Color B-24s landing, SBDs taking off Bougainville World War II National Archives NARA Airailimages

Описание: There's so much to appreciate in these color film scenes credited to a pair of Marine Corps photographers named Brunk and Rhodes out of Bougainville in April 1944.

The B-24s are predominantly D-models with the Hawaii Air Depot modification that put a tail turret in the nose, and created an open-air tail gun position. That explains the darker olive drab touch-up paint around the modified Liberators' noses. There are one or two B-24Js in the bunch with factory-installed nose turrets. And watch for one Liberator landing with the Number Two engine shut down, and prop feathered.

Some of the B-24 numbers and nose art seem to align with B-24s from the 307th Bomb Group, like “Grove Hill Blunderbus” and “Shackrat”. Pacific B-24 units sometimes moved forward for sorties staged out of a location other than home base, and that appears to be the case here.

Members of the B-24 unit watch the landings, and check off the Liberators as they roll by. The ambience of this color film is compelling. It is immersive to take the time and let the scenes roll past, imagining the efforts of young airmen and ground troops working with long-ranging B-24s to prosecute the war with Japan.

The SBD Dauntless dive bombers on Bougainville were from Marine squadron VMSB-244 according to a staffing document. The squadron called themselves the Bombing Banshees.

During this time, Marine Dauntlesses were known to have struck the Japanese base at Rabaul. While notes with this film do not specify the target for the SBDs seen in flight, that is a possibility. And watch for a quick clip of a Dauntless in Royal New Zealand Air Force markings on the ground.

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0:00 B-24s and SBDs at Bougainville
0:23 B-24s rolling past camera
01:29 B-24 Liberator "Shackrat"
02:23 B-24 landing with No. 2 prop feathered
04:04 SBD Dauntless taxiing - USMC
04:48 RNZAF SBD
04:59 Long, good view of SBD takeoff formation with camera plane
06:30 SBD formation en route to target