♪ [music] ♪
From platforms built to duplicate decks of troop transports, United States Marines rehearse
invasion tactics they've already been called upon to use.
Scrambling down cargo nets into assault boats, they go to establish bridgeheads upon some
enemy beach.
[explosions]
Soldiers of land, sea, and air, theirs is the tradition first to fight.
A role they've played for 165 years.
Called the most versatile troops in the world, they bring their own tanks ashore,
perfecting the technique of mechanized warfare under battle conditions similar to their landings
in the Pacific.
[explosions]
Today, the words "The Marines Have Landed" have a special significance.
For somewhere in the South Pacific, Navy transports are nosing their way armed to the teeth, anti-aircraft
guns on the alert, decks loaded with those same United States Marines ready now for real action.
♪ [music] ♪
Transporting supplies and equipment thousands of miles from their home bases, their immediate
objective, strategic outposts on the road to Australia.
After months of training in just this sort of landing operation, the Marines set the
stage for the attack that put the Japanese on the defensive.
[waves crashing]
♪ [music] ♪
Welcomed by young and old alike, the Devil Dogs, as they're called, are at home in any climate.
Admiral Byrd, the famous American polar explorer, is with the landing party as ancient tribal
chieftains come to greet the officers.
♪ [music] ♪
Every modern device is used to speed the unloading.
For peaceful though this tropical paradise may appear, this is a vital theater of war
in the Pacific.
Today garrisoning their bases for the first American offensive of the war, the Marines
are living up to the tradition of the core, "Always First To Fight."
♪ [music] ♪
The U.S. Navy speeds the building of giant, non-rigid airships.
To special women workers is entrusted the handmade construction of the bags.
♪ [music] ♪
This is what they call walking air into the finished bag.
Now it's ready for final inspection.
Spotlights inside and out probe the surface for the smallest possible leak.
Gondolas and motors constructed in separate shops are wheeled in and attached.
The finished ship, newest of a vast fleet.
Blimp patrols spell death to enemy submarines and the U.S. Navy is on the job.
♪ [music] ♪
The United States solves the wartime problem of transporting oil within the country.
The plan, to supply pumping stations and tank cars by additional pipelines direct
from the wells.
Already, such networks spread across many states.
This is the newest, the world's longest, a 550-mile pipeline stretching from Texas to Illinois.
A distance equal to that between Marseilles and Rome.
[steam hissing]
Welded by sections right in the field, the carrier will have a capacity of 700,000 barrels a day.
An ingenious device wraps the pipe with a protective covering that's said
to preserve it for a hundred years.
[mechanical noise]
With equipment like this, American engineers get things done in a hurry.
♪ [music] ♪
Forty-eight days to build a ship.
That's a world record and here are some of the sponsors ready for a mass launching.
Six cargo ships and two destroyers christened in one shipyard within 24-hours.
[cheering]
[woman screaming]
Building a bridge of ships to win the war.
A bridge of ships to ensure the peace.
♪ [music] ♪
Here is one of many vacation camps in the United States.
Camps where normal, healthy youngsters learn the meaning of freedom under the Stars and Stripes.
♪ [music] ♪
Most of the children at this camp are Teutonic types, children of German-born parents.
But the land of their adoption salutes them as Americans.
Unregimented by state rule, they are free to romp and play like any other American kids
on vacation.
[splash]
[applause]
And they invest their pennies in war stamps to help their
country win these privileges for all children.
♪ [music] ♪
Somewhere in California, the first all-Filipino regiment in the U.S. Army.
Newly recruited, these grim, determined sons of the Philippines march with but a single
purpose in life, to avenge their brothers who fought and died for General MacArthur.
♪ [music] ♪
With their own Major Fajardo, second in command, these adopted sons of America prove able soldiers.
[yelling]
In small patrols, they quickly learn the tactics of modern warfare.
[explosions]
Emerging from foxholes like those in which perished the heroes of Bataan, they prove
born fighters eager for action.
Swinging the dreaded bolo knives of the Philippines jungle, they work for the day when they will
help free their homeland from the invader.
♪ [music] ♪
Flying Tigers, the famous American volunteer group, wing their way across China for the
last time as volunteers.
For eight months, these Chinese signs have been the only insignia of the most spectacular
and efficient fighting force in aviation history.
♪ [music] ♪
Now wearing the emblem of their native land, the U.S. Air Force, they become regular officers
with American flying forces fighting in China.
A Jap flag for every plane shot down.
Two hundred in less than four months.
Leader of the volunteers, Brigadier General Chennault, now promoted to command all American
flying forces in China.
Here, he outlines the field of operations.
With flags and souvenirs, a grateful Chinese people pay simple tribute to the Airmen who
have done so much to clear the skies over their embattled land.
♪ [music] ♪
Clearing the skies for much-needed supplies, supplies which in turn are exchanged for the
valuable raw products of China.
♪ [music] ♪
Losing no time, the new command plots the strategy of attack.
By an elaborate far-flung system of Chinese listening posts, word is flashed, "Japanese
planes on the way," and the red ball goes up over the field, signal for pilots to take to their ships.
The Flying Tigers going into action for the first time in the uniforms of Uncle Sam.
[engines reviving]
Newly assigned pilots go with the veterans.
Schooled in the fighting tactics, Chennault has proven superior.
Roaring aloft, they seek the enemy.
Their flying General still at the controls.
[planes flying]
The new American Air Force over China, carrying on the tradition of the famous Flying Tigers.
♪ [music] ♪