Opening scene shows animated map of northern part of the earth, centered on the North Pole. It depicts the shortened flight paths between various parts of the Soviet Union, and the United States via polar routing, representing bombing threats. The Soviet Red flag flying on a flag pole. A large number of Soviet Tupolev Tu-2 bomber aircraft parked at an airfield. (They are equipped with four-bladed AV-9VF-21K variable pitch propellers.) Aerial view of several Russian Tu-2 aircraft in flight. Closeup of aircraft's twin tail showing dihedral angle between them, as viewed from tail of the aircraft. View of military parade in Red Square, Moscow. Numerous open army trucks, filled with Soviet troops, drive in formation. In a closeup, the Soviet State Museum building dominates the background. Closeup of Georgi Malenkov (who was named premier and first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, upon the death of Joseph Stalin, in March 1953). He reviews the parade from the Kremlin. Soviet Secret Police Chief, Lavrentiy Beria, stands beside him. Army motorcycle troops pass in formation. Lenin Mausoleum and Kremlin Walls in background. Closeup of Soviet military veterans in civilian clothes, with medals, watching the parade. More troops in open trucks. They pass large posters of Lenin and Stalin. Closeups of Soviet civilians including women and children. A group of Asian persons watching the parade. View from a high point overlooking Red Square showing lines of army trucks snaking around both sides of St. Basil's Cathedral, as they leave the square, past Lenin's Tomb. Closeup of Soviet soldiers saluting with rifles as they pass reviewing stand. Their truck is towing a field howitzer equipped with two tires on each axle. Closeups of several towed howitzers. Scene shifts to Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States, where army jeeps and artillery pieces maneuver on the city streets, in preparedness exercises during the Cold War. A woman hanging laundry out to dry on a line. Artillery being placed in a vacant lot near a residential neighborhood. A woman looks out her apartment window at the gun being placed in the lot. Soldiers uncover it, revealing a 120 mm M1 anti-aircraft gun. Young boys watch the activity from a backyard, where clothes are on a line to dry. The soldiers erect a radar antenna on a fire control trailer. Two women watch the activity from their apartment window. Closeup of the gun installed and ready. A radar antenna rotating in the field. A battery of several antiaircraft guns installed in the field. Cars and pedestrians on busy streets and sidewalks in the city. Children playing on monkey bars in a park. Distant view of military temporary buildings and guns installed near apartment buildings. An alarm clock. A rotating radar antenna. A civilian asleep in his bed. A soldier steps from his unit's orderly room and blows a whistle. The disturbed civilian in bed looks at his clock reading 5:30 AM and expresses disgust. He is next seen with friends, registering a complaint with an Army Captain in his office, who agrees to resolve the matter. An Army Officer is seen standing at a large chalk board explaining how and why anti aircraft guns are being installed across the area, as civilians watch and listen to his explanation
A police officer directing traffic on crowded street in New York City. Pedestrians and shoppers crowd sidewalks at a corner of 5th Avenue. City of Chicago. View of Michigan Avenue, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Busy area with trolley cars, traffic, and pedestrians at West Madison and State streets. Pedestrians crossing Madison Street. A newsstand at the corner. Elevated rail train in the Loop area of Chicago. Foot of a bridge with center lanes and turnaround reserved for trolley cars. At a level below, several World War II era airplanes are on display. Fiery displays created by molten steel being poured in a steel plant. An overhead crane moves a heavy glowing ingot of steel. Steel fabrication operations in a manufacturing plant. Views of various manufacturing operations in the United States. Men and women workers in manufacturing and production assembly lines. These scenes represent potential targets in the event of war, during the cold war.
