 The largest airliner of its kind in the world prepares to enter Navy service with an historic trans-Pacific flight from California to Hawaii. A record cargo of nearly 14,000 pounds of mail and vital war material is loaded aboard. Inside the Mars, which has the space of a 15-room house, members of the crew take their places. Ready for the takeoff. At 22,000 pounds, the huge airliner leaves the water with the grace of a mammoth bird. The planes escort the Mars out to sea. Fifteen hours later, the big ship landed at her destination after a 2,400-mile nonstop flight. The bird traces every phase of the plane's performance. The flight of the Mars marks the beginning of new, long-range aerial operations in the Pacific. Before being shipped overseas, the United States Army's new 240-millimeter howitzers roll into position. Each unit weighs 91,000 pounds. The powerful mobile field guns hurl 360-pound shells a distance of more than 15 miles. And the command is, fire. Cotton factories are searched at the gates to be sure no inflammable materials, like matches, are brought into the plants. They wear special safety shoes, which have no metal pegs that might spark a fire. For this is one of the world's most dangerous jobs, the manufacture of gun cotton, powerful explosives that supply the armies of the United Nations. For smaller caliber arms, comes out like spaghetti, and is cut into pellets ready for use. Dangerous business, yes, but in an emergency, they can slide to safety. In dispatch riders make a final test run before going overseas, specially trained for service on any front, they drive their motorcycles over the roughest terrain. Motorcycle troops are the war's roughest rider. The United States Coast Guard, stationed near Boston, don heavy clothing for a midwinter run aboard the ice boat fleet. Ice boating isn't exactly in the line of duty, but it gives the girls good training in handling sails. It takes a good navigator to pilot one of these speedy craft, and the Coast Guard girls are learning fast. Driven into primitive underground hideaways by fear of air raids and bombardment, a thousand Italian families have found refuge here, many since the first days of the war. Some of the small children were even born in these surroundings. This, the only home they have ever known. Like a mess tent, soldiers feed hungry Italian children food that is left over from the day's meals. There is no provision made for combat units to feed civilians, but the little ones have been so starved by the Nazis that American soldiers are trying to do everything they can to allay the suffering. In an Italian town, American flour is rationed out to civilians. Two of them have seen white flour since Italy entered the war. Anxiously, the women watch, wondering if there will be enough for all. But an Italian official, appointed by the Allied military government, reassures them that all will be fed. This is typical of the immediate emergency relief that follows in the wake of Allied occupation. Rations from the United Nations to help impoverished Italians take up their own job of rehabilitation. Tankers off the coast of Italy feed an equally important supply line. Raging oil pipes from ship to shore. Fifth Army engineers erect and maintain a system of surface tubes, extending from vessels and harbors, direct to front lines. Bridging forests, fields and streams, the oil line provides an ever-flowing supply of fuel for the Allied war machine in Italy. The inartillerymen pound the Nazi-held Italian city of Ortona, a smashing prelude to direct assault, approach to Ortona, the bloodiest single action of the campaign since Salerno. Consciously, they probe the fields for landmines. Behind them come Canadian riflemen to clean out nests of enemy resistance. By street, building by building, Nazi snipers are wiped out. Or is a Nazi sniper, but not for long. So the Fifth Army bind their wounds, prepare for even greater battles. For a new Allied army has landed near Rome, and the number of Nazi prisoners grows greater day by day.