This silent film, a well-made “home movie” that dates to the mid-to-late 1940s, shows the 78th Training Division aka Jersey Lightning Division conducting (what else?) a training exercise at Pine Camp, now known as Fort Drum, New York. The film was likely used as a promotional and recruiting tool, and may have been shown with live narration at schools, community halls, etc. The film contains wonderful color footage of many aspects of basic training in the post WWII era, including artillery practice, a live fire exercise with rifles, a demonstration of a flame thrower (12:08), and even an air strike (with what appear to be P-51 Mustangs — starting at 15:50). At 11;48 Sherman tanks are shown. At 13:46 large Radioplane drones are shown being launched for use as targets for anti-aircraft guns. Some of the nicer aspects of Army life are shown towards the end of the film as men play volleyball, visit the PX, and an Army movie theater (17:55) as well as a church in the field (18:00).
We searched for information about the Commanding General, E.H. Hawkwood, who is mentioned at :24, but did not find any information about him. Col. Henry G. Nulton, the assistant division commander, was active in 1946 which is one of the reasons we speculate the film is from the late 1940s.
The 78th Training Division (Operations) (“Lightning”) is a unit of the United States Army which served in World War I and World War II as the 78th Infantry Division, and currently trains and evaluates units of the United States Army Reserve for deployment. In November 1946, the 78th Infantry Division was reactivated at Newark, New Jersey and in May 1959 it was reorganized as a Training Division.
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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, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
