Crowd read news about African occupation in Lisbon, Portugal during World War II. Exterior of office of newspaper 'Seculo' shows crowd reading latest dispatches about African occupation. Exterior of office of newspaper 'Diario de Lisboa'. Newsboys around a door. News vendors rush down stairs with bundles of papers. News vendor's kiosk where papers of all countries are sold. Newsstand with foreign papers. First edition of Diario de Lisboa is sold at barber shop on the day of occupation of North Africa.
Film opens with an explosion at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack in World War 2. The USS Arizona sinking. Newspaper headline reading "U.S. Declares War." Relief map globe of the world. Narrator speaks about accomplishments of the U.S. Army Service Forces since the Pearl Harbor attack. Glimpse of two M4 DV early Sherman tanks moving on a road. The famous Uncle Sam recruiting poster. Huge number of massed U.S. Army troops marching toward the camera lined 16 abreast. Army supply service personnel inspecting providers of all manner of supplies needed to feed, clothe, and equip the U.S. Army. Brief views of supply operations underway involving food and fuels. An Army truck and a P-38 lightning airplane (under wraps) being loaded aboard a ship. A warehouse stacked from floor to ceiling with military supplies. Forklifts moving in the aisles. Group of officers sitting around a table. Some wear shoulder patch of Army Service Forces on their uniforms. The processing of millions of volunteers and draftees for military service. Men in recruitment office being guided by staff. Lines of new recruits undergoing physical exams and then arriving in civilian clothes, with their baggage, at a training center. Barracks being constructed at a training camp or base in the United States. Camera pans across a large completed military camp. Soldiers forming up in front of barracks. Sign reads "Dispensary, Recruit Reception Center." Recruits lined up and receiving vaccinations against tropical and other diseases according to the regions to which they are being sent. An Army Sergeant assessing recruit qualifications for various military assignments. New recruits eating in a camp dining hall and also in a chow line at an outdoor field mess. Views of industrial workers picking up tools and assembling military equipment in war plants. A coal burning electric generating plant with 8 smoke stacks. A furnace with hot steel visible. An Army agent and an industrialist or business man signing contract documents. Glimpses of women war production workers placing items on a conveyer; guns being assembled by men in an armory; railroad train carrying freight across rugged U.S. territory; ocean-going ships ready for loading; cargo stacked up at ports; numerous 55 gallon drums ready for loading; rope slings of cargo being loaded for shipment; numerous army trucks ready for shipment to Allies, under "Lend Lease;" a nurse checking medical supplies for shipment; Many U.S. Army M3 tanks ready for shipment. Views of British forces engaged in the North African campaign, before the U.S. entry in World War 2. U.S. soldiers marching along a Camp road past a sign reading: "Headquarters, 725th Railway Operating Battalion" (Located in New Orleans). Rapid glimpses of various supplies, equipment, etc. being loaded for shipment abroad. Women war production workers in plants. Men in outdoor yards filling long lines of jerry cans. Views of clock hands moving. soldiers shooting automatic weapons (including tracer rounds) at a firing range.
New U.S. army recruits seated at benches in the classification center, taking notes, as an instructor at a blackboard tells them how to fill out their classification questionnaires, during World War 2. View of machines processing the questionnaires. Hollerith 88 column punch cards being sorted by machine. Newspaper article about the Air Force efforts to improve classification and assignments of new airmen. A recruit being counseled. An Airmen in barracks, filling out a post card form to complain about his assignment. Servicemen working with sewing machines and at long cobbler's benches repairing shoes. U.S. soldiers in pith helmets, laying communications cable from a truck. A soldier recording information about a shipment of supplies. Soldiers filling 5-gallon "jerry cans" with fuel from a hose. Others serving at a communications center in woods. A soldier fastening a cable to a tank. Soldier standing on a truck. Large group of soldiers gathered to listen to a lecture about explosives. Army draftsmen at their work tables. Soldiers using information and training materials.(Narrator states these materials are often ignored.) An army newsmap for Monday, August 31, 1942 posted on an Army office wall. A sergeant points to July, 1943, on a current calendar next to it, illustrating that the newsmap is long out-of-date. View of another news map and narrator notes they are produced weekly. An officer speaking to an auditorium of soldiers. A soldier arranging his personal gear. Infantry on field maneuvers, firing rifles as they advance across a field. Soldiers firing a Browning water-cooled machine gun; a mortar; and a 105mm M101A1 howitzer. The sergeant using a newsmap to brief his staff about the progress of the war. Opening frames of a War Department Film Bulletin, and soldiers in a theater, watching the film. Opening frames of the film,"Why We Fight," that goes on to show animated map of the German advance across Europe in World War 2. Scenes of German forces on the move, towing artillery, riding on tanks, and entering towns as they invade countries of Europe. Women and children running in streets under bombardment, and civilians fleeing from their homes during aerial bombing. A Bombed out city and civilian corpses lying on the ground. Women in Poland, identifying their dead and grieving over them. German Heinkel He 111 aircraft dropping bombs. Norwegians evacuating the city in trucks, and other vehicles and on foot, during the German invasion. A squadron of German Messerschmitt Bf-109 aircraft in flight. German Ju-87, Stuka dive bombers diving on targets. Civilians rushing to a bomb shelter, and other refugees boarding a truck to evacuate. More He-111 bombers dropping bombs. A Ju-52 trimotor transport (type used to transport German paratroopers). Buildings ablaze in a town. Large formations of German aircraft of various types flying overhead. Building destroyed and burning from bombing. Ju-87s flying close past the camera.
