"BAPTISM OF FIRE" 1943 U.S. ARMY TRAINING & INDOCTRINATION FILM "FIGHTING MAN" SERIES XD72375z
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
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This notable film "Baptism of Fire" was produced by the US Army Pictorial Services in WWII. It was created as part of the "Fighting Man" series of films, to prepare U.S. Army recruits for the grim business of combat against Axis troops. The film has impressive production values and a highly realistic (for the time) battle sequence. After it was released in 1943, the film was nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards (it was also nominated for an Oscar in 1944). The film's plot surrounds the narrative of a G.I. named Bill; who is played by Elisha Cook Jr. Bill is a green recruit who is new to the front and preparing for his first taste of battle. The film was intended to teach fighting men that by acquiring knowledge, such as how to identify the enemy and learning the basics of how to fight hand to hand, they might reduce their anxiety, and achieve more personal security leading to a higher chance that they will be effective and both survive combat and succeed in the mission.
The film opens as the Radio Telephone Operator or RTO spots enemy planes flying in formation (:23). He calls the sighting in and the men are called to action (:43). Whistles blow, soldiers dive into dug outs and ready their weapons for firing (:55). The sergeant receives a call the planes have moved to a different direction (1:12). The young soldier Bill appears (2:02) as he is called for detail. An Army ambulance sits spinning stuck in the mud (2:29). As the men work to free the entrenched vehicle, Jim is recognized by a wounded soldier within the ambulance (3:33). Some of the soldiers drift to sleep against their machine guns en route (5:07) to relieve a squadron. Soldiers discuss the moment with which the battle becomes real and is no longer practice maneuvers (5:42). The group jumps from their transport vehicle to rest (6:48). Jim is instructed not to allow worry of the worst to consume him but to learn as much about the enemy and the situation as he can (7:19). Jim reminisces about home (8:24). He says goodbye to his girl Jane (9:17) at the gate. Men are called back to the vehicle (10:58). Foot soldiers move alongside tanks (12:55) cutting tracks into the dirt. The squadron leader reminds men of the mission noting the enemy position (14:24). Soldiers express anxiety over the quiet; the waiting period prior to the start of a mission (14:50). A whirring sings through the air and a bomb hits the ground throwing dirt as Bill and a comrade duck for cover (15:22). The sound of explosions increase and draw nearer (15:59). The signal is called and the men spring from dug out positions (16:27) into action. Long range guns rip holes in the earth (17:02). A sentry gun blows back (17:12). Fighter planes zoom in (17:30). One after another, German Stuka planes break from formation to dive bomb and strafe, (18:03) as Jim watches from below. Soldiers drop to the ground (18:24). Jim begins to feel more confident in his movements (19:30). A burning man escapes from his tank (20:10). Bill finds Pete as he begins to freeze in his position (20:35). The character Pete; played by Peter Whitney, (20:51) drops his rifle in a panic and runs into Jim and Bill. Jim readies his rifle (22:09) noticing the Nazi soldiers making an error and ‘bunching up’. A fellow combat soldier is hit in the throat (22:48). Jim hesitates to fire at an enemy soldier as a friendly soldier swoops in with a bayonet (23:38) saving the green soldier. Jim recognizes his rifle is smashed (24:20) lying next to a dead man. He snags the dead soldiers rifle and canteen (25:07). He recalls being warned of momentary paralysis during training (25:33). Bill is found wounded (26:12), hit by a sniper. Pete and Jim set the wound (26:57). Jim shoots his first Nazi soldier (27:31) and discovers more confidence. As the fighting lines mingle, men begin to fight hand to hand (29:06). Jim successfully bayonets an attacking Nazi soldier (30:02). Pete and Jim fight side by side (30:32). Combat subsides as the wounded are lifted on litters from the battle field (31:21). An RTO calls in the information that the objective had been reached (31:34) as his own wounds are dressed. The wounded and more seasoned soldiers return to the convoy (32:37). The trio mull over the recent battle and what went wrong and right as others celebrate their win in a tavern (33:12).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi...
Remember that these films were made to help real people face awful situations. They did they best they could.
And in the most part DID way than better doing the BEST !!!
This was extremely well done. Especially for the time. Remember, these kids were plucked or volunteered from farms or small towns from all across the United States. Most had never been out of their tiny town they grew up in. To go from that to the mental overload of a highly mechanized war of death had to be very traumatic in a number of different ways.
My father served on a fast attack troop ship. The Charles Carroll APA 28.He was in some of the most traumatizing battles of the war. Normandy and Okinawa are but two of
them. He watched as his ship loaded up kids his own age and their equipment. Knowing that a large portion of them would never come back. Or, he would see some of them again shot to pieces as he and his ship turned into a temporary hospital ship after the landings. He attended to the wounded soldiers when they were brought back blinded, missing arms,legs,hands, or most of their face. So, yes, these films were very important. My father had horrible PTSD and surviors guilt.His brother died in Korea.
He died when an improperly stored rifle fell over and went off, hitting him in the head and killing him instantly.
