Rail guns firing in World War 1. U.S. troops charging out of trenches. Allied gunners firing "French 75s" Allied twin-tailed biplane bombers. French Renault F17 tanks. Crowds in cities celebrate Armistice Day and end of World War I. Treaty of Versailles. Destruction of warships. Scenes of Paris. A pagoda in Japan. Temples in Siam, China, and Manchuria. Two Kayan women in Myanmar or Thailand perform a dance. Both Kayan women wear long brass coil neck rings. In the U.S., a boy hits a baseball and runs toward first base. Scenes of Japan invading Manchuria. Newspaper with headline: Henry Stimson denouncing Japan. U.S. Army troops dispel World War I veteran bonus marchers. Men lined up in bread line for unemployed during Great Depression. Brief shot of Gangsters in gun battle in an American city. Scenes of dust bowl in American with farmers and families heading West in caravans. Family standing by tent. Torchlight parade in Germany. Adolf Hitler standing with German President Hindenburg circa 1933. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Victor Lutze, at 1934 Nazi Rally in Nuremberg. Italian Caproni bombers over Ethiopia. Ethiopian tribesmen and Haile Selassie. U.S.Neutrality Act. American youths with a 1930 Ford coupe. Scenes from Civil war in Spain. Spanish Rebel forces in ground combat with Nationalist forces. German and Italian aircraft participate in bombing Spanish Nationalist targets in Spanish Civil War. Spanish civilians flee bombing, tend to wounded and dead victims following bombings. Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.M.79 Sparviero bombers. Crowds running for shelter. Women and children victims of bombing, some crying and in shock. Spanish General Francisco Franco arrives by train in southern France to meet with Hitler. View of Gallup Poll forms, and findings, with Americans against entering European war and preferring neutrality. Japanese planes and warships attack China. Naval Chinese civilians run for cover; bodies of Chinese in trucks. Japanese freighters, Buenos Aires and Tatsuno Maru, in U.S. ports being loaded with scrap iron and metals. Hitler, Goering and other officers in 1938. Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier, Benito Mussolini, Count Ciano sign Munich Agreement. Hitler riding standing up in an open car during a rally in Germany. Elevated view of Los Angeles, then view of traffic on streets of Los Angeles California and newspapers being sold to pedestrians. View of faces of American citizens in a movie theater watching Confessions of a Nazi Spy. German-American Bund activities including outdoor rallies in the U.S. (Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, Long Island, New York, in 1937), and an indoor rally in New York City at Madison Square Garden in 1939. Emperor Hirohito reviewing World War 2 troops of Japan. Japanese steel production and arms production in Japanese factories. The Hokoku Maru Japanese ship being launched with fanfare from Tama Shipyards on July 5, 1939. Meeting of United States Military Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in late 1939 to consider national defense matters. In meeting of Naval Affairs Committee, representative asks for increase of 25 percent in authorized naval tonnage.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt at Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC for the Navy Day Dinner. President delivers his address. People seated at tables. The President on the podium. Cameramen recording the event. The President talks about the state of emergency, U.S. Naval contribution to the country's defense. He mentions Hitler's attack on U.S. destroyers, killing of American soldiers, and Hitler's purpose. He discusses Hitler's plan to invade and divide South America. He voices his decision to stop Hitler and his people. He talks about America's defense and the Navy's contribution to the same. The crowd applauds. The President leaves the podium. Note: The President prefaces his remarks by acknowledging the presence of General William Donovan, who shares the stage with him. Donovan headed the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), later renamed the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). (World War II period).
World War 2 invasion of Normandy, France. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Marshal Joseph Stalin, and Prime Minister Churchill, meeting at Tehran, Iran, in December 1943. U.S. Generals George Marshall and Hap Arnold, at conference table. Closeup of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Map showing defense areas of the German 7th, 15th and 19th Armies in Europe. Map showing ports at Brest, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Dieppe, and Calais. Cherbourg is highlighted. U.S. Army trucks, tanks, and artillery, stockpiled in England. Railroad train carrying M3 Stuart tanks. U.S soldiers leaving troop ships and marching to their camps in Britain. Allied troops practicing amphibious assaults on Southern coast of England. Formation of B-26 bombers. View from Allied aircraft flying low over German-occupied area. B-17 aircraft dropping bombs over Germany. Bombs away view seen as bombs drop toward enemy targets. German fighter planes attacking B-17 bombers beginning in February 1944. Gunner in turret of B-17 firing at them. Dogfight views with German fighter aircraft. A B-17 exploding in the air. German fighter downed by B-17 gunner. Gun camera footage of German Bf 109 attacked from rear by gunfire. Just as it is hit it releases its drop tank. American soldiers in trucks, DUKWs, M4 tanks, and M8 armored Cars. Troops receive gas masks, waist life belts, field rations, and French money. May 30, 1944, American soldiers board tanks, trucks and other vehicles bound for embarkation points in England. Seen are Stuart M3 light tanks, jeeps, and M7 Priest tanks. M7 tanks are seen, equipped with intake and exhaust ducts. (At TC:11:39, U.S. M7 Priest tanks, equipped for deep wading, are seen passing the base of the Jubilee clock on the beachfront at Weymouth, on their way toward Castle Town in Portland for embarkation.) Transport ships are loaded at the embarkation ports. Trucks being backed onto LCT-453. U.S. Army infantry marching and boarding transport ships. Troops marching into LST 376 at Plymouth, England. Higgins Boats, from the USS Samuel Chase (APA-26) bringing troops to board her. Troops on deck of Attack transport, USS Joseph T. Dickman (APA-13). Barrage balloons overhead. Soldiers shooting craps on a troop ship deck. Coastguardsmen playing with a puppy dog. Gun crews on U.S. Navy warship being briefed. Soldiers field-strip and check their weapons.
