Preparation for invasion

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 9th Year

Issue

Issue No.

1

Date Released

6 Sep 1943

Length of issue (in feet)

1678

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Preparation for invasion

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: The film opens introducing a "Brains Trust" a party of leading American military analysts with Westbrook Van Voorhis, the "Voice" of the March of Time, as question master. Thus one expert is led to say that while round-the-clock bombing will be a major factor in the defeat of Germany, air bombardment alone will not win the war. Another, asked if he thought the invasion of Italy was a logical first step to the invasion of Germany, replied that if the real goal of an invading army is the penetration of German soil there are several routes more promising than the road over the Alps. A third was content to indicate that the best route for invasion is undoubtedly the route which can be most easily supplied. The film leaves the round table with the experts unanimously for the proposition that "The problem of victory is the problem of supply".

In the "Quartermaster’s War" America realises that whatever her military role in the master plan for invasion may be, its effectiveness will depend upon the work of the U.S. Army’s supply branch - the Army Service Forces. At innumerable strategic points at home and abroad secret depots are stocked with all the goods an army needs, and today stand ready for the troops who will make use of them.
Housed in Washington are the headquarters of the Army Service Forces, where the Quartermaster Corps, traditionally the Army’s tailors and caterers, direct the business of supplying seventy thousand different items of food, clothing and equipment to the millions of American troops at home or on the invasion front. Other technical services of the A.S.F. are noticed, each with its essential part to play in America’s plan for victory.

The Corps of Engineers has its role of trail-blazers, ready to demolish or construct in every corner of a world at war. The Signal Corps stands ready to set up and maintain the network of communications depend for success. The Medical Department of the A.S.F. has its plan to combat injury and disease on any and every front. But upon no department of the Army Service Forces have invasion requirements made greater demands than upon the Ordnance Department - charged with designing and procuring all weapons and vehicles with which the Army fights and travels.

The A.S.F. is charged with co-ordinating its training with that of the Army as a whole. When a long planned movement of invasion begins, the signal for the execution of the entire complex programme passes down the network of A.S.F. command, from those who know the whole strategy to those whose duty it is to perform the operations in detail. To transport a single armoured division, seventy-five trains are needed, and all must move simultaneously, load and unload within a space of hours. For every soldier landed overseas an initial fifteen tons of supplies and equipment must be provided, and an average of two tons a month shipped to maintain him in the field. When an invasion ship is loaded, each object must be in it’s appointed place, so that when the crucial moment of unloading arrives, perhaps under enemy bombardment, those weapons and supplies which are needed first will be the first at hand. On sailing day, nothing can have been overlooked, no detail unforeseen, and above all the plan of attack and the plan of supply must have been meticulously co-ordinated and timed to the fraction of an hour, even though the objective be an invasion point thousands of miles away.

Given that the problem of victory is the problem of supply, the March of Time here gives an encouraging account of our great ally’s preoccupation with the vital task of perfecting the organisation of her Army Service Forces, and pays tribute to the foresight, skill and patience of those men who have welded it into the military link between American efficiency in production and the needs of American fighting men.

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.9 No.11 of the US edition.

Keywords

Foreign relations; War and conflict; Military

Written sources

The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.