THE MEMPHIS BELLE (1943, TECHNICOLOR, 39:40)
Fly and fight with the crew on an actual bombing mission over Germany in this award winning film (NBR Award for Best Documentary, National Board of Review, 1944; National Film Registry Award, National Film Preservation Board, 2001) about the last mission in the tour of duty of a B-17 crew and their indominable airplane.
THUNDERBOLT (1944, TECHNICOLOR, 44:41)
Lloyd Bridges narrates the story of an American fighter-bomber group in the Italian theater of operations during World War II.
He welcomes us to "The Country Club", the base of operations in Corsica for an American fighter-bomber group assigned to interdiction deep behind enemy lines during the fierce ground fighting of 1944 Italy. Logic and tactics are expounded upon but not at the expense of maintaining intimate contact with the details and feel of the daily life of the men involved. The Thunderbolt aircraft used by this group were specially loaded with color film in cameras mounted throughout the plane, making for truly extraordinary bomb run and air-to-ground battle footage from a variety of angles. From take-off to landing and the careful maintenance in-between, this film shows what the planes and the men of this fighter group went through in this fight.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: THE STORY OF THE FLYING FORTRESS (1944, B&W, 8:58)
A chronicle of an autumn 1942 8th Army Air Force mission over Europe, from the preparation of the planes straight through to return to base, including aerial footage of the bombing mission itself.
BIRTH OF THE B-29 (1945, B&W, 20:06)
The story of how the famed Superfortress was conceived, designed, produced, tested, manufactured and brought into the air war against Japan.
CURTISS-WRIGHT "MINUTE MOVIES" (7) (1944, B&W 8:58)
Advertisments produced for the recruitment of labor to work in Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical plants during the war. Some of them are introduced by the great Lowell Thomas, and all show the facilities, work stations, neighborhoods & issues associate in order to entice workers from their current work to their state-of-the-art facilities.
COMBAT AMERICA (1943, TECHNICOLOR, 1:00)
First Lt. Clark Gable's 1945 USAAF color film featuring 60 minutes of gunnery training & combat over Germany. It follows the 40 B-17 Flying Fortresses, 400 crewmen and 3600 support crew personnel of the 351st Bombardment Group from the end of their training at a Colorado training field to actual combat over St. Nazaire, Emden, Kiel, Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Hamburg, Amien, Flushing, Stuttgart, Brussels & more. Produced at the command of General Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, as an orientation film for gunners training to serve in the European theater of operations prior to the availability of long range fighter escorts, the aerial battles of the gunners against attacking Messerchmidt & Focke Wulfe fighters are as intense as the dogfights of the Spitfires and Thunderbolts. You'll see astounding combat damage on returned B-17s; colorful nose art; a captured Junkers 88 bomber in flight; British Air-Sea Rescue; the awarding of Purple Hearts, Silver Stars & Distinguished Flying Crosses; many shots of the local population, recreational and cultural sites; Bob Hope in a USO show; complete bombing runs dropping heavy explosive, incendiary and anti-personnel ordnace in the face of flak and fighters; the care and recovery of the wounded; ground preparations, maintenance and repair by the ground crews (on 90 hour shifts!); the Duke of Gloucester, General Eaker and General Arnold; air mishaps and crashes; & much more!
THE FIGHTING LADY (1944, TECHNICOLOR, 1:01)
Edward Steichen's 1944 award winning documentary chronicling the heroic lives and battles of the crew of the hero Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Yorktown. Winner, Academy Award, Best Documentary Feature, 1945. Winner, Special Award, New York Film Critics Circle, 1946.
CAMOFLAGUE - A CARTOON IN TECHNICOLOR (1943, 19:46)
Animation illustrating how good camoflague techniques can be employed to protect a far-flung airfield from attack.
D-DAY MINUS ONE (1945, 16:45)
An excellent chronicle of the famed exploits of the U.S. 82nd & 101st Airborne Divisions that parachuted into France to engage in special operations in preparation for and congress with the 1944 invasion of France.
NEWS PARADE: BOMBING OF PEARL HARBOR (1942, 9:35)
The grisly aftermath of the Japanese aerial attack upon Pearl Harbor made shortly after the event.
PARATROOPS (1944, 9:05)
An interservice recruitment film touting the bold achievements of American's fighting paratroopers.
RECOGNITION OF THE JAPANESE ZERO FIGHTER (1942, 9:05)
An Army Air Force training film starring Ronald Reagan as a fledgling fighter pilot.
SPECIAL DELIVERY (1946, 11:49)
The delivery system's what's featured here in this retrospective of the bombers of the Army Air Force, culminating in the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests. Includes footage of the flying wing too!
TARGET INVISIBLE (1945, 8:24)
Airborne microwave radar was, after the atomic bomb, the most important technological advantage the Allies had developed during World War II. This film demonstrates just how this system operated and was used during a dramatization of a bombing mission over the Japanese mainland.
THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY (1942, Color, 18:08)
A John Ford film, winner of the 1943 Academy Award for Best Documentary, detailing the battle that turned the tide in the war against Imperial Japan.
SPITFIRE (1942, B&W, 1:30)
The Inspirational Story Of Aircraft Designer R. J. Mitchell's Race Against Death To Create A Sure Defense Against A Triumphant Third Reich On-The-March - Leslie Howard's 1942 Directorial Contribution To The War Effort Starring Himself And Costarring David Niven.
THE WAY TO THE STARS (1946, B&W, 1:44)
Our Favorite UK Homefront World War II Film! The Stirring Story British & American Airmen And The Townsfolk They Cherish, Starring Michael Redgrave, John Mills and Trevor Howard. Great Britain was blanketed with airfields during World War II. Downright upheaval occurred in the lives of both country and town folk across the country as they struggled to accomodate first British and then American airmen. In the midst of it, however, great stories of personal relationships transcending time and circumstance arose, all charged with the frenetics of the moment, and all to end in the ghostowns of abandoned aerodromes. This film both sensitively and movingly portrays all these things, all within the context of good men and women doing their best by each other in trying circumstances, at the very least out of tolerance for each other, but mostly out of respect, admiration, and love.
ONE OF OUR AIRCRAFT IS MISSING (1942, B&W, 1:42)
An R.A.F. Bomber Crew Rescued By Dutch Partisans! This 1942 British Classic tells the tale of the crew of "B" for "Bertie", a Royal Air Force Bomber Command aircraft shot down after a raid on Fortress Europe, and how they managed to get back to England's green and beautiful due to the industry, heroism and sacrifice of the dutch villagers who help them escape. A moving propaganda piece as much about a conquered country's patriotism and will-to-resist as it is a soldier story.
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (45 Min., B&W)
CBS documentary narrated by Richard Basehart that serves to encapsulate the events the lead to and included what was then the world's greatest air battle in history into a form that is easily accessible and accurate.