 In Northwestern Canada, U.S. and Canadian engineers are rushing trucks, supplies and road-building equipment for the new Alaska Highway, pushing across the frozen Peace River before the river thaws. Here from a tent city in the heart of the wilderness, the Army wages a war against nature and the elements. In 30 below zero temperature, they're blazing a trail for the construction of a 1,500-mile military highway from the United States to Alaska. Factors crash through the forests of Virgin Timber, rolling ahead at a pace that will see the road open within a year. To Alaska, for the nation that controls this strategic outpost holds the gateway to the world. In California, the speedboats race against a backdrop of oil wells. After working all day on their war jobs, daredevil amateurs find relaxation behind the wheels of their roaring little motors. Today, they breeze around the nautical course in a regatta for the championship. No slowing up for the turns and somebody gets a ducking. This is what you call real rough riding, and the spills are all a part of the thrills when the speedboats race for the gold trophy, fleets of giant air, big enough to carry troops and mechanized equipment to the far corners of the world. Those, the first of the mammoth airliners, is tested by the Army. Just how many soldiers it can accommodate is a closely guarded secret of the U.S. Air Force. But this gives you a pretty good idea, infantry of the air flying direct to the scene of battle. Inside, they sit on specially built seats with parachutes for their cushions. There's still plenty of room for additional equipment. Rolling right through doors big enough to admit a tank. Per engines, might hear than any ship in commercial service, speeding 25 tons across land and sea as fast as a combat plane, planes that will change completely the timetables of the world. The capital of Suriname, South American outpost of the free Dutch, now cooperating with the United States and Brazil. Here, Netherlands Marines form the nucleus of a rapidly growing military force. In American built tanks, they patrol this vital gateway to the Caribbean, alert for any attack from sea, land or air, or the Germans scuttled a ship near the river's mouth in an effort to block navigation. For down this little stream comes ships from the important box-side mines in the interior. But the destruction of that vessel was in vain, and daily traffic increases as freighters plie back and forth through tropical wilds, bringing out the vital aluminum ore so necessary to the manufacture of war machinery. Crews keep their weapons ready. Every possible precaution is taken to speed unhindered the flow of the precious metal. The box-side is brought to the river by train. From heavily guarded plants, it pours into the holes of United Nations ships, bound for the aircraft plants of North America, and as the free Dutch work day and night to further the United Nations war effort, their Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands rides with President Roosevelt to the Washington Navy Yard. Here by the President's order, under terms of the Lend-Lease Agreement, a new submarine chaser named for the Queen is presented to the Dutch Navy. Her majesty goes aboard and finds a crew of her own countrymen, veterans of the Netherlands fleet which so valiantly fought the first Japanese attack in the Southwest Pacific. Ready for battle, the little warship is ordered for service with the U.S. Navy. Loudly flying the flag of a people who have vowed to their Queen, no surrender. Here's the folks at home, a sample of what it's like to be a soldier. On the double quick, they stage a show of thrills. Scout car is taking the spotlight before thousands in a great Detroit arena, being into space. Infantry putting on a sham battle that's almost like the real thing. Flamethrowers staging a spectacle of the Army's weapons. Promotion day at a U.S. Army flying field, somewhere in the west. Promotion day for a record force of aerial gunners, newly elevated to wear the stripes of staff sergeant. The commanding officer, General Robert Olds, impresses his air marksman with the importance of their jobs. For in their sharp shooting eyes lies the safety of the bombers from attack by fighter planes. Squeezing into blisters or gun positions, they prepare to go aloft. The planes bear names which only their crews understand. They man the weapons that put the sting in the bomber's tail, trigger fingers itching to let them have it. Now in token salute to the new gunners, the big ships roar across the sky. The famous American Kitty Hawk fighters are gaining quite a name for themselves with Australian aces. Here at a secret base somewhere down under, veterans of campaigns over England and the Middle East give fledglings a demonstration of what the Kitty Hawks really can do. Looking off from runways hewn from the jungle, they roar aloft. The camera plane recording their dramatic flight in aviation seems rarely equal. Above the clouds, they gather in the tight formation pursuit planes use for safety, quadrupling their firepower as they dive to the attack. Victory roll, the flyer signal to his home field that he has met and downed an enemy plane in combat. Now swooping across the air drum at incredible speeds, they stage a show that in peacetime would be sensational. Today it's all a part of the grim, deadly job of war, Australian aces writing history in the skies.