UNITED NEWS [Series Title]

Log in to create clips, download free screeners and save clips/films in Collections. Click here to find out more.


  • Title: UNITED NEWS [Series Title]
  • Film Number: UNY 147
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring American victory on Iwo Jima in the Pacific, the signing of an international pact by American nations in Mexico City, a United States Navy airstrike against the Japanese capital Tokyo, and advances by US First and Ninth Army on the Western Front into Germany.
  • Description: Part 1: No United News main titles. 'Marines raise flag over Iwo Jima'; on Iwo Jima a battery of United States Marine Corps field guns of 5th Marine Division; in the background rises Mount Suribachi. Shells falling on the summit of Suribachi. Guns in action. A light vessel, marked '56', firing in support. A destroyer, very close to shore, firing a heavy barrage from its 20mm, 40mm and main guns. The 20mm fire hitting the shore. Marine infantry on the beach, staying very low. A group of men digging hard as smoke shells (?) land in the background. A Marine (a medic?) bandages another man; the cameraman is lying flat on the ground. A wounded man is helped along by two others, who carry him by using his rifle as a seat; the three are seen in black-and-white silhouette at dawn or dusk. A stretcher case is carried past. At a dressing station a man on a stretcher is treated. A line of American dead in sleeping bags or under ponchos; the camera keeps a respectful distance. A telephoto shot shows booted feet protruding from under the ponchos. Mount Suribachi with drifting smoke. A US Navy divebomber overhead; it releases four small bombs and the camera follows them to impact. Further shots following falling bombs. Silhouetted troops advancing. A rock face with two cave entrances (?); an American soldier, apparently nearby, scrambles along a slope before an explosion throws up rock and smoke. A bombed-out Japanese position. View from Suribachi with American naval vessels and landing craft below. The Stars and Stripes, on a long pole, is erected. A very wide shot shows the flag flying above Suribachi, visible as a small dot. Part 2: 'American nations sign pact of Chapultepec'; interior conference hall at Mexico City with delegates seated. Nameplates identify the various countries in attendance and a circular logo on the wall is inscribed 'Mexico 1945'. The pact is signed by a series of dignitaries, including Pedro Veloso (Brazilian Foreign Minister?) and Edward Stettinius, American Secretary of State. Part 3: 'Navy planes smash the Tokyo area'; view of the flight deck of a United States Navy aircraft carrier of Task Force 58 at sea in gale conditions. A deck hand walks across the deck, leaning forward heavily against the wind. An anemometer spinning fast on a mast vane. A Grumman Hellcat taking off (two triangle insignia possibly that of USS Bennington). A Chance-Vought Corsair, marked with a white band marked '130' across its tail, takes off. More aircraft take off, including an aerial view of a carrier. Aerial footage; aircraft in flight (an upward-pointing arrow is seen, suggesting the aircraft are from USS Bunker Hill). Approaching the coast. Camera gun footage of Japanese aircraft being shot down, and of strafing and rocket attacks against coastal installations and airfields. Aerial view of a Grumman Avenger marked with a white vertical arrow (on its tail and '308' on its fuselage). View of Mount Fuji. Part 4: 'Allies overrun German positions in big push'; American troops (of First Army?) march along a street in a badly damaged town. Men and a jeep pass; in the background a mortar crew fires their weapon (in the same direction as the men are walking). Wide shot of a field dotted with a number of foxholes. American troops in a line of foxholes (apparently recently dug and holes rather than finished trenches). Two Sherman medium tanks firing their main guns. A large tracked carrier passes. Light vehicles of 9th Army cross a pontoon bridge (across the Roer/Rur?). An American medic runs across a floating pontoon footbridge. American troops pass the bomb-damaged Linnich cathedral amongst piles of rubble. An American soldier armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle fires into a cellar window. At Juelich/Jülich American troops crossing a bridge over a tunnel; its entrance is marked with a German eagle and a damaged metal inscription (a German Army facility at the fortress?). American troops looking at two German corpses. Close-ups of the German dead. Close-ups of young-looking German prisoners. A column of German prisoners under guard; they appear to be fully clothed and some still have part of their webbing. Close-up group of German civilian refugees. High panning view of a bombed-out town, parts of which have been completely levelled. General Eisenhower arrives on a tour of inspection with two American major-generals. Close-up Eisenhower. Eisenhower and Lieutenant-General Simpson, commander 9th Army, at the entrance to the tunnel. A group of civilian refugees and German prisoners. View from the guard tower of a camp, with a view of the triple wire fence and wooden shacks. American medics at the camp gates; they wear large white badges on their upper arms and greet a group of civilian women, apparently Russian and Polish forced labourers. The women with the American medics; the women all appear in reasonable health. Close-up civilian woman. A group of civilian men and women are addressed by an American soldier. Close-up three civilians (two men and a woman) in a close embrace. Two smiling civilian men. A group clean cooking utensils in the open, with close-up of a young woman. View of the camp from guard tower showing huts and a zigzagging line of trenches within the fence. Discarded boots. Views of the fences and a collapsed hut. Guard tower. Pan along the fence, then tilt down to a dead German lying just outside the wire. Very short United News end title.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: UNY 147
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-03-23
  • Production Country: United States of America
  • Production Details: Office of War Information (Sponsor) United Newsreel Corporation (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: United States Marine Corps, 5th Marine Division (regiment/service) United States Navy (regiment/service) Stettinius, Edward R (person) United States Navy, Task Force 58 (regiment/service) United States Navy, USS BENNINGTON, aircraft carrier (1944) (regiment/service) United States Navy, BUNKER HILL (USS), aircraft carrier (1942) (regiment/service) Eisenhower, Dwight David (person) Simpson, William Hood (person) United States Army, 1st Army (regiment/service) United States Army, 9th Army (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Battle of Iwo Jima 1945, Pacific War 1941-1945, Second World War (event) Iwo Jima, Japan (geography) Mexico City, Mexico (geography) Tokyo, Honshu, Japan (geography) Bombing of Tokyo, Japan, Pacific War 1941-1945, Second World War (event) Jülich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (geography) Linnich, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 886 ft; Running time: 10 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    UNY 147

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:
Register