Description
Object description
Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring US Army Air Forces cadets training; the launch of USS Franklin and USS Currier for the US Navy; a new Chinese envoy arriving in Canada; the use of a new trans-Canadian highway linking Alaska with the rest of the United States; and Allied forces in action in Italy.
Content description
Part 1: United News main titles. 'Bombing school for air cadets'. United States Army Air Forces cadets are subjected to a simulated bombing attack by very low-flying aircraft. Various shots of American personnel taking cover as bombs containing chalk or flour burst around them.
Content description
Part 2: 'New ships for US Navy'. At Newport News dockyard a female US Naval Reserve officer, Commander Mildred McAfee (director of Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), smashes a bottle of champagne against the hull of a new US Navy aircraft carrier, USS Franklin. At Bay City, Michigan, in the yard of Defoe Shipbuilding; the upside down hull of the frigate USS Currier (DE-700) is rolled into an upright position before being slid into the water with a splash.
Content description
Part 3: 'Chinese in Canada hail new envoy'. A Chinese civil parade in Toronto. Dragon dance. Close-up man watching. A woman performs a martial arts demonstration with a halberd. A man wearing a papier-mache face mask performs before men parading with tridents and other pole weapons.
Content description
Part 4: 'New road now links US - Alaska'. Footage of a motor car and a convoy of petrol tankers setting out. A sign reads 'Start - Alaska Highway - Edmonton-Alberta'. A map shows Alaska, Canada and United States, and the road, with Edmonton, Dawson Creek, and Whitehorse highlighted and giving the distance of Dawson Creek to Whitehorse as 1,000 miles. Military convoy setting out. Very wide landscape shot; lorries crossing a bridge. Passing a sign 'Suicide Hill'. Lorry driver and assistant. The lorries arrive at a border post. Two officers in discussion at a wall chart. Lorries are serviced. A black bear crosses the road and is grappled, for comic effect, by an American serviceman. Lorry driver sets off wearing his gasmask. Lorries on the move. A small locomotive passes a river boat, high and dry, named 'Yukoner'. Passing through a small town. Local (?) people dressed in fur. American troops in the town. A man walks on a huge dump of oil drums. A signpost gives the distance to Tokyo as 4000 miles. More lorries on the road.
Content description
Part 5: 'The War in Italy'. American heavy artillery in action. American infantry advancing on a wooded hillside. American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, with P-40 escorts. Passing over the island of Stromboli. Explosions below. Sherman tanks advancing. A Sherman tank rolls past a destroyed building. British (or Commonwealth/Indian?) infantry advancing through a town. General Mark Clark watches. British (?) infantry in action, including a Bren gunner firing, a 3-inch mortar in action, and entering a building. At Cosenza interned Czech, Polish, Slavic and Jewish civilians are liberated and issued with canned food, in apparently lavish quantities. American troops entering Naples. Jeeps and lorries driving by. Two young Italian girls pass a parked tank. View overlooking the city with American soldier looking out. Sunken vessels in the harbour. Civilians applaud a lorry of passing American troops; one man pours a glass of wine for a lorry driver. American soldier holding a baby. Cheering crowd. End title.
Physical description
35mm