I think the fighting scenes rival the best Hollywood put out. (I bet Hollywood had a lot to do with the making of this film).
@@rodgerrodger1839 That's tragic what happened to your uncle, M1 Garands have free floated firing pins with no firing pin block so they're infamous for not being drop-safe.
@@tombrickhouse-growthmatrix6201 Yes. The little guy who got wounded in the arm and was sitting at the bar at the end of the film was a very well known character actor. They were all actors that I remember seeing in many old shows and movies.
I'm not sure if that film was supposed to be a morale-boosting propaganda or just showing the horrors of war. I've watched so many films from around that era, but this one is just too brutal and realistic.
War is no picnic, it seems they did their best to prepare the conscripts for what they would be facing.
This film doesn't even begin to scrap the surface of war brutality! You have no idea . Watching half your best friends body vaporized because he was trying to feed the enemies children will change you ! This was about as helpful as they could have at the time and I appreciate when Hollyweird does something patriotic , it's rare these days .
@@Jeffbambam Yeah, if anything, the films sometimes seem like they deliberately avoid talking about the brutality (at least some of them) by having the soldiers joking around and the sergents seem very stoic and uncaring, but there is a lesson in each of them about what it ultimately takes. Especially since at the time, it was "by force" (the draft). The reason Hollywood lately mocks the battlefield is primarily because in retrospect, we still can't conclude WHY those men had to lose all their lives the way they did as if you trace it up to the ones that started the war, there was an immense amount of "you are doing it becasue you're patriotic and you WANT to give your life for the cause" coming out of the speakers, but we all know many people did it cause if you dodged the draft, you were arrested and at least jailed for treason. Now that it's mostly volunteer, the military has to step up and prove there are benefits to joining that don't automatically invovle getting shot at or killing others for no reason beyond orders and propaganda. After all, if the "self defense" was truly necessary, why do they need to constantly have the actors primary goal to "slaughter" as many nazis and japanese as possible, regardless of the individual's affiliation with the war? Many innocent towns and cities were wiped out and innocent people detained and killed, and the scenes just made Americans look just as blood thirsty. It worked at the time, but in retrospect...those people died cause they were told to die. Not because they were defending the peace.
At least it did lead to one of the largest economic and industrial booms and THAT part was a really good outcome of the war, suddely people went from being farmers and paper organizers to building some of the technology that we all use today as a regular job. and the comraderie was a lot stronger as WW1 and 2 are the primary reasons for the civil rights movements getting a huge push, as many Europeans and soldiers in the war seriously questioned how they can call themselves "the defenders of freedom" when they literally treat thier own solders like sh8t because their skin is darker. Still... it's a challenge, and ideally we should be looking at how to NOT have those friends "vaporized" just for some comfortable "Officer" who was appointed by being friends with the president or some higher ups in congress to say "ooops...well too bad... got any more soldiers?"
Bill went on to be a mafioso in Hawaii. Known as Icepick...
Before the war he was a gunsel named Wilmer. They must have let him out of prison to join the army.
Hell of a guy that ice-pick...taking care of Rick like he did...or ah...Orville...lol..
Better run than sorry
With all the training and "How to"films...this film most of all was probably quite helpful to get over those first day jitters that must have been overwhelming.Thank god for those brave men of"The Greatest Generation"I salute you...and will never forget.And thank you Persicope...the greatest channel on YT.
Pretty gritty and uncensored for the time. Tougher than many of the Hollywood films of the same era.
This was for MEN. Not Women and children…
@@samiam619Ah yes, the entire male population of America went to war
@@lukathurinn7906 Just about, yeah.
Bill survived the war and used the GI Bill to go to Star Fleet Academy Law School. He successfully defended Captain Kirk in his court marshal for the death of Lt. Commander Finney.
I knew I'd seen him before.
Ice Pick in Magnum P.I. and Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon....
Finney didn't die. It was a sham trial.
@@simonhandy962 Well spotted. The Army used a number of actors for training and recruiting films, including Captain Ronald Reagan and Captain Burgess "The Penguin" Meredith.
Elisha Cook Jr. He was great in 1959s House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price.
Good old Elisha Cook Jr
I wonder how many men rememberd this film when they got to the front?
Apparently Jim transferred from the Navy, he’s got the full Swabbie vocabulary, lol. “No mom and dad, you can’t go to the damn train station with me.” “Betty, why the hell are you crying?” Lolz
That is tame language.
6:58 People always act like the military is a bunch of jocks pretending not to have feelings, which is true to a certain extent, but you can see even back then when a soldier sees a brother in distress he won't make fun of him for being afraid. He sat and talked with him about how everyone gets scared sometimes and that doesn't make you a coward or weak.
As a guy who has been soldiering for around 25 years and a couple combat tours, you always do that part later! You'd be so kind to a guy you cannot stand the same as your best friend, while it is happening. All the jokes come in the days later!
As a soldier, these would really help me! Im sure when guys were in any situation they saw in a lot of these films, it helped to remember how confident these actors handled situations and they thought to themselves "ok, be like that guy". I could imagine that to be the case anyway!
