Between the years of 1957 and 1963, the U.S. Army took on a structure for its Infantry and Airborne branches called the “Pentomic”. This was adopted by the U.S. to counter the possibility of enemy forces using tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield. There were five supporting units, which were commonly called battle groups. Pentomic comes from Greek, meaning, of five parts. This orientation film “Long Range Firepower” was produced by the United States Army and dates to the period from 1957 to 1962. It shows a wide variety of Army capabilities, including the M65 atomic cannon, as well as high tech missiles of various types including ground to air, ground to ground, and anti-missile.

An animated image of the Earth is shown on screen at 0:47, the narrator begins. (Note: Using the pronoun “him” to describe all of humanity might be offensive today!) There is an image of cavemen fighting at 1:24. At 1:27, an image is shown of a caveman using a bow and arrow. At 1:32, soldiers are shown using a catapult. 1:38 shows a knight using a crossbow, the narrator says that “the people of that time said it was so horrible a weapon, they thought it would end war.” At 1:54, an English knight using a longbow is displayed, and at 1:57, the words Crecy Agincourt come on the screen. The prologue ends, and the first section of the video starts, called the “Age of Explosives” at 2:04. At 2:08, a video of an early era infantry soldier is shown using one of the first rifles. At 2:26, a Revolutionary War era soldier is shown using a rifle. At 2:35, a still image of soldiers using an early cannon is displayed. At 2:38-2:44, an image of a forge and forgers creating weapons is shown on screen. At 2:45-3:14, footage of the advancement of artillery appears, culminating in the testing of an atomic bomb. The next section of the video starts at 3:21 “The Atomic Age”. Footage of a mobile 105mm Howitzer is shown, the narrator describes that it is a devastating weapon. Then, an artillery unit that carries one low yield atomic warhead is shown at 3:40, and at 3:52, it is shown how many Howitzer HE shells equals just one low yield atomic warhead. At 4:13, full communication equipment is shown being transported by ground and air. At 4:33, the section on “Long Range Firepower” begins. The film shows a rocket, the “Honest John” being towed into place at 4:36. At 5 minutes, the narrator explains that the Honest John is one of the US Army’s “either, or” weapons. Rockets that carry either an atomic, or a high explosive warhead. The next section begins at 5:23, “Wide Range Communications,” with the subsection titled “Long Ranging Firepower,” and “Far Ranging Mobility!” The Redstone missile is shown at 5:37, the narrator explains its dimensions and that it is a long-range missile. The film shows soldiers arming and firing the rocket at 6:08. The missile launches at 6:27. A new section on dispersion begins at 6:43. The ballistic missile Corporal is shown at 6:50. At 7:17, the missile known as “Little John” is shown. It supports the military in basically any terrain due to its reduced sized, light weight, and mobility. The La Crosse is shown at 7:55, a surface-to-surface missile. The narrator appears on the screen for the first time at 8:33. He introduces the surface-to-air missiles, the Nike family. The first one shown is the Nike Ajax at 8:54. The second missile the Nike Hercules is shown at 8:57. The video shows the Nike Hercules destroying a plane at 9:33. The Nike Hawk is shown at 9:44. At 10:27 the M65 atomic cannon, often called Atomic Annie, is shown being moved and in position firing. A Pershing tank with a 90mm gun, .50, and .30 caliber machine guns is shown at 10:45. The soldiers Dart type anti-tank guided missile is shown at 11:08.

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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