Soldiers of the Italian Co-Belligerent Army. The Italian First Motorized Group, the first Italian unit to fight alongside the Allies after the armistice of September, 1943, move to the front in early December, 1943. Trucks loaded with soldiers driven. A convoy of trucks and jeeps moves along road. Soldiers seated in trucks with guns. Trucks pass signs of nearby towns: 'Venafro-Mignano' and 'Pietravairano'. (World War II period).
Opening slate gives date as September 20, 1943. Scenes show devastation wrought by Allied bombing of the Japanese airfield at Lae, New Guinea. Most views are from the ground, as Allies occupy the field. Numerous Japanese aircraft are destroyed along with all the buildings and facilities. Next, is shown the view from inside a B-25 bomber, on September 27, 1943, as it flies in a 100 aircraft bombing mission to attack coastal facilities, ships, and airfields in the Wewak area, including the main air base at Wewak and its satellite fields at Boram, Dagua and But. Several B-25s are seen ahead in formation. View of the coastal area below as the camera plane (B-25) comes under fire by Japanese anti-aircraft guns. A pall of smoke hangs over the Wewak area from bombing by B-24s earlier. view from cockpit as the B-25 makes very low strafing and bombing attack against the Japanese satellite airbase at Boram. Another B-25 seen as it flies close to the ground. View to the rear shows small parachutes being released by the B-25, carrying single 100-lb fragmentation bombs and 23-pounders in clusters of three. The fragmentation bombs explode amongst palm trees sheltering Japanese aircraft. view out the back of the camera B-25 shows it continuing to fly, just over the tree tops, at very low altitude. Next, several B-25s are seen rejoined up in formation, ahead. Scene shifts to view from high altitude of bombs striking in the Wewak waterfront area. View from below of three B-25s in formation. Then view from cockpit of a B-25 flying low over the water strafing a ship. (Narrator says they dive low to skip-bomb a ship trying to escape.) Various views of the high hills at the waterfront. View from B-25 strafing Japanese aircraft on the ground at Dagua and Boram airfields. several B-25s in formation headed home. (World War II period).
'The Big Picture' episode narrated by Ronald Reagan depicts the life of U.S. General George S Patton, Jr. Opening scene shows General George S. Patton, Jr. stepping from a landing craft in France, during World War 2. He stands by the side of a road and waves, as elements of his 3rd Army pass in tanks. Patton in a jeep moving with his troops. General Patton pointing with a baton, in North Africa. View of a world globe being circled by a satellite. A baby picture of Patton (called "Georgie"). Patton seen as a boy, fencing, as a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute, and as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. A smiling Patton at West Point. Members of the first football team for soldiers established by Patton. Renault tanks of the 1st Tank Battalion moving with AEF soldiers in World War I. Tank commander George Patton standing in front of a Renault tank. Group picture of American soldiers and tanks, at the Tank School, in Fort Meade, Maryland, after World War I. Closeup of Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton, in the group. Patton and his wife, Beatrice Banning Ayer, in Old West costumes, for a party, where he displays a pistol in his belt, and in costumes for another party, where they dress as a knight and his lady on horseback. American recruits and draftees being issued uniforms in World War 2. Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr. commanding forces for the invasion of North Africa, in November, 1942. U.S. Navy warships fire their guns in advance of an amphibious landing. Landing craft heading toward shore. U.S. troops coming ashore at Casablanca, French Morocco. General Patton accompanied by French officers. Glimpse of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at their conference in Casablanca in 1943. Patton riding in an armored car with three-star flag displayed. Artillery firing in battle of Tunisia. Lt. Gen. Patton and others observing operations. British General, Sir Harold Alexander, steps from a light airplane to meet with General Patton in North Africa. They converse. General Patton in March 1943 with binoculars observing battle, with Major General Terry Allen on his right, and Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. to the right of Allen. They are viewing from a ridge by the village of El Guettar, as allies engage German troops and armor from the 10th Panzer Division. M3 Lee tanks moving in the desert. Knocked out tanks of the German 10th Panzer Division, including German Panzer IV tanks, in the aftermath of the Battle of El Guettar. General Patton coming aboard an American warship, and then standing with an Italian officer and a U.S. Major General. Allied naval bombardment at night. Patton observing though binoculars. Allied warships bombarding Sicily. Allied amphibious forces heading ashore in landing craft. Troops moving ashore. Closeup of troops in a landing craft. Glimpse of Patton in a landing craft. Troops walking across floating dock from a landing ship. U.S. flag flying in sand at beachhead. Landing ships in background. General Patton stepping ashore from small boat, and conversing onshore with a Brigadier General and some troops.