Crash of Gee Bee Z Super Sportster airplane at the Wayne County airport in Detroit, Michigan, on Dec. 5th 1931, during attempt to break the world landplane speed record. Ground crew and one of the Granville brothers, who built the airplane, roll the Gee Bee out of a hangar. The aircraft displays tail number NR 77Y and has large numeral 4 painted on fuselage. City of Springfield is painted on front of the airplane. Pilot, Lowell Bayles, climbs into the cockpit and starts the engine. Crew chief places canopy over the pilot's cockpit. The aircraft takes off with modest rate of climb and makes slow banking turn to the left. Camera next shows the Gee Bee descending rapidly as Bayles dives the race plane at high speed into the officially timed sea level course. Camera captures view of wing breaking off and aircraft rolling and crashing in flames. Witnesses rush to the crash site and emergency equipment responds. Views of smoldering wreckage. (According to some sources, the accident began when the gas cap loosened in the slipstream and blew through the pilots canopy hitting pilot Bayles in the face, either stunning or killing him.) His reaction on the controls pitches the plane up sharply causing a catastrophic structural failure of the right wing. The plane then snap rolled into the ground and explodes into a blaze alongside railroad tracks bordering the airport. Bayles' body was thrown 300 ft. as the huge radial engine broke loose and was hurled hundreds more feet. (Recent experiments with a reproduction of the aircraft also indicate that wing flutter would develop at speeds above 240 mph on the Gee Bee Z Super Sportster.) Part of the building shown at 1:52 still exists today in the far northeast corner of the airport near all the rental car companies. The railroad tracks still exist as well. The plane appears to start to break apart over what is now the intersection of Middlebelt & Wick Roads (1/4 mile south of I-94) in Romulus, MI.
A United States Naval training film about the Battle of Coral sea. Commander moves forces to South. Troops move in field. Position of support forces around Tulagi. Japanese understand Allied strategic plan.
Volcanic eruption and creation of island of Japan. Glimpse of map of Japan. Gardens and rivers. Two men demonstrate samurai sword techniques. Japanese soldiers advance through smoke carrying rising sun flag. Chinese suffering under Japanese military occupation. Two executed with rifles. Japanese soldiers waving weapons and red ball flags. A DC-3 aircraft flying over a Japanese Pagoda. Vies of Old Japan. Farmers at work. One manually turning a water pump with his feet. A man using a pole to propel a boat. Modern methods adopted in Japan for terraced farming. Japanese building railroads. Japanese modern locomotive on South Manchurian Railway. in 1934. A Japanese twin engine bomber taking off. The Japanese ocean liner, Asama Maru, in the 1930s. Glimpse of numerous ships in Tokyo harbor. Western style architecture in modern Tokyo buildings. Neon lights on the Grand Palace Hotel and other establishments in Tokyo. Industrial smoke stacks. Women at work in a silk factory. Finished product stamped "Made in Japan."Steel ingots being made in a Japanese steel mill using scrap iron imported from the U.S.A. Chinese victims of 2nd Sino-Japanese War. Japanese troops on parade. Dead American Marines on shore of Tarawa Atoll in the Pacific in World War 2, killed in battle. Japanese high ranking officers reviewing troops on parade. Japanese warships underway. Troops parading beneath the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. American B-25 bombers on flight deck of the USS Hornet, headed to bomb Tokyo.A crew of Doolittle's Raiders standing by their plane. B-25 taking off from the Hornet. Formation of B-25s in flight. View from bomber of smoke rising from bombing of Tokyo below. Brigadier General Jimmie Doolittle pledging to repeat bombing of Tokyo. Supply train entering a Boeing Company defense plant. United States war production workers being scrutinized as they enter the facility and punching in at a time clock. Poster in the plant picturing a B-29 bomber aircraft on a message in German describing it as an instrument for a "Destruction Battle against the Luftwaffe." Bold letters, above, in English read: "They're Promised-Let's Deliver 'em!" And, below, the words: "B-29, Super Bombers." Slabs of aluminum sheets fill a factory room. Overhead traveling cranes move them. Workers in airplane manufacturing and assembly plant use heat and brakes to shape the aluminum sheets. Multiple views of the aluminum being machined and stamped to specifications. Wings being fabricated. Relatively unskilled labor using jigs to perform the work. Woman war worker operating an overhead crane moving a wing in the plant. Views of plane parts moving across the ceiling via cranes. Women workers driving rivets into wings. Men and women employees working inside fuel fuel compartments of wings. A floor full of engine nacelles. A floor full of 2200 HP radial engines. A skeleton nose section being fabricated. Midsections and bomb bays being assembled. Workers crawling through the airframe during aircraft assembly. A woman working on a connecting tunnel. Sub-assemblies made by contractors arriving at the plant. More views of Boeing employees including young, old, men, and women, at work in the plant.