British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery are seen looking skyward. They stand on a field in front of a large formation of troops. Scene shifts to a seaport in North Africa, with Allied troop ships preparing to depart. A barrage balloon flies over the port. (Narrator notes that the armada includes ships of Britain, The United States, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece, the Indian navies, A warship sits in the water beside a large troop ship. A tugboat tows a large troop transport ship in the harbor. Cargo ships and a three stacker transport ship are seen. Two British battleships. Sailor using signal light to send a message. Two American destroyers in trail formation. U.S. Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt, Commander of the 8th Fleet, presents Lieutenant General George S. Patton, commander of U.S. forces, with a new battle flag. Views of ships in the invasion fleet. Transport ships anchor off the coast as they shuttle troops to the beaches in their landing ships. A landing ship flying the American flag. Naval guns fire barrages at the shore. As landing craft reach the beach, troops wade ashore through the surf. An army truck drives from a landing craft through the surf. Army truck and a jeep drive ashore from a large landing craft. Brief glimpse of Wading tanks leaving a tank carrier and driving ashore through the surf. Troops landing with dry feet from a beached landing craft. View of the city of Gela. Lieutenant George S. Patton climbs over the side of a ship and descends on a rope ladder to enter a Higgins boat that takes him to assume command of the invasion operations. Closeup of Lieutenant General Patton in the boat entering the harbor at Gela. He jumps from the boat as it reaches the beach. Local civilians view activities from the beach. DUKWs (amphibious trucks) drive ashore. Artillery pieces being towed ashore. American infantry entering the town of Gela. Military vehicles enter through rubble strewn streets. An M4 Sherman tank speeds along a road. Remains of an Italian armored train destroyed by Allied gunfire. American soldiers walk through areas destroyed by German bombing. American troops search buildings. Local Italian people mingling with American troops. Surrendered Italian troops march under guard along a street. Allied forces head toward Messina. A tracked gun carrier filled with troops in the back, moves along a street. U.S. infantry marching along a roadside. Army engineers clearing mine fields in advance of troops. Closeup of a buried mine being revealed. Major General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., Commander of the U.S 3rd Infantry Division, inspects Axis planes and hangars captured by American forces. Many undamaged aircraft are seen in revetments and simply parked on the airfield. Fuel arrives for Allied aircraft. British Fairey Firefly aircraft taking off. Dead Axis soldiers lying on the ground. Destroyed Axis military vehicles. A knocked out German Tiger tank. A DUKW drives past a damaged Axis armored vehicle. UN forces firing mortars from a field. A knocked out Axis armored vehicle. UN motorized gun carrier fires its gun. Allied infantry advancing.
General Joseph Warren Stilwell presents the Legion of Merit to Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing (Chungking), China during World War II. Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong Mei-ling) is also present. Madame Chiang talks to news correspondents.
First lady of United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, visits U.S. Base Hospitals in South Pacific areas including Australia and New Zealand during World War 2. Base hospital's wards are seen including some in thatched huts. Mrs. Roosevelt wearing Red Cross uniform. A soldier seen in a wheel chair. Mrs. Roosevelt waves goodbye to United States soldiers.
Natives learn to build airstrips in India for Allied Forces. Indians using primitive tools. Indian women are also seen working to build air field runways and landing strips. A U.S. Army B-25 bomber aircraft lands and taxis. General MacArthur, General Krueger and General Rupertus inspect newly won positions in New Guinea. In Burma British and Indian troops advance. Explosions seen as British Army forces fire mortars. (World War II period).
U.S. Navy commissioned Women officer nurses stand in formation, dressed in summer white uniforms, as they are inspected by senior officers during World War 2. Closeups of several nurses. Several women nurses, in uniforms of various armed services, pose for the camera. Closeups of some of them. Scene shifts to the first director of the Women's Army Corps (WAC), Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby, seen standing in front of an Army recruiting poster, and at her desk in Washington, DC. Women volunteers seen in a recruiting station, applying to join the new WAC. Colonel Hobby walking along sidewalk of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, across the Potomac River, in Washington, DC. She stops and poses for the camera. Next she is seen approaching two army officers on the bridge, who both come to attention and salute as she comes close enough for them to see the Colonel's eagles on her uniform shoulders. She returns their salute, smartly, and continues on her way. Next, four armed WAC members in field garb, stand on the side of a mountain as two of them consult a map and the others use binoculars. Below them, on a dirt path, women of a WAC motorcycle corps unit ride their Harley Davidson motorcycles. They also ford a stream on their motorcycles.
View of a U.S. Post Office building. Patrons line up inside, to use the new "V-mail" system for sending mail to service personnel overseas, during World War 2. They are seen writing letters on special forms that also serve as envelopes, when folded. Senders stamp, and mail them, just like ordinary letters. Next, after being opened and passed by military censors, the letters are fed into machines and photograpned onto rolls of microfilm. Views of microfilm in 100 foot rolls, that carry 1500 letters, each. View of a strip of microfilm with individual letters on it. Bags of mail on the floor of an Army postal facility and a soldier holding one small bag of microfilm letters that contains the same number of letters as all the other bags. Servicemen overseas reading their letters (that have been blown up and printed at normal size).
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