Interior of B-24 aircraft. Muzzle of .50 caliber gun. Waist gun window and gun sight. B-24 aircraft flying. View of B24D "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in flight (SN 41-11913 of the 98th Bombardment Group, the B-24 Liberator unit nicknamed the "Pyramidiers". This aircraft went down May 1, 1943 after flying into another aircraft in a cloud). Front part of B-24 over muzzle of .50 cal gun. Aerial views of B-24s flying. B-24 named "The Witch" seen (SN 41-11840 of the 98th BG "Pyramiders". This aircraft was lost August 1, 1943 in Operation Tidal Wave raid of Ploiesti Romania oil refineries). Artwork on both of the above "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "The Witch" was painted by Amos Nicholson. Clip closes with echelon of three B-24s seen. Footage shot during return to base following bombing mission over Naples and Messina, Italy. (World War II period).
Film outlines process of U.S. military and War Department to estimate the German military manpower losses from 1939-1943 during World War II. Scenes of German military forces in battle. German tank on the battlefront smashes down a tree and German soldiers follow, running behind it. Dead bodies of soldiers lay on the battlefield. Airplane falling from sky to ground after being hit. German Soldiers fire rifles during battle. German soldiers carry wounded on litters and German medical staff treat the wounded soldiers. A wounded soldier on a hospital bed. Nurse leans over hospital bed and talks to a wounded soldier. A study made to find out the number of soldiers returning to their jobs after being injured. A man reads a magazine which reads: 'Estimate of non battle causalities'. German soldiers march through Arc de Triomphe in Paris during occupation of Paris by Nazi Germany. Headline of a newspaper reads: 'Germans silent on Russian gain'. Brief scene of Soviet leader Stalin speaking at a microphone. Cavalry soldiers, likely Soviet, crossing a battlefield. Scenes of World War I German troops being reviewed by officers. Civilian or OSS men lean over a German map and discuss among themselves. They study the map. Scene of men and women at a German news stand buying German newspapers in order to obtain obituary information. OSS personnel translate casualty reports from German newspapers to help estimate deaths of German soldiers and determine force strength. An operations room with American staff analyzing German newspapers. View of a Boeing 314 Clipper Flying Boat aicraft taking off from water. The reports from World War I and II, allied forces, chart, graphs and NARS computers used to estimate German Army's manpower loss. African American women workers operate keypunch machines recording battle casualty statistics which yield punch cards for further data analysis. Punch cards being created and being loaded in sorting and reading machines bearing brand "International" (for International Business Machines or IBM). A document entitled "analysis of obituaries." Man in an office studying a map and a document. A woman helps him as she enters numbers into a Remington Rand adding machine. They estimate the officers killed in war and the number of the killed enlisted men, in order to estimate the total battle loss. They compare the data of soldiers missing, killed, wounded, and unfit for duty from 1939 to 1943.
Undersecretary of War, Robert Porter Patterson, Sr. speaks about a report from the General staff outlining the needs for combating Germany and Japan in World War 2. He cites Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, as an example of what will be needed. He continues to narrate in the background as an animated map appears showing the buildup of supplies and Allied forces in North Africa; Allied air forces flying 60 thousand sorties over Sicily and, the direct amphibious assault using 3,200 vessels. Map also depicts opposing forces of 12 (“unwilling”) Italian Divisions and 3-1/2 German Divisions. View of Allied troops carrying some of their 31 thousand casualties on stretchers from field ambulances. Allied medics attending to the wounded. Some are seen lying on stretchers in a row on the ground near a wall. Interior of a field hospital where surgeons and other medical personnel treat the wounded. Animated map shifts to Europe with Germany at its center, showing , in contrast to Sicily that was only an “outpost,”, the heavily fortified perimeter of Axis controlled areas; the axis industrial might; and the disposition of 300 German Divisions (mostly on the Eastern front) defending the region. Next, the map illustrates Japan’s defended regions in the Pacific Image returns to Undersecretary Patterson i n his office, speaking of the Allied offensives planned for next year (1944), and emphasizing their challenge and difficulty. Scene shifts to General Jonathan Wainwright and his garrison at Corregidor, in the Philippines, surrendering to Japanese forces in 1941. Japanese military camera pans over the Americans being taken prisoner. Other Americans and Filipinos are seen being marched together under guard. Scene shifts to classic views of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. View of Japanese soldiers executing two Chinese civilians in 1937. Dangling bodies of persons hung by Nazis during Operation Barbarossa in Russia, in 1941 A Russian soldier comforts a little girl as he escorts her across a snowy landscape. Time bomb left by German forces retreating from Naples, Italy, in 1943, blows up a Post office building . Views of damage to building and bodies of victims. American Military Police assisting a victim. American soldiers carrying an injured civilian on a litter. Scene shifts to British Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, and U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, entering a hall in the Spiridonovka Palace, during the 1943 Moscow Conference in Russia. Close-up of the American, Soviet, and British flags on a table. View of many delegates seated around the table. Close-up of Molotov, Eden, and Hull signing conference document.
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