Hello All --
You are invited to drop by Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In (
http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com) and catch our three latest World War II aviation features for free online video viewing. This month "At the Matinee," we're showing an exciting, action packed first run debut, "P-38 Reconnaissance Pilot," starring William Holden, and the return of two favorites, "Black Cat PBY," and "Bombers Over North Africa."
Reconnaissance Pilot Starring William Holden ("Bridge on the River Kwai") as Lt. "Packy" Cummings. Photo recon pilots (Photo Joes) had one of the riskiest, highest impact jobs in the war. Flying camera equipped, unarmed, and often unescorted aircraft -- in this case the Lockheed F-5, a "stripped down" P-38 -- pilots flew deep into enemy territory. "Reconnaissance Pilot" follows Packy Cummings. from basic training to the skies over New Guinea. He's not particularly happy to be flying recon -- his Dad was a renowned World War I ace recently killed by the Japanese and he wants revenge. The story of the film is how Packy comes to realize the absolutely essential nature of photo recon and how one Photo Joe can have more deadly impact than a whole squadron of combat '38s. Along the way, you'll learn about photo recon and see some nice F-5 footage, The climax of the film, an action packed clash with a Japanese Zero, is based on a real incident where Alex Gary, the most decorated US recon pilot of the War, deep sixed his opponent without firing a shot.
Black Cat PBY -- What was that mysterious plane swooping down out of the night sky on unsuspecting Japanese ships and bases, hundreds of miles from any known American airstrip? The answer was, as you'll see in this good humored, affectionate film, the slow, ungainly, but deadly "Black Cat" PBY. Originally designed primarily as a reconnaissance and antisubmarine amphibious patrol plane, the big twin engined Catalina's super long range, all weather capability, capacity to lug both bombs and radar, ability to loiter for hours hunting convoys and operate from anywhere in the watery PTO, made it an ideal naval night attack bomber.
One of the least known stories of the war in the Pacific, these black painted PBY "VPB" ('Patrol Bombing") squadrons spread destruction and chaos far out of proportion to their relatively small numbers. A frequent tactic was to cut their engines and float in almost silently on their prey. As this film shows, night ops were very risky, but the rewards could be huge, including the sinking of a 6,000 ton Katori class light cruiser by Lt. William B Sumpler, of VPB-33, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross.
"Bombers Over North Africa" This is a rare look at early war US Air Operations in North Africa. B-25 and B-17 bombers of the 321st and 97th Bomb Group help cut off Rommel's retreat from Tunisia. Part of the "North West African Strategic Air Force," these groups were initially tasked with preventing men and material from reaching the Afrika Korps, and later with preventing them from escaping.
The missions for the day of this film were to strike from bases in Algeria at the junction at Manouba, near Tunis, and the air field at Sidi Ahmed, near Bizerte, where a large number of extremely valuable JU 52 transports were based, a key element in German evacuation plans. (Ironically, the 321st would soon occupy Sidi Ahmed as their new base for the Sicilian campaign.) The film features an introduction by the theater commander, then 4 star General, Dwight Eisenhower and an afterword by Air Operations Commanding General "Jimmy" Doolittle.
Perhaps most memorably, this film is notable for it's extended "up close and personal" look at the men of the 97th & 321st BGs. You'll see real pre mission and after action debriefing sessions with the men who flew them, including a B-17 crew's account of an FW 190 shoot down and the water ditching of a heavily damaged B-25.
If you haven't stopped by Zeno's Drive-In before, we also feature 1940-45 vintage WWII Army & Navy films on how to fly the F4U, F6F, P-38, P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51, P-61, TBF/TBM, AT-6/SNJ, B-17, B-24, B-25, A-20, A-26, B-26, B-29, Stearman N2S and a different WWII documentaries every month "At the Matinee."
That's over 14 hours of rockin' props for free viewing over the internet. See detailed charts, diagrams, and interior photos from original WWII pilot's manuals too.
Finally, we just revised, expanded, and updated our "Control Tower" page, which has the largest collection of World War II Aviation links on the 'net
So drop your flaps & drop in!
That's
http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.comZeno
