UNITED NEWS [Series Title]

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  • Title: UNITED NEWS [Series Title]
  • Film Number: UNY 131
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel, featuring airfield construction on Saipan for the operation of United States Army Air Forces' B-29 heavy bombers, the retirement of US Secretary of State Cordell Hull, an aviation demonstration of a C-82 Packet and B-17 airborne lifeboat, US Navy sailors receiving their mail at sea, and Japanese aircraft shot down over Leyte in the Philippines.
  • Description: Part 1: United News main titles. 'Saipan: base for the B-29's'. Map of the western Pacific showing China, Japan, Philippines and Saipan. Line of tents. Two American engineers, one white and the other black, discuss a blueprint (the black soldier is a Master Sergeant). Two black American surveyors at work on the site of the new airfield for B-29s of 21st Bomber Command. Boring a hole for blasting. Pressing a plunger to detonate charges. Quarrying charges detonating. View of the quarry. Cranes and bulldozers at work. Quarried stone is trucked away. Milling the stone. Tarmacking the runway. Rolling the runway. Three United States Army Air Forces officers, including General Arnold, at Bolling Field. He meets the crew of the first B-29 to depart for Saipan. The crew wait to be inspected. A crewman chalks a lengthy message on a bomb 'To the warlords of Japan we have not forgotten - the B-29s will remind you again and again and again!!!'. B-29 in flight. A B-29 comes in to land. Men watch. B-29 taxiing. Another B-29 landing; its tail is marked with an 'A' and a black hollow square. USAAF officers including General Haywood Hansell are greeted next to a B-29. Map of western Pacific; a wedge illustrates the range of the B-29, covering all of Japan. B-29, marked T-square-7, in flight over water. Passing overhead. Domestic interior at Long Island, New York, with two young children (a boy and a baby) and a woman on a sofa; a radio microphone stands in front of them and a photograph of General Emmet O'Donnell on a side table. Close-up O'Donnell. The boy, holding a copy of the Daily Mirror newspaper with the headline 'Tokyo Bombed By B-29s', turns to his father's photograph and says 'Nice job Dad!'. Part 2: 'Secretary Hull, retiring, honored by countrymen'; Cordell Hull at his desk. With President Roosevelt and the cabinet. At the Dumbarton Oaks conference. Further shots of Hull at different events. Hull shaking hands with Edward Stettinius, his successor. A gala dinner in Hull's honour, decorated with large portraits of him. He receives a standing ovation. Close-up of a plaque of a humanitarian award presented by the Variety Club. Stettinius speaks of the need for 'each of us to keep his shoulder to the wheel constantly, steadfastly, until the task is done' and of the need for international institutions and cooperation. Applause. Part 3: 'Latest aviation news'; a six-wheeled M8 Greyhound armoured car drives slowly up a ramp into the hold of a United States Army Air Forces C-82 Packet transport aircraft. A half-track drives into a C-82 (serial 313202). The rear doors are closed. The aircraft takes off, giving a good view of its bulbous, unwieldy shape. An airborne lifeboat is secured beneath a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. The B-17 (serial 338882) takes off with the lifeboat stowed beneath its bomb bay. The B-17 in flight and releasing the lifeboat; the release is shown in slow motion and demonstrates the use of a static-line parachute to slow the boat as it falls. The boat hits the water. Airmen transfer from a rubber dinghy to the lifeboat. The men start the boat's motor. The sail. The lifeboat against a setting sun. Part 4: 'Mail for the sailors'; interior a warehouse sorting office with US Navy sailors sorting parcels. Aboard ship with sailors carrying mail sacks. A fine view of the destroyer USS Pritchett (DD-561) alongside the camera vessel; a signaller on the bridge is using a Morse lamp. Sailors on deck in heavy seas. A sack of mail is transferred from the camera ship to another. Sailors read their mail. Part 5: 'Enemy planes shot down in Leyte battle'; distant shots of US warships with anti-aircraft fire bursting in the sky. Japanese planes fall in flames. A Japanese aircraft, descending slowly, strikes a small American ship. Wide shot as the stricken ship burns with sailors from the camera vessel watching. On land a half-track named 'Stinky' passes camera. Artillery bombardment by 155mm guns. Men at work laying pierced steel planking (PSP) at Tacloban airfield. MacArthur watches progress, accompanied by another three-star general. P-38 Lightning fighters pass overhead at low altitude. MacArthur watches. Four P-38s pass overhead.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: UNY 131
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-12-01
  • Production Country: United States of America
  • Production Details: Office of War Information (Sponsor) United Newsreel Corporation (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: United States Army Air Force, 21st Bomber Command (regiment/service) Arnold, Henry H (person) Hansell, Haywood Shepherd (person) O'Donnell, Emmett (person) United States Navy, USS PRITCHETT, destroyer (1943) (regiment/service) MacArthur, Douglas (person) Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (person)
  • Keywords: Allied Air Offensive 1942-1945, Japan, Pacific War 1941-1945, Second World War (event) Philippines Campaign 1944-1945, Pacific War 1941-1945, Second World War (event) United States Home Front 1939-1945 (theme) United States Air Forces 1939-1945 (theme) United States Navy 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 953 ft; Running time: 11 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    UNY 131

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