Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In November Newsletter
You are invited to drop by Zeno's Drive-In http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com and catch our latest World War II aviation features for free online video viewing. This month "At the Matinee," we're showing the action packed P-47 Squadron documentary. "Thunderbolt," a rare look inside live on the Flight Deck of a World War to Carrier in "Landing and Respotting Aircraft," and a fascinating documentary on US bomber action in Tunisa, "Bombers over North Africa."
And we just adedd added a free download of a pilot's handbook for the IL-2 "Sturmovik"joining manuals for the De Havilland Mosquito FB V1, Spitfire II and Me-262.
Now showing online "At the Matinee"
* Thunderbolt" This exciting film chronicles the exploits of the P-47 Thunderbolt pilots of the "Fighting Gamecocks" of the 65th Fighter squadron, 57th Fighter Group. Based on the island of Corsica off the northwest coast of the Italian boot, they flew from behind the enemy's flank. As part of "Operation Strangle," they continuously attacked highways, bridges,ammo dumps, railroads and just about anything that moved to choke off the flow of supplies to the Axis front line. This film not only features one-of-a-kind P-47 combat footage, it also shows day-to-day life on a MTO forward air base, including vintage pilot slang. "This has to be finest combination of great photography, a hard bitten, realistic script, stirring music, powerful narration and full bore Pratt & Whitney R-2800-59W Double Wasp radial engine roar I have seen or heard in a World War II documentary. Truly memorable and highly recommended."
*"Landing & Respotting aircraft" (This film is the companion piece to "Catapulting from a Carrier," which we showed a few months ago.) Major air battles in the Pacific in World WarII often turned on the ability of each side to quickly launch, land, rearm & refuel, and then relaunch their aircraft. This unique film is an unusual look (in color) at how US Navy carrier flight deck crews were trained to quickly land, park, fuel & re-arm incoming aircraft. As a bonus, you'll see GM FM-1 "Wildcats" and Grumman TBF "Avengers" up close, handled expertly on the tiny deck of a CVE "jeep" escort carrier. Built on merchant men hulls, the 78 jeeps were pressed into service for a variety of rolls, including anti submarine war in the Atlantic and covering amphibious landings in the Pacific, Their greatest moment came on Oct. 35, 1944, in the battle of Samar in the Philippines, when the CVEs of Task Group 77.4 (Task units "Taffy 1, 2, 4") launched a furious attack on Adm. Kurita's overwhelming task force and caused it to retreat. The CVE St Lo was lost and several others were heavily damaged, but the landing at Leyte was successfully protected.
*"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 anafterword by Air Operations Commanding General "Jimmy" Doolittle.
And 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. And we just added a section on P-51 variant specs. Finally, we've revised, expanded, and updated our "Control Tower" links 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.com
Zeno
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