This 1944 “Forum Edition” (made specifically for home and school use) of The March of Time shows viewers the work of the U.S. Army Air Forces’ Air Transport Command (A.T.C.) being done in the early stages of America’s involvement in World War II. The film opens with a transport plane on a runway, followed by an aerial view of the Washington offices of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Men in the communications office receive a dispatch from Cairo. Men relay the order for sending munitions to troops in Egypt to the A.T.C. This is followed by footage of Alexandria, Egypt (01:44) and gunners of the British 8th Army loading shells into an artillery gun. B-24 Liberators sit on the tarmac at an A.T.C. base (02:19). Men climb into what appears to be a C-47 Skytrain; supplies are loaded into the transport plane. Men way cargo boxes on a scale (03:10) before they are loaded onto a plane. A number of combat planes wait at the A.T.C. airfield to be flown to various combat zones. A B-24 takes off and flies through the air (04:27); the plane lands on a runway in Australia lined with P-40 Warhawks of Claire Lee Chennault’s Flying Tigers. The film then shows the headquarters for the Caribbean wing of the A.T.C. (04:57). Here, pilots check out special equipment for their mission. Other pilots review maps to check on their flight course (06:16). Footage shows inside a transport plane’s cargo bay, loaded with cargo being carried to an unknown destination. Men unload supplies, jeeps, and guns somewhere in the Pacific (07:12). A plane flies over the African desert and then lands at an airstrip where nearby camels graze and watch (08:12). A man cleans spare props (08:46). Three servicemen sit in a cargo bay amid the supplies being transported (09:30). People lay down Marston Mats for an airstrip (10:10). A jeep is driven into a what appears to be a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (10:43), which then takes off and flies off into the distance, concluding the film.

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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