A B-24 Liberator bomber with nose art painted name "Laden Maiden,"of the USAAF 5th Bombardment Group, sits with engines running,on Munda Point airfield, New Georgia Island, preparing to take off to bomb Japanese shipping near Truk, during World War 2. Broader view shows two squadrons of B-24s preparing for the mission as a rain storm sweeps the island. The aircraft begin taxiing for takeoff. One with nose art name "Tim-ber," shows 25 bombs, for missions, painted on its fuselage. One departing B-24 is seen to use a long takeoff run. Narrator describes difficulties encountered by one B-24 that had to ditch during the mission. Sequence shifts to post-mission scenes the day after the planes returned to Munda.Injured crew members from the ditched B-24, who had been rescued by a Navy PBY, are being transferred to a C-47 aircraft for evacuation to a medical facility. A B-24 is seen taking off on a new mission to bomb Japanese Naval base at Rabaul. View of control tower with several B-24s in formation overhead.
Major General Nathan F. Twining, Commanding General, 13th Air Force. arrives to congratulate fighter Pilots of the U.S. Army Air Forces, at Henderson Field, on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, during World War 2. (The 339th had successfully accomplished a highest priority mission, shooting down Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's airplane on April 18, 1943.) Major General Twining, wearing a pith helmet, steps out of his jeep and walks towards a group of 339th Squadron Pilots. He examines the nose wheel of a P-38, as a group of pilots stand around him. General Twining converses for a while with Major John W. Mitchell, Commander, 339th Fighter Squadron, who led the mission to down Admiral Yamamoto's airplane. Later, members of the 339th Squadron are photographed in conversations with one another.
Title sequence “Air Force Now”. Image of Lieutenant Rex T. Barber, the United States Army Air Force pilot who shot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during a military operation in the Solomon Islands in 1943, taken during World War II. Rex T. Barber is interviewed by Air Force Now. Lieutenant Rex T. Barber describes how he shot down a Japanese bomber that carried Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during WWII.
Reinforcements and supplies arriving on Guadalcanal during World War 2. Various views of Soldiers and supplies arriving from transport ships. These operations are occuring in 1943, after Guadalcanal has been secured and now being prepared as a base for further allied advances against Japanese-held islands on the road to Japan itself. In one scene Soldiers are seen arrivng on a Higgins Boat from the transport ship, USS George Clymer (APA-27). Most of the film shows supplies being amassed on the beachhead. Local natives are employed helping unload and store the large quantities of supplies.
Sequence starts at Tontouta Air Base in New Caledonia, on the near left side of runway 2 in the area of the 13th Troop Carrier Squadron ( a.k.a. the Thirsty 13th) with their plane "Lady Eve" on the right. (The 801st Medical Air Evacuation Squadron was assigned to the 13th TCS on January 9, 1943, and remained with it until the end of the war. But they also flew on planes of the 63rd and 64th TCSs, and with the Marines.) Takeoff is on runway 11 at Tontouta Air Base. A pilot and a co-pilot at the controls in the cockpit of a C-47. A navigator at work. C-47s in flight west over New Georgia, 10 miles southeast of Munda, near Eghelo. The plane landing at Munda has no tail number and is probably a U.S. Marine Corps plane. They evacuate wounded soldiers from Munda airstrip on New Georgia Island in the Solomon Islands during World War 2. Doors of the aircraft are opened. An ambulance backs to the door of the aircraft. Litter patients are removed from the ambulance and loaded aboard the C-47.
Activities of the U.S. Navy Seabees in the Solomon Islands during World War II. A jeep struggles through flooded muddy area in Solomon islands. Palm trees all around. A quonset hut in flooded waters. A man wades through thick mud over what had been a U.S. constructed road. A man suffering from malaria is examined. Malaria patients are cared for. A formal ceremony to honor U.S. troops who died from malaria. A soldier salutes and honor guard with rifles stands at attention. Following instructions from the Medical Command, Seabees commence battle against anopheles mosquitoes (blowup of one is shown). Seabees spray with various equipment and install water filtering systems. Scenes show success of the anti-mosquito measures. Numerous explosions are seen as Seabees use explosives to clear jungle for construction. A Douglas SBD Dauntless aircraft takes off (machine gun in rear cockpit).Seabees bulldoze Palm trees to clear jungle and build numerous quonset huts to house U.S. forces.
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