This was 1942-1943, and depicted what ground combat ops in the ETO would look like - but the equipment is still 1930;s era and the US war machine had not kicked in yet!
In the beginning months...a lot of leftover old equipment was in use before new weapons came along..
@@djsi38t what do you mean, they had M-1 rifles and M-1 Carbines in the film
@@ypaulbrownHe's talking about the M 28 web gear. Which was used all the way through the war. One big blooper is the Officer using it. Officers were issued musette bags that were mounted to the gear. Skippy missed the Sherman's too...
@@nomadmarauder-dw9reAnd the Sherman caught fire and burned the whole crew alive, so it's a real Sherman.
The entire point of training is to present a realistic perspective of the reality of what is going to happen. Desensitizing yourself to what happens by seeing reality.
They dropped the whistle. The Krouts can hear it five miles away.
I was wondering why I never saw that in any post-war movie.
Is that Elisha Cook? LOL, you just know what's coming.n
A lot of veterans don’t talk at all about the wars, I understand why.
The thing is you focus on the task at hand. Sometimes that means focusing on that minute or second to get through it. Then you have to set it aside as the next task comes up. Looking back there are things that I have forgotten, probably because of this mental approach. Another thing is the bond. I can go years without seeing my buddies, but when we get together it’s like we’ve never been apart.
That's a whole lot of inner dialog while people are trying to kill you....
Is that....ELISHA COOK JR??? Star of many awesome film noirs - sure looks like him
The big guy of the trio was Peter Whitney, who gained a lot of weight in the 1950s. The first time I remember seeing him was in a western series on TV called The Rough Riders.
I think it was Albert Salmi.....not Peter Whitney, but I may be wrong..en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Salmi...nope, you were right, Peter Whitney.....en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Whitney
Elisha Cook Jr played Frank "Stonewall" Torrey in Shane. But we all know this already.
Im pretty sure those WW2 K rations would have given me gas worthy of a war crime.
Those of us who rely on the closed captioning are pleased that these guys were accompanied by the Special Bears.
Germany was in the same situation while the government are hiding away
Yeah, most Germans were brutalized by the Nazis. a lot of them were heavily against it, but in a state of confusion, the most radical group can pretend to offer salvation and turn it into fascism easily. Then those in power secretly siphon power and install militants to instill fear on the population. It sounds like conspiracy, but gosh...it happens SO often in history, you'd think people are just violent by default.
And after the war he never had nightmares or beat his wife and kids. War is good for you!
He'll be alright....But he'll always get a crazy look on his face at weenie roasts and always call them "speared frankfurters"
this was to give them a vague idea what to expect so they could live to go back to the wife and kids. Stop judging by your standards and try to understand the period this comes from. And yes they should have had some help when they came back but that has only been a thing in the last couple of wars.
@@davedixon2068 Ironically, I think those who actually fought tended to be LESS likely to beat their wife and kids because the discipline instilled on them and what they fought for wouldn't have trained them to be the ones destroying the thing they almost lost thier lives for. You can always tell who actually served and who got dishonorably discharged cause a domestic abuser really shouldn't have been able to survive bootcamp.... SHOULD be able to tell, but they "needed people so bad" they literally took on anyone and probably rewarded the aggression in some cases.
Remember our "standards" come from a history of this stuff happening and NOT being held accountable. and these films at the time ONLY showed the best parts of the era as filming was expensive and a special occasion. Today we have smart phones and film EVERYTHING, if reality is gritty in 2024, you can only imagine how rough it was for many people 100 years ago when far less people were LEGALLY allowed to have a voice. (note the emphasis of masculine pronouns in these films and how women are treated like children by the narrator, "oh look at Ms Parkins being allowed to shop alone to buy her husband a suit, Normally the man has to be with her but it seems she finally is able to do it on her own, thanks to men making the shopping for clothes much easier. Even a woman can do it!"
We full well understand the period this comes from.... cause we have grandparents who LIVED through it and tell us THAT was the reality.
Before the war, Bill was a young gunman working for Kasper Gutman.
The Fat Man was dropped later over Hiroshima.....
Elisha Cook Jr. Credited with 220 roles in movies and TV.
Leaves out that they'd notify their chain of command of that flight of enemy planes....
A lot of these hollywood based films kind of leave out and play fast and loose with the events going on. It's meant to be humorous and get to the point so soldiers watching don't feel as scared about going in and feel more confident. The real deal though... the guy who was blind was lucky, but it sounds like the rest of it covers how brutal things are, making this one of the really good ones.
Back when Men were Men and the sheep were scared.......
Men being haughty bullies is WHY we've been fighting non stop for the last 2000 years, it's about d8mn time someone put those "men" in thier place for once in HISTORY....
if ya like this I recommend Battle Ground . It’s a gritty classic. My Pop that served with the 30th liked it.
Rule #1
Never use the chin strap!
Is 2:23 the progenitor of the modern game roger?
Dayummmm! Excellent!
jeez loeez twilight zone.
Haha propaganda 🤣
No, propaganda is the crap you watch on msnbc.
Not this one. Propaganda is for public consumption. This was strictly for servicemen.