R112-654-5

1.Les Canadiens Sont Là!: The 27th Company French Canadian Forestry Corps Unit works in a Scottish forest; they cut down trees with saws, axes, heavy equipment; at the mill; lumber yard.~2.British Parlimentarians Visit Army: Lord [Marshwood], Lord Stansgate, Sir Percy Hardy, R.C. [Morrison] visit Lieutenant General A.G.L. McNaughton at army headquarters; meet outside the building.~3.Sappers Rebuild Blitzed Church: A new church is opened in South [Merson], Surrey; Canadian Corporal Padre George [Wollendale]; the Bishop of Suffolk with dignitaries.~4.Precision Drill: Royal Canadian Engineers perform a precision drill.~5.Tunisian Patrol: [Goublelet] Plains; Sergeant Major [Doumet] of Canada works with an English Unit; Colonel [Austin] and the English regiment go on horseback across the field; cavalry charge at farm; German spoils.~6.Piping School: Pipe Major Ross and his students at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland; Ross speaks; Canadians and Scots practice; they march inside the castle with their pipes (live sound).

THE FIFTH CHRISTMAS was made as a Christmas greeting from Canadians overseas to people at home. The film is presented as service men and women writing Christmas letters hom of the fifth Christmas of WWII. The events of the previous Christmases are shown through their reminiscences. 1939 - troops leaving Canada for overseas; 1940 - London bombed - churches burning; 1941 - Japan and the war in the Atlantic; 1942 - WRENs and WACs going overseas. The fifth Christmas of 1943 is shown with footage of military personnel and civilians going into churches in Scotland, England, and Italy; Christmas parcels from family and friends in Canada are shown being sorted, shipped by train, and picked by service men in England and Italy; soldiers giving gifts to an Italian family; Christmas dinner at an officer's mess; Christmas party given by the military for local children; British civilians providing fresh fowl to the Canadian soldiers for Christmas dinner; toasting the seasons with civilians in Britain; a Christmas party on a Corvette in the North Atlantic; men working on ships and planes on Christmas. Film ends with a New Years party in London attended by Canadian service men and women. A n officer gives a speech on the brutal times ahead and explains that the inevitable coming of these days of violence are necessary to achieve "peace on earth, goodwill towards men". <16mn>