This black & white promotional/educational film is about the initial stages of the Battle of Okinawa, which raged from April 1, 1945 – June 22, 1945. This film was made in 1945 as part of a series of newsreels intended to inspire American workers, as part of the series “The Naval Worker’s Digest”.

Titles: Main titles (:06-:47). Victory in Europe. New aircraft carrier, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, is launched. Mrs. Roosevelt shows up for the christening of the ship. A woman smashes a champagne bottle and the ship is launched. Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King speaks about the Japanese enemy. A U.S. Navy battleship pushes on in rough seas. After capturing Iwo Jima, the fleet was headed further westward. Grumman F6F Hellcat planes take off from deck of a carrier at sea. The planes bomb Okinawa. A Helldiver plane sweeps over and drops a bomb. Smoke plumes. Aerial POV footage from a plane. Japanese-USA battle at sea. A plane on fire crashes straight down into the sea. Multiple Japanese planes are shot down (:48-3:28). A battleship fires its huge guns against Japanese positions near the beach. Explosions on Okinawa as the bombardment continues. Ships fire numerous rockets at Okinawa. Tons of artillery pieces of all types are used against the island fortress (3:29-5:10). Marines and assault forces go ashore in amphibious vehicles. A G.I. wearing sunglasses (5:20) sits calmly in an amphibious craft on his way to the beach. A soldier takes a drink of water in an LCI. Troops land on the shores of Okinawa and walk forward in an unopposed landing. There is no retaliation. G.I.s move inland. Tons of troops are able to move inland on Okinawa. A DUKW (5:51) moves onto the beach. A Sherman tank (6:01) moves along a road off the beach. Columns of American troops. The battle begins and quickly rages. American casualties. Injured men placed into a vehicle. Wounded men put onto an airplane for evacuation (5:11-7:47). A Douglas C-54 Skymaster takes off with the wounded aboard. American troops throw grenades against emplaced Japanese. Japanese troops hide in caves and are dynamited. A dead Japanese soldier falls down a hill. An explosion. Japanese troops surrender and are taken capture. U.S. soldiers shoot and blow up more caves. Smoky cave. Troops pull out the dead from a cave (7:48-9:42). End credits (9:43-9:51).

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

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