00:00.
00:39The End
00:59What makes a battle?
01:01This is what it takes to make a battle.
01:04These are American supplies out of the factories, foundries, mines harvested from the soil.
01:09Pouring in from all sections, all states, from the East and the South, from the Midwest and the West.
01:17Supplies, equipment, weapons, made with one purpose and one purpose only.
01:23These are the factors of war, the backbone of battle.
01:28Take them away, destroy them, diminish them in number or quality,
01:33fail to replace them in time, and first the soldier and then the nation.
01:38Faces defeat, destruction, and death.
01:42Without them, no battle is possible.
01:45You, the millions of workers, men and women, young and old, high school kids and grandmothers,
01:50Democrats and Republicans, Protestants, Catholics and Jews, white and colored,
01:56You, who make them, know their purpose.
02:00Give them to our fighting men and you give them the overwhelming power of the world's greatest industrial democracy.
02:06The power we are now using to rid the world of the Nazis.
02:10The power that will break the empire that produced the Jap executioners and murderers.
02:16Here, we are combat loading our transport.
02:25American sea power, probably the greatest naval force ever assembled,
02:30heads for our first land penetration of Japanese territory, the Marshall Islands,
02:35center gate in Jap fortress Pacific.
02:39Timed with new blows at northern Paramashiru and southern Rabao,
02:43the invasion of the 32 Marshall Atolls stands as a masterpiece of amphibious strategy.
02:49For 75 days, our land and sea-based bombers blasted the outer islands.
02:56This was the first battle mission for many of these aircraft carriers.
03:00But our later tactics depended on them, depended on their softening blows.
03:05This was the first round in a finished fight.
03:23Remember the look of those Jap hangars.
03:24You'll see them again later.
03:26You'll see them again later.
03:45The Jap sent up planes trying to drive us off.
03:48But the attempt ended in spectacular suicide, like this.
04:20This bombardment led the Japs to expect our attack
04:22attack on the fringe of the marshals.
04:24But our blow was struck at the very center, the Kwajalein Atoll.
04:29We struck at both ends of the 70-mile atoll simultaneously.
04:33While the 7th Infantry headed for the main island of Kwajalein in the south,
04:37here in the north, the 4th Marines prepared to invade Roy and Namur.
04:43The battle wagon blasted Roy and Namur with 5,000 tons of anger, twice as much as Berlin
04:50was getting at just about the same time.
05:02The men climbed down to the assault craft and wait for the signal for H-hour.
05:11There it is.
05:31There it is.
05:38There it is.
05:57There it is.
06:08Communication posts, coordinating the battles on land, sea, and air.
06:14They started straight in, covering their advance with mortar fire.
06:18On a half-mile wide coral island, there's no room for complicated tactics and flanking.
06:23There's just infighting, shell hole hopping across flat empty sand with no cover.
06:30Each man fights his own war against the Japs, hidden out there somewhere in the rubble.
06:56From the start, the jig was obviously up for the Japs on Roy.
07:00Germans would have quit right away, but Japs are Japs.
07:05They crept behind wreckage and took pot shot there.
07:08They dug into the ground like rats.
07:11It was a matter of finding out where they were hiding and blowing them apart with bangalores
07:15and grenades.
07:17There they go, to their Jap ancestors.
07:28The complete job on Roy took five and one half hours.
07:31The stuff you see here and the stuff you're going to see was brand new, secretly assembled
07:36in depots for this particular battle.
07:39It was new because the older stuff gets used up, burned up, or worn out.
07:43And because the faster we move, the more stuff we need.
07:47Each success leads to another and larger battle, which cannot be won, cannot even be launched,
07:53until the mountains of equipment earmarked for it are actually at dockside.
07:58While the Marines were organizing their supply dumps here at Roy and Namur, the 7th Infantry
08:04were riding in for the kill 50 miles south at Kwajalein.
08:08Kwajalein was a bigger island than Roy and Namur, more powerfully defended.
08:12It was harder for our planes and naval guns to level it completely, easier for the Japs
08:17to hang on.
08:19Before the direct assault, our tactics were to flank Kwajalein.
08:23We landed artillery on the two small islands on either side and blasted at close range.
08:30We brought artillery shells ashore.
08:48It took only a few moments of firing to empty these shell cases.
08:5460 seconds after the barrage was lifted, the infantry hit the beach at Kwajalein.
09:14One more Japs kill box.
09:27Sometimes they'd go crazy, try making a break for nowhere, like that.
09:59It was the same kind of dirty sergeant as by a astronaut.
10:01business, smoking and burning and blasting them out dead or alive. Only it was tougher.
10:08Out of 10,000 Japs, only 264 surrendered. When they did, they came out dazed and shaking.
10:24This Jap made signs indicating that there were ten other Imperial Marines still living
10:28in that pillbox. We can't blame them much for not believing what the loudspeaker was telling
10:33them, that we treat them fairly under the rules of the Geneva Convention. The guy was
10:38nuts enough to believe that Japan was going to dictate peace in the White House. He would
10:42hardly expect him to believe the truth when he heard it, or even when he saw it, as we
10:47fixed up the wounded. These sullen human beings were in terror that they'd receive the same
10:53faith they had given our boys at the dance. Instead, we gave them cigarettes, food and
11:00water. Soft, huh? The record shows who's soft. We just happen to be civilized. That's the
11:09difference.
11:12We told you to remember those hangars. This is what it took to make a battle. Burn, twisted,
11:19broken equipment. Stuff made for battle and destroyed in battle. You've got to be able
11:25to lose it. Lose it all. Make it all again. Keep on making it, no matter what. For that
11:29last battle. That final battle. Jap pillboxes, five feet of concrete. It took 16 inches of American
11:39firepower to let the air in. Anti-aircraft guns, gun mounts, shore guns. Radio tower that flashed
11:49the last message to Tokyo that came too late. And this also is what it took to make a battle.
12:29And this. And this. And this. And this. And this.
12:57But none of these men will be forgotten. This American will not go to his grave on Kwajalein
13:03unidentified. He'll be remembered too. The brave Marines and soldiers who fell here have comrades
13:15who will never forget. Nor let the murderers in Tokyo forget. Yes, there'll be more battles.
13:24Harder and fiercer battles. Until all these honored dead are avenged with a terrible justice. And
13:30from home, from the millions who make the stuff of battles, must come the power for this justice.
13:55in moments of crisis involving the safety of our native land, the American people have
14:01invariably rallied against the danger with courage, faith, and resolution. For the past
14:08two years we have been in one of these moments of crisis, perhaps the greatest in our history. On the
14:14battlefield and on the home front, men and women are daily making great sacrifices so that freedom
14:21and our way of life may be preserved. There is now in progress the fifth war loan drive to raise
14:27money
14:27so as to ensure that this conflict will be brought to the speediest possible conclusion and with the least
14:34lost in lives. Complete success in that drive will meet the acclaim of the forces in the field and will
14:40be
14:41renewed proof that all Americans are one solid phalanx of determination in this great war. All of us
14:49profoundly trust that soon the world may be restored to a just peace. Until we can, with God's help,
14:54bring about that happy realization of our dreams. Each of us must seek incessantly for ways and means
15:01by which the value of our services to our country may be enhanced. Right now we can do so by
15:06buying bonds.
15:08Let's make this particular victory a quick and decisive one.
15:18Back the attack. Buy more than before.
15:24The
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