A film titled 'Mariana Thunderbolts' shows the Pacific campaign of World War II fought on the Island of Saipan, Mariana Islands. The first 7th AAF (Army Air Forces) P-47s catapulted from naval carriers. The first combat tests of napalm incendiary bombs by the P-47s. P-47s fire first rockets. A dock area showing the piles of equipment being loaded onto LSTs (Landing Ships, Tank) in Hawaii. A bulldozer being loaded into the LST. A power vehicle used to pull grading equipment also loaded into the LST. The dock area shows huge piles of supplies. Bellows Field in Hawaii shows mechanics working on P-47 aircraft. Landing gears, engines, and all phases of overhaul being done on the P-47s prior to loading them onto aircraft carriers. Mechanics crate aircraft parts and supplies in boxes prior to loading cargo onto the ships. They taxi out the P-47s and line them up for inspection. Several men lying and sitting on the runway facing two long rows of parked P-47s. Inspection officers, Commanding Officer of the U.S. 318th Fighter Squadron Colonel L. M. Sanders and Commanding Officer of the U.S. 19th Fighter Squadron Major Harry McAfee walk through the double row of parked P-47s.
'Aerial mine laying blockades Japanese shipping' depicts Allied preparations and Operations of the 21st Bomber Command, for aerial dropping of mines in the Pacific ocean to thwart Japanese shipping in World War 2. . Rows of stacked bombs are shown in a munitions dump at Tinian Air Base in the Mariana Islands. Camera focuses on a 2000 pound MK25 mine. Men demonstrate hydrostatic safety devices on the mine, including an extender that holds the detonator away from the booster charge until sufficiently immersed, and a clock delay mechanism. MK 25 transported to B-29 aircraft named Flak Alley Sally. (This is B-29 Number 42-24878 of the 40th Bomb Squadron, 6th Bomb Group, 313th Bomb Wing.) Airmen attach a parachute to the end of the mine. Another inserts the detonator and its extender plus the timer device into the side of the mine. Soluble washers are then placed in arming device ports. Scene shifts to Army and Navy planners working with maps, dividers, and a Weems plotter to mark the target location and mine laying pattern. 313th Bombardment Wing Group Commanders are seen being briefed in a war room. Next, engines are seen starting on a B-29, that then takes off and is seen in flight.(Narrator notes that missions are flown at night, but this one is photographed in the day to show how it is done. View of B-29 cruising above clouds. View from inside the aircraft, of bomb bay slowly opening. View of the target area below. The parachute of a mine opens by a static line as it falls from the bomb bay. Scene shifts to water level closeup of a mine striking the water. ('Presumably a demonstration inserted here.) Final scene shows a Navy Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger torpedo bomber dropping a parachute equipped mine. in the same location.
U.S. Marines battle Japanese forces on Saipan, Marianas Islands, during World War 2. Views across the valley to Mt Topotchau. Explosions from artillery shells. Smoke arises from the shelling..
Pacific campaign of World War 2 fought on Island of Saipan, Mariana Islands in World War II. Aslito Air Field area showing temporary huts erected by the 804th Aviation Engineers. Men washing clothes in small metal containers. Jeep made into stretcher bearer showing two patients on stretchers on jeep. Medical officers setting up tables and preparing for operation. Men being brought into the hospital. Several of the patients, military and civilian, foreign and Japanese all treated at the same hospital. Wounded Japanese sitting around the outside of the hospital. Small wounded child wrapped in bandages. Several civilians that had been treated at the hospital. Japanese prisoners as they unload the gasoline from trucks, push it across the area, and stack it up in supply dump area. Men pushing the drums of gas onto a truck. Gasoline pouring out of the drum into a trough. Japanese prisoners of war sitting around in the area resting. Grader moving across the finished field. Deck of carrier underway at sea off the coast of Saipan showing the blinker system used to correspond between ships at sea. Tower and operators of the blinker system.
Pacific campaign of World War II on the island of Saipan, Mariana Islands. U.S. Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft of 19th Fighter Squadron, 318th Fighter Group, taxiing into parking area in Aslito Airfield (Isley Field), Saipan Island. Weapon carriers going out to transport pilots back to base operations. Pilots being driven off to debriefing session after the Tinian strike mission.
USAAF pilots of the 318th Fighter Group, during Pacific campaign of World War 2 on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands. Pilots going into meeting room for debriefing after their mission against Japanese targets on Tinian Island. Pilots briefing Intelligence officer, checking over target map, pointing out objects hit on Tinian Island. Two pilots playing chess. Pilot lying on sack, reading comic book.