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 well derricks in the Western U.S. drilling for oil. 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. Troop transport ship 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.
Several American school children, including one in a Boy Scouts of America uniform, recite the pledge of allegiance during World War 2. Scene broadens to encompass a school yard filled with elementary school students reciting the pledge in front of an American flag flying high on a pole. As scene fades images appear of battleships firing guns; an F4F airplane taking off from an aircraft carrier; landing craft approaching a beach; American soldiers fighting with small arms and a flame thrower, in jungles of New Guinea; a U.S. gun crew firing heavy artillery; and a U.S. P-38 aircraft on a rainy runway, spraying water as it takes off, in the Aleutian Islands. U.S. troops firing automatic weapons on a Pacific Island. A B-17 pilot wearing an oxygen mask in his cockpit, flying in a formation creating contrails at high altitude over Germany. Waist gunner firing at an attacking German fighter plane that explodes in air. U.S. troops in jeeps moving over jungle road. U.S. ski troops on snow in Iceland heading downhill toward their tents in the snow. American troops during amphibious landing in the Philippines. U.S. troops aboard army halftracks on desert in Iran. American paratroopers dropping from C-47 aircraft over France. U.S. soldiers marching through two large gates with cadre of Chinese soldiers in China. American troops fighting in Italy and firing a 155mm howitzer. U.S. infantry following a sherman tank over a war-torn landscape with shells bursting nearby. Crowded, busy street scenes of traffic and pedestrians in Manhattan, New York City, and Chicago, Illinois. Army tanks being manufactured by war production workers in a Detroit war production plant or factory. A Los Angeles shipyard filled with workers at shift change. Closeups of individual American soldiers in combat helmets. U.S. troops descending rope nets from transport ships to board landing craft, and approaching the beaches of Normandy, France, under fire, on D-day, June 6, 1944. Views of the Statue of Liberty, including closeups.
Preface to U.S. in World War 2. German U-boat on surface. Crew climbing down into submarine and at duty stations while submerged. Torpedo trails bubbles underwater. Ship hit and explodes. Newspaper headlines report torpedoing of American ships: SS Robin Moor, SS Lehigh, SS Sessa, SS Steelfarer, and SS Montana, by German U-boats. Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson calls on U.S. Navy to secure sea lanes. Wendell Wilkie agrees. U.S. Congress repeals Neutrality Act, November 17, 1941. Deck guns being placed on U.S. Merchantmen. Japanese warships docked and troops entering Indochina, as local people watch.Japanese troops by Dong Dang, near Chinese border. Situation described by animated illustrations.Japanese Special Envoy, Saburo Kurusu, is dispatched to Washington. Pan American Boeing 314 flying boat taking off. Japanese Naval Task Force of warships underway. Kurusu arriving in San Francisco, on November 14, 1941. He steps from the aircraft and makes statement to reporters. Japanese Ambassador, Kichisaburo Nomura, and Special Envoy Kurusu escorted into the White House by Secretary of State Cordell Hull, on November 17, 1941. Japanese troops in China bombarding Chinese city with artillery. November 26, 1941, View of Executive Office Building with statue of Victory atop U.S. Army First Division Monument. Secretary Hull announcing proposal to Japan.The Japanese representatives leaving the White House. Japanese aircraft carriers steaming toward Pearl Harbor. Japanese flight crews getting briefed on December 7,1941. Nakajima B5N (Kate) torpedo bombers taking off and in formation. Secretary Hull at his desk. The aloha tower and aerial view of Honolulu. Sailors at outdoor Sunday service, and relaxing at Pearl Harbor. Vehicle entering Hickam Field. Japanese airplanes bombing Pearl Harbor. Explosions on U.S. warships. USS Arizona (BB-39) suffers direct hit and explosion, as filmed from the deck of U.S. Navy Hospital Ship, USS Solace (AH-5). Shots of pilots and point of view from pilots inside Japanese bomber and attack aircraft, through a mix of dramatized segments from Japanese propaganda films about the Pearl Harbor attack, and real footage from the Pearl Harbor attack. View from Japanese planes bombing and strafing Ford Island. U.S. sailors firing antiaircraft and machine guns down Japanese planes. Secretary Hull describes memorandum from Japanese.
U.S. official film about the capture of Borneo Oil Fields in Asia. Japanese pilots on Indo-China airfield briefed. Officer commands the soldiers. Soldiers in line salute. Fighter planes start engine and take off. Planes in flight. Map shows position of planes in flight. Planes drop bombs on Rangoon, Burma. Aerial view of bomb explosion in field. (World War II period).
The Altai mountains in the Central Asia region of Gorno-Altaysk (or Gorno Altai, or Gorny Altai or Altay) in the south Siberian Soviet Altai Republic (convergence of Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan). The cattle graze on the mountains. A truck moves along a mountain road. Men and women walk through forest. People in canoes on a lake. People at a resort lodge near the lake. Gardens and flowers. Exterior views of the large resort lodge building and people walking on the grounds. A group in the lodge listens to a speaker as he delivers a lecture at a resort. Some of the men present wear Soviet military uniforms.
The Altai mountains in Central Asia (at convergence of Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan). Natives of the region in their tents. A woman milks a cow and grinds grain with a stone. Interior of a native tent. Activity in a tent village. The nomadic people move with all their belongings, family and animals to a new region. Children on sheep as they move along with a group. Skeleton structure of tents abandoned by natives.