Battle of Palembang, Indonesia, in World War 2. Japanese Kawasaki Ki-56 transport aircraft flying overhead in formation, begin dropping paratroopers. The sky is filled with their chutes. Next scene shows many struggling to make their way through knee-deep swampy jungles, where they landed. Most of their arms and ammunition were lost in the swamps. They finally emerge to attack lightly defended facilities of the Dutch Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM) and Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij (NKPM),a refinery for the American Standard Oil Company. Japanese soldiers are seen after a day's battle with the defending contingent of Royal Netherlands East Indies Army home guard. A rear guard group of them and Dutch technicians, are made prisoners. Shell fired by departing Dutch forces strike oil storage tanks. Smoke rises in several places and one very heavy black smoke plume rises near the camera. Soon the area is a blazing inferno. The Japanese troops succeed in confining fires to the oil tanks, extinguish them, and save the cracking towers and other essential oil refinery structures. The Japanese flag is seen atop one. (Note: Two technicians seen in white, at TC: 02:05, are BPM workers. The one on the left is Christiaan Stapels. He died at a Japanese prisoner of war camp in June 1945.)
People gathered at the Lee theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey for a double anniversary celebration. The 50th year of New Jersey Borough and commemorating the country's first permanent motion picture studio. The Glenn Miller Story being shown at Lee theater. A banner put up for the event from May 23 to 29. Cameraman photographing turn of the century bathing models with a hand cranked camera. People watch the models. Mayor Louis F Botjer presents an anniversary plaque to a theater person. Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945 looks at the plaque. Cars on the road.
U.S. War Department film showing devastation from atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War 2. Opening scene is darkness of predawn in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on 16, July, 1945, at 5:29:45 AM. Suddenly, a huge explosion lights up the sky. A fireball and mushroom shaped cloud form. Closer view of the explosion from another camera. Following the initial explosion, the ensuing sound is a continuous roar. Another view is shown, from a third camera location. It highlights the boiling fire and smoke of the explosion. These scenes document the first successful test of a nuclear weapon, code named "Trinity". Change of scene shows glimpse of the Manhattan Project B Reactor site at Hanford, Washington, as viewed from a car driving past. Closeup of the facility, from right up against a boundary fence. Glimpses of other Manhattan Project facilities in New Mexico, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and another view of the Hanford, Washington facility. Next, a rough topographical map of Japan is shown. Closeup of elevated railroad train traveling in Hiroshima, Japan. Imperial Japanese Army motorized vehicles are shown on parade, including fully tracked open personnel carriers with soldiers aboard and Type 94 Tankettes being driven by individual soldiers. Japanese infantry marching in full field gear including shouldered rifles with fixed bayonets. Closeup of a Japanese Army officer. Glimpse of Japanese support troops, such as quartermaster elements, in black uniforms. Japanese technicians in white lab coats at a wartime facility. Japanese Navy Warships being launched from Hiroshima ship yards. A lone B-29 bomber seen in flight over clouds. Its tail number, 42-63735 is clearly seen. It displays a large "05" on it upper tail. (This is not the "Enola Gay" whose tail number was 44-86292.) Closeup of one of the aircraft's engines with propeller turning. Glimpse upward from interior of the aircraft. Scene shifts to aerial photograph of Hiroshima with overlay depicting the bomb strike zone. Animated map showing explosion and precise point ot detonation above the junction of the Motoyasu and Ota Rivers. A view at the ground of destruction from the atomic explosion. An American soldier stands in the midst of the destruction. Slabs of heavy concrete are destroyed. View looking East from ground zero, past a burned tree trunk in the foreground, where the shells of several stronger buildings still stand amidst a sea of rubble. To the South, hardly anything is left standing. Looking West, everything is essentially leveled.
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.
German rocket-boosted jet engine mounted on a dolly. Number 928 is painted on the engine. This is the BMW-003 A-1 jet engine with additional liquid-rocket motor type BMW 109-178, for boosting during take-off. ( First flight was on March 26,1945, during World War 2.)
A pro Betancourt rally in Venezuela. Crowds gathered with signage against Fidel Castro and in support of Romulo Betancourt. Betancourt addresses the crowds from a podium on a stage, outdoors. A man sitting looking at a radio tower. Images of radio control equipment and sign wave signatures on a scope. Scenes of protest and rioting in a Latin American or South American city. Police combating demonstrators. Vehicles overturned. Citizens running through the streets. Crowds being sprayed by fire hoses from moving fire trucks. Close up views of a newspaper "La Prensa" indicating Fidel Castro's support of the Communist party in Peru. Headline, "Fidel Castro Financia al partido comunista Peruano." An inside headline from the same paper reads, "La Embajada de Cuba Distribuye Propaganda Subversica en el Peru" indicating that an Ambassador from Cuba distributed anti-government, subversive propaganda en Peru. What follows are a series of images drawing parallels between Castro and other fascist historical leaders. Castro speaking forcefully, then a cut to historical excerpts from speeches by Hitler and Goebels in Germany during World War II. A scene with Hitler speaking and gesticulating wildly and forcefully, followed by a scene with Castro doing the same. A wooden sign with skull and crossbones and the words "HALT! STOJ!" on it. Prisoners in a German Nazi concentration camp, thin, weary, and huddled near a barb wire perimeter fence circa early 1945. Nikita Khrushchev on a review stand waving his hat to Soviet Army forces marching below him carrying guns with bayonets fixed. Chinese citizen-military forces (possibly early Red Guard) at a rally, with young women and young men raising rifles in the air . Soviet Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev shaking hands with Chinese leader Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China. A group of Chinese workers digging ditches, including men and women Chinese workers. Still image of Khrushchev and Castro embracing. An anti-communist rally in Cuba.
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