U.S. Lockheed PV-1 Ventura airplane shooting touch and go landings in the Pacific during World War II. Several aircraft landing. PV-1 Ventura taxiing. Palm trees on each side of the runway. Weather instruments atop control tower. Pilot holding a chart and discussing matters with crew and passengers, as they stand in front of a Douglas R4D transport airplane. Writing on a PV-1 aircraft reads 'Blonde Blitz'. Pilot and co-pilot sitting in the cockpit. Palm trees in the background. The Douglas C-47 Sweet Leilani of the 13th Troop Carrier Squadron, a.k.a. the Thirsty 13th, taxiing out for takeoff. Crew members unloading material from PV-1. Black Scottish Terrier (Scottie) dog chewing coconut. Crew loading material in truck. Two aircrew shake hands in front of an airplane with name "Scooters Dream" painted on its fuselage. Ground crew loading belt ammunition in a PV-1 airplane.
Spectators gather to watch a civilian building contractor use a war surplus Sherman tank to demolish an old house in New Jersey. (Narrator incorrectly identifies the tank as an M47 Patton.) The tank demolishes the old frame house in three sweeps. Rubble of the wrecked house seen.
WAACS begin their first day with the corps during World War 2. Women exit a clothing warehouse carrying bags of clothing. Women officers of Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs), seen wearing uniforms. Beds in a row in a barracks during inspection. Two women officers shaking hands. Women stand in line to go into the mess hall. Women officers eating and drinking in the mess hall, including African American women who eat at racially segregated tables. Women stand at attention outside in rows. They march together in line.
Students gathered for a sit-down strike in Paris, France. Three thousand students riot in the Latin Quarter in Paris protesting the mandatory military service draft and Conscription laws regarding the Algerian War. More reservists are called for Algerian Service. French Police Force restores order after student riots. French police men hit students with gendarme capes and restrain them.
Start of film shows several U.S. Navy PT (Patrol Torpedo) boats clustered around a larger ship close to Green Atoll in the South Pacific, during World War 2. Views from a boat moving past the large camouflaged boat. The camera boat continues moving along the shore, where small tents are pitched. dense jungle covers the atoll. A landing craft (Higgins Boat) moves across the path of the camera boat. Other boats of various sizes are seen, including one with a torpedo on deck and one anchored that has a large tarpaulin tent across it, and clothes drying on a line. A PT boat passes, with crew on deck and some clothes drying on an improvised line. Distant views of several PT boats along the coast. A camouflaged PT boat passes close to the shore. Crew members from PT boat 237 are seen descending a landing net to recover the body of a PT boat captain killed in action with the Japanese. (Reportedly, a motor mechanic, who later joined the crew of Pt 237, identified some of those seen as: blond man kneeling and holding cargo net Is Olson. Slender shirtless man at far right is Bobby Leonard. Man hanging on cargo net is the skipper of 237, Lieutenant Airigo. Man at bottom right of cargo net is Al Navarre.) Camera boat moves toward the shore where a large group of sailors are waiting. Next, sailors are seen loading heavy boxes from a truck, and placing them aboard a boat backed up to the shore. They also unload something from the boat and place it in the truck. Trucks on the sandy shore are servicing PT boat 160, which has a tarp canopy overhead to protect from the sun. Change of view shows jeeps moving near a camp on shore displaying a sign reading: "Camp Tenron." Nearby some sailors stand on a raised wooden structure displaying a large painted sign showing a PT boat racing through the water and reading: "Motor Torpedo Squadrons, Green Islands." One sailor sends a signal by means of a shuttered signal lamp. Sailor ride on a truck carrying 55 gallon drums, as it enters Camp Tenron. A sailor on the raised structure looks through a telescope. Sailors on a PT boat using a line to recover something from the water beside their boat. The boat contains tarps and clothes drying on lines. A PT boat heading out on patrol. Sailor on the wooden platform uses semaphore flags to signal. On shore sailors haul boxes from a pile. Sailors seen on a chow line shaded by trees and a tent. Next, they are seen seated at tables set up under a large dining tent. Closeup of a few eating at a table.
Italian Colonial infantry are seen firing their rifles and entering the town of Kurmuk, during the World War 2 Italian campaign in Sudan. Notwithstanding their firing of weapons, the troops enter a deserted town, devoid of defenders. The local bank and other small buildings are seen. Views of local huts with straw roofs and some indigenous peoples. (Note: On July 7, 1940, more than 600 Italian troops with air support attacked the post at Kurmuk. The Fung Province District Commissioner had been been instructed to withdraw, if confronted by significant Italian forces. Accordingly, Assistant Commissioner, Mervyn F. B. Bell, stationed in Kurmuk, at the time, commanded a fighting withdrawal in which Italian forces reportedly suffered nearly 20 casualties while the Sudanese lost only one. The town was deserted when Italian Colonial troops entered to occupy it.)
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