On Christmas Eve, 1943,during World War 2, the Chinese 38th and 22nd Divisions are seen marching along a road toward North Burma. A regiment of Merrill's Marauders is seen joining the march from India through Burma. (Narrator says they will engage the Japanese 18th Division.) Along the line of march a road sign reads,"Shinbwiyang, Mile 110." Numerous views of troops struggling through jungles and natural obstacles. They employ pack animals that sometimes had difficulty in rough terrain. Animated map shows the route from Ledo, Assam, India, to the places of Chinese and American engagement with Japanese forces, in the Hukawng Valley. U.S. troops are seen moving under fire from Japanese enemy during active combat and returning fire with rifles, Browning M 1917, and M 1919 machine guns. Some of Merrill's Marauders wear standard M1 steel combat helmets, while others wear older M1917A1 "Kelly" helmets. One is seen firing a Bren gun with top-mounted curved box magazine. Others fire mortars. Chinese troops seen firing small artillery pieces. M3A3 Stuart light tanks of the joint Chinese-American 1st Provisional Tank Group (1st PTG) are seen with infantry walking behind them. Next, Allied casualties on litters are seen being placed in an ambulance. Numerous wounded are seen on the ground. Chinese troops carry a wounded on a litter. Views of Japanese soldiers being burned out of their hiding places by Chinese troops. Numerous views of dead Japanese soldiers. Scene shifts to air support by U.S. Army Air transport command providing aerial resupply from C-47 transport aircraft. C-47 aircraft seen flying over jungles. Monitors at a headquarters location are seen charting the changing positions of the Allied troops on the ground. View in a warehouse where air drop ready supplies are stored. Numerous views of supplies of all kinds being readied for air drop, including mail for the troops. Shipments being loaded aboard a transport airplane. C-47 airplane taxiing out after loading. Troops on the ground in radio contact with a transport plane. A long sequence ensues showing aerial resupply air drops from C-47 transport planes. After that, medical personnel are seen on the ground providing care to seriously wounded under difficult circumstances. Closeup of a surgeon tending to a patient. Many wounded seen on the ground awaiting attention and others in tents. A wounded on litters are transferred from an ambulance to an airplane. A woman nurse with other medics transferring patients. View inside an airplane set up for air evacuation. A nurse gives a wounded patient some water to drink. At a location unreachable by larger transport airplanes, a wounded soldier is placed aboard a single engine Stinson L-5 Sentinel liaison airplane which is then seen taking off and flying away. Animated map shows progress of Chinese troops on the Ledo road.
Opening scene shows a large transport ship at a dock in Calcutta, India, during World War 2. It is surrounded by cranes unloading it. In the foreground, numerous sections of pipe are piled up on the dock. Closeup of group of pipe sections being lifted by crane from the ship's hold. Some individual pipes are seen moved by groups of Indian workers carrying them over their heads. Other Indian workers roll pipe sections onto barges that are seen clustered together near a steel bridge. A convoy of trucks is seen carrying the pipe sections along the Ledo road. Some bundles of pipe sections are carried on jeeps. View of an Army Air Forces C-47 transport plane taking off. Sections of pipe being offloaded from a C-47 plane. Numerous pipe sections in organized stacks near the airfield. Sections of pipe being fastened together. Engineers re-condition the road bed using construction equipment. Long connected pipe lines being pulled through water. Caterpillar tractors working on a muddy section of the road. Workers installing pipe near graves of workers who died from disease and other causes. Workers sending a bundle of pipe segments across a river by means of a Zip line. A worker's camp of tents in the background. Workers dressed in rain gear and boots carrying a pipe section through water during the Monsoon. Workers using machetes to chop their way through jungles. An open utility train moving Chinese troops along a single-track rail line, passes pipeline workers standing aside. Engineers and other pipeline workers distributing pipe sections along the rail line from railroad flatcars. Trucks driving the road, in Burma. Various views of the pipeline in including one showing lines of pipe forming a suspension bridge across a river. Other scenes show the pipeline crossing ravines, submerged under rivers, climbing vertical cliffs. Aerial views of the pipeline from low flying aircraft. A vehicle marshaling yard filled with army vehicles. M3A3 Stuart light tank moving past a yard filled with them. Army trucks moving out of their parking yard. Aerial view of large airfield with many parked Air Transport Command C-47 airplanes. B-29 bombers being refueled at an airfield. One is seen taking off. Lieutenant General Daniel Isom Sultan, Commander India-Burma theater, comments that the pipeline is a lifeline to our beleaguered ally and that the Chinese are in on this. Views of Chinese soldiers engaged against Japanese forces. They fire artillery pieces and heavy machine guns. British soldiers carrying Bren guns and struggling to move artillery pieces in the mud. They are seen firing artillery from under camouflage canopies and firing Vickers machine guns. Aerial view of the British controlled port in Calcutta, India, where war materiel is seen being unloaded. Tanks being transported on an Indian railroad. War supplies moving on a barge line and on roads. View of a British airfield in India. North Burma Chinese troops with their weapons and army vehicles. U.S. troops advancing on roads in the jungles. Chinese Marshal Chiang Kai-shek with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Cairo Conference of November 22–26, 1943. General Sultan concludes the film by reassuring American soldiers that they are in the China-Burma-India theater in the common allied effort to fight against Japan.
