Description
Object description
Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring the launch of an aircraft carrier named in honour of the late President Roosevelt; the capture of Admiral Doenitz and Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart; the arrival of American airmen in the United States before redeployment to the Pacific; the award of a Medal of Honor to Sergeant Jake Lindsey; the trial and execution of traitors Lafont and Bony in France; offensives by American forces in the Phillippines and on Okinawa in the Pacific.
Content description
'Aircraft carrier is named for Pres. Roosevelt'; Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of the late President Roosevelt, crosses a gangway at Brooklyn Navy Yard, followed by Bernard Baruch (former Presidential adviser), Admiral King (commander-in-chief United States Fleet) and General George Marshall (US Army chief of staff). Mrs Roosevelt speaks of her late husband's appreciation of the honour. Mrs John H Towers, the wife of the deputy commander in the Pacific, christens the ship; the champagne bottle refuses to break until the third attempt. The drydock holding USS Franklin D.Roosevelt is flooded. Views of the carrier afloat.
Content description
'Allied capture Doenitz and Seyss-Inquart'; shots of captured Seyss-Inquart, Reichskommissar for the Netherlands, with two German soldiers. Close-up of Seyss-Inquart's fingers twitching. He is marched away under guard and imprisoned. At Flensburg; pre-capture shots of Admiral Doenitz, Hitler's successor getting into a German Navy staff car and being driven away.
Content description
'Airmen arrive for furlough en route to Pacific'; at Bradley Field, Conneticut, B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers of the United States Army Air Forces arrive carrying airmen home from operations in Europe. A B-17 overhead. B-17 landing. Parked aircraft (one B-17 possibly of 457th Bomb Group, another is serial 43-39345) with more aircraft landing. A B-24, marked RN:E, landing; it is possibly of the 445th Bombardment Group. Aircrew climbing out of a B-24. Unloading luggage from a bomber, B-24 RN:D. Airmen are served refreshments.
Content description
'President and Congress honor infantry hero'; interior Congress, Sergeant Jake Lindsey (16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division) is awarded the Medal of Honor. General Marshall reads the citation. Lindsey is applauded. Truman presents the decoration.
Content description
'French try and execute traitors'; a French newspaper seller with copies of Le Monde. Looking over the shoulder of a reader of 'Combat', the Resistance newspaper from December 1944; a front-page story relates the trial of Lafont and Bony. German footage of anti-British and American demonstrations, staged by Gestapo collaborators Herni Lafont and Pierre Bony. Allied prisoners of war are marched through Paris and are subjected to verbal and physical abuse by apparently angry French civilians as German soldiers watch with amusement. Scenes from Lafont and Bony's trial. The firing squad; the three condemned men, tied to stakes, slump as they are shot.
Content description
'Progress in the Pacific War'; American troops of 37th Infantry Division on Luzon island in the Philippines; tanks, tank destroyers and self-propelled guns firing at targets in a valley five miles from Baguio, the Philippines' summer capital. Buildings under bombardment. A P-38 Lightning fighter passes overhead. Clouds of smoke rise from the buildings. Tank with infantry at the roadside. A soldier uses a 'walkie-talkie'. Infantry hurry forwards. Infantry behind a low stone wall. A soldier, walking wounded, is helped along; he has a dressing over his face. A water-cooled .30-calibre machine gun in action. Grenading a bunker. Further shots of bunkers being cleared. Japanese dead; tanks roll past. Sign 'Baguio city limit'. Tank with infantry riding on the rear hull with the town in the background. A young child is retrieved from a collapsed building by an American soldier. Soldiers give young children food. A Stuart light tank, marked '7', passes. Cheering civilians greet American troops. Two soldiers, one sitting in a chair with his feet up, look out over the town from a hillside. On Okinawa; wide shot over a valley with, in the distance, a flamethrowing tank shooting a jet of flames on a suspected Japanese position. Wide shot; a tank fires a shell at a Japanese position; the tank and the impact are seen in shot. Further shot of the distant flame tank in action. Generals Geiger (commander III Amphibious Corps) and del Valle (commander, 1st Marine Division) watch operations. Marines going forward against a small hill; they clear bunkers with explosives. Marines run forward. A flamethrower operator in action. More Marines run forward; one fires his Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) from the hip. Marines advancing behind a Sherman tank; its gun is traversed to the right. A Sherman, carrying a lot of spare track links, passes camera, crushing a hedgerow; Marines follow close behind it. Tank passes. Marines moving up through the streets of Naha, capital of Okinawa. Wide shot; a thick column of smoke rises.
Physical description
35mm