UNITED NEWS [Series Title]

Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel featuring American daylight bombing raids against Germany; a meeting of commanders of South East Asia Command in Delhi; the aftermath of an explosion at Naples Post Office in Italy; the move of the gutted French liner Normandie to a drydock in New York; an American election, and Australians in action in New Guinea.

Part 1: United News main titles. 'Flying Forts Battle Nazis over Germany'. A squadron of B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers queued up, engines running, on a perimeter of an airfield in eastern England. A large formation overhead. Aerial footage; aircraft in formation at medium altitude. Looking down as bombs fall away over a rural area, apparently against a Focke-Wulf factory at Marienburg (now Malbork, Poland). Smoke rising. High altitude; a formation of bombers flies through heavy anti-aircraft fire and a stick of bombs is seen falling. Views of the formation (with an aircraft falling?); according to the commentary sheet, returning from a mission against Schweinfurt. A machine gunner aboard the camera plane opens fire. Shots of attacking Luftwaffe fighter aircraft. A large ragged hole in the camera aircraft's wing. Two shots showing both starboard engines, and one of the port engines, stopped. A runway, possibly at RAF Chelveston near Wellingborough. A parked B-17; closer shot shows an airman looking at a tyre which has been torn off the wheel hub. View of the forward fuselage of a B-17 named 'Sack Time'; its port inboard propeller has been removed and the fuselage skin is torn open just aft of the port cheek gunner's position. Views of the damage. View (of a different aircraft?) showing the skin torn open just aft of the cockpit. View of the damaged tailplane of a B-17 marked KY:D (probably of 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bomb Group). A wounded airman is helped away. The crew of a B-17 named 'It Always Comes' (name partially obscured, possibly ‘Yo-Yo: It always comes back’ of 364th Bomb Squadron, also of 305th Bomb Group) shaking hands.

Part 2: 'Allied Southeast Asia commanders meet in India'. At Delhi Lieutenant-General Joseph Stilwell alights from a plane and is greeted by US Army and US Army Air Forces officers. A four-engined C-54 Skymaster 949 taxiing. General Brehon Somervell, US Army, is greeted by Stilwell and others. Lord Louis Mountbatten climbs awkwardly out of an RAF Avro York serial AL578 and is greeted by General Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, Air Chief Marshal Pierse. Mountbatten meets American and Chinese officers.

Part 3: 'Italian civilians killed by Nazis in Naples blast'. An American soldier looks out over the city of Naples. Bomb damage at the harbour with damaged ships (including a hospital ship) and dock equipment. Crowd of civilians. 7 October 1943; outside the Naples central post office a pall of smoke or dust spreading across a road. A young man sits bewildered on the curb; his face covered in blood. American soldiers, including military policemen and medics, attending the scene and dressing wounds. A man on a stretcher is carried away. Pan of the smoke-shrouded street. Looking down into a hole (?) two men appear stuck under masonry. Dead bodies, including a baby. Bodies are covered with blankets. Views of the site. An American officer speaks with an Italian woman.

Part 4: 'Liner Normandie salvaged - moves to US drydock'. Tilt down the bow of the gutted SS Normandie. Tugs at work pushing her out of her berth. An aerial shot shows the tugs at work. Normandie is tugged into the river; the fire damage to her hull is visible. View from the water passing the tugs Charles D McAllister and Dalzellance. A fine wide view with the Normandie and cityscape behind. Passing the tugs William J Lacey, J B Brady (partially obscured) and a third tug (possibly Dalzellance again). Normandie's hull with New York skyscrapers behind. Aerial view. More water-level views. Normandie with the Statue of Liberty behind. An artfully composed shot makes it appear that Liberty is standing on Normandie's deck.

Part 5: 'America votes in wartime election'. Men and women at a polling station, entering polling booths (which are screened with curtains). Some of the booths appear to be fitted with voting machines. Two men (candidates?) posing for the camera. Man signs a register (?) and enters a voting booth. President Roosevelt at a polling station, signing a register and posing for the camera.

Part 6: 'Australians in dramatic jungle battle with Japs'. Wide landscape view of jungle-covered hilly terrain, probably in New Guinea in July 1943, with aircraft passing overhead. Local people carry supplies along a grassy hillside trail. Dumping the stores in the jungle. Australian soldiers around a cooking fire and eating from mess tins. An Australian soldier in a beret (with good view of his 'sunrise' cap badge) smokes a pipe; he is wearing his rain cape. Aussie in bush hat smokes a cigarette. Officers in discussion. Troops set off on the march. Troops advancing through long grass. A machine gun post with a man observing through a long telescope. A man fires a 3-inch mortar rapidly at low elevation. Observing machine gunfire. Firing a light mountain gun. View of a hillside; hemispherical pressure waves from explosions can be seen blasting outwards. Views of the mountain gun and impacts on a small ridge just in front of the camera position. Infantry creep forward. A wounded man, slumped against an earth bank, is treated. The cameraman ducks for cover as a soldier throws a hand grenade into a slight depression in the ground, before going forward again. Positioning a machine gun. A dead Japanese soldier at the bottom of a narrow trench. More dead Japanese. A wounded man is carried away on an improvised stretcher. Local civilians cut their way through the jungle. The local people carry stretchers. Crossing a wooden bridge, possibly the Kunda Bridge over the Francisco River near Bobduri. A man helps another, walking wounded but with his arm in a sling and his head bandaged, as they pick their way along a shallow river in the rain. The two men walk towards camera, with tilt down to feet struggling through the mud; local people pass the other way with supplies. United News end title.

35mm