Victory in Europe: A Tribute To Those Who Made It Possible.

I. 'VICTORY IN EUROPE- A TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE.' An item made almost entirely of brief stock shot sequences. United States Navy (USN) Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters run up their engines on the deck of an unidentified USN aircraft carrier. Aerial footage shows United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress bomber aircraft in flight. Russian infantry cross a water course armed with Karabin obr 1938g 7.62mm rifles and Pistolet-Pulemyot Shpagina obr 1941g 7.62mm sub-machine guns. Brief footage shows WPN commentators including Rex Keating. Troops wave from the stern of the Queen Mary which also has a banner reading "Log-Cabin Hotel" attached to its rails. Aerial footage shows an Allied convoy at sea. Brief interior footage shows the cockpit of a Short Sunderland flying boat. A Royal Air Force (RAF) Coastal Command Short Sunderland overflies a convoy of merchant ships. Royal Navy (RN) ratings drop magnetic/acoustic mines from the stern of an unidentified minelayer. Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) personnel disembark from a troopship at Liverpool Docks. Russian infantry march past the camera position carrying Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva obr 1940g (SVT-40) 7.62mm self loading rifles. United States (US) Army personnel parade through the streets of New York. General Jan C Smuts reviews a march past of South African troops. British Prime Minister Winston Spencer Churchill uses a Crusader tank as a saluting base to review a drive past by British Army M7 Priest self-propelled howitzers (US 105mm M2 howitzer). RAF pilots scramble from desert tent and run to tropicalised Hawker Hurricane fighters (Vokes tropical air filters). Aerial footage shows USAAF Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bombers flying in a defensive box formation. Stock shot footage shows the Allied bombing of Cassino Village (cf WPN 155). Brief footage shows the US/Australian parachute landings in the Markham River Valley in New Guinea (cf WPN 134 and 145). RAF crew members wearing Irvin leather flying jackets and shorts, disembark from a Vickers Wellington bomber at an undisclosed desert airfield. Brief footage show doctors and nurses at work in an operating theatre. Queen Elizabeth reviews a march past by members of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). Female forestry workers (lumberjills) are shown at work in a clearing. Female factory workers operate milling machinery. Brief footage shows female munitions workers. King George VI inspects an aero-engine factory (pre-war footage ?). Male and female working teams manufacture Thompson M1928 .45-inch sub-machine guns. British Army personnel load soft-skinned vehicles with crates of high explosives. Stuart M3 light tanks are loaded onto railway flatcars. Armoured car crews (Royal Air Force Regiment) run to waiting Beaverette armoured cars (Royal Air Force Regiment ?). A British infantry detachment practice fieldcraft in an area of sand dunes. Brief footage shows a bombed area of London and firefighters at work during the London Blitz (cf COI 943). King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit a bombed area of London. Winston Churchill is shown on a walking tour where he is accompanied by civilian crowds. Brief footage shows the Allied delegates at the Cairo (Sextant) Conference (cf WPN 136). Celebratory VE Day scenes from London and Moscow are shown. A USN Douglas TDB Devastator torpedo bomber lands on the deck of an unidentified carrier in the USN Pacific area of operations. Brief footage shows Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in flight. British Commandos carrying Lee-Enfield No.IV .303-inch rifles and Bren .303-inch light machine guns disembark from landing craft (undisclosed location). Members of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) move ashore on an LVT-2 Water Buffalo (landing vehicle tracked).

Notes

Associated material: a negative copy of this film is held at WPN 299.

Documentation: the English script is numbered no 208A