Mass funeral aboard the USS Hancock (CV-19) in the Pacific Ocean. Bodies committed to ocean in Mass Funeral Ceremony. Multiple crews of six men each carry dead sailors, wrap each in the U.S. flag, place them on a board and tip them into the ocean. Marines fire rifle salute. View of sheet covered bodies on lower deck awaiting burial at sea. The 50 men were killed in a January 21, 1945 accident when a TBF Avenger returned from a sortie in the area of Formosa (Taiwan). It landed on the deck and taxied near the island, and then exploded killing 50 men and injuring 75. (World War II period).
United States aircraft come aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. A United States Navy Task Force underway at sea. Aircraft on the deck of the ship. An aircraft takes off as a signalman waves. The aircraft in flight. The fighter bomber aircraft return to the carrier after striking Japanese positions in China, Formosa and islands off the coast of Japan. The aircraft land and taxi on the flight deck. An aircraft lands and falls over the side of the aircraft carrier while taxing. The pilot is rescued and carried away on a stretcher. An aircraft takes off from the deck.
Animation depicts Okinawa in relation to Japan,China,Formosa, and Iwo Jima. U.S. landing ships carry troops who make unopposed landings on Hagushi beach, U.S. troops seen pouring ashore. Okinawa. Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner and Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance seen looking through binoculars on the deck of the amphibious Flag Ship. U.S. troops move inland from the beachhead. Troops bringing bulldozers. U.S. Army infantry of the 24th Corps engage Japanese defenders. Japanese bunkers and fortifications seen. U.S. battleships and other ships of the line begin intense bombardment of the Japanese positions. U.S. army artillery fire large howitzers. U.S. tanks attack Japanese fortifications and suffer counter fire. Troop movements impeded by rain and mud. Ammunition ships seen having difficulty on congested beachhead. Animation shows how naval gunfire could successfully strike Japanese fortified positions because of flat trajectory. (World War II period).
Supply convoy reaches Quemoy in China despite the communist Chinese blockade, during Cold War. Ships carry the supplies at sea. Men on landing craft at the sea. Men on deck. President Chiang Kai Shek arrives at a press conference in Formosa. He opposes reduction of garrisons on the off-shore islands. Mainland China rebuffs United States peace bids with an enormous Chinese propaganda demonstration in Peiping (Beijing) on the grounds of the old Imperial Palace. Communist Chinese demonstrate with boards, placards and flags in hand. A huge crowd gathers at the palace grounds and decries what it calls American aggression in the Taiwan strait. President Zhou Enlai addresses the massive crowd.
Animated map shows thrust of German forces during invasion of Soviet Russia in World War 2. Stalingrad is highlighted as a turning point. Another animated map shows Soviet territorial gains at the end of the war, as narrator discusses the disposition of those places and their respective populations, as in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. He also discusses Soviet zones of occupation. Animated map shows "Iron Curtain." Soviet troops on parade. Soviet ZSU-57-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (SPAAG) on display during a parade in 1945. A stadium filled with people in Soviet-occupied East Germany, in 1949. Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck, the first President of the German Democratic Republic, is seen in the stands. Young East German women parade in traditional costumes, clapping their hands, in the stadium. Waterfront scenes show Soviet trade activities with post-war occupied entities. Scenes of conflict as Chinese communist forces expel Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese forces (ROC) from mainland China to Formosa (Taiwan), in 1949. A litter-borne casualty and a refugee mother and small girl are seen.
Taiwanese people attend a Chinese New Year festival parade in Taipei, Formosa (present day Taipei, Taiwan) during Japanese colonial rule in World War II. A busy street. Crowds convene on the sidewalk to watch a festival. A Japanese ice cream shop behind crowds. A group of men perform a serpentine-like dragon dance. A man performs acrobatics in front of a group performing a lion dance. Man performs lion dance. A boy pushes an artillery gun. A man with a papier-mâché donkey costume. Signs and banners depicting Chinese products such as Tiger Balm ointment. Chinese women dressed in elaborate traditional costumes on top of floats. Men carry an intricate model of a pagoda. A float of a symbolic god. People performing dance in the parade. The Taiwanese people watch the parade. A policeman stands in the foreground. People on the streets and decorative floats in the parade.