The role and contribution of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in combat and war. Amphibious landings of the first wave of Allied troops including Signal Corps Units in Normandy, France on D Day during World War 2. The Joint Assault Signal Companies (a Signal Corps Unit that accompanies the soldiers on every beach landing) go ashore in Normandy. Soldiers in landing crafts approach the beach. Landing crafts anchored along the shore line. A U.S. flag on the beach. Crafts approach the beach. U.S. Army Signal Corps combat photographers using motion picture cameras to film the battle that ensues on the beach and in the fields. Gun fire and explosions in the battlefield, filmed by combat cameraman. Allied aircraft in flight. Airmen load weekly film reports of the war in all Theaters made by Signal Corps officers from a van into an aircraft. The films are sent to the Photographic Center in New York. A soldier assembles the films. Technicians organize and arrange the films. They place the film reels onto racks. The film content is used to make training and orientation films for the U.S. troops. Troops watch the films in order to cut down the training period, and stay informed about the order of event in other Theaters of Operation. The films include 'Why We Fight' and 'The Fighting Men' series. Clips and recordings from these films.
The use of V-mail (Victory Mail) by the United States during World War II. V-mail procedures including cutting, microfilming, transport, photographic enlargement, and processing of V-mail letters and post. A poster promoting the use of V-mail. Women in a line at a post office. The post office staff at counter windows serves the customers. A woman collects a V-mail letter, writes her message and then addresses the letter. The preferred use of a softer pencil in V-mails. Cutting: Specially trained soldiers unpack the V-mails and use a cutting machine to open each mail. Processing: The experienced staff sorts mails into the respective destination groups at sorting tables. Soldiers open mails to photograph them. A soldier sorts mail that can't be photographed and are to be sent back. These mails include stamps, enclosures, snapshots and bad writing. The correct mails are then sorted into given numbers in bundles. Microfilming: Women use Airgraph machines to photograph each mail on 16mm films. 1600 mails on 100 feet of film. The complete reels are sent for developing. Women put in new reels of negatives into the cameras. Developers dry the film reels. Stacks of reels on a table containing images of thousands of letters. Soldiers packing and stacking many hundreds of sacks filled with V-mail letter microfilm images. A Boeing 314 Pan American Clipper flying boat sea plane (military designation C-98) is seen taking off to transport V-mail to major destination points. A bag of microfilm reels is delivered to an officer. He unpacks the reels and sends them to the printing room. Enlargement: Enlargement machines are used to enlarge the snapshots. Men and women operate the printing machines. Soldiers with the printed facsimiles on tables. Processing: Women slice the prints into separate letters. Machines used to insert facsimiles into V-mail envelopes and seal them. The mails are then sent to the exact destinations by ordinary post. Soldiers gather around as a comrade distributes mail at a U.S. military base in the combat area.
'50 Years of Cinematography' depicts the role of military and news cameramen during World War II. Germany starts the War. Invasion of Poland in 1939: German Nazi Luftwaffe bombers in flight over Warsaw. Explosions due to the bombardment. Burning and damaged buildings in the war torn city. Civilians amidst rubble and ruins. Soldiers and civilians look at corpses on a sidewalk. A woman with her child cries. A man walks on a street. Dunkirk Evacuation in 1940: Allied troops evacuated from the Dunkirk coast. Allied troops on ships. Smoke rises from a ship under German attack. Soldiers wade through the water towards waiting ships. Burning ships. The Second Armistice at Compiegne after the German victory in the Battle of France, 1940: German troops stand at attention. German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, President of the Reichstag Hermann Goering, German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and other German officers arrive at the venue. The leaders and officers walk past the soldiers at attention. Hitler gives the Nazi salute. The Blitz, London in 1940-1941: Bomb damaged buildings. Cars and pedestrians amidst ruins and rubble on the streets. A train over a collapsed wall. Civilians in a horse cart. A wrecked bus in a damaged building. Rescue workers among the rubble. Clouds over the city.
Images taken by military and news cameramen during World War II. The North African Campaign, 1940: Convoy of British tanks, trucks, and infantry advance over the Libyan Desert. British soldiers fire artillery. Masses of Italian prisoners marched by British soldiers. Next shown is campaign on the Eastern Front, 1941, as Germany attacks Russia: Nazi tanks advance under Luftwaffe air cover into the Soviet Union. Aerial view of German Junker Ju 87 aircraft in flight. German tanks and armored vehicles rolling. Wide view of many German tanks rolling east. German soldiers leaping down from a hill with smoke all around as they battle in a Russian town. Russian Pe-2 bomber aircraft in flight. Interior view of pilot and crew in Soviet Pe-2 bomber while in flight. Soviet soldiers on tanks during a battle. Burning tanks. Soviet soldiers run toward battle front and pass a dead German soldier on the battlefield.
Pictures taken by military and news cameramen during World War II. Operation Claymore, March 1941: British Commandos raid Lofoten Islands in assault boats. They destroy a fish oil refinery off the coast of Norway. Soldiers and civilians on the docks. Burning refineries and buildings. Clouds of black smoke. 1941: British and Canadian troops on Spitsbergen Island. They destroy Soviet coal mines to prevent the Germans from occupying them. Black smoke clouds due to the explosions. Operation Archery on Vaagso Island, 1941: British Commandos raid the Island. Soldiers walk in the snow. Nazi prisoners surrender and marched by British soldiers. Battle ensues on the Island. Soldiers walk past a fence. Burning buildings in the background.
Pictures taken by military and news cameramen during World War II. North African Campaign: The British Eighth Army enters Tripoli in Libya. Allied soldiers on tanks. Civilians and children watch as the troops move into the city. A British flag. British Army Field Marshal Harold Alexander (1st Earl Alexander of Tunis) stands in a car and greets the troops and civilians as it moves along. Allied invasion of Sicily, 1943: Field Marshal Alexander's British Dominion and U.S. forces advance. The task force underway off the Sicily coast. Soldiers get off landing ships and crafts. They wade through shallow water and advance inward on the beach. Germany: Allied aircraft in flight. The airplanes bomb Nazi industries. The aircraft bay doors open, bombs away as bombs are released, and they descend towards the target area. Smoke due to the explosions.
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