Description
Object description
Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring footage of the Pipeline Under the Ocean ('Pluto') which supplied fuel to Allied armies in France after the Normandy landings, US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius's report on the United Nations conference in San Francisco, progress in the battle of Okinawa in the Pacific, and the apprehension of senior Nazis in Germany.
Content description
'Reveal undersea oil line, Britain to continent'; panning view of an industrial facility (a factory or refinery?). A pipe fills a drum with petrol. Map; a white line represents the PLUTO pipeline from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg. Pumping stations disguised as a golf course pavillion and an icecream factory. Factory scenes showing the manufacture of the pipeline. Welding pipe into long, flexible sections.Views of a very large cable drum, and of that drum fitted to a barge for laying at sea. Shots of the drum turning and cable being paid out. Laying cable by floating drum (the so-called HMS Conundrum). The pipeline makes landfall. Footage of the Normandy landings. Cylinders and pistons moving (at a pumping station?). Views of the pipeline and of soldier filling jerry cans. Map of France with lines indicating fuel pipelines. Tanks, vehicles, and aircraft pass camera. Closing image of flamethrower-equipped Universal carriers demonstrating their weapons.
Content description
'Stettinius reports on San Francisco conference'; US Secretary of State, Edward Stettinius, speaks of America's desire to continue wartime solidarity with foreign countries. 'The effectiveness of our wartime collaboration has demonstrated that our differences can be adjusted.'
Content description
'Japanese are driven back in Okinawa battle'; map with sweeping arrow highlighting Okinawa. Seen from the shore, a United States Navy ship, just off the coast, shells Japanese positions. American troops on land watching with a telescope and binoculars. Soldier uses a 'walkie talkie'. Three M8 Howitzer Motor Carriages fire a barrage. Crewmen pass ammunition. A line of M4 Sherman medium tanks, parked almost wheel-to-wheel, fire a barrage; the tank nearest camera is named Connie II. A tank barrel with a toy horse or deer or other animal hanging from it as the gun fires. Soldier uses a field telephone. Passing ammunition down into the open turret of an M8. Hillside with drifting smoke. A tank goes forward. General Simon Buckner, commander Tenth Army, watches operations. In the distance streams of flame can be seen from flamethrowing tanks. Soldier with binoculars. Troops (of 7th Infantry Division?) climbing 'Tomb Hill' en route to Yonabaru airfield. Troops climb a steep gorge with cargo nets. A hillside cave is investigated. Marines trudge through mud. Vehicles drive through mud and water. Wide shot with phosphorous shells landing; smoke spreads. Marines shelter in shallow scrapes before running forward. Marines on a hillside. A battery of lorry-mounted rocket launchers is fired. Drifting smoke. Wide shot with flamethrowing Sherman tank in action. Troops walk across ground that is still burning. Wide shot; in the midground US Navy medics ('corpsmen') collect a casualty, while in the deep background a tank fires its flamethrower.
Content description
'Round up Axis war criminals'; wide view of the burnt-out Berghof retreat in Berchtesgaden. Views of gutted rooms. German prisoners of war at work on the ruins; a hand written sign board read 'Hitler's Home'. In Berchtesgaden a sign reads 'Hermann Goering's art collection - through the courtesy of 101st Airborne Division'. Exterior of a house; a 101st Airborne Division sergeant (one rocker and ace of clubs on helmet) looks at a painting of a young female nude; an older civilian man comes out of the house holding a portrait of an old man. He shows it to the sergeant; he holds it in such a position as to create an amusing visual juxtaposition between the female nude's legs and the body of the old man. Various works of art are seen being carried away by American troops for repatriation. Elsewhere in the Alps, Field Marshal von Rundstedt is interned by 7th Army (an American major-general is seen). Pre-capture footage of a cheerful Field Marshal Albert Kesselring. General Karl Hermann Frank, Nazi Secretary of State for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Field Marshal von Kleist is driven away to captivity. In Italy, General Rodolfo Graziani is interned by Fifth Army. At Narnbach, Admiral Horthy of Hungary is captured; he stands with an American lieutenant-general. In Bolzano, Italy, correspondents interviews a sour-looking Margaret Himmler, wife of Heinrich Himmler. Their equally sour-looking daughter Gudrun is also present. Hermann Goering is seen surrendering his pistol.
Physical description
35mm