Brigadier General Billy Mitchell taxis in a Boeing Model 15 ( or a Curtis P-1Hawk) airplane, after landing at an airfield. . Battle ships underway at sea. Mitchell organizes 1st provisional Air Brigade for bombing demonstration against battleship target.. Crews and airplanes train and prepare at Langley Field, Virginia. Soldiers load bombs under plane wings. Planes take off to bomb the obsolete U.S. battleship USS Alabama. View from airplane in flight as it drops phosphorus bomb on the Alabama. View from water as bomb strikes with huge explosion. Armorers prepare heavier bombs for the next demonstration. Planes take off and bomb the USS Alabama again. General Mitchell crouched down beside a bomb loaded on an airplane for new tests in 1923. General Pershing, Admiral Shoemaker, Assistant Secretary of War, Davis, and General Patrick on deck of the Ship, USS St. Mihiel (AP-32) to observe the tests. Views of planes dropping bombs on Battleship USS Virginia and the ship rolling over and sinking. Large formations of 1920s era Air Service aircraft in flight.
Opening scene shows U.S. Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, demonstrating, on a scale model, how prefabricated parts are assembled into a Liberty Ship, in World war 2. Closeup shows each section of ship labeled by number and name, such as, “Transverse Bulkhead, number 44.” Scene shifts to Permanente Metals Corporation No. 2 shipyard in Richmond, California, where Liberty ships are seen in various stages of construction. Views of keels being laid, superstructures being raised into position, View from interior as skeleton of a ship is being completed. Sign atop the Liberty Ship, Robert E. Peary, as it is being launched, announces that it was completed from keel laying, to launch, in 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes. (This was a record for shortest time.) Camera view of the Robert E. Peary, from across the yard area where she was built. A brief view of shipyard activity at night, followed by camera panning over shipyard in daytime. Change of scene to an aircraft factory where B-17 bomber aircraft are being built. Women are seen riveting inside a plane’s fuselage. Other women work on a vertical stabilizer and still others work inside airplane structural members Men assemble an aircraft engine. Women fasten parts of engines together. Engines move through the plant on overhead cranes. An engine and propeller being placed into position on a wing with use of a crane. A right wing with two engines installed is moved into position for installation on a B-17 aircraft. Scene shifts to other aircraft factories building Martin Marauder B-26 aircraft; P-47 fighter aircraft;Navy Catalina aircraft; Douglas A-20 fighter bomber aircraft; and more B-17 bomber aircraft.
Exhibition organized by the Council of Industrial Design held in Sheffield England. Large sign across the building, "Sheffield On Its Mettle Exhibition, November 15 - November 27". The exhibition hall is the 'Cutlers Hall' (still in the city centre of Sheffield). Men carry oversized samples of cutlery in exhibition hall (huge knife, fork, and scissors). People viewing the exhibition. Pen-knives and Multiple-bladed knife. A giant pen-knife with all of its tools opened on display. Man operating giant scissors beside a woman viewing the exhibition.
Activities aboard USS Randolph (CV-15). Ordnance man works on torpedo attached to side of SH-3A helicopter. Ordnance man secures depth bomb to helicopter. Tow tractor moves over flight deck next to island. Another tractor comes from left towing an S2F (aka ""Stoof" by sailors). This plane is from squadron VS-27. Side view of the aircraft with name 'USS Randolph' on engine nacelle. Ship's island in the background. Tractor tows another S2F on flight deck. SH-3A helicopters in the background.
Aircraft S-2E in flight over sea. Signal flares burn on water in the mid background. S-2E flies low over water. S-2E pulls up and banks. Helicopter SH-3A in flight. S-2E circles around while several smoke flares burn on water. USS Randolph (CV-15) underway in water. Destroyer off the starboard side of USS Randolph. Plane makes landing approach on ship. Wave off over flight deck of ship.
The USS Randolph (CV-15) hit by a Japanese Yokosuka P1Y " Frances", twin-engine kamikaze bomber, on her starboard side,aft, just below the flight deck, as she was anchored at Ulithi, during World War 2. Flames appear in the dark aboard the carrier as firefighters work in the area under searchlights. Later scene shows crew members silhouetted against orange flames as they fight the fire. It appears to come under control, but several small explosions propel burning objects aloft, and flames continue to break out. (Note: 25 crew were killed and 106 wounded during this incident.)