''Attack! The Battle of New Britain'' is a documentary/propaganda film produced by the US military in 1944. It details, as its name implies, the

New Britain campaign The New Britain campaign was a World War II campaign fought between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces. The campaign was initiated by the Allies in late 1943 as part of a major offensive which aimed to neutralise the important Japanese base a ...

, which was part of the

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and

Solomon Islands Campaign The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, ...

s during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The film follows a rather standard format: it is a chronological narrative of the campaign from the arrival of the soldiers in

to their capture of most of the island. Opening with travelers book pictures of the area, reminding the audience what the average soldier image of what the

South Seas Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, is used in several contexts. Most commonly it refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. In 1513, when Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term ''Mar del Sur'', ...

would be like, and it then details the natural hazards of fighting, or even being in the jungle, including the insects, diseases and heat. The marines and soldiers set up a little tent city, with the significant help of the local natives or "fuzzy wuzzies". After the base has been established and enough men are ready, General Douglas MacArthur arrives in person to discuss the upcoming campaign with the unit's CO. With the aid of maps and non-combat footage, the audience learns about the plans for the attack, the geography of the island, and the variety of armored vehicles that will be used in the upcoming battle, including the "alligator" and "buffalo" amphibious assault vehicles. D–day is on Christmas, and while the sailors and marines assemble in the rear, the airmen spend Christmas Eve strafing the island, to make way for their comrades' assault. The campaign is then followed through chronologically, focusing, at the end, on the many wounded and killed who have sacrificed so much.

External links

* * 1944 films American World War II propaganda films 1944 documentary films American documentary films American black-and-white films Films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin Pacific War films {{WWII-documentary-film-stub

See also

External links