Soldiers standing at attention on a field as they are reviewed by British officers together with U.S. General Eisenhower (likely circa World War 2 era). Officers inspect the soldiers. Wide shot of ship passing in front of Fort St. Angelo, Malta. Some British sailors at a port. Operation Hurricane atomic bomb test done by Great Britain: Atomic bomb blast is shown, which occurred October 3, 1952. British family seated at a dinner table in a house talking during a meal. Paintings of merchant ships underway at sea. A statue. British King George VI presenting award to a British soldier. Brief shot of British soldiers running from a bunker or low trench doorway outward toward battle at El Alamein. British tanks advancing on sand terrain in North Africa in World War 2. Exterior view of homes of some British families. Shops and buildings along the sides of a street. British people walking on a street near shops and businesses. U.S. soldiers also seen among them. A U.S. Army soldier stops to shake hands and talk to two British civilian men. Traffic of cars and buses on street behind them. Wide shot of British parliament buildings, bridge, Big Ben clock tower.
Aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Atlantic Ocean during Operation Long Step. Heavy cruiser USS Des Moines CA-134 sends a blinker-light signal to USS FDR. Aircraft being spotted aft. USS Des Moines underway through rough seas southwest of Sardinia. Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Leyte's helicopter returns to the ship. USS Des Moines underway. Airplanes on flight deck of FDR in the foreground. A quartermaster sends USS Leyte a flashing-light signal. The quartermaster sends a message to heavy cruiser USS Columbus. USS Columbus answering USS FDR's message. Flight deck crew takes a break during Operation Long Step. Gearing-class destroyer USS Myles C. Fox, DD-829, airplane guard for USS Roosevelt, takes heavy seas over her bow during rough weather south of Malta. Two guardians stand by on station. USS Myles C. Fox in the background. Silhouette: USS FDR's helicopter U.S. Navy HUP being tied down to the flight deck. Sea and spray falling over the flight deck of USS FDR as it is underway south of the island of Malta. Views of aircraft on the flight deck.
Commando troops display their skills in Malta, Mediterranean sea. The troops demonstrate the crossing of a river and negotiate a cliff side handily.
At beginning of film, camera pans over Malta. A map of that area of the Mediterranean Sea is shown. A street scene in Malta, with pedestrians on the sidewalks. A local police officer speaks to a group of men and women wearing steel helmets. Closeup of some of them. (They appear to be a group of volunteers.) Scene shifts to view from a street of flak clouds in the sky above, from anti-aircraft fire directed at Axis planes bombing Malta. People pointing toward the sky at an Axis bomber. Bombs exploding on the city. An old woman and several children pose in front buildings totally destroyed with nothing but rubble remaining. Views of destroyed buildings. Film shifts to a British Illustrious class aircraft carrier anchored in waters near Malta. It then shows a view of sailors on a British warship. A British sailor poses in a small boat with the British battleship HMS Warspite in the background. Glimpse of naval gun shells in a container. Some guns on ship's deck with mechanism for rotating them into vertical position. View of the barrels pointing upward. In rearming operations, A heavy naval gun shell being moved by a winch with a clamp around its body, onto the HMS Warspite. Sailors gathered around the shell to remove it from the winch. Sailors rolling a heavy shell on a platform. More sailors lowering a heavy shell into the hold of the battleship. British Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, on the deck of HMS Warspite, his flagship.
Film starts showing United Press wire service receiver with report in it. "Tokyo" is superimposed on the image. A huge gathering of Japanese people is seen, most holding umbrellas on a rainy day. Camera view from behind some of the crowd, with the National Diet (Legislative) building in the background. Groups of men rush through the crowd creating disturbance. They protest the Treaty of San Francisco on April 28, 1952, which ended U.S. occupation, but levied heavy penalties on Japan including confiscation of all assets owned by the Japanese government, firms, organization and private citizens, in all colonized or occupied countries. Closeups of some surrounding a uniformed policemen and roughing him up. Views inside the House of representatives chamber, where members are in a state of turmoil. Member are dragging one legislator. Closeup of him sitting on the floor and of another legislator waving a fan to cool off. A cadre of uniformed officers enters the assembly room and forcibly removes several struggling legislators. Following that, a group of legislators forces another to the Chairman's position in the chamber. (Note: Political conflicts, between supporters of politician Hatoyama Ichiro and those of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida resulted in the Prime Minister declaring an “Out of the blue” dissolution of the House of Representatives in August, 1952.)
Major catastophe events of the year 1952. Views of destruction on the ground in Elizabeth, New Jersey, after American Airlines flight 6780, a Convair 240, crashed into a house at Williamson and South Streets on January 22, 1952. Burned wreckage and devastation seen at the crash site in Elizabeth following the crash and subsequent explosions damaging or destroying multipole houses in the 600 block of Williamson Street. In the first few seconds of the clip, the Battin High School for Girls is seen in the background. The school was adjacent to the crash but not hit. Narrator also describes the crash of an Army transport plane in California which killed 86 soldiers, but no images of that crash are shown. Next scenes shift to England, on September 6, 1952, as a de Havilland DH.110 jet aircraft, piloted by John Derry, explodes in midair after achieving Mach 1 and then beginning a left bank and climb at 450 knots during the 1952 Farnborough Airshow. Spectators at the British air show are seen on the ground in the area below the explosion and where debris rained down on the crowd causing deaths and injuries. Engines from the blown-up DH.110 plane (prototype, ID WG236) are seen hurtling through the sky toward Observation Hill immediately after the mid-air explosion. Scenes show crowd working to tend to the wounded and shocked families and children crying.