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National Archives
Material in the collection of the National
Archives and Records Administration
NARA has posted
the following description of materials in its collection, at
http://www.archives.gov/publications/ref-info-papers/70/part-2.html.
For more
information about the motion pictures and sound recordings described
here, contact the Special Media Archives Services Division, Motion
Picture, Sound, and Video Unit, National Archives at College Park, 8601
Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740. Telephone: 301-713-7060 Email:
mopix@nara.gov
For more information about the records
identified here as 'still pictures', contact the Special Media Archives
Services Division, Still Picture Unit, National Archives at College
Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740. Telephone: 301-837-0555
Email: stillpix@nara.gov
RG 111 Records
of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer
111.1 Still Pictures. The records include
approximately 200,000 photographs taken by the Signal Corps relating to
World War II. The photographs record every aspect of U.S. Army
activities, from fighting battles to mundane functions abroad and in the
United States. Among the subjects pictured are battles, U.S. civilians
and the war effort, and Allied and Axis military personnel and
civilians. Photographs of important personages of the period, such as
Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, Fuhrer and Reich
Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Emperor
Hirohito, and Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Patton, Bernard
Montgomery, Charles de Gaulle, and Erwin Rommel, are also in the
records. Additional photographs show Army training programs, maneuvers,
weapons, vehicles, military bases and support facilities, medical care,
and various ceremonies. Also in the records are 17 scrapbooks containing
newspaper clippings of photographs taken or transmitted by the Signal
Corps and released to news agencies for publicity purposes, and 412
filmstrips used to train military and War Department personnel. (SC, C,
MP, NC, FS, SCA, T, O, P, PC)
111.2 Motion Pictures. One of the most
valuable sources of motion picture records for the study of the physical
reality of the war is the Signal Corps series of 35mm black and white
unedited film known as the Army Depository Copy file. Most of the 10,000
reels in this series are from the war period. The footage, which covers
both Pacific and European war theaters, has been a valuable source for
many compilation films and documentaries. The emphasis is on ground
operations, but the series also includes extensive naval activities.
Personalities, equipment, concentration camps, proceedings of war crimes
trials, ceremonies and reviews, army units, and geographic locations are
only a few of the larger general subjects. This footage has been well
cataloged, on a shot-by-shot basis, and adequately indexed and
cross-referenced.
111.3 The War Department made extensive use of
newsreel-type reports for officers and enlisted men. Combat developments
were reported from all battlefronts in Staff Film Reports, originally
designated for the information of commanding generals and their
immediate staffs. One issue, for example, reports on the Battle of
France, the Allied fleet in the Indian Ocean, and operations in Guam.
Many issues use captured enemy footage. NARA has 46 issues, each running
an average of 25 minutes. Combat Bulletins were given general
distribution in the Army; NARA has 34 issues, each running about 20
minutes. In many cases, footage from Staff Film Reports, with restricted
material deleted, was used in Combat Bulletins. A typical issue shows
the invasion of France, operations in northern France and in Burma, and
a Japanese attack on a U.S. task force.
111.4 Among the film records of the Signal
Corps are 50 issues of the Army-Navy Screen Magazine released during the
war years. Averaging about 20 minutes each, the issues reported general
news to the troops, news from battlefronts, and news from home on such
subjects as sports, human interest, and award ceremonies. Film Bulletins
reported new military developments for the information of officers and
enlisted men. The approximately 200 issues held by NARA show ordnance
testing, gun carriers, wire testing, barrage balloons, procedures for
landing operations, and tests conducted during the war at Aberdeen
Proving Ground, Fort Belvoir, and Fort Bragg. Some issues describe
German tactics and weapons.
111.5 The War Department used the
documentary-film method for detailed treatment of specific subjects. The
small series of Combat Reports contains two of the best World War II
documentary films, "San Pietro" and "The Stilwell Road." "San Pietro,"
directed by Capt. John Huston, shows combat from close range, revealing
the heavy toll in lives resulting from American efforts to capture the
Italian town from the Germans. "The Stilwell Road" was planned as a
filmed record of the construction of the Ledo Road, later known as the
Stilwell Road, linking Allied forces in Burma and China. It is also the
story of retreat through Burmese jungles and of efforts to supply China
by air and at the same time recapture Burma in order to set up airbases
and proceed with road construction. The other films in this series are
"Liberation of Rome" and "Appointment in Tokyo," the latter on General
MacArthur's operations from the fall of Corregidor to the surrender
ceremonies in Tokyo Bay.
