UNITED NEWS [Series Title]

Edition of US-produced United News, featuring Australian and American forces in action against the Japanese at Lae, in north-eastern Papua New Guinea, and Anglo-American landings at Salerno in Italy.

Part 1: United News main titles. 'Australians and Americans drive Japs from Lae!'; United States Army Air Forces' (USAAF) B-17 Fortress bombers in flight. A B-24 Liberator dropping bombs. Bombs falling. Explosions below. Low-level aerial footage shows wrecked merchant ships on the coast. Landing craft and aircraft overhead. Landing craft underway. View through a porthole. Small vessels in the distance opening fire. Landing craft beaching; Australian troops disembark from Landing Craft Infantry (Large) (LCI(L)) 25 and LCI(L) 26. Troops on the beach. General MacArthur speaks with a lieutenant-general and a USAAF brigadier-general. American paratroops gearing up. They board their aircraft. Douglas C-47 Skytrain (Dakota) taxiing (it is marked VHCGQ). Dakotas taking off. Aerial footage. MacArthur observing from an aircraft. Aircraft laying smoke. Dropping supplies by air. Parachutes descending. A cameraman films proceedings with a 35mm Eyemo camera. Parachutes on the landing zone below. Australian troops cross a field of tall grass. Australian and American troops together. Aircraft passing. A Dakota lands on a rough airstrip. A trailer is unloaded. Another Dakota lands.

Part 2: 'Allied hurl back Nazis in Italy'; American troops on a dockside with LCI(L)s 35, 44, 38, 320 and229 behind them. Landing ship with barrage balloons floating above. Landing force at sea. US flag flying. A briefing on deck. Landing Ship Tank (LST) 335 (?) passing. The cameraman's landing craft underway, making smoke. A merchant ship on fire. Battle sequence with tracer fire at night. A mushroom cloud of smoke. Onboard a landing craft; Lieutenant-General Mark Clark looks at camera. Troops going ashore and running up the beach. British (?) troops on the beach. Various shots naval bombardment. Aircraft falling in flames. American troops and a DUKW on the beach. Aircraft falling. Merchant ship burning. DUKW passing. LST on fire. Badly damaged merchant ship. American troops digging in; then taking cover in their foxholes. Infantryman in a foxhole. American servicewomen board a jeep at an airstrip. Wounded Americans board a landing craft. Lieutenant-Generals Harold Alexander and Clark. American troops moving up. German prisoners passing and digging a trench. Wrecked German armoured vehicles. American (officer?) with binoculars. Troops in a roadside verge. Troops moving through a field. Marching along a road with vehicles moving up.

35mm