Made during WWII by the War Finance Division of the U.S. Treasury Department, “Midnight” was released as part of the 7th War Loan, which took place in May 1945, just days after victory in Europe. Treasury officials were concerned that the defeat of Germany might lessen bond sales, and so the “Mighty 7th” came into being.
MIDNIGHT tracks war activities around the globe as Big Ben strikes midnight in London. The narrator discusses the fact that the Navy uses Greenwich Mean Time in its operations. The city of London is shown during the attack by V-1 rockets (1:00), while B-24 anti-submarine aircraft are seen patrolling for German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. At 1:38 the Greenwich Observatory and Greenwich Mean Time is discussed. American PT boats are seen operating in the Mediterranean (2:00), and launching torpedoes, while convoys are seen moving across the North Atlantic (2:27). At (2:38), an airplane is seen attacking a German U-boat, the U-505. At 8:37, a Coast Guard ship with dazzle paint is shown on a mission to hunt down and destroy German weather stations in the North Atlantic. At 3:14, the training carrier USS Wolverine is shown operating on Lake Michigan. At 3:31, wounded Americans are seen boarding a ship home — a converted ocean liner — in India. A field hospital is shown. At 4:15, an American submarine is seen sinking a Japanese vessel, while a PBY Catalina is seen flying anti-submarine patrol (4:30). At 4:45, a supply depot in Utah is shown filled with crates. At 5:13, aircraft strike in the South China Sea, and at damaged aircraft are seen returning to carriers. The film ends with footage at Iwo Jima as the Navy bombards the island and the Marines invade.
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