White Ammunition

This 1940s educational film, likely produced during WWII by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or a dairy council, frames milk as “white ammunition” essential to the war effort. Filmed in black-and-white, it traces milk’s journey from farm to table with a patriotic twist. The process begins in rural pastures—cows graze as farmers in overalls milk them by hand or machine into gleaming pails. Footage shows milk poured into cans, loaded onto trucks, and hauled over bumpy roads to processing plants. At the dairy, workers in white coats pasteurize, homogenize, and bottle the milk—conveyors hum, bottles clink—ensuring purity and nutrition. Narration ties it to wartime needs: calcium for soldiers’ bones, protein for factory workers’ stamina. Scenes of kids drinking milk in school cafeterias or GIs gulping it in canteens drive home its role in national strength. A straightforward, earnest look at dairy’s contribution to a fighting America.