A combat film is a movie made by military cameramen, shot during
real war fightings. During the World War II, United States Army built up several
small units, their duty was to follow combat units on the first line in order
to document the military actions without exceptions, shooting even the bloodiest
clashes. Only a smaller part of the shootings have been shown in newsreels during
the war period, as the american audience was not ready to experience the horrors
of war.
The battle for Cornuda, happened on the afternoon of april 30th, 1945,
had been shot by the american cameramen. This combat film gives a valuable
proof of how the fightings evolved during the first part of the battle
for Cornuda. It is a very precious document.
A document I collected during my research, kindly granted by Bob Holt, is
the official description of a photo shot in Cornuda on that day.
This document has been written by the photographer Mulcahy, 196th signal and
photo company, kept at the National Archives. It gives confirmation
of the units involved in the liberation of Cornuda, the 88th infantry division and
the 752nd tank battalion.
It is possible that the combat film has been shot by the same unit that archived
this document..
I recently obtained a copy of the original combat film, directly given by the Us
National Archives di Washington D.C., film code 111 ADC 123.
I composed a movie adding still pictures showing Cornuda during the
Liberation day and at present time to the original shootings.
Windows Media Player must be installed on your computer in order to view
the movie. The movie is available in 3 different formats:
- for the high quality movie, please follow this link, the file size is about 17 Mbyte
and Windows Media Player versiono 9 or greater is required
- for the medium quality movie, please follow this link, the file siz is about 5 Mbyte and Windows
Media Player versiono 8 or greater is required
- for the low quality movie, please follow this link, the file size is about 4 Mbyte and Windows
Media Player version 6 or greater is required