American History In Video: United News, Release 26, 1942
United News, Release 26, 1942 from United Newsreel (Hollywood, CA: United Newsreel Corporation, 1942) 9:51.
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RG 208 UNITED NEWS ROLL 26 UNITED NEWS COPYRIGHT MCMXLIV UNITED NEWSREEL CORPORATION ROMMEL'S DEFEAT IN AFRICA
NARRATOR On the sands of Egypt , the British 8th Army prepares for what history will record as the as seventh battle of Libya. Planning the action, General Montgomery and Air Vice-Marshal Cunningham . For weeks the British prepared with a thoroughness bred of past experience. For weeks vast supplies and equipment have poured in from England and America . And as Britain's 8th army grows, is reinforced, not a supply ship reaches Rommel , so completely are Allied submarines and planes dominating the Mediterranean. Then, in the black hours before dawn, Montgomery gave the order to advance. Guns were first to blaze into action.
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NARRATOR Daybreak and squadrons of Allied fighter planes take to the skies the most powerful air fleet ever unleashed in the Middle East.
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NARRATOR Montgomery's armored might begins to roll. The British offensive is on en force. From the sky, American and RAF bombers blast the enemy across a 40- mile front, unleashing tons of high explosives on Rommel's surprised and reeling Afrikakorps.
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NARRATOR Relentlessly, United States bombers press home the attack, concentrating on troop transports and supply lines. Yankee bombardiers and Britons repaying the Nazis for the strafing of helpless civilians who once fled along the choked and bleeding roads of Belgium and France .
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NARRATOR In the desert, new tank destroyers far out-ranging the Nazi guns smash Rommel's vaunted ring of steel. The infantry breaks through. Scots of the reformed 51st Highlanders shattered in Europe now avenging their comrades. Tanks, guns, men, Canadians, British, Anzacs slashing the Nazi forces to ribbons(ph).
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NARRATOR So complete is allied air superiority that the Germans offer little resistance. Sailing above and through Nazi anti-aircraft fire the bombers shoot down Messerschmitts that challenge their advance.
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NARRATOR With devastating accuracy, bombs made in the USA spread havoc and destruction, take terrific toll of the shattered Nazi war machine. Outflanked, out-gunned, out- maneuvered.
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NARRATOR The roundup of prisoners. Dazed, shell-shocked Nazis, remnants of the once proud Afrikakorps, whole divisions of Italians abandoned by their German masters, gave up, begged to be captured.
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NARRATOR Pressing forward more than 35 miles a day the British advance becomes the rout of Rommel , advancing past battered tanks where so-called "Nazi supermen" died in frenzied flight. The desert's strewn with their dead. Here the Nazi goal of conquest is buried in the sands of Africa.
U.S. TROOPS ENTER FRENCH AFRICAN PORT OF ORAN
NARRATOR Gray dawn off the French North African port of Oran brings United Nations the best news yet. A gigantic American invasion force is landing. A second front is at hand. Scenes here in Oran are typical of successful occupations from Algiers on the Mediterranean to Casablanca on the Atlantic. Coastal guns guarding Oran and Mers-el-Kébir drop a few shells into the harbor, but everywhere French resistance is hardly more than a gesture.
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NARRATOR From transports standing off shore, United States troops observe the action, await the order to go in. They go in armored snub-nosed assault boats, well protected from fire.
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NARRATOR Wading ashore, the Americans establish beachheads exactly as planned months in advance.
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NARRATOR Supplies and equipment follow with a miracle of coordination and efficiency. Everything is carried out according to schedule. Losses to French shipping are slight. French casualties during sporadic engagements are treated by American first aid and navy doctors.
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NARRATOR The American entry into the historic city of Oran is a memorable event, for in seizing control of French strategic North African ports, the United States is striking the first blow toward bringing about the collapse of the Axis.
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NARRATOR Troops first bombard the natives with leaflets printed in French, bearing a message From President Roosevelt .
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NARRATOR Instructed to conduct themselves courteously toward the populace, the army takes over without incident.
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NARRATOR A French hero of another war is honored. Americans have always been friends of France . French soldiers await only the call from loyal countrymen to align themselves with forces against the Axis.
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NARRATOR Natives of Oran look with interest upon the Americans of whom they heard so much, gape with wonder as a signal corps trooper contacts his regiment by field telegraph. First to be seized are Oran's four airdromes. Paratroops took over Blida and Maison Blanche , the principal fields in Algiers . Consolidating their positions, United States mechanized units move quickly to cut railway lines and highways, to join United States forces in the northwest with the British in Libya . For with the Axis thrown out of Africa, one prong of Hitler's pincers to strangle the Middle East is utterly destroyed. Of far greater significance, when the United Nations holds North Africa, the Axis will be open to attack from Sicily to Murmansk . African oil tanks are in Allied hands. Power plants are taken over. Railway lines are operated by experts from America . Trucks can now haul supplies overland. Down the excellent coastal highway, American infantrymen swing along on the road to Tunisia , the last Axis stronghold in Africa.
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NARRATOR Opening phase of what military experts regard as a second front of major importance. The American occupation of North Africa may well prove to be the turning point of the war.
UNITED NEWS RG 208 UNITED NEWS ROLL 26
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ROMMEL'S DEFEAT IN AFRICA, 1942: 1. Allied planes and the British 8th Army attack German positions in Africa. German prisoners are massed. Gen. Montgomery and Adm. Cunningham. 2. U.S. Troops capture Oran, Algeria, are greeted by the citizens, and take French prisoners. The occupation forces at work.