One of a series of incentive films made “exclusively for the men and women of American industry,” this mid-1944 official US War Department film, produced by the US Army Signal Corps with the cooperation of combat film units of the Marines, Army Air Forces , and Navy, is the sixth issue of the “Film Communique” series. The black-and-white film opens with an animated scene of a wounded soldier surrounded by the Japanese, and the proclamation “This isn’t war … it’s murder!”
“Murder,” the narrator emphasizes at mark 00:57. “But it’s not going unavenged.” As we see a map of the South Pacific, the narrator explains how Allied forces are attacking Japanese strongholds by air, land, and sea, striking from the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and New Guinea, and dealing “body blows to the murderous Japs.” The liberation of those islands, he continues, was due partly to the contributions of factory workers who constructed the landing crafts, communication devices, and instruments used in the fight. As an American pilot leaps from his burning P-38 Lightning at mark 03:12, the narrator adds that it was an American worker whose “trained, sensitive hands back home” stitched together the parachute that will save his life.
At the Battle of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain in New Guinea, the viewer is told at mark 04:05 how Allied planes softened Japanese defenses through the use 3,500 tons of bombs, as we see aerial footage of the bombardment. When troops learned that many of the Japanese at Cape Gloucester were also involved in the Bataan Death March (the forced transfer of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war in the Philippines in April 1942), the narrator notes at mark 05:00: “This is the beginning of revenge, but only the beginning.” And as troops and trucks are shown making their way through muddy swamps, the narrator says at mark 06:29: “We broke the backs of the sons of the Rising Sun in western New Britain. We forged a steel trap a little tighter around the necks of their leaders in Tokyo. The leaders who boasted that one day their flag would fly over the White House.”
Come mark 07:34, we see a new title card: “General Mud” and the conversation turns to the war in Italy, and scenes of men and trucks trudging through several inches of thick, gooey mud fill the screen. “The Nazis can be blasted out but mud sticks,” the viewer is reminded, as we see trucks and other vehicles that “came off the line perfectly machined” now ruined by nature. Mark 09:35 shows the viewer the title card “Grasshopper” and features light aircraft used for observation and transportation, and at mark 11:48 we learn of the “Yankee Rope Trick” — a story of how a B-24 bomber used rope to free a Liberty ship when the cargo vessel became mired in sand. “None of the men and women back home who made this tiny item, this rope, could’ve guessed it would one day save a supply ship. The film continues with “Pipes of War” at mark 13:07, telling a tale of how troops used American-made pipes to transport gas and oil to Allied forces in Italy, and “A Gal Named Stella” at mark 15:38, sharing the story of how a heavily damaged B-17 made its way back to safety, “a battered-up queen, down but not out of the fight yet,” as crews are shown repairing the battle-scarred aircraft, and the film comes to a close.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
