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Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? Visit This newsreel was produced by Castle Films and shows events occurring around the world in 1950. It opens in Moscow, Russia, with a crowd of Soviet soldiers marching in formation during a celebration of Joseph Stalin’s 70’s birthday. Stalin is seen in military uniform, greeting his communist supporters below (0:23). The crowd celebrates in an indoor stadium and Stalin applauds, surrounded by his supporters (0:40). The film cuts to communist marchers rioting in Tokyo(0:45). American and Japanese riot police hit demonstrators with batons, detaining them as the crowd “boos.” Viewers see the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany (1:21). A military tank rolls down the street with two soldiers standing in the cockpit. Soldiers stand around a pile of rubble, a couple of them lounge on armored vehicles. The film cuts back to Brandenburg Gate, and a crowd marching in front of Berlin Cathedral, carrying banners and flags (1:28). Viewers see debris and rubble in South Amboy, New Jersey, where four ammunition-laden barges blew up the Raritan River (2:02). Four dead were taken from the ruins, twenty-two crewmen disappeared, and the city crumbled under the blast. South Amboy was declared a disaster area and put under martial law. An ambulance is seen driving down a residential road. A dead man is carried out on a gurney, his eyes bandaged; an injured girl cries as she is being tended to; and a woman sweeps the debris left behind from the blast. The film cuts to an aerial above a smoke-filled Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the largest active volcano in the world (2:34). Smoke and lava are unleashed by the eruption. Viewers see an aerial of the flooded city of Winnipeg, Canada (2:58). An ambulance is submerged underwater on a flooded street. The Red Cross and Royal Canadian Air Force transport victims to safety, as townsfolk evacuate the city (3:08). The film cuts to the launch of a V-2 rocket at White Sands, New Mexico (3:29). As the rocket ascends into the stratosphere, the curvature of the earth is clearly visible below. Viewers see the canonization of Maria Goretti, where 500,000 gather in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City (3:56). Maria Goretti was one of the youngest saints to be canonized. Pope Pius XII officiates the ceremony (4:02). The large crowd of Catholic pilgrims, many of them youth, traveled from around the world to pay homage to the young saint. The film cuts to the Battle of Inchon (code name Operation Chromite), an amphibious United Nations counter-offensive attack during the Korean War. A UN battleship fires on the west coast port of Inchon, South Korea (4:25). Marines climb from the ship into a landing craft. Shots are seen firing from the ship, and smoke rises on the shore in the distance. Marines land on the beach, and General Douglas MacArthur visits the Incheon Front (5:00). UN forces run along a tree-lined path, descend a slope, and get caught in battle. A soldier takes cover from a blast, while others carry the body of a dead or wounded soldier to safety. A spotter pilot is seen in his cockpit, giving orders to artillery forces below (5:46). A series of aerial views show air-to-ground rockets firing upon the rice paddies of Korea. South Korean troops cross the 38th Parallel (6:05). Battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) displays her 16”/50 caliber Mark 7 guns, and the UN flag billows atop the battleship. Shells are loaded into the cannons and they prepare to fire. An officer is seen in the command center as he triggers the guns. They fire upon the shore and destruction is seen in the distance, as smoke and fire rise above the shoreline. The film cuts to an aerial view of Wake Island Airfield, where President Harry S. Truman meets with General MacArthur for the Wake Island Conference. President Truman descends Air Force One (the Independence, a modified Douglas C-118 Liftmaster) and shakes hands with General MacArthur (6:54). Together they meet with Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, Commander in Chief Pacific Admiral Arthur W. Radford, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Omar Bradley. President Truman pins the fourth oak leaf cluster to General MacArthur’s Distinguished Service Medal (7:24). 120 planes of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team flies overhead (7:37). General MacArthur sits inside a plane, looking out the window and watching as paratroopers descend. Soldiers march amid the smoke and fire among the remains of burning villages, and Korean prisoners march in formation, their hands on their heads. The Battle of Incheon was a decisive victory for UN Forces, and led to the recapture of Seoul two weeks later. 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. For more information visit
