Battle of Pine Summit
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| Battle of Pine Summit | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The War of the Worlds | |||||||
 The Martian war machines prepare to retaliate against a USMC brigade. |
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| Combatants | |||||||
| United States Marine Corp | Martians | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Colonel Ralph Heffner † | unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Marine infantry, tanks, artillery | 3 fighting-machines | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| Estimated losses—60% men, 90% materiel | None, war machines untouched | ||||||
The Battle of Pine Summit is a fictional battle in the 1953 film The War of the Worlds.
After discovering that a fallen meteorite was actually as spaceship from another planet, Dr. Clayton Forrester requested that the military be called in to contain the Martians. Colonel Ralph Heffner surrounded the Martian gulley with sufficient force to contain them. Major General Mann of the Sixth Army Command arrived to observe the attack and report on it to Washington. At this time, reports were coming in from other nations of fallen cylinders, supposedly at random. However, no one could understand what the Martians were planning, as communications were immediately cut the moment the machines began moving. The news that did make it was of destruction and massacre.
At dawn, three Martian fighting machines—swan-shaped vehicles hovering above the ground—emerged from the shelter of the gulley. Pastor Dr. Matthew Collins walked up to the machines, hoping to communicate (despite his niece's, Sylvia, cries to stop him) with the invaders. He was then vaporized by the Martians' heat-ray and Col. Heffner ordered all batteries to fire. Dr. Forrester and General Mann watched as every rocket, grenade, and shell detonated a short distance from the machines, as they were equipped with an invisible deflector shield. After a few minutes, the Machines fired back with their red heat-rays and green disintegrators (or "skeleton beam"). Tanks, soldiers, and artillery, when hit by any of these other-world weapons, glowed and vanished.
The offensive being eliminated, Col. Heffner ordered a retreat, before he was hit by the Martians' disintegrators. A squadron of high altitude bombers was called in, but they were all destroyed and their weapons were ineffective. Dr. Forrester and Sylvia managed to get away from the battle zone. General Mann reported on the attack to officials in Washington. This was the beginning of a global invasion and the rout of mankind.
