Original Gun Cam Footage

[MOSQ]

A friend of mine has acquired a great deal of never before published  gun cam footage, mostly of 8th AF fights. The footage includes Yeager and Bud Anderson, among others.

To preserve this unique collection he has started the National Combat History Archive. I was privileged to attend a preview session held yesterday of a portion of the film for the local 8th AF Association folks.

Below is a link to a news article on the event.

If you have, or know anyone who has original gun cam footage from any theatre or any war and wish to sell your footage to folks who will preserve it, please let me know and I'll put you in contact with these folks.

For those of you doing research, I can help arrange access to the footage. Each clip has the pilots name, rank, and date. Some also have notes like FW-190 attack.

They've only started cataloging all their film. One of the unique clips is Yeager shooting down his 262 kill.

Fliers Face to Face with Past

BTW, I watched an hour of these gun cams, most were 6 to 10 seconds long, so there were a heck of a lot of them. Not a single one was a HO!

[Goomba]

MOSQ,

Any chance your friend is considering digitizing these films and making them available to the likes of us?  Would be a treat to see 'new' guncam films.

[Souless]

hmm i cant see the footage is there a special codec i need?

[Kazaa]

Ahhhhhhhh QUICKTIME Nooooooooo

What QuickTime componet do I need to play this video ?

[MOSQ]

Originally posted by Goomba
MOSQ,

Any chance your friend is considering digitizing these films and making them available to the likes of us?  Would be a treat to see 'new' guncam films.

Yes. They are converting all of them now. The film is deteriorating. A lot of it is already unusable.

I'll see if I can get a few clips and post them for your review.

On the Quicktime thing, that's how the Oregonian posted them, I don't know what the issue is, I get the same error message.

[MOSQ]

Ok folks, my friend sent over the below gun cam files in Windows Media Format:

FW-190

109

Breakup

Flip3

Strafe01


Enjoy!

[SkyRock]

Thanks bro!:aok

[Kazaa]

This guys is ace

[smash]

they don't seem to be doing much to get out of the way

[Curval]

Originally posted by smash
they don't seem to be doing much to get out of the way

Looks like they were afk.  

Thanks Mosq

[Hajo]

WOW....what API can do eh?

Mosqu....if they convert to tape or dvd please let us know!  Also where we can get it.

[Flit]

Thanks!
 More , More !:D

[Kweassa]

they don't seem to be doing much to get out of the way

 Play them at 3 times its speed and you'll get something akin to real-life speed.


  In the case of the 190 it seems to have been a near perfect latch-up. When played at x3 speed what you see is remarkably simular to what we see in AH when we're really close behind the enemy plane - how the enemy plane seems to 'bob around' your windshield.

 The 109 footage when played at x3, shows the 109 immediately breaking hard left as he feels hits landing to his plane. Very abrupt.

 The "break-up" footage is one of the very rare cases I've ever seen a Luftwaffe plane go through an immediate, abrupt structural failure by being shot with .50s. I'm no expert, and the guncam footages I've seen are merely what goes around in the internet, but in most cases the .50s would rarely cause such a sudden, catastrophic structural failure. At first I suspected the .50s might have detonated the ammunition of the gondolas, but the target 109 was clearly in clean configuration with no gunpods.

 I looked at frame to frame and realized the .50s, landed a remarkably well grouped barrage of shots concentrated on the left wing of the 109, just a to little bit left of the radiator exhaust. A near perfect shot, in perfect convergence - one of the best shots I've ever seen in guncam films. Probably sawed right through the segments of wing spars there.

 Flip3, also played x3 shows the target entering a very abrupt split-S. The feel of it is nothing like when you see it at original guncam speed.

 Strafe1, played at x3, makes you almost feel like in a roller coaster. Nothing leisurely about it - the feeling of speed, when you're so close to the ground, so much greater.

[Kweassa]

Went through the 'breakup' footage again. Noticed a few thing that I didn't see before.



 It seems some of the left wing (actually, 'most the left wing' seems more like it) still stays intact despite the 'breakup' - I'm not sure, but to me it looks like something caused a big chunk of the trailing edge part of the left wing to fall of. The concentrated barrage of the .50s must have detached or sawed off something vital to keep that part together - but most parts of the left wing, are still left intact.

 I went through the 'snaproll' part the 109 and noticed something I haven't seen before. The 'flipping over' might not have been entirely the result of the parts of the left wing falling off. Just as the shots begin to land, I've noticed what seems to be the aierlon deflected.

 The first group of shots land near the left wingroot (and parts of the left rear fuselage). After that the barrage concentrates on the middle of the wing. The last, final big incendiary flash lands on the left wing, at the right edge of the left aielron  and bam! The left aileron is suddenly deflected, however, the right aileron is not.

 It could be something just hanging loose, instead of being an aileron, but if it is indeed an aileron, then the deflection wasn't caused by the pilot, since the right aileron stays neutral. There was no pilot input, the barrage of shots might have caused some kind of malfunction of the controls, the left aileron deflects as a big chunk of the left wing itself falls out, abrupt change in the attitude of the airflow over the left wing, and the 109 is 'snaprolled'. The speed of the 'roll', and attitude of it clearly indicates the plane being out of control, while the large part of the left wing is still intact.

 
 So now..

 I'm not sure if it was really the result of .50s "sawing off" and 'breaking up' the leftwing, that caused it to go out of control. It didn't 'saw it off' - but it clearly did something that wasn't good for maintaining control.

[Widewing]

Here's a montage of gun camera footage, mostly from 5th AF P-38s (some in color). Be advised it's a QuickTime file, ActiveX controls must be enabled.

Gun Camera Footage

My regards,

Widewing