U.S. Army Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb Hamburg, Germany during World War II. View of Heligoland island and its coastline. The B-17s in flight. Aerial views of target island. On Hamburg: Thick smoke rises from burning oil storage tanks and a refinery on fire. Coastal installations on islands. Smoke and fire from a coastal oil depot.
Views of U.S. Navy pilots, their aircraft, and aftermath of Japanese bombing of Midway Island, in World War 2. Opening scene shows a formation of U.S. Navy Douglas Dauntless aircraft in flight. A U.S. Navy pilot climbs from the cockpit of an F4f Hellcat airplane on the deck of an aircraft carrier. His aircraft displays symbols for two Japanese aircraft downed. Another pilot in cockpit of his airplane that displays symbols for 7 downed Japanese aircraft. He climbs from his cockpit. Other pilots climbing out of their aircraft. One displays symbols for 6 kills. Three of them pose in front of an airplane. Scene shifts to Midway Island where a hangar is still burning from Japanese bombing. Glimpse of Gooney birds. Sentries stand on the airfield, with black smoke rising in the background. Closeup of wing from a downed Japanese airplane. Marines look through tangled pieces of crashed airplanes. One leans on a bent propeller blade. Heavy black smoke from petroleum fire is seen in background. Scene shifts to a PBY Catalina flying boat in flight, searching for survivors of the Battle of Midway. A U.S. Navy aircraft is seen floating in the sea, as a Navy warship heads toward it. A survivor is seen being helped from a PBY aircraft. Earlier picture of him smoking a cigarette inside the PBY aircraft. Sailors help him to a waiting ambulance. Other rescued survivors are seen standing about. Sailors place a litter aboard a PBY and use it to transport another survivor to sick bay. (Narrator states this is the 13th survivor rescued by the pilot of this PBY Catalina.) Ambulatory survivors being covered with blankets as they sit in the back of an ambulance, that then drives away with back door still open. Views of destroyed hospital on Midway Island. Red cross markings on are shown in the debris.
Dramatization shows how one defective walkie-talkie can impair battle plans, United States. Troops battle on a Pacific Island in World War II. Soldiers move into action and fire artillery. Task Force team in manned radio operations room. Soldier talks on radio device from the island to headquarters. Soldiers move into building for counter attacks. Soldiers try to make contacts with headquarters. They fail to make contact as defective radio fails. Soldiers kneeling on island. Explosions and smoke rise. Shows Under-Sec. of War, Robert Porter Patterson; Chief of Services and supplies, Brehon Burke Somervell and Chief of signal officer, Olmstead in their offices. Walkie-talkies are rush-ordered for the invasion. Radios are being made in factory. American workers work on assembling of walkie-talkie instruments. A careless worker produces a defective set. Walkie-talkies are sold.
The first scene shows a man and a woman standing on a bluff overlooking the Niagara River at Niagara Falls. The entire area is covered by snow and ice, including large clumps of grass and twigs. Behind them is a battery of 36 high intensity lights aimed at the American Falls. ((In 1907, William D’Arcy Ryan of the General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York designed battery of lights to illuminate the Falls. Comprised of 36 lights, they had the strength of 1,093,815,000 candela and were mounted on the Ontario Power Company access road north of the Ontario Power Generating Station near the base of the gorge.) Below the bluff, the Canadian Ontario Power Generating Station can barely be seen because of heavy mist rising from Niagara Falls. The same man and woman are next seen by an access ramp on Luna Island, where the Niagara Bridal Falls is seen in the foreground. Camera moves to a higher vantage point showing three people on Goat Island with Bridal Falls immediately behind them and the American Falls beyond. Goat and Luna Island are completely snow-covered. Glimpse of a woman standing on the bluff shown at the film start. Views of the boat, "Maid of the Mist," ice-bound at the base of the falls.
The role and contribution of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War 2. A beach on the Philippine island of Mindanao. U.S. aircraft in flight over the coastline. Signal Officer Lieutenant Leon Tinnell works at the Signal Headquarters. He talks on the radio receiver. He radios a message to U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters reporting on movement of Japanese troops. U.S. aircraft take off for a mission against the Japanese troops. They drop bombs on Japanese ships. Smoke from fire due to the explosions. A U.S. submarine near a battleship at sea. U.S. Navy sailors aboard the ship and the submarine. Wounded and sick officers and soldiers including Lt. Tinnell are transferred from the submarine onto the ship. Soldiers carry a comrade on a stretcher. Landing crafts approach an island in the Philippines. General MacArthur and Allied troops land at Leyte Island on October 20, 1944. They leave the crafts off shore and wade through the water towards the beach. Signal Corps officers record the event as General MacArthur and the others make their way inland.
A-4E aircraft parked on flight deck of the USS Constellation (CVA-64). Plane captains walk along flight deck. A- 4Es parked in far background, framed by part of A-3B.Plane captain along port side of cockpit of A-4E. NK Tail code of Carrier Wing 14, seen on all aircraft. Green shirts stand looking up toward plane captain working on windshield of A-4E.Radar antennas rotating on the Island. A-4E parked on deck, tow-bar attached to nose wheel, water framed in background. Group of men, in left background, sunning themselves. A-4E parked on deck, island structure in left BG. Man standing alongside cockpit talking to plane captain seated in cockpit of A-4E. plane captain scrubbing down top inner section of starb'd wing. VA 55 Warhorses logo and USS Constellation painted on fuselage of plane. Man cleaning vertical stabilizer.View of ship's bridge. Men cleaning down vertical and horizontal stabilizers of A-4E. Man in far background cleaning port side of cockpit area as fourth man at right cleans starboard wing. Looking aft, from forward part of flight deck, island in left, shows empty flight deck and a lone yellow shirt seated on two wheel chocks.
CRITICALPAST.COM: About Us | Contact Us | FAQs - How to Order | License Agreement | My Account | My Lightboxes | Shopping Cart | Advanced Search | Featured Collections | Website Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy ©2026 CriticalPast LLC.
License Agreement |
Terms & Conditions |
Privacy Policy
©2026 CriticalPast LLC.