Big Picture: Atomic Battlefield

Year Published: ca. 1921

Creator: National Archives and Records Administration

Format: 16mm/video file

Description: National Archives and Records Administration ARC Identifier 2569664 / Local Identifier 111-TV-396 Big Picture: Atomic Battlefield DVD Copied by Katie Filbert - Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center. (ca. 1974 - 05/15/1984). Cameras of "THE BIG PICTURE" focus on Desert Rock, Nevada -- In this issue of THE BIG PICTURE, the camera swings to the barren flats near Desert Rock, Nevada, where in the latest atomic blast, one of the new Army's Pentomic organizations was actually employed in the field in conjunction with an atomic detonation. Since this is the age of the atom, the importance of the Army and its mission--seizing and retaining control of the land -- takes on a new meaning. The land may he scarred and seared by weapons which stun the power of reason, but so long as it remains vital to victory it is the task of the soldier to secure it and hold it. The battlefield of the future, if it exists, may well be an atomic battlefield. As is explained in this film presentation, that brutal fact has forced upon the Army the absolute necessity of testing both men and tactical concepts under atomic conditions. In test blasts over the last few years, the Army has learned much about the response of the individual soldier. Out of the special needs imposed by atomic conditions -- the need for wide dispersion of forces, for instance --the structure of a combat force in the field has been developed to provide a mobility and a fluidity which troops in warfare have never had before.