The Best Film Archives's video: Battle for the Marshall Islands World War 2 Documentary 1944

● Please SUPPORT my work on Patreon: https://bit.ly/2LT6opZ ● Visit my 2ND CHANNEL: https://bit.ly/2ILbyX8 ►Facebook: https://bit.ly/2INA7yt ►Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Lz57nY ►Google+: https://bit.ly/2IPz7dl ✚ Watch my "WW2 in the Pacific" PLAYLIST: https://bit.ly/2KUw6ZY This World War 2-era short film – originally titled as "What Makes a Battle" – is a propaganda documentary produced by the US Army in 1944. It documents how the American soldiers and marines prepared to and invaded the Japanese-held Marshall Islands on the Pacific while also encouraging increased military-industrial production on the Home Front. The film opens with the narrator asking "What makes a battle?" while the camera is focusing on shipments of industrial transports. Military-industrial production is the backbone of war, according to the film, if its products are destroyed, not made with quality, or not replaced in time, victory in battle cannot happen. Using animation, the film presents a detailed summary of the American strategy for taking the Marshalls. The outer islands were bombed to delude the enemy, and a surprise attack was planned against the inner islands. The film focuses on the capture of the Kwajalein Atoll by the 7th Infantry Division and the 4th Marine Division. It was an epic struggle. The narrator points out that out of 10,000 Japanese only 264 surrendered. The film ends with General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s war bond appeal. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / CONTEXT The Marshall Islands Campaign: In the Pacific Theater of World War 2, the Marshall Islands Campaign (January - February 1944) was a key strategic operation of the United States Pacific Fleet and Marine Corps. The Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands were the outer perimeter of eastern defenses for the Japanese Empire. The purpose of the Campaign was to establish airfields that would allow land based air support for the upcoming Allied operations across the Central Pacific. The battle for the Marshall Islands was one of the most significant battles of the Pacific War. Kwajalein: The Battle of Kwajalein was fought as part of the Marshall Islands Campaign. It took place from 31 January – 3 February 1944, on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. In the months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Kwajalein Atoll was the administrative center of the Japanese 6th Fleet Forces Service, whose task was the defense of the Marshall Islands. Employing the hard-learned lessons of the battle of Tarawa, the United States launched a successful twin assault on the main islands of Kwajalein in the south and Roi-Namur in the north. By January 31, repeated carrier- and land-based air raids eliminated every Japanese airplane on the Marshalls. By February 3, U.S. marines overran Roi-Namur. The Japanese defenders put up stiff resistance, although outnumbered and under-prepared. The determined defense of Roi-Namur left only 51 survivors of an original garrison of 3,500. The Marshalls were then effectively in American hands – with the loss of only 400 American lives. For the US, the battle represented both the next step in its island-hopping (leapfrogging) march to Japan and a significant moral victory because it was the first time the Americans had penetrated the "outer ring" of the Japanese Pacific sphere. For the Japanese, the battle represented the failure of the beach-line defense. Japanese defenses became prepared in depth, and the battles of Peleliu, Guam, and the Marianas proved far more costly to the US. Battle for the Marshall Islands | World War 2 Documentary | 1944 TBFA_0162 NOTE: THE VIDEO DOCUMENTS HISTORICAL EVENTS. SINCE IT WAS PRODUCED DECADES AGO, IT HAS HISTORICAL VALUES AND CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A VALUABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENT. THE VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED WITH EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. ITS TOPIC IS REPRESENTED WITHIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT. THE VIDEO DOES NOT CONTAIN SENSITIVE SCENES AT ALL!