PACIFIC MENACE

this was the invasion of Luzon as lingayen gulf resounded to the park of naval guns laying down a preliminary bombardment Jeff plaintiff planes are fought off but not without damage to our invasion fleet when LST receives a mortal him but following the offshore battle the landing craft streak ashore to land almost unopposed among the men of general Kruger 6 Army for many who knew well every rich and stream of Luzon strategic battleground the equipment piles up for the push inland loyal Filipinos assist our officers with information the drive gets underway for San Carlos and vanilla another spearhead moves by water to dagupan we're welcoming natives already fly the american flag in gratitude for their deliverance after three long years this American territory is once more in American hands one of the most spectacular developments of today's warfare is the rocket the significance of the rocket and its place in the naval program is explained by the chief of the Bureau of ordnance Rear Admiral George F fuzzy rockets have been developed by the army and navy in cooperation with the government's office of scientific research and development although rockets are one of the oldest forms of firepower experiments which led to the development of the modern pipes began in nineteen forty and research expenditures reached three million dollars per month at its peak production will total approximately one hundred million dollars monthly and were utilized the services of nearly 500 plants the beach rocket with which amphibious craft are equipped carries the wallop of 105 millimeter shell once ashore now fired from land vehicles the Rockets are a highly maneuverable and effective weapon in laying down intense barrages expanding the beachhead having no recoil rockets do not require heavy installations and therefore lend themselves to air attack in fact experience has shown that rockets are more accurate when fired from a plane has seen in these slow motion pictures than when fired from the ground as all forces move ever westward in the Pacific the intensity of aerial warfare mounts for now not just a heavy bombers but torpedo bombers dive bombers and even fighters are striking direct blows at the inner defenses of Japan home to a carrier deck comes a fighting Corsair its control shot up something for the mechs to work on if they've got the spares here comes a Hellcat with its tail shut up the pilot is saved but another Hellcat will be needed there comes an Avenger with an empty fuel tank watch the pilot brother that was close but not everyone is as lucky this tbm got back but there isn't much left of it a 20-millimeter shell just missed the pilot but it took the life of his gunner the ship's company silently gathers on the fantail to consign the body of the gunner to the sea in the plane in which he gave his life this is a story of the waste of War of the waste of time effort manpower materials story of our defeat in China the stones for this airfield were brought by hand from a riverbed five miles away the workers were identified by an indelible stamp on their wrists there were 70 thousand of them employed in the building of this one air view you earth and water were used to hold the stones in place they didn't have cement water was pumped by age old methods they levelled off the runways of stone then packed them down with a 10-ton roller roller was pulled by 200 people manpower and woman power did the jobs of horsepower in building the airfields in China everything had to be blown in oven every gallon of hundred octane gasoline traveled thousands of miles by sea and air drain from 55-gallon drums into a long trough the gas was pumped to storage tanks from which the bombers fuel the empties were left to rust casualties had to be blown out first but the Japanese couldn't be stopped from the north than from the east they advanced cutting china in half nanning quail in one after another American air bases in China had to be abandoned tires were carefully hoarded in retreat and droppable fuel tanks everything that could be was loaded into transports but there was only space for a few most important things among the last to go with a fighter planes but the work and toil of months was left behind shops angles barracks fuel tanks and runways had to be destroyed the labor of 70,000 workers went up in smoke unable to be flown out this fighter plane was set afire the flag came down so ends the story of waste and destruction in China of retreat before the Japanese once more we had too little too late