Opening Titles

I. ‘Allied Armies in Burma Battle Japs on Wide Front’ Map of Asia, with arrow marking Burma. Shots of heavy rainfall and sodden conditions in Burma. Locals including children, under instruction from troops, transport possessions and move to camps. A further map indicates ‘Merrill Front’. Shot of Brigadier General Frank Merrill from below. ‘Merrill’s Marauders’ look out of a train, preparing to depart. Crowd scenes, with a band playing, a local making tea and another shaving one of the passengers, before their departure. Aerial shot of their camp. The men hang out clothes, sort through the post and sharpen blades. General Merrill inspects the troops and awards a medal. Next, on the march (a sign reads ‘Shinbwiyang’). Map now marks Imphal Front. Inspection of British Units and shot of General Wingate alongside Admiral Mountbatten. The commentary sheet notes the ‘recent tragic death of General Wingate’. The map next shows the Stilwell Front. Aerial shots of the Ledo road. Machinery used to prepare airfields. ‘American-trained’ Chinese troops march under General Stillwell’s command, while supplies are dropped from the air. General Stillwell marches on with a rifle over his shoulder. A series of shots are fired and then tanks move on (includes POV from a tank). Further gunfire on the ground and shots of dead bodies.

II. ‘Canada’s Navy Stages Gala Show for Men on leave’ The curtain opens to reveal a musical show, performed by ‘the Navy’s own men and women to help entertain their comrades in arms’. Uniformed women march at the front of the stage, with the Union Jack and American Flag held aloft. The audience applaud and cheer. Next, eleven seated dancing girls perform on stage to further applause. A comedy scene elicits more cheering before the ‘patriotic’ finale.

III. ‘Tito’s Patriots Return to Fight for Yugoslavia’ Student nurses of Marshal Tito’s Yugoslavian armies parade before wounded partisan soldiers in Italy. Shots of the wounded soldiers, included a smiling 13-year old boy, wounded in action. The men board a ship to return to Yugoslavia and ‘take up the fight for their country’. The camera shows their decrepit footwear. The men smile and smoke, before the film shows a shot of their flag. The group of men and women aboard the ship cheer and wave up at the camera.

IV. ‘Allies feed and Clothe Refugees from War Zones’ In Naples, Italy, Italian civilian refugees walk through the streets, carrying possessions on the head. They gather in the street. Shots of children, babies and the elderly. Next the work of the Allied Control Commission in Italy in supplying clothing, most notably for children, and finally food. The refugees sit together and eat.

V. ‘Enemy U-Boats Fail to stop Convoys Supplying Britain’ Aerial shots of a huge railroad marshalling yard at an Eastern port in North America. Supplies and war materials are loaded onto a ship. Shot of the glistening sea. Then firing as a U-Boat is spotted (the camera shakes). The commentary sheet explains that ‘the tender sends another would-be raider to the bottom’.

Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel.

Notes

Sound: International edition - music and sound, but no voiceover.