A U.S. Air Force C-74 Globemaster cargo aircraft at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Flight engineer's Instrument panel in the C-74 aircraft with view of cockpit to the left, with double bubble windows. Loran set screen seen to left of the cockpit, at Navigators station. Exterior view. "Beetle" double cockpit windows clearly visible. Crewmen examine nose wheel. Interior of cockpit, with main flight control wheel and, to its left, at knee position of pilot, the nose wheel steering wheel can be seen. Flight engineer opens hatch in floor of cargo compartment and crawls through superstructure of aircraft to perform maintance. C-74 takes off, retracting landing gear as it climbs out. Several views of C-74 in flight, including one accompanied by another aircraft, and one in which it is operating on only two engines, with engines number 3 and 4 shutdown and feathered. C-74, descending for landing, with landing gear extended. It touches down quite long on the runway and appears to employ reverse thrust on its engines during ground roll.
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.
Plans underway in the United States in 1944 for participation in the invasion of France during World War 2 by Allied forces. A U.S. Army sentry of the Army Service Forces (ASF) patrols a rail line, where military men and equpment are being transported abroad., during World War 2. ASF soldiers drive DUKWs (amphibious vehicles) up a ramp for loading into railroad box cars. A long line of DUKWs being driven for loading. Many men load 55 gallon drums of petroleum products into rail cars. An M3 Stuart light tank being driven on an open rail car. Soldiers loading motorcycles on a train. An Army M3 Half-track Amored Personnel Carrier (APC) driving onto a railroad train. (Narrator notes that it requires 75 trains to transport a single Armored Division by rail.) Men loading a 105 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M7 (Called Priest, by the British) onto a flat rail car and securing it in place with wooden supports. Army personnel that would participate in an invasion are shown. Paratroopers with their packs. Women's Army Corps (WACs) fill their duffel bags with clothing and other items, and are then seen climbing aboard an open stake truck. An Army band plays and marches giving troops a sendoff at a train station. U.S. soldiers board passenger railroad trains, carrying their field packs and weapons. A steam locomotive pulling a troop train. A train load of Sherman M4 medium tanks and other equipment, including a caterpillar tractor, is seen underway. Unidentified tanks being fastened to rail flat car. Many Army trucks and heavy equipment on train passing a town train station. Military equipment moving on trains over bridges. Two ladies under hair dryers at a salon, discussing boys in service going overseas. United States Army troops bound for the war front are seen boarding railroad trains and also changing trains, monitored by Army military police (MPs) at night. Soldiers inside a moving train car occupy themselves by playing cards; shooting craps; An African American porter watches a game. An Army chaplain talking with some of the soldiers. A soldier reading a magazine. His seat partner keeps falling asleep against him. American civilians at a newsstand. Newspaper headline reads: "London expects invasion of Europe at any hour."
A ship being loaded at a U.S. port of embarkation with war materiel to support the Allied invasion of Europe in World War 2. A group of Army dock workers enters the port building. A sign on the front office reads: "U.S. Army Transport Service." Steel structural items and large steel boiler are loaded aboard the ship. Men steady supplies lowered on deck in nets. Men place boxes in the ship's hold. A 2x4 Army truck being lowered into the ship.Tanks and artillery pieces, covered with canvas on the ship deck. A 155mm long tom gun being loaded on the ship More views of equipment and supplies being loaded aboard ship. The covered fuselage of a P-38 Lightning fighter plane being lowered onto the deck. Two civilian men in a wash room talk about upcoming invasion. Troops in full field gear coming aboard the transport ship. Men looking out the port holes of the ship. An invasion convoy getting underway. Soldier on deck, silhouetted against the sky. View of the Pentagon Building in Virginia. Army Service Forces officers meeting in Pentagon. Officers walking in the Pentagon halls. One exchanges salutes with a guard as he leaves the building.
Soldiers of the U.S. Signal Corps working on radio equipment in the United States. The exterior of a U.S. Army Signal Corps building with "Squier laboratory" written outside the building. The interior of the laboratory. Engineers conducting experiments and working on various equipment for communications, including Radar, Color Radio Telephoto, and single sideband transmission for long haul radio communication. A machine that appears to be spinning and heating hot glass. An engineer operating a machine beneath a sign that says "Thermionic Shake Tests." An engineer tests various signal lights. Signal Corps men observing a radio tower. Instructors teach and demonstrate various kinds of radio relay equipment to other Signal Corps personnel. A large board reads "Multiplex terminating." An officer explains a diagram to the Signal Corps personnel. Soldiers examine disassembled radios. Demonstration of a map being transmitted to a soldier in the field via facsimile machine. Close views of a spinning drum on the facsimile machine and the map visible on it. A dramatized shot of a B-17 bomber aircraft in flight. The pilot in the cockpit of the aircraft. The pilot looks at the signals transmitted through the radar. The aircraft navigates with the radar in bad weather. A map locates Boston, Lynn, Nantasket and Quincy and it is compared to the radar image of the same region.
Soldiers of the U.S. Signal Corps working on the radio equipment in the United States. Long range forecast by the radar instruments. Men gather on a field testing weather analysis and automatic weather station forecasting instruments. Man seated in a large portable spinning radar device in the field. The instruments dropped by parachute send the weather observations details.