Description
Object description
Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring a demonstration of airborne assault tactics; the testing of rocket projectiles fired from boats, vehicles and aircraft by the United States Navy; General Joseph Stilwell seen relaxing at home before taking up his new command; the mass production of new B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers; and the recovery of carrier-borne aircraft in the Pacific.
Content description
Part 1: United News main titles. 'Air assault tactics'; two CG-4 Waco gliders landing in a field. More gliders land; one strikes another and both lose a wing. Airborne troops run from a landed glider. A C-47 Skytrain (Dakota) in flight catches a glider from the ground and hauls it into the air. A large cargo glider, serial 261099, is loaded variously with a field gun and limber, jeeps, and with airborne troops via a large rear ramp. The glider is seen overhead. The glider landing. Aerial footage shows paratroops going into action. Parachutists landing.
Content description
Part 2: 'Navy rockets in firepower tests'; a rocket-firing landing craft, marked 101, at sea. It fires a long barrage of rockets. Two jeeps on a beach; they are fitted with rocket racks. The rockets are fired. Impacts in the distance. A rocket barrage is fired from a DUKW ('Duck') amphibious truck. A barrage from a lorry. Impacts on a distant hillside. A B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, marked M8-155. Armourers load rockets onto underwing pylons. Rocket tests by single-engined aircraft (possibly US Navy attack aircraft). Slow motion footage of a rocket fired by a Grumman Hellcat.
Content description
Part 3: 'General Stilwell takes over new command'; General Stilwell, in uniform, at home in California given an interview with journalists. Stilwell and Mrs Stilwell looking through a photo album. Stock footage of Stilwell inspecting Chinese troops, chatting with Lord Louis Mountbatten and decorating Chinese generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. Stilwell, in civilian clothes, takes his dog for a walk on the beach. Stilwell, uniformed, sitting at a desk with a microphone.
Content description
Part 4: 'B-29 bombers in quantity production'; interior of a vast hangar with B-29 bombers being assembled; many of the workers seen are women. At an airstrip in China drums of fuel are unloaded from transport aircraft, having been flown 'over the Hump' from India. The barrels of fuel are rolled along the ground by Chinese troops. The fuel drums are emptied into a channel that it pumped into a storage tank. More drums are rolled and stacked, including a pan of a long wall of petrol drums. B-29 taking off and pass camera. Aerial view of bombs exploding near a bridge below, apparently near a marshalling yard; this is probably the Rama Bridge in Bangkok, Thailand.
Content description
Part 5: 'Carrier planes come home from battle'; a US Navy fleet off the China coast, including a number of powerful-looking battleships. On the deck of an aircraft carrier with Chance-Vought F4U Corsair fighters assembled. Hellcats on the deck; they are carrying additional fuel and underwing rockets. Aircraft take off and pass overhead. Aircraft landing, including bouncy landings by a Hellcat and a Grumman Avenger (marked 131). A Hellcat; its tail detaches on landing and the tailless aircraft careers across the flight deck, tips upward, and falls out of sight over the portside, held only by tangled arrestor wires. Crewmen rush to aid the pilot. The pilot is carried towards the sick bay on a stretcher, while the aircraft is pushed overboard. A Corsair lands.
Physical description
35mm