Wwii U.S. Army Air Forces Digest 54 (1944)

Synopsis

This film is of the ‘Combat Weekly Digest’ which was a WW2 newsreel running from 1943 to 1945. It had been prepared by the Army Air Force Combat Film Service (:29). It begins with the bombing of the Philippians on September 6th, 1944 (:38). A map shows the 650-mile mission from Middleburg to Buayan in the Philippians (:44). At the Middleburg airfield, B-25 Mitchells are checked and gassed for the 11-hour mission ahead (:52). The first large scale mission began on September 1st (1:00). P-38 planes are seen taking off around 4am and refueling at Middleburg and then again taking off (1:15). A view is given looking out over the coastline of Buayan (1:33) and the 25’s are then preparing to swing low (1:40) as the fighter planes lower to assist in strafing (1:45). This was the first use of Para demo bombs (1:51) and footage of bombs dropping and strafing on repair shops, motor parks and barges follow (2:12). These attacks cost Japan 1,500 planes and 200 ships (2:57). A map shows the next target in Celebes (3:14). A series of raids had occurred in the Dutch East Indies in September (3:20). Bombs are seen popping over airfields (3:31). On September the 18th, the Somate strip was assaulted (3:57). Boela airfields, fuel tanks and main jetty’s were hit in September on the 25th (4:00). Polvata, an airfield in Ukraine had been used by the American Air Force (4:32). On the night of June 21st, the German Air Force attacked here with success (4:41). The overcrowded air base is shown (4:44)…

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Details

Running time

17 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage