U.S. Coast Guard station in the United States. Entrance to U.S. Coast Guard barracks at Salem Air Station in Salem, Massachusetts. Interior of a machine shop. Officer's recreation room (exterior). Garage, containing battery room.
Film opens showing entrance to cockpit of a U.S. Air Force Troop Carrier Douglas C-124 Globemaster aircraft en route from France to Indochina. A pilot is seen at the controls in the left seat, and the Aircraft Commander is observing from behind and between the pilots' seats. Close-up of number 3 and 4 engines with propellers turning as viewed from copilot's window. Two crew members are seen asleep on bunks in rear of flight deck compartment. Another is napping in a bulkhead seat. More views of engines running and propellers turning. Glimpse downward of land and clouds below. Close-up of Copilot in right seat of cockpit, wearing headset and making an announcement through his microphone. View of French paratroopers seated in cargo compartment, listening to the announcement from loudspeaker above them. Next, a French paratrooper passenger is seen opening contents of a flight lunch package. He uses the tiny can opener included in the package to open a can (with some difficulty). Paratroopers eating flight lunches.Two of the passengers playing chess on a miniature board with plug-in chessmen. Close-up of the chessboard. Co-pilot speaking on intercom again and a French paratrooper, wearing headset and microphone, speaking as well (likely translating). Glimpse of engine running on left wing. A different person (not in flight suit) at the controls in copilot's seat. The crew's Flight Engineer making throttle adjustments at his panel. View on the ground of French greeting party on the destination airfield to meet the arriving aircraft. Arriving C-124 aircraft taxiing on inboard engines only, as it proceeds along layers of pierced steel plank (Marsden matting) comprising the surface of airfield ramp. Views of French military waiting to greet arriving paratroopers. The aircrew's loadmaster lowering one of the aircraft's front loading ramps. French paratrooper passengers use it to leave the aircraft. (The other ramp is partially down and contains cartons and boxes.) Close-up of a French major in the greeting party. A woman greeting troopers, individually, as come down the ramp from the aircraft. Some French aircraft lined up on ramp, in background. (They appear to be Grumman F8F Bearcat aircraft.) Glimpse of an armed French Colonial (Tirailleurs Sénégalais) sentry standing near the aircraft. Troopers carrying cartons of rations from the aircraft and joining others preparing to board trucks for a ride to their quarters. Uniformed French soldiers in the greeting party help load heavy crate into an Army truck. Some troopers leave on trucks.
Operations of the U.S. Army Air Forces 394th Fighter Squadron, 367th Fighter Group, at Juvincourt Airfield (Advanced Landing Ground A-68) in France, during Winter of 1944, World War 2. The entire field is covered in snow. Pilots ride to their P-38 aircraft on a train of sleds, pulled by a Carl Eliason Motor Toboggan (Made by Four Wheel Drive Auto Company of Clintonville, Wisconsin). Pilots playfully brush some snow toward the camera as they pass. They stop to let a pilot off at his P-38 (reportedly the pilot is Jack Hallett). Next, P-38 aircraft are seen taxiing for takeoff over the snow, and then, flying very low over the field. The sound of gunfire is heard in the background. An abandoned (crash-landed) RAF Avro Lancaster bomber is seen collapsed on its left wing and elevator, in the snow. (It has been suggested that this might be Lancaster serial no ME850 LS-D of XV squadron RAF that crash landed on January 1st, 1945 or Lancaster VN-G of 50 SQN that crashed there on the same day.)
U.S. Navy's fleet task force under Japanese air attack in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. Japanese plane aboard deck of ship in midst of task force. Iowa class BB(Battleship), CV (aircraft carrier), CA (Cruiser) and escorting DDs (destroyer) underway at sea. Explosions seen near to CV in water. U.S. Navy Curtiss SB2Cs Helldiver are towed across flight deck.
Seventy five U.S. Army Curtiss P-40L airplanes are ferried across the Atlantic Ocean to within flying range of Morocco, North Africa, by the Aircraft Carrier, USS Ranger (CV-4), during World War 2. U.S. Army Air Force pilots prepare to fly the P-40s to the former Vichy French Anfa Airport near Casablance, captured by the Allies in Operation Torch. The Army pilots and support personnel are seen being briefed on the flight deck. Navy deck crews help move a P-40 into position. USAAF 57th Fighter Group commander, Colonel Frank H. Mears shakes hands with a navy officer from the cockpit of his P-40. Carrier officer seen signaling for take off. Colonel Mears takes off. More P-40s follow. Navy officers and sailors watch the departing P-40s and give thumbs up for approval. The P-40s buzz the carrier as they form up to depart.
U.S. Navy fleet under Japanese air attack in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. Flaks in sky. Japanese plane attacks a ship. U.S. Navy ship underway at sea. Smoke rises in the background. Antiaircraft guns fire.
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