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This post-World War II training film (Issue No. 90) shows what guns are effective in delivering firepower against the German pillboxes by testing various guns on pillboxes at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground. The film opens with an officer speaking to the camera about the contents on the film. Viewers see fortified pillboxes at the Aberdeen Proving Ground (01:06). The film shows the Siegfried Line with Nazi pillboxes, followed by an aerial view of the line. Back at Aberdeen, the film shows the different types of pillboxes. Men fire an M2 Machine Gun (Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun) on a pillbox. An anti-tank field gun, the 37-mm Gun M3, fires M51 shot at Pillbox CF2 (03:43). The Bofors 40-mm antiaircraft Gun M1 mounted on carriage M2 fires M81 armor-piercing rounds on the same pillbox (05:07). Viewers see tracer fire on the concrete bunker from one of the shots. A man measures the dispersion of the rounds and the craters created from the firepower (07:45), and he records the damage inside the pillbox. A 57-mm Gun M1 fires M70 rounds at Pillbox EF1 (08:19). The combo penetrates five feet of concrete. M61 with fuse-detonating M66A1 shells are fired from a 75-mm tank Gun M3 at Pillbox CF2 (11:09), the same gun used on M3 Lee and M4 Sherman tanks; it takes 2 minutes and 15 rounds to pierce the pillbox’s five feet of concrete. A man measures the damage on pillbox CF2. Next, the film shows a tank firing high-explosive M61 shells from the 75-mm gun on Pillbox AF3 (12:35). A 76-mm M1 tank gun fires M62 shells at Pillbox EF1, and the ensuing damage is recorded. The same gun fires M62 shells on Pillbox BF2 (15:24). Pillbox DF1 has seven-foot concrete walls (16:04); the anti-tank 3-inch Gun M5 on field carriage M1 fires armor piercing M62 shells. The damage is recorded, and new markings are made for firing the same gun but using M79 shells (17:12). A man examines and records the damage to the interior of the pillbox (18:35). A 90-mm M1 antiaircraft gun on a M1A1 carriage fires M82 with base-detonating fuse M68 at Pillbox DF1 (18:54). A man examines the projectile nose after it hits the embrasure. The film then shows a 105-mm howitzer M2A1 (predesignated as 105-mm M101A1 howitzer) firing M1 with fuse-point detonating M48A1shot at Pillbox BF2 (20:27). A severe crater is made in the pillbox. A 105 M3 howitzer fires M67shells on Pillbox AF3. A man shows the damage on AF3 from the M3. Viewers then watch as a 155-mm M1 gun, nicknamed “Long Tom,” fires M112B1 shells on Pillbox DF1 (22:26). A man marks the targets on the pillbox. Men load the heavy shells into the M1 cannon and then fire the gun (23:20). A man shows a fired and recovered M112B1 projectile nose. The 155-mm M1 fires M101 shot next (24:12). Finally, viewers see the men fire a 155-mm M1917 GPF (Canon de 155 Grande Puissnace Filloux) on motor carriage M12 on DF1; the gun uses M112B1 shot from 1,000 yards out, and footage shows the destruction caused to the interior of the pillbox. An officer speaks to the camera, summarizing the effectiveness of the various weapons’ firepower against German pillboxes (26:37).
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