WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 72 [Main Title]

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  • Title: WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 72 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: WPN 72
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.
  • Description: I. 'MIDDLE EAST.' Troops from the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) arrive at an undisclosed location in the Middle East carrying kitbags and .30 inch Enfield M1917 (US) rifles. USAAF troops queue for a meal from a desert canteen wearing the newly introduced M1 helmet. USAAF troops assemble for physical training lead by an instructor standing on a podium. Coloured USAAF men perform physical jerks wearing vests and M1 helmets, they later give an impromptu demonstration of "Some real classy jitterbug stuff straight from Harlem." Wendell Willkie (US special envoy) visits a United States Ordnance Workshop specialising in tank repair. Willkie examines a US Army M3 General Grant medium tank and chats to US soldiers present in the workshop. Wendell Willkie is introduced to General Bernard L Montgomery and they chat informally before inspecting a captured German 15cm sFH 13 auf Gw Lorraine Schlepper self propelled gun. Willkie views with interest a knocked out German Pz Kpfw III(J?) with a short 5cm L/42 gun. Two Italian Army prisoners stand to attention as they speak to Willkie and Montgomery presumably with the services of an interpreter. A captured German Fieseler Fi 156 Storch aircraft in RAF markings taxies to a standstill carrying US special envoy Wendell Willkie on a visit to a desert forward landing ground of the RAF. Willkie meets aircrew from Britain, the United States and South Africa and has Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham (C-in-C Western Desert Air Force) as host during his visit. The commentary states that Willkie is "Well satisfied with what he had seen." II. 'NEWS FROM AMERICA.' A lengthy sequence apparently showing the first test flight of a United States Martin Mars flying boat. The commentary outline the aircraft's specifications and stresses its size in comparison to other flying boats. The commentary outlines the United State's developing air transport orientation due to the far-flung nature of the battle fronts and the ravages of the German U-boats on merchant shipping. US infantrymen drive Jeeps up loading ramps into the cargo hold of a Curtiss C-46 Commando transport aircraft, described by the commentary as being the world's largest troop carrier and the one hundred per cent counter to the submarine war in the Atlantic. A C-47 takes off and is shown in flight. Elsewhere, newly trained United States Army Air Force (USAAF) air gunners receive their sergeants stripes at a mass presentation. The officer commanding the gunnery school gives a graduation speech to the assembled men from a podium. The commentary states that mass bombing attacks, so long in preparation, are soon to be on their way over scenes of USAAF gunners posing in the interior of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft with their defensive .50-in Browning heavy machine guns. A gunner demonstrates the entry procedure to the ball-turret of a B-17. USAAF flying trainees don shearling A3 leather trousers and B6 flying jackets in a demonstration of high altitude flying clothing. The warmly-clad flying trainees walk from their crew room to North American AT-6 Texan training aircraft for an instructional sortie, the commentary erroneously describing the aircraft as "High altitude fighters." Air to air footage shows T-6 Texans in formation flight as the commentary stresses that it is in the air that the United Nations seem best equipped to "deal death blows to the Nazis' New Order".
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: Yes
  • Object_Number: WPN 72
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1942-09-21
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Ministry of Information, Middle East (Production sponsor) War Pictorial News (Production company) Martin, Charles (Production individual) Keating, Rex1910-02-142005-01British newsreel commentator, WW2 period (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Willkie, Wendell Lewis (person) Montgomery, Bernard Law (person) Coningham, Arthur (person) United States Army Air Forces (regiment/service) United States Army (regiment/service) Royal Air Force (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: society, United States military - sustenance (object name) operations, United States military - maintenance (object name) prisoners of war, Italian - custody (object name) Egypt & El Alamein (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: French & Arabic
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 829 ft; Running time: 9 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    WPN 72

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