Created by Castle Films, this sound newsreel shows some of the significant news events of 1945. Footage of the sinking of the British battleship HMS Barham — an event that actually happened in 1941 but remained secret — and the German V-2 rocket is shown. The death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is seen including the funeral at Hyde Park, and President Truman speaks after V-E Day. General Montgomery enters Copenhagen and General DeGaulle is shown in liberated Paris. Rudolf Hess, Hermann Goering and Marshall Petain all go on trial as war criminals. In Manila, an American military court tries Japanese war criminals. American forces land at Iwo Jima, and the war comes to a stunning conclusion with the detonation of two atomic bombs in Japan. American occupation troops enter Tokyo a short time later, led by General Douglas MacArthur. Wrecked Japanese ships are shown at Kure harbor. Millions of American men return home in triumph to New York. The USS Saratoga is shown arriving home with American veterans, and President Truman is shown in New York for a victory parade while carrier based planes fly overhead. The USS Missouri is seen arriving in New York harbor.
HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the Royal Navy named after Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, built at the John Brown shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, and launched in 1914. She was sunk during the Second World War on 25 November 1941 by the German submarine U-331. On 25 November 1941 at 4.25pm, while steaming to cover an attack on Italian convoys with the battleships Queen Elizabeth, Valiant and an escort of eight destroyers, Barham was hit by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-331, commanded by Lieutenant Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen. Leading Telegraphist A.R. Bacon remained at his station following the first attack to alert accompanying ships of the presence of U-331, which greatly aided the search and rescue. The torpedoes were fired from a range of only 750 yards providing no time for evasive action, and struck so closely together as to throw up a single massive water column. As the battleship rolled over to port, her magazines exploded and she quickly sank with the loss of more than two-thirds of the crew. Out of a crew of approximately 1,184 officers and men, 841 were killed. The survivors were rescued by the other British ships.
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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
