Title: Attack the Battle for New Britain
Year: 1944
Genres: Documentary; War; History
Director: U.S. Army Pictorial Service

Cast (archive footage):

• General Douglas MacArthur
• Admiral William F. Halsey Jr.
• Soldiers of the 1st Marine Division

Synopsis:

This wartime documentary chronicles the New Britain campaign in the Southwest Pacific, where U.S. Marines and Army units pushed Japanese forces from the beaches of Cape Gloucester into the island’s rugged interior. Combining frontline combat footage, aerial reconnaissance shots, and command briefing scenes, the film highlights the challenges of jungle warfare—monsoon rains, malaria, and fortified enemy tunnels—and celebrates the courage and ingenuity of Allied troops in securing a strategic foothold for subsequent operations in New Guinea and the Philippines.

Trivia:

• Part of the U.S. War Department’s “Armed Forces Information Film” series, intended for both military audiences and domestic theatrical release.
• Features one of the earliest combined-arms operations by the Marine Corps, integrating infantry, engineers, and close air support.
• The documentary’s original release print is preserved by the National Archives and Records Administration; it entered the public domain upon creation.
• Combat narration was recorded in the field by Army Signal Corps cameramen, lending an immediacy that influenced later war reportage films.