Description
Object description
Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel featuring advances in New Guinea and the Pacific; the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy, a tribute to the late Wendell Willkie, US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius summing up the Dumbarton Oaks conference; a Chinese offensive against Tengchung on the Burma Road, and an American airstrike on the Ploesti oilfields in Romania.
Content description
Part 1: United News main titles. 'Pacific advance continues'; map of China with Formosa highlighted as a target for American air attack. B-29 heavy bombers in flight. MacArthur and Nimitz in discussion over a map. Map of the Pacific with Morotai, Peleliu, the Palau islands and Philippines marked, an arrow points to Morotai from Sansapor in Dutch New Guinea. Amphibious landing by 6th Army. Men and vehicles struggle ashore. Men wade in thick mud. Bogged down lorry and Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT). A lorry is dragged out. MacArthur surveys Morotai. Commentator remarks on the lack of opposition. American flag flying on the beach with landing craft behind. Close-up MacArthur. Map; the Palau islands 'the road to the Philippines'. LVT's with 75mm howitzers (one marked D-17) on a beach with smoke rising beyond palm trees. Stretcher bearers run past a burning LVT. A dead American lying on a stretcher in front of a burning LVT. Medics administer intravenous fluid. US Marines prepare to mount a patrol; commentator attributes the footage to Australian news cameraman Damien Parer. Marines set out on patrol. The Marines patrol through undergrowth; one fires his M1 rifle from the hip. Self-propelled gun fires. Infantry moving up. Anti-tank gun in action. A Sherman tank slips on uneven ground; commentator notes the death in action of Parer.
Content description
Part 2: '"Fighting 92nd" with the Fifth Army in Italy'; American troops pass knocked out German Tiger tank. Sheman tank with black American troops riding aboard passes a signpost for Bagni di Casciana and Livorno Vicarello. View from a jeep pushing through a delighted crowd. Black troops shake hands with Italian civilians. Troops of the 92nd on the march; one marches barefoot carrying his boots. Soldier shaving. Firing rifles and bazooka from behind a grassy bank. Lt Gen Mark Clark meets wounded of the 92nd Division in a field hospital.
Content description
Part 3: 'Wendell Willkie - world citizen'; Willkie speaking at the Republican convention in 1940. Commentator pays tribute to his 'energy, honesty and forthright courage' over footage of Willikie waving from a motorcade. Willkie seen with Winston Churchill and chatting with London firemen. Willkie in Russia; he visits a shipyard. Willkie with Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame Chang. Willkie walks with Chinese officers.
Content description
Part 4: Stettinius summarises security talks'; at Dumbarton Oaks Stettinius speaks of 'proposals...for creating the means for keeping the peace in the future'. He proposes an international organisation 'for [settling disputes] by peaceful means...The peace-loving nations must join together'.
Content description
Part 5: 'Chinese take Tenggchung on Burma Road'; from a hillside overlooking a town, Chinese light guns of 20th Route Army fire against Tengchung. Infantry in action with Thompson submachine gun, bazooka and heavy mortar. Infantry fighting through Tengchung. Storming the walls with scaling ladders. Carrying wounded back with bamboo stretchers. A powerful explosion in a street; Chinese troops run forward. Dead Japanese. Chinese soldier shows off a Japanese flag. Chinese civilians amongst the rubble.
Content description
Part 6: 'Ploesti oil fields devastated'; aerial footage of the raids from low altitude. Vast palls of smoke from burning refineries. Firefighters in German helmets attempt to control the fires. Further footage of fires. Fires at a railway marshalling yard; commentator sets the American casualties against the achievement of reducing Germany's oil supply. End title.
Physical description
35mm