"Sept 3rd 1942 - 43 : Fourth Year of the War. First Year of Victory."

I. 'SEPT 3RD 1942-43: FOURTH YEAR OF WAR-FIRST YEAR OF VICTORY.' A retrospective look at significant events over a one year period with location maps and dates preceding each individual item of interest. (map "El Alamein: 23 Oct 1942") Stock shot footage shows a night artillery barrage by British Ordnance QF 25-pounder guns, the gun positions only being lit at the point of discharge. United States Army Air Force (USAAF) North American B-25 Mitchell bombers fly in formation over the desert in the company of Royal Air Force (RAF) Martin Baltimore bombers as they attack Axis positions in the desert. Air to ground footage shows Allied bombs impacting and creating sand plumes as they explode on the desert floor. The commentary states that the "Desert Rats" of the Eighth Army caught the imagination of the British public in much the same way as the Battle of Britain fighter pilots did some two years earlier. Stock shot footage shows Eighth Army Universal carriers and soft-skinned vehicles driving over typical desert landscape. Eighth Army M3 Grant and Crusader I tanks (with sand skirts and 2-pounder gun) negotiate rough terrain. (map Moroccan and Algerian coastline Torch: 8 November 1942) LCM 73 (Landing Craft Mechanised) transports British troops ashore during the Torch landings. United States (US) troops armed with M1A1 Thompson .45-in sub-machine guns and M1911A1 .45-in automatic pistols return fire on a concealed Axis sniper. US soft-skin vehicles are loaded with supplies taken off merchant shipping in a port facility at an undisclosed North African location. Stock shot footage shows members of the Axis Armistice Commission being driven away from the Hotel D'Angleterre in Algiers accompanied by much jeering from assembled civilian crowds (cf WPN 87). Stock shots show USAAF Consolidated B-24D Liberator bombers and Royal Air Force (RAF) B-24A Liberators in flight with air to ground views of bombs dropping. Operational footage shows water plumes caused by exploding bombs during an Allied bombing raid on Benghazi Harbour in Libya. British M3 Stuart tanks enter the outskirts of Benghazi, driving past a large twin-domed mosque. (map Stalingrad and environs: December 1942) Russian infantry armed with Moisin-Nagant 1891 7.62mm rifles run across snow covered terrain supported by fire from a Stankovy Pulemyot Maksima obr 1910g 7.92mm heavy machine gun mounted on a Sokolov carriage. The commentary outlines events leading to the German defeat at Stalingrad over footage of Generalfeldmarschall Friedrich Paulus, Commander of the German Sixth Army. Russian Infantry embrace in the ruins of Stalingrad. (map Tripoli: 23 January 1943) British soft-skinned vehicles drive across desert terrain. Eighth Army infantry are supported by M3 Stuart tanks as the enter Tripoli, watched by local civilians. (map Bismarck Sea and New Britain) Stock shot footage shows a Vickers Wellington bomber aircraft in silhouette overflying a camera position followed by air to ground views of 250-lb bombs dropping. Six Bristol Beaufighter aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) overfly the sea. Camera gun footage shows a Beaufighter attack on Japanese merchant shipping possibly taken during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (3-5 March 1943). Japanese merchantmen burn following Allied air attack. (map Tunisia, Tunis and Bizerta captured 7 May 1943) Italian prisoners cook on open fires and smoke cigarettes following the capture of Tunis by the Allies. Infantry from the British First Army enter the outskirts of Tunis armed with Lee-Enfield Mk III .303-in rifles and Thompson M1928 .45-in sub-machine guns with box magazines. A US M3 Stuart tank also passes through the same location. (map Pantelleria: 11 June 1943) Ships of the Royal Navy bombard the Italian island of Pantelleria prior to an amphibious assault. British infantry congregate around parked Universal carriers in a shell damaged hamlet on Pantelleria (cf WPN 116). The commentary outlines the increasing effectiveness of the Allied strategic bombing campaign over stock shots which include a USAAF Boeing B-17(F?) Flying Fortress bomber in flight, an Avro Manchester Mk I bomber of 49 Squadron RAF, and RAF Bristol Blenheim Mk IV bomber aircraft also shown in flight. The RAF attack on the Mhne and Eder dams in Germany is highlighted and described as "a severe blow to German war production" over views of German infantry standing on the banks of a fast flowing water-course. (map Malta: 24 June 1943) Maltese civilian crowds wave with enthusiasm as King George VI is driven through the streets of Valletta in an open-tourer. (map Sicily: 10 July 1943) Axis bombs explode near Allied merchant shipping in the opening stages of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. British infantry move across Sicilian fields armed with Lee-Enfield Mk III .303-in rifles. A British infantryman sets up his Bren .303-in light machine gun on a dry stone wall. Red Cross nurses tend British wounded at a medical reception camp. Enthusiastic Sicilian civilians mob British troops in a Universal carrier. Sicilian civilians throw over-ripe fruit at a wall painting of Benito Mussolini as the commentary outlines events leading to the Italian leader's downfall. (map Russian Front) Map is superimposed over stock shots of a Russian artillery barrage followed by footage of Russian Klimenti Voroshilov heavy tanks (KV-1) and T-34/76 tanks driving over rough terrain.