US Army medics, trauma surgery

Colonel Alexander Zabin, MD was an American soldier from Malverne, Long Island, New York. As part of General Patton's 3rd Army, he served with the 4th Auxiliary Surgical Group. He landed on Normandy Beach on D-Day plus 1 and worked in the first US Army field hospital set up in France. He was with the 3rd Army through the campaigns in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Czechoslovakia. Dr. Zabin returned to New York in October 1945. Color footage. MCU moves out to MLS, and then a pan of destroyed equipment on the beach. VS, beach head and surrounding countryside, military vehicles and personnel in BG. Field full of rubble and artillery shells. CU, remains of a building stairwell, rubble surround the stairwell. END LS, from high angle, rooftops of an unidentified town. VS of the rooftops, a street and bridge below with civilians walking across it. VS, MCUs and CUs, the camera pans a church spire and other architectural details of the building. CUs of two American soldiers looking through the viewfinder atop the cathedral to the town below. They look at the cameraman; one is talking on a phone, they smile again for the camera. END INT, MLS, underexposed, silhouette of two people standing in front of a large window. Pan of the INT of a church, people standing in front of stained glass windows, several American soldiers, in helmets, their heads are silhouetted against the window, sunlight streams in from outside, the rest of the shot is dark. More panning, hard to see, perhaps architectural details. Several seconds of black. END Black and white footage. EXT, low angle, MCU, architectural detail of rose stained glass window. MLS, U.S. Army officers in combat gear, standing in front of this building. VS, the building, military personnel, military vehicles, civilians walking or bicycling past the building. END Color footage. MS, a U.S. Army plane on an airstrip, the number "17" painted on the side. Plane taxis on the airstrip. LS, several planes parked on the airstrip. MLS, tall yellow grass, fields, surrounding airstrip. MLS, Col. Zabin, in uniform, pointing. CU, pan of a damaged torpedo or artillery casing. INT, MS, two women seated in a café, near a window, looking at the camera, in the BG on the street outside two U.S. Army soldiers stand in front of a military vehicle, with a large white five-pointed star. Café, full of civilians, barista in white jacket behind the bar (underexposed). Several patrons smile for the camera. END EXT, VS, many out of focus, pan of town and surrounding countryside and farmland from a high angle. MCU, local villagers. A group of elderly men and women pose for the camera then go back into a building. ECU, prisoner with a swastika tattoo on both of his forearms. END Black and white footage. Trauma surgery. ECU, the face of a wounded man on the operating table, his face is severely disfigured, ECU surgery in progress. MCU, medical personnel wearing masks put a wounded patient in a half body cast, from the waist down. VS, surgical team in action, at one point the surgeon turns and waves to the camera. More ECUs of the disfigured face and other war wounds. Surgeons pose with a man in traction. EXT, MS, Mash unit sets up camp, puts up tents, and unloads wooden crates of supplies. INT, MS, the surgical tent, several operations are going on simultaneously. CUs of wounded men being prepped for surgery. More CUs of wounds, CU of an extremely bloody surgery in progress, the patient's intestines are literally outside of his body. END EXT, MLS, a destroyed town, U.S. Army convoy driving through the streets of the town. Medical vehicles, civilians walking over piles of rubble in BG. END VS, CUs, another surgery in progress. An intestine or foreign object is removed from the patient and held up for the camera. Cut to another patient, bandaged and lying in bed, he is in a pool of water and receiving shock therapy. MS of the doctor who is administering the shock treatment. END