Production of supplies for American soldiers during World War II. Commanding General of Army Service Forces( ASF ) Brehon B. Somervell seated at a desk in his office in the United States. He explains the serious problem of substitution and conversion and what is being done by American science to meet these needs. Somervell states that he is issuing an order: A command to think along new lines regarding every product essential to the war. He asks: 1) Can it be made as well of some less critical material; 2) Can it be made better, faster, or in greater quantity by some other method of production? He calls on viewers to draw on the brains and ingenuity. View of ordnance insignia. Interior of an office. An officer and a draftsman examine a machine gun. Exhibit of mannequins wearing uniforms with supplies for soldiers and nurses. Miniature tents and kitchen equipment. An officer and executives from two rubber production companies check synthetic rubber and collaborate on improvements. Radio engineers at work in front of equipment checking new type equipment. Workers weighing equipment and finding ways to make needed supplies lighter in weight. Chemical warfare officers at work. A soldier with a new plastic gas mask comes out of a room. Medical and other industry leaders around a conference table. Men gathered around tables planning improvements. Workers entering a large aircraft production factory. A man places a paper in a suggestion box labeled "ideas for increasing production."
African American recruit sits in a chair with feet on a measuring device. A sergeant gives him a pair of shoes. But before he wears them the Sergeant tells him to stand, in the measuring device, holding two 20 pound weights. He then tells him to put on the shoes and go into the next room, where other African American recruits are lined up. They are instructed to remove all civilian clothes and begin dressing in army clothing. Next, completely dressed in their army uniforms, the recruits carrying duffel bags as they leave the snow-covered camp to board a train. Views of steam locomotives pulling trains in various places in the country. A convoy of army trucks carrying the new soldiers into a military base. The trucks park side-by-side in a line and the soldiers jump out with their gear to begin their basic training. A sergeant instructing the new soldiers on how to make a bed and other responsibilities. The new African American soldiers assembled in formation outside their barracks, on the snow, practicing close order drill, and making mistakes in the process. Next they are seen in a cross country march, carrying rifles. they take a 10-minute break. Soldiers in an infirmary, being visited by army doctors and African American nurses. Newly recruited soldiers being tended in an army dental clinic by African American dentists and hygienists. Soldiers shooting rifles on a firing range. Targets moving up and down on the range. Soldiers participating in sports, including football, baseball, boxing, and ping pong. A woman in the base library reading poetry aloud from a book entitled: "An Anthology of American African American Literature." African American members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) are seen at another base, engaged in close order drill. Next these WACs are seen driving and riding in jeeps over rough terrain. A soldier shines his shoes, on Saturday night. African American soldiers and women dancing to music from an orchestra. The soldiers performing calisthenics in the open air. Rifles are held in some of the exercises. (World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
Silhouette of train carrying New York Governor and Presidential Candidate Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) on the way to Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Mayor, Anton Cermak, honors Franklin Roosevelt in special dinner. Close up view of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak speaking. Mayor Anton Cermak passes a baseball to Franklin Roosevelt during the Baseball World Series Game 3 (New York Yankees vs. Chicago Cubs) at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Due to paralysis, Franklin Roosevelt stands upright with the assistance of his son, James Roosevelt. Crowds watching the Baseball World Series Game 3, the same game famous American baseball player, Babe Ruth, won for the New York Yankees over the Chicago Cubs. Franklin Roosevelt throws the first pitch of Game 3 of the World Series. View of the Baseball World Series Game 3. View of locomotive train wheel moving.
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