Film opens with series of animated maps of the United States, showing the States that are the typical sources of agricultural products, including wheat, corn, dairy products, beef cattle, cotton, flax, lumber, and fruits and vegetables. A woman in overalls places fresh cut corn from a truck on to a conveyor. Farmers pitch hay from trucks. Momentary glimpse of a warehouse on a waterway, with a railroad train running to it, and a large cargo ship docked beside it. A federal official briefs a group of farm state officials and farm families, about the need for increased agricultural production, during World War 2. Closeups of persons in the audience. Scene shifts to window of a modest wooden home with anchor symbol two blue stars displayed for family members in military service. Closeup of the two blue stars in the window. With many men gone in military service, women and youth fill the labor gaps. A women at the wheel of a piece of farm equipment. A boy picking fruit from a tree. View of a large vacant lot in a city being used for numerous "Victory Gardens." A girl digging with a spade in one of the gardens. Other gardeners conversing in the background. A woman storing mason jars of preserved fruits and vegetables on a shelf in her home. Farmers performing maintenance and repairs on farm machinery. Momentary view of farmers loading crates of foods onto an open truck. Women placing vegetables into cans at a factory. Cattle moving into a pen. Men loading bales of cotton onto a river boat. A large freighter being loaded at a port. A farmer treating the soil with something dispensed from a spreader behind his tractor. A farmer harvesting corn by machinery. Three dead pigs, on the ground, (victims of disease.) Cattle foraging close to one another in a pasture. Insects attacking crops as there is a shortage of insecticides during the war. Severe weather causing crop losses is seen. A farmer harvesting with a combine. A document is shown labeled PL 147 77th Congress (the Steagall Bill). (Narrator states it guaranteed prices of 90 percent of parity for war needed crops.) Brochures for alternate crops that farmers might consider because foreign supplies were cut off. A farmer removes an envelope from his mail box. (Narrator alludes to government supplied crop loans and dairy feed payments.) Corn being piled up. Pigs at feeding troughs. Men loading crates of food onto a truck. fresh cut logs rolling into a river. Complete change of scene to Piazzale Loreto, in, Milan, Italy, 1945, where Benito Mussolini and other fascist leaders are seen hanging upside down following their deaths at the hands of crowds. Adolf Hitler and Marshal Hermann Goering at Berteschgaden. Japanese Emperor Hirohito astride a white horse leading some of his senior military officers as they review assembled troops.
"Kobe strike" shows United States B-29 bomber aicraft dropping 3200 tons of incendiary bombs over industrial targets in Kobe, Japan during World War 2. Firebombing causes pillars of smoke to rise up. Narrator speaks of strikes on other Japanese cities also and relates statement by General Arnold that beginning July 1945, industrial Japan will be hit by bombs at the rate of 2 million tons per year, or 5480 tons per day, adding that "by the end of 1946, Japan will have ceased to exist as a bombing target."
United States aircraft carrier USS Franklin after being attacked by a Japanese bomber in the Pacific Ocean on March 19, 1945, during World War II. The U.S. flag flies from USS Franklin while on its way to the United States. A chaplain conducts a religious service on the deck of the aircraft carrier. The ship enters the Panama Canal. The men who faced the Japanese attack on USS Franklin being decorated. Men lined up with medals on their uniforms. Crew members smile after being decorated. The ship enters New York Harbor with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
The Germans sign unconditional surrender in Berlin, Germany on May 8, 1945 during World War II, signing a document similar to the one signed at Reims the day before. People gathered outside a German Army Engineering School. Soviet General Georgi Zhukov and British Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder at a desk as they represent the Allies. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and other officers representing Germany arrive. Keitel puts his signature on the document of unconditional surrender. Zhukov and Tedder also put their signatures as they take over Germany. The two officers shake hands. Allied officers tour the city of Berlin. Damaged buildings in the city due to Allied bombings. The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The heavilly damaged Hotel Adlon. Aerial views of the damage caused due to Allied bombings in Hamburg. Damaged buildings and shipyards in Hamburg.
Eminent prisoners held in Nazi German prison camps in Germany are seen being released after the Allied victory during World War II. Snow covered Alps in Germany. A villa in the mountains. Eminent prisoners released from German camps include wife of Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, the Baroness Schuschnigg, industrialist Fritz Thyssen, Prince Leopold of Prussia, German General Franz Halder, Anti-Nazi Pastor Martin Niemöller, Allied pilots, Lieutenant John Winant (son of American Ambassador to England), Lord George Lascelles, the nephew of King George VI, John Alexander Elphinstone, Michael Alexander, and Max de Hamel, cousin of Winston Churchill. Scene changes to Magdeburg, Germany where German General Kurt Dittmar,a Nazi radio broadcaster (Official Military Commentator of the German Armed Forces), together with his son, young soldier Berend Dittmar, surrenders to American soldiers of the U.S. Army 117th Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, on April 25, 1945.
U.S. Navy submarine USS Bluefish submarine underway in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. An insignia aboard the U.S. Navy submarine USS Bluefish. Japanese prisoners go topside aboard the submarine. Smoke rises in the background as a small boat burns. Two small boats burn in the background as the submarine pulls away. Lookouts with binoculars. The USS Bluefish approaches a Japanese schooner. A lookout with binoculars on the background. Oil afire on the surface at night. The oil fire is from the i350, a Japanese submarine sunk by the Bluefish on 15 July 1945.
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