111.6 The Signal Corps Miscellaneous series,
as described in a Signal Corps catalog, contains "subjects which do not
fit into any other series and the doctrine does not completely conform
to approved Department of the Army doctrine." These films generally
provide a lengthy, detailed treatment of their subjects. Included are a
newsreel compilation of the bombing of the U.S.S. Panay; short subjects
showing Army activities between World Wars I and II; and incentive films
encouraging soldiers to buy war bonds. "Sky Blitz," using captured
German film, shows the Nazi attack on Holland; "Report From the
Aleutians," directed by Capt. John Huston, shows Army life and Army Air
Forces activities in the Aleutians and includes a filmed record of an
attack on Japanese-held Kiska; and "War Department Report" is a general
report as of 1944 to warworkers on the logistics of a two-front war. One
of the most successful films in the Miscellaneous series is "The True
Glory." This Anglo-American production on the Allied invasion and
conquest of Western Europe used some of the more sophisticated
techniques in making documentary films, such as fast editing and
multivoiced commentary. Films in this series contain cartoons featuring
Private Snafu; discussions about Japanese Government, geography,
military, and education; reports of the first and second Quebec
conferences; and footage on the campaigns in North Africa.
111.7 The Miscellaneous series also includes
"Nuremberg," a documentary produced by the Office of Military Government
(U.S.), which reviews the Nazi rise to power, and highlights the
proceedings of the International Military Tribunal. Set against a
montage of Nazi atrocities, it shows excerpts from arguments by Allied
prosecutors and from testimony by the accused Nazi leadership.
111.8 One of the most interesting among the
Signal Corps motion picture records is the series Orientation Films,
consisting of 32 documentaries on the war. The first seven constitute
the well-known Why We Fight series, produced by the War Department under
the general supervision of Lt. Col. Frank Capra. "Prelude to War," "The
Nazis Strike," "Divide and Conquer," "Battle of Britain," "Battle of
Russia," "Battle of China," and "War Comes to America," together
represent one of the most comprehensive efforts to teach history through
film. Designed for new recruits, these films were eventually shown to
civilian warworkers and the general public. Capra's staff used the
compilation method in these films. Footage was selected from the
resources of the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Museum
of Modern Art, the Army Pictorial Center, and the newsreel libraries in
New York City. Films from Allied Governments and those captured from the
Axis were also used in the productions. These films were arranged and
rearranged to explain official U.S. policy on the causes of the war and
toward the Allied and Axis powers. "Prelude to War" reviews events
leading to the war and contrasts American democracy with fascism. "The
Nazis Strike" and "Divide and Conquer" detail German expansion toward
the east and west. "Battle of Britain" concentrates on the fight against
the attacking Luftwaffe and the resilience and courage of British
civilians. "Battle of Russia," running almost two hours, quickly reviews
centuries of Russian history, emphasizing the theme that the Russian
people would ultimately defeat and drive out all foreign invaders. This
film shows in grim detail the bitter conditions of fighting on the
Eastern front. "Battle of China," quickly withdrawn from circulation
after its release, is the least historically accurate of the series. Its
footage, obtained from many documentaries on China, shows the magnitude
of the struggle between China and Japan and builds sympathy for the
Chinese people. "War Comes to America" is the summation of the work done
by Colonel Capra's film staff; it is a fast-paced, rhythmical film on
the values of American culture and U.S. composition, achievements,
failures, and ideals. Although the Why We Fight films generally employ
footage of historical events, they are more important for the study of
ideas, attitudes, and interpretations than for the facts they present.
Other films in the Orientation Films series are "Know Your Ally-Britain"
and the controversial anti-Japanese film "Know Your Enemy-Japan." "The
Negro Soldier," also included, reviews the contribution of
African-Americans to U.S.history, with special emphasis on their
participation in the war. "Death Mills" shows Nazi concentration camps
as they were found upon liberation.
111.9 The War Films series consists of
incentive films for war industries, many with good combat footage. These
films demonstrate the relationship of industrial warworkers to fighting
men and include footage of actual and staged events. All have a similar
theme, showing the necessity for high production and for all kinds of
supplies, from lumber, cotton, and gasoline to B-29 bombers. NARA has 56
issues, ranging from 6 to 27 minutes each.
111.10 The Signal Corps motion picture records
also include educational and training films. The educational films were
used for vocational, industrial, and educational guidance and for
rehabilitation. Those relating to the war are about various countries,
American industry, racial and religious prejudice, and regions of the
United States, and they incorporate orientation lectures on servicemen's
return to civilian life. The Training Films series includes
approximately 1,400 titles relating to Army functions, equipment, job
operations, tactics, machinery, gliders, armored-vehicle training, tank
tactics, ordnance, barrage balloons, camouflage, map reading, and
construction, and to venereal disease. The American film "Baptism of
Fire" is also included.
Updated June 10, 2019.
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