General Douglas MacArthur is appointed Chief of Staff, with rank of full General, in 1930. United States troops marching with the American flag. General MacArthur with two French military officers, during a tour of Europe. He is decorated by French Officials. MacArthur visits Germany and inspects German troops. U.S. President Roosevelt reappoints MacArthur as Chief of the Staff. MacArthur speaking to an audience in Washington DC. Scenes of MacArthur's headquarters in the Philippines. Filipinos walking outside MacArthur’s office. MacArthur at his office in the Philippines with Eisenhower at his side. MacArthur talks on the telephone. Flags of the United States and the Philippines. Filipino troops marching at Fort Santiago inside the walled city of Intramuros in Manila. MacArthur supervises the creation of a Philippine Army before World War 2. Philippine Army cadets perform outdoor calisthenics and attend a meeting. Philippine Army cadets train in knife fighting together with U.S. soldiers. View of Japanese attack of U.S. Navy ships and airfields at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Japanese bombardment of the Philippines in December 1941 and into early 1942 as Japanese occupy Philippines during World War II. View of Corregidor Island. U.S. Army and Filipino soldiers on Corregidor load and fire artillery at the Japanese before the fall of Corregidor. U.S. soldiers in the Bataan peninsula. Face of MacArthur superimposed over a montage of American factory workers manufacturing ammunition and military vehicles. Start of the Bataan Death March. PT boat carrying MacArthur leaves Corregidor. War equipment prepared in factories. A battleship underway to Australia. MacArthur in Australia. U.S. convoy moves towards Japanese held islands in the Pacific. Allied soldiers land on the islands. A soldier lands on a beach and raises the American Flag. MacArthur points to the Philippines on a map and discuss war strategy. In accordance with the plan key positions in the Pacific are attacked. MacArthur looks on as United States soldiers land on the islands. MacArthur while smoking a pipe inspects the landing of Allied soldiers on islands behind heavy bombardment. Amphibious tractors land on the beach of Palo, Leyte. Allied paratroops make a landing. United States troops sail on rubber boats towards the beach of Palo, Leyte. Paratroopers on parachutes landing in Leyte. MacArthur confers with Allied Commanders. Allied troops walk past a destroyed Bahay Kubo nipa hut. Japanese soldiers are taken as prisoners in the Philippines.
General Motors film entitled: "It's up to US," explains how to maintain private cars during World War 2, when all manufacturers switched to production of war materiel. Bugler, in U.S. Army uniform, blows reveille. Montage of American scenes, including homes and gardens; mountains; forests and lumberjacks felling a tree; an oil well gusher spewing crude oil; open pit mining operations; Niagara falls; flock of sheep grazing; workers picking cotton and it being delivered to a processing plant by horse-drawn wagon; a large timber log being cut into boards in a lumber mill; steel being manufactured for the war effort; a woman housewife or homemaker saving foods in a refrigerator in a vintage 1940s kitchen; a man cutting his lawn; a woman vacuuming her carpet; a woman taking clothes from a washing machine; a farmer plowing with a tractor; automobiles on American road and in parking lot of a defense plant. A driver with worn and dented 1938 Chevrolet Coupe car parked in front of a home is assisted by another who drives up behind him in a 1941 Oldsmobile and gives him a push. Sign at a Chevrolet service garage reading: "Official O.P.A. Tire Inspection Station." A 1942 Chevrolet 2-door fastback car drives into the garage. Mechanic greets driver and begins routine service, including: adding distilled water to battery; draining oil from car up on hydraulic lift. Scene shifts to a mechanic lubricates fittings on a 1937 Chevy on a lift at a gas station. Scene reverts to the earlier garage where mechanic drains cooling system, and refills it. The mechanic removes the carburetor and services it on a bench. He checks distributor rotor and makes compression checks. He cleans and re-gaps spark plugs, and checks tires and brakes. Cars driving on a town street. Mechanic aligning wheels on 1941 Chevrolet. Animated illustrations of tire wear from alignment problems. Servicing air in tire of 1942 2-door Chevy. More animated illustrations of tire problems. Illustrated explanation of rotation for bias tires.
Retired U.S. Army Major General Walter Campbell Short testifies before a Joint Congressional Committee investigating the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He talks about attack and defends himself. He says that he did not receive any information of the attack from the war department untill December 6, 1941 and all emphasis was on defending against sabotage. He makes a statement that he does not believe that he has made any mistake regarding this attack. Other officials seated around him listen to him.