Film opens showing a U.S. Navy Gleaves-class destroyer in a bay. Closeup of radar antennas atop a U.S. Navy ship. A U.S. Navy submarine operating on the surface in icy waters. It has what appears to be a cylindrical shelter on its deck. The boat is covered in ice. Several men in foul weather gear are on its deck. Interior of a radar monitoring center, where a sailor, wearing a headset, monitors a plan position radar scope, where an unidentified aircraft is detected. Scene shifts to a U.S. Air Defense centers where such information is plotted on charts. Sign on table reads: "Supervisor GOC" (referring to the Ground Observer Corps) Civilian volunteer members of the Ground Observer Corps (organized by the U.S. Air Force in 1950) enter a room for a meeting. Narrator states that their mission is to operate 14 thousand observation posts and 49 filter centers. View shows predominately women volunteers in the group. Two uniformed Air Force men show silhouette diagrams of American military aircraft. Women connecting numerous phone callers at a large switch board installation. A barber serving a customer in his shop. A volunteer ground observer, at an outdoor post, watches as a flight of U.S. Air Force P-47 aircraft flies overhead in formation. A U.S. Army member of the Anti-aircraft Command, is seen at a desk. He receives a report of an unidentified aircraft and pushes a button to sound bells alerting soldiers who leave a dining hall in the midst of a meal to respond to their battle stations. They are joined by soldiers from elsewhere in the area. All rush to their assigned locations. View of them running across a field. A large suspension bridge in the background. Soldiers manning 120mm M1 anti-aircraft guns amidst views of rotating radar antennas. Soldiers loading shells into the guns. Soldier monitoring the unknown aircraft on radar equipment. View of hurriedly abandoned dining hall with uneaten meals on the tables. Soldiers lowering gun barrels and placing covers over them after the alert is cancelled.
The barrel of a 120mm M1 anti-aircraft gun is seen with a white ring and the name "Buddy Bill" painted on it. Another shown is named "Bashful-Baby." A soldier is in the process of painting a name on his gun barrel. View of the M51 Skysweeper anti-aircraft gun. Closeup of the radar dish atop the gun. View of the numerous controls of the gun. A Skysweeper gun set up in a desert setting, test site. An officer approaches the gun crew and gives an order. A gun crew member lowers the gun barrel, while two others retrieve shells for it. Hand of operator seen adjusting settings on gun controls. An aircraft (drone) is seen in flight overhead. The gun begins to automatically track it. A gunner presses a firing switch and the gun begins to fire shells. Black flak clouds form as shells explode in the air. several rounds are fired, the drone is struck and fall, burning, from the sky. Change of scene shows a Nike surface to air missile in a launch position. A soldier stands near a sign at a test site, reading "Launch Area." Soldiers slide a Nike missile across a set of rails, hook it up to a launch stand, turn on various control switches, and quickly leave the area. Aerial view of several Nike missiles laid horizontal on similar rails. Closeup on the ground of a Nike missile being raised to an uptight firing position. A rotating radar antenna. An Army technician at a battery of controls in a Nike operation center. Soldiers at a plotting table in th operation center. One wears a headset and announces countdown to firing. A visiting Allied military officer observes the activities. A clock on the wall records the countdown. A field grade Army officer with a headset stands near the soldier during the countdown. A hand actuates the firing switch and the Nike missile is seen launching. Men track it with elaborate camera equipment. The Army controller then announces time to intercept, as a dial in the control room shows the countdown progressing. . View of a B-17 target drone aircraft in flight at high altitude. As intercept is announced, the Nike strikes the B-17 which explodes and falls. Views of Nike test launch. View of the B-17 drone leaving contrails as it flies at high altitude, and then exploding and burning after being struck by the Nike missile. Pieces of the aircraft fall off as it burns, including two of its engines. Army Master Sergeant Stuart Queen, host of the "Big Picture" television program, wraps up the presentation.
The history of famous airplanes. A demonstration of the Wright airplane at the National Cash Register Company in 1911. The Wright Brothers' aircraft (Wright Model B, number 27) taxis across a grassy area in front of the company building in Dayton, Ohio. The aircraft takes off. Pilot Rogers at the controls of the aircraft. The aircraft in flight near the NCR building.
An original 1912 U.S. Navy Curtiss pusher bamboo seaplane is parked on the shore of the Anacostia River, at the United States Naval Base in Anacostia, Washington, D.C. Its flight controls are seen moving as sailors (unseen) check their movements. Next, with the engine running, Captain "Dick" Richardson, climbs aboard and makes his own quick flight control check. Closeup of him at the controls giving a nod that he is ready to be pushed into the water for a demonstration flight. Sailors maneuver the craft to the edge of shore and push it into the river. Roosevelt Hall, at U.S. Army Fort Lesley J. McNair, is seen across the river in the background. The seaplane's lower left wing dips into the water momentarily, as Captain Richardson taxis it away from the shore. Scene shifts to the seaplane taking off from the river, after which, Captain Richardson Quickly brings it back down to a water landing, near the Washington Channel.
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