Montage of scenes illustrating development of mechanized warfare beginning with American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) engaged in World War I. U.S. Army infantry soldiers moving out of trenches going "over the top" into "no man's land" and advancing on battlefield. U.S. troops firing Browning M1917 machine gun,1903 Springfield rifles, and Stokes mortar from trench positions. Soldiers firing mortar are wearing gas masks. AEF trucks and other vehicles ostensibly an improvement over horses, but seen having difficulty in mud. A truck pulling a large artillery gun. A German 80cm K (E) rail gun (developed in 1934) shown at the Rugenwalde Test Range in Germany. It moves along curving rails and is elevated to its maximum elevation (65 degrees). Two World War 1 rail guns firing. An American World War I Naval 14-inch rail gun firing. Allied heavy howitzers firing in World War 1 (one with gun crew in gas masks). American gunners with a French 75 field piece and caisson. French soldier advancing in no-mans-land. The Wright brothers brought warfare into the air with their Wright Flyer airplane, seen being maneuvered on the ground by U.S. Army personnel at Fort Myer, Virginia in July 1909. A De Havilland DH-4 airplane taking off in World War I. A German Fokker D.VIII aircraft in flight. Three U.S. Army Air Service Curtiss P-1B Hawk pursuit aircraft in flight, circa 1926. Aerial dogfight scene including view from behind a pilot in open cockpit biplane (from feature film, circa 1927). Brief view of Renault FT tank maneuvering in World War I. Narrative and clips shift to historical perspective of warfare, showing use of horse and chariot, starting in ancient Assyria and use of elephants in later years by Hannibal. Pictures of mounted soldiers, in the middle ages, waging war in armor, and being transported in a wagon. Shift to World War I showing British Mark IV tanks maneuvering in a field.
German rocket pioneer, Gerhard Zucker, attempting to develop postal rockets in the 1930s. Location is Wadden Sea off Cuxhaven, on April 9, 1933, where Zucker follows Nazi Sturmabteilung (also called SA or Stormtroopers) carrying the mail rocket across wet sands. The rocket is set up on a launch stand. Zucker and an assistant ignite the 8 side rockets and the mail rocket takes off. It noses up and loops over backwards, falling to the sand. German Stormtroopers lift up the damaged device. Next, is seen a later, more modern, rocket trial ending in failure. Two German engineers display a model similar to the pulse-jet-powered "buzz bomb" (V-1) employed by the Nazis in World War 2. A brief glimpse of similar American machine on sand flat, as narrator states German acknowledgement of knowledge gleaned from Dr. Robert Goddard's work. A German V-1 flying bomb (aka Doodle Bug) being launched in 1944, during World War 2. View of British houses of Parliament, London, England; an air raid shelter sign in City of Westminster. Londoners waiting out a raid in the shelter. Scenes of fire and destruction during German bombing of London, as narrator speaks about the more advanced German V-2 ballistic missiles employed later in the war. Londoners trudging through debris amongst bombed out buildings. Change of scene to U.S. infantry and armor advancing deep into Germany. Narrator refers to them overrunning rocket bases and other vital war-making facilities, near the end of the war. Glimpse of large number of German prisoners of war. Documents of military surrender being signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, in Berlin, May 8, 1945. Closeup of Keitel. Scenes of American forces operating in Pacific theater. Aerial view of atomic bomb explosion. Japanese surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri. U.S. soldiers and other service personnel return home and greeting loved ones at end of war. Aerial view of Pentagon building and surrounding area in Arlington Virginia near Washington DC. U.S. troops boarding a ship in San Francisco, bound for war again, this time in Korea (1950).
Soldiers of the U.S. Signal Corps in the European Theater during World War II. Signal Corps cameramen of Army Pictorial Service photograph and film an amphibious landing. The soldiers wade ashore. U.S. soldiers advance on a battlefield, firing rifles. Camera man present. Street fighting on the war front. The wall of a building leans and crashes to the ground as a U.S. Army camera man captures moving image footage on camera. U.S. soldier rips a Nazi German eagle symbol from a building and it crashes to the street. A U.S. Army Air Corps B-17 aircraft in flight , seen from beside and close up from below and beside. View of exterior of Signal Corps Photographic Center building in New York. Men working inside the Signal Corps Photographic Center in the United States. Soldiers at film cutting machines at work, and view of film canisters in storage. The production of films in the center including a segment from "Why We Fight" and one from "The Fighting Men" pictures. Several war related films, and training and orientation films are produced. The foreign version of the films are also made so that they can be seen by other countries. Scene of an American soldier speaking Japanese in a U.S. military created film. Bing Crosby singing "Accentuate the Positive" during a filmed segment for the American G.I. audience at a USO show. Elevated view of war material and equipment stacked in a massive warehouse building, with Signal Corps workers moving about in the building. Men working and placing more equipment in the building. 'MacArthur's Headquarters' written on a wooden shipping crate. Boxes of war materiel being loaded into trucks, railroad train cars, and ships for transport to the war front in World War 2. Views of various kinds of Signal Corps communication equipment, radios, transmitters, cameras, vacuum tubes and other electronic equipment that was innovated during World War II. A moisture-proof switchboard is tested in the field. A U.S. Army Signal Corps soldier holding a phone during the switchboard testing.
