Description
Object description
Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring scenes at the United Nations conference at San Francisco; the end of the war in Europe with German surrender in Germany and Italy, and American forces in combat with the Japanese on Okinawa.
Content description
'San Francisco conference moves ahead'; interior conference hall. Georges Bidault, French Foreign Minister, addresses the conference.
Content description
'The war ends in Europe'; cheering crowds at Times Square, New York. Some wave newspapers with headlines such as 'Germany surrenders' and 'Nazis quit!'. A cathedral with people streaming through its doors to attend a thanksgiving service. Female parishioners cross themselves. Truman announces the German surrender; 'a solemn but glorious hour...the flags of freedom fly all over Europe' He gives thanks to Providence and the need to win victory in the East. At Torgau; American and Russian troops meet and fraternise on the river Elbe. American General Emil F Reinhardt (commander, 69th Infantry Division) and Major-General Rusakov (commander, 58th Guards Division). Footage of German surrender in Italy at the Allied military headquarters. General William Duthie Morgan, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean, signs on behalf of Field Marshal Alexander. Views of the deserted Nuremberg stadium with a large American flag raised to obscure a swastika. Wide shot as the swastika is dynamited.
Content description
'The war continues in the Pacific'; American troops of Tenth Army in action on Okinawa. A Sherman medium tank named 'Alakai' passes camera. A flamethrower operator in action. Two soldiers run towards camera after dynamiting a bunker. Field guns in action. A soldier passes a burning building. Okinawan civilians pass; an American military policeman carries a naked child. Wounded Americans are put aboard a Douglas DC-4 transport aircraft, serial 42-72383, of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command. Series of shots showing Japanese bunkers being cleared with grenades. An apparently wounded Japanese soldier is forced out of a bunker into the open, where he collapses. A Japanese prisoner, clad only in shorts, is led away. A rifleman fires a shot. The dead body of a Japanese soldier slides down a slope and lands on its head. At sea; a US Navy cruiser (of the Baltimore class?) firing. Further shots showing attacking Japanese aircraft being shot down. Aerial camera gun footage of a Japanese twin-engine aircraft being shot down, including one shot giving very good impression of the weight of American anti-aircraft fire. American carrier aircraft return to their ships. A Grumman Hellcat, probably from the carrier USS Essex, ditches in the sea; the pilot can be seen standing on the wing of the floating aircraft. A Corsair fighter collides with a carrier's superstructure (close to the cameraman's position), probably aboard USS Essex.
Physical description
35mm