Film opens with views of goosestepping German, Italian, and Japanese soldiers during parade reviews in their respective countries. Emperor Hirohito, on a white horse. American battleships burning in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur decorating a soldier in Manila, Philippines. Air raid sirens sounding in Manila and residents hurrying to take cover. Heavy black smoke rising from a bombed site and emergency vehicles responding and rushing to several bombed and burning locations. A burning rickshaw amidst other bombing rubble and bodies of victims. U.S. Army General MacArthur greeted by Australian officials at his headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. Sign reads: Headquarters UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES in Australia. American flag flying on tall flagpole. View from ship underway in supply convoy. A battleship seen on horizon and a destroyer passing the camera ship. U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the "Lend Lease Act" of 1941. A U.S. industrial plant with four tall stacks emitting smoke. A steam locomotive belching steam. A locomotive pulling an open car and some tank cars. New 1941 Plymouth automobiles coming off a production line. A new M3 Medium Tank in a U.S. factory. View of Liberty Ships, including the "Zebulon Pike" and the "Henry Knox" under construction at the California Shipbuilding Corporation yard, Terminal Island, California. U.S. Navy Destroyers constructed at Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Kearny, New Jersey. One is being launched, next to DD-446 (the USS Radford). A formation of U.S. Navy aircraft including Curtiss SBC Helldiver scout bombers and Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers. A tight formation of U.S. Army Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bombers in flight. A formation of U.S. Army Curtiss P-36 Hawk aircraft in flight. Closeup of a U.S. Army Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft in flight. Several huge gun barrels for guns under construction at a U.S. war plant. Large artillery shells lined up in a manufacturing plant. U.S. Army M3 Medium tanks under construction at a factory. Steam and smoke rising from a U.S. industrial plant. Aerial view of open pit iron mine. Sparks shooting up inside a steel plant. A virtual "forest" of oil derricks in the Western U.S. Coal being transported by railway. View from stern of a warship in a convoy. An Atlanta-class light cruiser leading three destroyers at sea. Transport ships in convoys to places like Australia, Britain, and the Middle East. Troops on a pier near a large transport ship. A stack of wartime supplies on a pier next to a ship destined for Russia. Glimpse of wake from a U.S. warship having triple guns astern. Silhouette of a U.S. Navy Enterprise-class Aircraft carrier, with an aircraft taking off from her deck. The aircraft carrier, USS Saratoga. U.S. Army soldiers marching on parade, followed by numerous jeeps with machine guns mounted in their rears. Young men being drafted into the U.S. military. A draft lottery being conducted. New recruits doing calisthenics. Trucks pulling artillery pieces. B-18 Bolo bombers flying over U.S. tanks. Closeup of M3 tank. Cavalry fording a stream. Soldiers on motorcycles. Troops crossing a pontoon bridge. A loaded troop ship. A troop transport at Newfoundland. Sentry in Trinidad. Troops encamped in Bermuda.Troopship docked in Greenland. Troops disembarking in Iceland. Formations of Curtis P-36 Hawk aircraft. Douglas DC-2 aircraft factory. P-36s with engines running. M3 tank suspended on factory crane. Officials of Pan American nations siding with Allies. Allied troops including Dutch, Belgian, Yugoslav, Greek, Czech, Filipino, Polish, Norwegian, Free French, Australian, New Zealand, South African and Canadian. British warships. British Hawker Tempest aircraft. British commandos. Russian troops on parade. Chinese troops on the Great Wall of China.
Opening scene shows the White House in Washington, DC. Scene shifts to President Roosevelt seated, ready to address the Nation by radio. View of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. FDR with his entire family posing, in front of the family home "Springwood" at Hyde Park, New York. Roosevelt, when Governor of New York, seen in a sail boat, in 1929. FDR in his car at his Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs, Georgia. He is speaking with a man associated with the Institute, who then greets several polio victims in wheel chairs there. Crowds celebrating Roosevelt's election, in Times Square, Manhattan, New York City, in 1932. Roosevelt, at the Democratic Headquarters at the Biltmore Hotel on November 8, 1932. He is standing, supported by his son James, as he remarks: "It looks my friends like a real landslide this time." Aerial view of the U.S. Capitol. FDR taking the oath of office on March 4, 1933. Brief view of New York Stock Exchange trading floor. A man looking at stock market ticker tape. A group of people raising a National Recovery Administration member flag. Glimpse of "Springwood" and then view of President Roosevelt sitting next to his mother, Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt. Next, as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt sit in the garden, their grandchildren, Anna Eleanor Dall ("Sistie") and Curtis Roosevelt Dall ("Buzzie") come past riding horses, with granddaughter Sara, behind them on a pony. FDR pets the pony and talks with Sara. FDR being nominated for a second term as President, in the 1936 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. President Roosevelt, riding in an inaugural motorcade as he begins an unprecedented 4th term as President in 1941. Glimpse of President and Mrs. Roosevelt in an open car. West point cadets marching in the inaugural parade. Military trucks towing artillery pieces in the parade. President Roosevelt speaking at the dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association at the Willard hotel in Washington, DC, March 15, 1941. He extols the virtues of Winston Churchill and the British people. And he promises that America will supply them with the war materiel they need in World War II (This is known as the Lend Lease Speech.)
The United States Army Quartermaster Corps in the United States during World War II. A diagrammatic comparison of army manpower of 8,000,000 in December 1943 as against 1,750,000 in December 1941. A diagrammatic representation of huge increase in volume of obligated procurement in 1942 as against 1941. Men wheeling carts of supplies at a store. Men carrying supplies coming down a gangway from a ship onto a dock. Soldiers with guns standing on the dock. Soldiers moving through a wooded area. Men carrying the procured materials for storing. Officers watching the men. Two soldiers wearing their uniforms. People and vehicles moving on a city street. A signboard on a building reads 'Office of the Quartermaster General War Department'. The headquarters building in view. A map of the U.S. showing locations of different procuring offices across the nation. Men and women working in an office at the headquarters. Petroleum, Subsistence and Textile sections at the headquarters. Officers working in the headquarters. Men getting into a truck. Enlisted men being trained in various quartermaster operations at a training center.