https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/c4369fbe-2133-4daf-ad59-ddc8c35acd26 One of a series of films produced by the War Department during WWII, WAR FILM 23 / Film Communique 9th Issue contains a Private Snafu cartoon and a segment about the Ledo Road in Burma and flying supplies over the Hump. It begins with a segment about the most battle-scared "Blue Streak" Liberator bomber, which flew 110 combat missions. "The Blue Streak" was originally named "Florine Jo Jo", SN# 411163. The aircraft was a veteran of the first high level Ploesti mission in 1942 and went on to survive 110 missions with the 376th bomb group and was sent home for a war bond tour. She survived 19 months of battle overseas, and 1,058 combat hours. Her scoreboard reads one destroyer, one merchant vessel, one tanker, and 23 enemy aircraft destroyed. She dropped 297 tons of bombs, and never lost a man. The ship required 19 engines, two new wings, one new rudder, and many aluminum patches during her career. At 4:10, Private Snafu takes center stage in FIGHTING TOOLS, a 1943 cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional cartoon shorts, ironic and humorous in tone, that were produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The films were designed to instruct service personnel about security, proper sanitation habits, booby traps and other military subjects, and to improve troop morale. Many cartoons in this same series were directed by Chuck Jones and other prominent Hollywood animators, and the voice of Private Snafu was performed by Mel Blanc. The character was created by director Frank Capra, chairman of the U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, and most were written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, Philip D. Eastman, and Munro Leaf. Although the United States Army gave Walt Disney the first crack at creating the cartoons, Leon Schlesinger of the Warner Bros. animation studio underbid Disney by two-thirds and won the contract. Disney had also demanded exclusive ownership of the character, and merchandising rights. The cartoons thus represented a multi-talent collaboration by some of America's best in their respective fields; a common occurrence in the war effort. The goal was to help enlisted men with weak literacy skills learn through animated cartoons (and also supplementary comic books). They featured simple language, racy illustrations, mild profanity, and subtle moralizing. Private Snafu did (almost) everything wrong, so that his negative example taught basic lessons about secrecy, disease prevention, and proper military protocols. Private Snafu cartoons were a military secret—for the armed forces only. Surveys to ascertain the soldiers' film favorites showed that the Snafu cartoons usually rated highest or second highest. Each cartoon was produced in six weeks. The shorts were classified government documents. Martha Sigall, employed at the ink and paint department, recalled the government security measures imposed on the staff working on them. They had to be fingerprinted and given FBI security clearances. They also had to wear identification badges at work. Workers at the ink and paint department were given only ten cels at a time in an effort to prevent them from figuring out the story content. The name "Private Snafu" comes from the unofficial military acronym SNAFU ("Situation Normal: All Fucked Up"), with the opening narrator in the first cartoon merely hinting at its usual meaning as "Situation Normal, All ... All Fouled Up!" At 8:10, BATTLE OF THE HILLS is shown -- the epic story of the building of the Ledo Road and flying supplies over the Hump to Chinese forces fighting the Japanese. Objective: retake Burma, and re-establish a find route to China. Excellent footage shows how supplies are brought to the troops (“one of the most epic transportation battles of the war”): on barges, primitive bamboo rafts, and narrow gauge railways; by parachute; and over the still-unflnished Ledo Road from North Burma to China-infested with malaria swamps, Jap snipers, landslides, and hairpin turns on roller-coaster grades. Fierce fighting in the jungles, and on the hills! From China, we’ll hit the Japanese mainland itself: “We are on our way!” Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. We collect, scan and preserve 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have films you'd like to have scanned or donate to Periscope Film, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the link below. 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 and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXwv4BnM-sM Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Fri, 12 Jun 2026 03:25:42 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/c4369fbe-2133-4daf-ad59-ddc8c35acd26 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.