A Japanese Kamikaze aircraft is spotted overhead. Next, on November 25, 1944, from a considerable distance, an explosion is seen and white smoke rising from the American aircraft carrier, USS Hancock (CV-19). Tracer bullets being fired as a Kamikaze plane dives. The U.S. Navy Aircraft carrier USS Intrepid is seen on fire and completely covered in dense black smoke. Sunset and darkness. Next, in daylight, an unidentified American warship fires its guns while underway. Aircraft Carrier, USS Intrepid (CV-11) is seen firing antiaircraft guns , making black flak cloud overhead. Suddenly black smoke rises from vicinity of her island from a Kamikase strike. It gradually clears as fire fighting operations progress aboard. Next, she is seen underway in the opposite direction.
17 February 1944, during World War 2, off the coast of Truk Island in the Pacific Ocean. U.S. aircraft from the USS Cowpens (CVL-25) attack the Japanese Sendai class light cruiser Naka. Scenes of the bombing attack on the Japanese cruiser. Explosions on and around the Naka, which turns to starboard in an evasive maneuver.
U.S. Destroyer ship, USS Drayton (DD-366) in camouflage paint, underway off Okinawa in World War II. Crew members crowd her decks as she sends a man,by high line transfer in large enclosed canvas sling, to nearby heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City (CA-25). View of the transfer from the cruiser. The Drayton moves away. A Vought OS2U Kingfisher scout plane lands in the slick of USS Salt Lake City and bounces about in rough water. View from the Salt Lake City of Japanese shells, from shore battery on Marcus Island, falling into the sea. Momentary view of Lieutenant Commander, Eddie Peabody and his troupe, entertaining sailors aboard the Salt Lake City in port at Ulithi, on Nov. 11, 1944.
Opening scene shows a Boeing B-24 Liberator bomber arriving at an airfield in the Caribbean during World War 2 . U.S. First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt steps from the aircraft, stopping here on one of her many trips. She strolls among U.S. servicemen and others. She is escorted by a General and reviews American Troops on parade at an army base. Scene shifts abruptly to the Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney in New South Wales Sydney Australia, where the Australian Destroyer, Bataan, is being Christened on 15 January 1944 by Jean MacArthur, the wife of General Douglas MacArthur. Dockyard workers drive wedges from beneath the destroyer's hull, to free her for launching. Mrs. MacArthur announces the name, Bataan, and swings a bottle of champaign to christen her. The ship proceeds down the ways. View from below of sailors on deck as she launches.
From a 1952 U.S. Army television program titled The Big Picture. U.S. troops in a fox hole in Korea. A U.S. tank carrying many GIs in Germany.US ski troops in Alaska. Amphibious training on beach in Puerto Rico. United States Army Sergeant James Mansfield introduces the story of United States Seventh Army in the Allied Invasion of Southern France, "Operation Dragoon." Army Colonel William Wilson Quinn seated in office, with army rifle on his desk. He refers to the "Blue Badge" which is the Army infantryman's badge. Then he introduces the story of the Seventh United States Army: On 14 August 1944 Bay of Naples is seen as an open air Marshalling area. Barrage balloons float above the area. Large landing ships sit at dock with their front loading doors open. 3rd,45th and 36th division combined into 7th United States Army. Mechanized war equipment being loaded and checked off the loading chart. 7th army soldiers march through streets. Red Cross workers distribute donuts. Soldiers board ships. Ships leave harbor to join convoy. Ships docked at the West Coast of Corsica. Officers meet for conference aboard ship. Men attend last minute details. Some pray. Animated map depicts the route of the advancement by the troops. Port Cros and Levant : French commandos landed on these islands. U.S. B-25 bombers in flight drop bombs. Fighting ships take their positions. Navigators, gunners and signal men alert. Soldiers prepare for fight. Army Air Forces C-47 aircraft fly in formation. A B-24 bomber over mountains. B-25s in flight.509th Parachute Infantry Battalion being inspected at airport. Paratroopers get into aircraft. Aircraft taxis and takes off. United States Army Air Force C-47 Skytrain and C-54 Skymaster military transport aircraft in flight toward Southern France. Paratroopers descend to ground and advance. Gliders land. Soldiers unload and ready artillery. Aerial view of rugged terrain. Ships underway at sea. Officers look through binoculars aboard ship.
Film opens with map of the world showing the various theaters of operation in World War II. Narrator refers to Allies liberating town after town, as they advance. View of American troops being welcomed in a European town during an advance (probably Italy in 1944). Next, African American troops are seen boarding troop transport ships. A huge convoy of ships is seen from the air. Huge piles of war materiel on a dock. Ammunition being delivered by landing craft from the transport ship USS Hunter Liggett (APA-14) to American troops at a beachhead in the Pacific. An African American sailors directs the lowering of a piece of artillery from a ship into a landing craft. Construction equipment being used to clear the way for a new landing field. Docks, roads, and bridges being built as the Allies advance. American troops in the swamps of the South Pacific. American Army engineers clearing trees to build the Alaska Highway (ALCAN Highway) in 1942. Corps of Engineers building the Ledo Road (from India to China) during the war. African American soldiers building a bridge across a river in Europe. A U.S. Army truck under fire, driving along a dirt road in Europe as shells burst all around it. U.S. troops firing various kinds of field artillery and tank guns. U.S. infantryman using a flame thrower. Closeup of African American soldier using a bayonet and others firing small arms. A tank being blown up by artillery fire. A Japanese Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero aircraft maneuvers overhead in the Pacific theater. An African American soldier runs to man his Browning .50-caliber, water-cooled antiaircraft machine gun, and begins firing as the Zero fighter plane strafes his position. Closeup of Japanese pilot in his cockpit and his machine guns firing from leading edges of his plane. His rounds strike all around the U.S. gunner, who turns and follows him with more fire. His tracers show behind the plane. Closeup of the African American gunner as he continues firing. View of the Japanese airplane rolling over and diving. Next the Japanese plane, aflame, crashes on a tropical island and explodes. (Note: It is apparent that some of these combat scenes have been made up of clips from other sources, edited into this film.) (World War II; WW II; World War 2; World War Two)
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