction than its former course. Illustration shows how with Japanese encrouching on Chengchow, the Chinese decided to destroy those dikes and allow the river to flood over its former more Southerly course. Japanese soldiers being inundated by the flooding river. Japanese infantry and tanks regrouping on their occupied side of the new (old) path of the Yellow River. Local Chinese residents of Chengchow, wade with belongings as they leave their flooded homes.
Opening scene shows closeups of many smiling Chinese Guerrilla fighters during the Second Sin-Japanese War (World War II). Animated map shows Japanese occupied areas as clinging to lines of communication (roads, railroads, and waterways), Japanese troops, carrying Rising Sun flag, march into a Chinese town. A Japanese armored boat, flying the naval ensign, cruises along a narrow stretch of river, with a large Chinese fortress in the background. Its officers watch carefully through binoculars. A Japanese armored train is seen patrolling a stretch of railroad. A long line of Chinese guerrilla fighters marching along a dusty road carrying a variety of weapons. Some, both men and women, are seen. One carries a homemade flag. The camera pans across them, all carrying shouldered arms. Chinese farmers threshing grain by shoveling it into the air, as they might have done before becoming guerrilla fighters. One guerrilla carrying two grenades around his neck. Many marching with shouldered arms and conical straw hats on their backs. Views of their feet clad in sandals. More scenes of Chinese guerrilla fighters marching. Animated map shows guerrilla attacks against Japanese-held lines of communication. A Chinese guerrilla fighter running through a field, banging a tin to sound a call to arms. Others picking up weapons and responding. Next, a group of them are seen diving into a river and moving along low to the water. Others are seen running across a ridge of rock. Still others come over a hill ostensibly attacking a Japanese patrol. Two large explosions and black smoke are seen behind running guerrilla fighters. Another scene also shows Chinese guerrillas running from an explosion. Heavy smoke and Wreckage of building and equipment at a railroad site. Japanese troops struggling to transit marshes and mud, with horses pulling artillery pieces, and many men pulling a rope to retrieve a sunken field piece from a stream. One Japanese officer wipes his face with a handkerchief, as he confers with others about the situation.
Closeup of two Nationalist Chinese soldiers with their flag flying on tall flagpole in background. Next, countless numbers of Chinese soldiers are seen marching along the Great Wall during the Second Sino-Japanese War (World War II). Newspaper article reads: "52,000 Japanese fall at Changsha." Animated map depicts China and environs, with major cities. Areas of Japanese occupation are shown in black. The city of Changsha is highlighted by a circle. Japanese force is shown massing at Yueyang (Yochow), near Dongting Lake (Ting Tung Hu Lake), and advancing on 24 December 1941, toward Changsha. The map shows Chinses forces putting up token resistance and retreating to the East (rather than toward Changsha) and Japanese forces beginning assault on Changsha, New Year’s Day, 1942. Map shows the Chinese forces from the East attacking and cutting the Japanese supply lines. Japanese forces besieging Changsha are forced to retreat under counterattack by the Chinese. A field artillery piece being fired by Chinese forces and explosion and smoke from its shell striking. More field artillery being fired. Japanese forces carrying their Rising Sun flag as they retreat under fire. Chinese infantry firing from a berm A Japanese soldier falls to gunfire. Japanese soldiers retreating across a narrow-improvised bridge across a swamp. Chinese soldier next to a building, firing a Czech ZB vz. 26 light machine gun. Japanese running with horses through a village. Chinese gunner firing Japanese Type 92 machine gun down on Japanese troops retreating across a bridge below. Another Chinese soldier firing a Czech 26 light machine gun, from hill overlooking retreating Japanese troops, below. Victorious Nationalist Chinese troops parading in celebration along a road high above buildings of a town below in background. Men in Khaki pants and white shirts parading. Girls in white dresses, carrying Chinese flags. Soldiers marching (without weapons) celebrating.
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