UNITED NEWS [Series Title]

Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel featuring a procession to mark Victory Fleet Day 1944 in New York City, Chinese delegates at the Dumbarton Oaks conference, and an Allied offensive in Papua New Guinea.

Part 1: United News main titles. 'Third anniversary of Victory Fleet'; view from the head of a march by men of the Merchant Marine Academy and Maritime Service down Lower Broadway in New York City. View of the men doing rhythmic drill as they march. Sailors pass. A podium. Three naval officers (named on the commentary sheet as Commandant of the Eastern Seaboard, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard and Vice-Admiral Emory Land, War Shipping Administrator) and a civilian politician watch the march. Low angle close-up the politician. More sailors march past. High shot looking down on sailors formed up in front of the podium. A 'War Shipping Association' pennant is displayed. A colour party with the podium behind; a 'Victory Fleet Day' banner can be seen.

Part 2: 'China joins security talks'; exterior Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C. with car approaching. Interior hall with delegates sitting around a horseshoe of tables. Chinese delegates including Dr Wellington Koo, Finance Minister Hung and shaking hands with US Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Delegates including Britain's Lord Halifax, Lord Cadogan and Edward Stettinius. Wellington Koo addresses the conference; he speaks of the aspirations of 'freedom-loving people'. Delegates walk in the garden and pose for the cameras. In Chungking, China, On the steps of the Military Council headquarters General Stilwell and Major-General Patrick Hurley poses with Chinese officers and Donald Nelson, American emissary. Close-up Stilwell talking with Nelson. Close-up Hurley. Chinese General Ho Ying-Chin, Chief of Staff, with three triangles on his collar. He shakes hands with the civilian man. Hurley and Nelson walk with Chinese officers.

Part 3: 'Pacific Offensive'; map of the Pacific. American troops walking through sloppy mud on a jungle road in New Guinea. Local Papuan civilians carry supplies. Troops walk through knee-deep water. A United States Army Air Forces C-47 Skytrain (Dakota) transport aircraft drops sacks. Stacking boxes of K rations. View from a landing craft heading for a beach backed with palm trees at Sansapor in western Dutch New Guinea. Landing craft (marked 394) ramp dropping on a black beach with American troops of 6th Army disembarking. Men coming ashore from M4825 and other landing craft. Coming ashore from a Landing Craft Infantry (Large) (LCI(L)) 430. Men marching along the beach. Entering a forest. Corpse of a white soldier, bearded, with his eyes open. Passing a Japanese grave marker (?) and Japanese corpses. Tank destroyers passing. Beach with a field gun being towed by a lorry and naval aircraft passing at low altitude. Map of the Pacific showing the Philippines, Saipan, Palau, Morotai and New Guinea; an arrow points to Palau from Saipan. Fleet at sea. On board ship a quadruple 20mm gun is demonstrated. Naval bombardment of Peleliu island. A naval bomber aircraft passes. LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tracked) with 75mm turrets (marked C-14 and C-11) drive ashore. C-15 passes. Landing craft heading ashore, with grainy footage showing tracer fire. A 40mm Bofors gun is fired. From a landing craft; a machine gunner looks through binoculars. Grainy footage of bombardment. Amtraks leave a Landing Ship Tank. Marines of 1st Marine Division. US Marines on the beach on mortar fire. A DUKW amphibian drives on the beach with a towering pall of smoke behind. Self-propelled gun firing. Machine gun in action. Marine advancing. Field guns in action. Anti-tank gun in action. Marine fires a Browning Automatic Rifle. Firing a 0.30-calibre machine gun and a bazooka. Troops advancing. A wounded man is brought back to the beach. Medics working on a casualty. Man kneeling over a man on a stretcher. A stretcher case is brought in. Stretcher case is put aboard an LVT. Troops advance as a plane passes overhead. Advancing behind a Sherman tank. Wrecked Japanese aircraft. End title.

35mm