15th Air Force Operation Reunion (Operation Gunn) to rescue Allied prisoners of war in Romania during World War II. Evacuation of 1,161 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) from Romanian hospitals and Popesti Airfield, near Bucharest, Romania. Men carry injured Allied POWS out of a hospital. An emaciated Allied POW flexes his muscles while lying on a stretcher. Men place the patient in ambulance. A disabled POW with crutches walks out of the hospital. Two men assist another POW walking with crutches. Injured Allied prisoner of war smiling. A POW smiles while walking with two canes. A man on the stretcher smiles as he is being carried out of the hospital for his evacuation. Allied prisoners of war sit inside the bus. Major Colonel Doctor Ford shake hands and say goodbye to the POW evacuees inside the bus. The bus departs for Popesti Airfield. Prisoners of war evacuees wave their hands from the windows of the bus. Groups of buses carrying POWs drive to Popesti Airfield. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber takes off from Popesti Airfield. Groups of POWs form a line before boarding the evacuation bombers. A B-17 Flying Fortress bomber taxiing. Fighter escorts circle above Popesti airfield during the evacuation. Allied POWs wave at the camera goodbye as they board the aircraft. Men carry a prisoner of war on a stretcher to the aircraft. Wounded prisoners of war are given priority to board on evacuation flights. An injured young pilot waiting while lying down on a stretcher. Men raise the stretcher up the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber’s bomb bay door. Injured POWs on stretchers are taken inside the evacuation aircraft through the bomb bay door. Medics accompany injured POWs during the evacuation flight.
The German assault on France during the Battle of France in World War II. German war material hauled into France. Trucks are loaded at docks. Soldiers load material. German trucks haul the war material into France. A road sign gives directions for 'Mecheln, Brussel, Antwerp, Mons, Bayern'. The convoy advances. Soldiers and horses in trucks. German soldiers sort and load cans, ammunition and other war equipment into trucks. German engineers and technicians build and repair war material. Engineers repair a bridge. Huge equipment used for the repair. Smoke emitted from a locomotive engine as it crosses the bridge. Soldiers seated cleaning ammunition. German civilians manufacture war material. Workers manufacture ammunition, rifles, guns, shells and artillery pieces. German officers confer over a map on a table. Soldiers ready artillery. Trucks transport German war supplies. German soldiers eat, drink and rest. Some wash clothes, bathe, get hair cuts, get dresses, and read. A soldier bathes a dog in a tub, another washes clothes in a tub. A soldier uses a hand pump, another dries clothes on a line. The men clean ammunition, clean and shoe horses. Soldiers lined up before an officer in a field. German officers and soldiers sated at tables. Officers confer over a map. Soldiers sort mail while others write letters. A sign reads 'Deutsche Feldpost' (German Army Postal Service). A soldier with a mail bag at the entrance. He gets into a mail van and leaves. Soldiers sort mails and parcels.
Film begins showing the Ford bomber aircraft factory at Willow Run, near Detroit, Michigan, during World War 2. Views of the heavy industrial plant with smoke rising from smoke stacks. Cranes loading ships at various docks. Modern looking administrative buildings at the Willow Run plant. A wheeled tractor pulls a train of flat cars filled with parts for the assembly line, next seen, where B-24 Liberator bombers are being assembled. Partially constructed bomber bodies and wings are seen on a production floor. In another section of the plant, war production workers assemble aircraft engines. View of and engine, enclosed in a nacelle, being lowered by a crane. A gunner's compartment being lowered by a crane. Women's Army Corps (WAC) members at work replacing men called to serve in the armed forces. A contingent of WAC practice donning gas masks. Women in uniforms of United States Women's Naval Reserve (WAVES). Two women attendants service a car at a gas station. Women not engaged in war effort are seen shopping and on a golf course and swimming. A woman hanging clothes to dry on a backyard line. A flight of three B-24 bombers flies overhead, causing women in various pursuits, to look up to the sky. Cars arrive at the Ford bomber plant in Willow Run, carrying women volunteers. One middle aged woman punches a time clock in the factory. More views of the B-24 production line, and parts being stamped by a man operating a press. Scene transitions showing the man gone, and a women replacing him at the press. Women war production workers working on aircraft frameworks. A woman, walking on a sidewalk, pauses to look at advertisements encouraging women to work in the war effort. One read: "Women at war, We can't win without them." A sign outside an office reading: "War Manpower Commission." The woman enters that office.
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