Mary Churchill, daughter of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, visits the United States. Mary Churchill visits a WAC (Women's Army Corps) camp in World War 2. Mary Churchill steps out of a building wearing uniform. She speaks to WAC personnel. She inspects an all-women lifeguard unit. Lifeguard unit demonstrate lifesaving. Mary Churchill sits on a lifeguard chair and puts on sunglasses.
Sequence begins with views of German He-111 bombers in formation,during World War 2. Scene shifts to Squad of U.S. Army antiaircraft artillerymen surrounding a Sperry Gyroscope M7 director system control unit, in a sand-bagged position, as the soldiers train in the United States. View of a single He-111 is inserted. Battery of U.S. 90mm antiaircraft guns is seen firing under guidance of M7 director system. Scene shifts to a German Me-110 aircraft maneuvering evasively through flak bursts from antiaircraft guns, somewhere in Europe, during World War 2. Scene shifts again, back to Narrator describing operator actions in using M7 artillery control unit, as it is shown in images.
U.S. troops board a large troop transport ship via a gangplank. Troops on an intermediate deck of the ship. Some are sprawled out relaxing. View from above of more troops boarding a ship. Men and equipment on the pier below. American forces at various far flung places where the U.S. Army Services Forces facilitated their transport and logistic support. Fleeting glimpses of troops in: Ireland; Alaska; Trinidad; and South America. Troops jam the upper deck of a transport ship. Army Service Forces officers in a planning meeting. Naval officers on deck of a ship look through binoculars as U.S. Naval ships bombard the coast of Solomon Islands and landing craft carry marines in an amphibious assault. Next, a man is seen annotating a map of North Africa. Secret maps pertaining to Allied landings in Tunisia and Algeria. Animated map illustrates amphibious landings on North African coast, highlighting Casablanca, Oran, and Algeria. Landing craft carry troops and supplies that are piled up in the sand beach. Soldiers moving military supplies ashore, in fire brigade fashion. Soldiers working at desks in Offices of the Army Service Forces. Filing cabinet in background. Trucks on the move in remote locations. Supply ship being loaded at a terminal. Fuel drums and army vehicles a being loaded aboard ships. Officers seated at a conference table. Ordinary American enlisted soldiers in a griping session at an Army post in the United States. Camera pans over large formation of soldiers. Animated chart shows more than half of servicemen who are part of Army Service Forces (ASF), are unaware of that. Troops marching in review at a tropical location, where reviewing officers wear pith helmets. Chart illustrates lack of unit pride in ASF. Images of various ASF logos. Chart shows results of polling data from soldiers and service members. Signal Corps and Engineers elements of ASF have the greatest unit pride. But most think better of other branches of the Army. More troops marching, in steel helmets and carrying rifles with bayonets affixed. Troops marching overlaid by "50%" indicating that half don't believe their contributions to the war effort are significant. Troops lined up (for pay?). More charts expressing concern about low morale. A heavy gun firing. German paratroopers jumping from a formation of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft. Charts expressing prevailing U.S. troops view that Germany wouldn't be too hard to defeat. Chart showing lack of understanding about why the U.S. is fighting Germany. Image of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill seated in front of their key military officers at Casablanca Conference in World War 2. Chart shows U.S. soldiers believe that the greatest war effort is expended by the U.S. followed by Russia, with China and Britain providing little. Chart illustrates that only half U.S. troops want to get overseas and fight. Chart shows U.S. War Department films can correct this problem.
Flood relief operations of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Pennsylvania during the Great Depression. Flood relief operations by WPA and flood devastation becomes headlines of newspapers. Flood-damaged goods being shoveled out of stores in Sharpsburg. Debris and mud being cleaned from streets and dumped in the Allegheny River. Safety instructions being pasted on telephone poles in McKees Rocks. Water being distributed by tanker trucks to people who need fresh water. People standing in queue to receive water. Salvation Army units dispense food and hot drinks to WPA workers and to lines of affected homeless and unemployed citizens. Interrupted highway and roads due to flood water. Flood-battered furniture being removed from homes in the New Kensington area.
Army Air Forces records describe this as flight tests conducted at Wright Field on a Japanese Mitsubishi Type 0 MK2-SSF Hamp fighter plane, Army Air Forces (AAF) No. EB-201. (Recognized later, as a variant of the Zero, these Mitsubishi A6M3 Type 32 planes were renamed "Zeke 32.") Flight tests were made from January 9th to March 10th, 1944, to compare this aircraft with AAF fighters and to verify tests made in Australia by the Special Duties and Performance Flight of T.S.-7, Directorate of Technical Services, Melbourne. Test pilot in the cockpit with engine running. Closeup of pilot (possibly Captain Ralph C. Hoewing, who became first Commandant of the AAF Test Pilot School). He takes off from the airfield. and is seen in flight. Various aerial views of the Zero are seen including: flying overhead and from above as it flies over Ohio farmland. The pilot enters a shallow climb; and is seen from above and behind. He performs a slow descending roll. Finally, he buzzes the airfield at low altitude and high speed, and then brings the aircraft in for a smooth landing. (Note: This aircraft was rebuilt by the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit in Hangar 7 at Eagle Farm Airfield, Brisbane, Australia, from the wrecks of five Mitsubishi A6M3 Type 32 Zeke's captured at Buna, New Guinea, during the war.) [ Ref. WWW. hangar7.org.au ]
Troops coming home to America at the end of World War 2. An Army Sergeant just returned from Europe, at the end of World War 2, stands on a pier, beside the troop ship USS General J. C. Breckinridge (AP-176). With him is a woman who wearing a jacket emblazoned with many emblems of U.S. military units. The sergeant places the insignia of the 10th Armored Division on her back. They hug and laugh. Scene shifts completely to 9th Armored Division soldiers at Camp Patrick Henry, Newport News, Virginia, holding the large sign originally placed on the Ludendorff bridge in Germany, by C Company of the 9th Armored Engineer Battalion during the war. It reads:"Cross the Rhine with dry feet, courtesy of 9th Arm'd Div." The soldiers carry the sign past a wooden building at the camp. Change of scene shows Ninth Armored Division troops arriving by train at Camp Patrick Henry. They march in loose order on train platform, with troop transport railroad train pulled into station. The happy soldiers march through a Victory Arch bearing words, "Welcome Home" at an entrance to the camp. More views of the troops marching into Camp Patrick Henry, where the 9th Division is to be deactivated. In the camp grounds, Sergeant reaches into his dufflebag and takes out a small puppy. ( Note: Vehicles: seen in this clip include: MB GPW, and CCKW)
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