Allied warships move towards North Africa during World War 2. A U.S. Navy sailor on a destroyer monitors sonar indicating presence of a submarine. A sailor looks through a pair of binoculars and another U.S. Navy sailor nearby has a pair of headphones. Loudspeaker signals call to general quarters. Sailors rush up the stairs. Numerous depth charges are launched and explode in the water. Next, a wide oil slick on the surface indicates the submarine has been struck by the depth charges. An officer looks through a pair of binoculars. A man speaks into a radio. Soldiers amuse themselves on a troop ship. One plays the piano and others playing play cards, read novel while eating an apple. Flags of Major General Patton and Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt aboard the USS Augusta (CA-31) off the coast of North Africa. Semaphore flags and signal lights communicate between ships. Soldier with 'map of West Africa' in his back pocket. Two soldiers read a language guide. An animated map detailing Plan Acrobat to invade North Africa. Map includes Casablanca, Algiers, Tripoli, and Libya. Soldiers exercise, peel potatoes and relax on a troop ship. Clothes hung on a line. British soldiers write letters home. A soldier pastes news on a bulletin board. The bulletin announces that the 'German Afrika Corps' are in full retreat. Night time aerial views of bombing of cities in Italy. Narrator states the bombing included Naples, Genoa, and Turin. Explosions and smoke on the ground below from the bombing. Aerial view of daylight bombing at lower altitude of a Renault tank factory. Submarine on surface at twilight. Eighth Army plane. General Eisenhower, General Mark Clark and French General Giraud. Night scene. Soldiers on the deck. German WWII headquarters at night with guards in Rome and at the The Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Hitler at Berghof . German switchboard, terminal, and radio communications. Messages passed between Allied ships via signal light and ship-to-ship cargo transfer. ( Note The Operation Acrobat discussed in this film is misleading. That plan was scrapped, and the Allied North African campaign was conducted as part of Operation Torch.)
Animated map shows Allied forces in three columns heading toward Tunis, from Algeria in World War 2. Another map shows German forces pouring into North Africa, from Italy. German troops disembarking from a troop ship. View of German Marshal Albert Kesselring, the Mediterranean Commander in Chief of the Axis powers, visiting German troops at the front. Skirmishes between Allied and German forces in Tunisia. German troops firing a heavy machine gun from a dug-in position. American soldier firing his rifle. British soldiers advancing across a field, under fire. Germans firing heavy machine gun. British soldier throwing a hand grenade. American M2 light tank advancing. Army truck carrying U.S. troops. British soldiers marching along a roadside. Sign identifying Béja Tunisia. British soldier with field radio. View of French military commander in Tunisia, General Barré, whose troops were holding Medjez-el-Bab) against German forces. Views of the French forces employing only machine guns and rifles to hold the German forces back at Medjez-el-Bab. General Kenneth Anderson, Commander of the British 1st Army is seen observing at the front with binoculars. (Narrator notes, he moved his troops to support the French, and the Germans withdrew.) Allied troops are seen continuing their advance toward Tunis, but suffer attack by German bombers. November 25th battle with Allied and German tanks engaging each other. Views of Allied armor firing and German shells striking. Explosions all over the battlefield. German tank burning. (Narrator says "15 enemy tanks destroyed, and the rest withdrew.") Animated map shows continuing Allied advance toward Tunis and Bizerte. Scenes from what was known as the "Run For Tunis." Milestone showing 64 kilometers to Bizerte. Roadsign showing 14 Km to Tindja, and 27 Km to Bizerte. A patrol of British troops, sheltered in ruins of a hilltop building, looks down over the city (presumably Tunis). Distant view of German Panzer IV tanks crossing open area. German forces begin heavy counterattacks with armor and heavy artillery. A squadron of German Ju 87, stuka dive bombers attacks making their familiar howling sounds. Bombs bursting on the ground. Glimpse of silhouetted German Heinkel He 111 bomber overhead and more attacking German aircraft dropping bombs. Fires raging everywhere among Allied forces locations. British soldiers assisting a wounded comrade. A burning downed British aircraft. Allied forces forced to retreat toward hills.