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA) an Investigating Committee of the United States House of Representatives, questions Hollywood personalities about communist influence. Journalist Howard Rushmore is asked questions. He is asked about Gerhart Eisler and whether he was "Jerome's "boss, and whether Eisler was a Communist. Witness answers that he is one of the major ones and that he is a representative of communist international in the United States. He mentions giving certain communists favorable press. Member of committee calls such communists 'Sacred Cows', witness call them 'Sacred Red Cows'. He takes name of Edward G Robinson and states that Jerome had instructed him to always defend Robinson, even if he gave a poor performance in a bad picture. . He talks to the committee about meeting of American committee, for the protection of foreign born, in Cleveland. Attorney General Biddle labeled it as a communist front in 1943. The committee asks him about League of American Writers and whether it is a Communist organization. Journalist also takes names of Earl Browder and Mike Gold, a writer for the Daily Worker newspaper.
View of traffic on approach to the Old Howrah floating pontoon bridge, across the Hoogly River, on the Calcutta side. Men work and carry luggage on bullock-carts. Building on the East bank of river Hoogly, used by the public for changing when they come to bathe. Men walk. Houses along the sides of a street. People walk on the street. Man buys articles from a street vendor. (Note: The Old Howrah pontoon floating bridge was used until the cantilever bridge, begun in 1937, was opened for traffic in 1943.)
A British guest on labor exchange program visit to the U.S. during World War 2. He leaves the home of his counterpart American host in Los Angeles, California. They leave in the American's car and drive a considerable distance to the Lockheed Aircraft Company facility. View of Honor Roll listing 15, 174 Lockheed affiliated members of the U.S. Armed Forces. The British-American pair walk past a Lockheed Ventura airplane under construction. View of a room filled with P-38 Lightning fighter planes completing final construction, outside the plant. A film clip of the maiden flight of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft (Later designated C-121 by the Army Air Corps) is inserted at this point. It shows the Constellation taking off from the factory airstrip in 1943, and climbing without raising its landing gear. View of aircraft fuselage under construction, where the British worker is inquiring about the manner of its assembly. Next he is seen observing a turntable press operation being run by men and women workers. View of workers using pneumatic hand tools to remove wrinkles from edges of pressed products. A woman punch operator is seen with safety straps on her hands that pull them away each time the punch comes down. Another woman worker demonstrates an electric spot welder. (The observing visitors are required to wear safety goggles in case sparks are created by the process.) Closeup of the aircraft part being spot welded. More workers operating similar machines in the plant, including an African American man and woman. Workers placing a large sheet of aluminum into a machine that fabricates wings for the P-38 fighter plane. Closeup of the British worker and his American counterpart on a balcony overlooking the production line for the Lightning aircraft. View across the production line floor. The two look into the factory first aid station available to workers and also see the transportation section where worker carpools can be formed. Employees are seen obtaining ration books and driver licenses from government clerks working in the plant itself. Employees are seen eating outdoors under foliage camouflage and others gather at an indoor eating site. Next, a section of a B-17 flying fortress wing, is seen moving out of a manufacturing jig. New components are immediately placed into the empty jig for construction. View of final installation area for B-17s, An overhead crane moves a finished wing, including engines, to be mated with its fuselage. Glimpse of numerous B-17s being assembled. A finished B-17 bomber being towed out of the factory.
Audio only. Nazi war leaders on trial in Nuremberg Germany. Coverage on how the charges will be grouped. The speaker focuses on three major issues: international situations and aspirations for expansion of Germany between 1943-1945; conquering of Austria and Czechoslovakia, and improvement of military and political positions.