Franklin Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) shakes hands with U.S. Navy Admiral Harold Stark, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, British Vice-Admiral Sir Bertram H Ramsay, and other British and American naval officers, after visiting them in Stark's headquarters at 20 Grosvenor Square, London, England, during World War 2. Secretary Knox enters a car. Scene shifts to an RAF airfield where Secretary Knox stands with Admiral Stark and two military aides,near the wing of a U.S. Army Air Forces C-47 airplane. Stark and Knox stand together and then Knox bids Stark goodbye, as he prepares to board the C-47 airplane. Admiral Stark salutes as Secretary Knox climbs aboard the plane. Admiral Stark and aides wave goodbye as the aircraft taxis out. Several members of British Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) walk across the airfield ramp, as the C-47 taxis out for takeoff
U.S. Navy commissioned Women officer nurses stand in formation, dressed in summer white uniforms, as they are inspected by senior officers during World War 2. Closeups of several nurses. Several women nurses, in uniforms of various armed services, pose for the camera. Closeups of some of them. Scene shifts to the first director of the Women's Army Corps (WAC), Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby, seen standing in front of an Army recruiting poster, and at her desk in Washington, DC. Women volunteers seen in a recruiting station, applying to join the new WAC. Colonel Hobby walking along sidewalk of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, across the Potomac River, in Washington, DC. She stops and poses for the camera. Next she is seen approaching two army officers on the bridge, who both come to attention and salute as she comes close enough for them to see the Colonel's eagles on her uniform shoulders. She returns their salute, smartly, and continues on her way. Next, four armed WAC members in field garb, stand on the side of a mountain as two of them consult a map and the others use binoculars. Below them, on a dirt path, women of a WAC motorcycle corps unit ride their Harley Davidson motorcycles. They also ford a stream on their motorcycles.
View of a U.S. Post Office building. Patrons line up inside, to use the new "V-mail" system for sending mail to service personnel overseas, during World War 2. They are seen writing letters on special forms that also serve as envelopes, when folded. Senders stamp, and mail them, just like ordinary letters. Next, after being opened and passed by military censors, the letters are fed into machines and photograpned onto rolls of microfilm. Views of microfilm in 100 foot rolls, that carry 1500 letters, each. View of a strip of microfilm with individual letters on it. Bags of mail on the floor of an Army postal facility and a soldier holding one small bag of microfilm letters that contains the same number of letters as all the other bags. Servicemen overseas reading their letters (that have been blown up and printed at normal size).
Scenes from the Naval Battle of Midway, in World War 2. A helmeted sailor, on deck of a U.S warship, silhouetted next to a propeller blade. A Fletcher-class U.S. Navy destroyer in background. View from near top of a Curtiss SOC Seagull airplane on the USS Portland (CA-33),as she fires two of her 5 inch antiaircraft guns, amidship,during the battle of Midway. Air is filled with low-altitude black flak smoke. A Japanese G4M1 model 11 ("Betty") bomber flies close by at low altitude across the line of sight. Smoke rises from the Portland's gunfire. Another Betty bomber low over the water in far background. Aerial view of a burning Japanese cruiser, far below, maneuvering to evade American attacks. View from U.S. airplane circling closer to the smoking Japanese cruiser. Closeups of panned stills showing severely damaged Japanese warships. Scene shifts to a large formation of Navy personnel in dress whites, where U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz is decorating navy personnel who distinguished themselves in the battle. Nimitz sits, visiting a wounded sailor, at a hospital. U.S.Army Air Forces B-17 Crews, who bombed Japanese ships, are seen being interviewed on Midway Island. Scene shifts to war production workers assembling aircraft in factories in the United States. U.S. warplanes being manufactured. B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft being rolled out of a plant. Graduation ceremony at the U.S. Naval academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. Spectators watch as the cadet corps parades. View inside the historic hall of the old academy filled with spectators, cadets graduate a year early due to the war. Graduating cadets shaking hands with Academy administrators. Cadets of the class of 1943 cheer and throw their hats in the air at end of commencement ceremonies on June 19, 1942.
First Graduation ceremony of United States Military Academy during World War 2. General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, awards diplomas. U.S. flag seen. General Marshall gives a speech and reviews graduates. The graduates marching.
Curtiss P-40 airplane of the "Flying Tigers" with tiger teeth painted on its nose, early in World War 2. American volunteer airmen of the squadron loading belt of 50 caliber ammunition into the plane. A red warning flag raised above the plane as guns are tested on the ground. Flying Tigers pilots in their operations office. Closeup of American General Claire Chennault,adviser to the Chinese Air Force and Commander of the Flying Tigers. Pilots scramble to their aircraft and take off to engage Japanese planes. Eight P-40s flying overhead in a V formation. Aerial view of Flying Tiger P-40s in flight. Closeup view of Japanese Tachikawa Ki-36/55 airplane, in flight, with canopy open showing pilot in front cockpit and second crew member in rear cockpit. (Wheel pants are not installed on this aircraft, indicating it is a Ki 55 version.) View of a P-40 diving. General Chennault conversing with a Chinese officer. A group of pilots in flight suits and helmets walking away from the flight line after a mission.
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