At start of film, Allied forces are digging in after retreating from counterattacks by German forces in Tunis, during World War 2.. Rains create mud everywhere. A Lockheed P-38 fighter plane parked in foreground. Ground crews use shovels to free nose wheel of a B-24 Liberator bomber with engines running. A truck tows a C-47 transport plane from mud. Army trucks travel over road inundated by running streams. Soldiers standing in a jeep submerged in water. M2 tanks stuck in mud. Airmen huddled around an outdoor fire. P-38 fighter aircraft parked in the background. Soldiers eating around an outdoor fire. Animated map shows Allied battle lines stabilized in Algerian mountains, while German forces occupy the plains in Tunisia. German artillery batteries firing. British troops sheltering in damaged building. Allied wounded being transported atop, as well as inside a field ambulance. Interior of a transport plane configured for evacuation of wounded on litters. U.S. airmen including a woman in leather flying jacket, presumably an Army flight nurse, tend to the wounded aboard the medical evacuation flight. Wounded being transferred from an airplane to an ambulance. British patrols moving through the night. Heavy artillery firing. British soldiers silhouetted at dawn. They return carrying a wounded comrade on a litter. The British soldiers ("Tommies.") trying to clean mud from themselves and their weapons before heading out on patrols again at dusk. Allied soldiers moving on mules in a long line to obtain needed food and supplies. More views of the interminable mud. A British Hawker Hunter fighter plane taking off. A formation of Hawker Hurricanes peeling off to engage German aircraft. Closeup of one rolling over. A German Heinkel 111 bomber being attacked and trailing smoke. Pilot pressing gun firing button in cockpit and a German Dornier Do 17 bomber hit as British fighter plane passes it in cloud of black smoke. The German plane diving to crash in a fireball on the ground. U.S. B-24 Liberator bombers taking off and flying in formation. Formation of American B-17 bombers in flight. The American planes dropping bombs on Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily. Gunners in the bombers firing machine guns at attacking German fighter planes as their bombs keep dropping. Back on land in Algeria, mud still halted any Allied advance. Animated map showing both Allied and German forces building up on their respective sides of the front. Supply lines illustrated all the way back to factories in the United States and Britain. Allied war plants making bombers and munitions. Allied Soldiers assembling Army vehicles at a port. Lockheed lightning fighters being rolled out of a factory. Sign reading "Railroad Equipment Assembly Plant No. 1." Complete trains from locomotives to freight cars being completely assembled, loaded with freight and sent on their way. A formation of P-38 aircraft equipped with long range fuel tanks being ferried in flight from Brazil. It is led by a B-17 flying fortress bomber providing navigation. British Spitfire and Hawker Hunter airplanes heading to the front are seen taking off from an airfield in Gibraltar. A caterpillar tractor moving earth for a new road at the front. Trucks dropping materials for the road bed as soldiers with shovels smooth them on the surface. Soldiers installing Mardsen Matting pierced steel planking for an airfield surface as C-47 transport planes operate on the field. Crates of food supplies being unloaded at a port. War materiel stored in a large yard at a port.
The Schneider Cup Race for the fastest seaplane in Baltimore, Maryland. A Curtiss R3C-2 (US Air Service) at the race and U.S. airmen stand around the plane. U.S. Army Air Service Lieutenant James H. Doolittle in the cockpit. Airmen push the plane in water. Gloster Napier III seaplane of England is being pushed into the water. Maachi Flying Boat of Italy in the water. Seaplanes in flight. The race is won by Curtiss R3C-2 (US Air Service). Lt. James H. Doolittle leaves the R3C-1 and is being congratulated by Mrs. Doolittle and the Chief of U.S. Army Air Service Major General Mason M. Patrick.
"To keep the peace" about need for peace, during Cold War. Expansive farm field of wheat waving in breeze under a sunny to partly cloudy sky in the United States. Wide shot of ocean waters and sun breaking through low clouds near dawn or dusk. President John F Kennedy delivering a speech on peace and nuclear testing, on July 2, 1963, in Naples Italy at NATO headquarters. Kennedy says, "The purpose of our military strength is peace. The purpose of our partnership is peace. So our negotiations for an end to nuclear tests and our opposition to nuclear dispersal are fully consistent with our attention to defense--these are all complementary parts of a single strategy for peace." Shortly after President Kennedy's death, President Lyndon B Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress on November 27, 1963. Shows segment of speech where President Johnson says, "We have proved that we are a good and reliable friend to those who seek peace and freedom. We have shown that we can also be a formidable foe to those who reject the path of peace and those who seek to impose upon us or our allies the yoke of tyranny."
P-38, of the U.S.Army Air Forces 14th Fighter Group, raises dust as it taxis close to the camera on Telergma airfield in Algeria, North Africa. Several 3-plane flights of P-38s take off, join up in formations, and fly overhead. A series of views, from inside a P-38, of others in formation as they fly over North African territory en route on bombing mission to Sicily, Italy, during World War 2.
CRITICALPAST.COM: About Us | Contact Us | FAQs - How to Order | License Agreement | My Account | My Lightboxes | Shopping Cart | Advanced Search | Featured Collections | Website Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy ©2026 CriticalPast LLC.
License Agreement |
Terms & Conditions |
Privacy Policy
©2026 CriticalPast LLC.