This silent footage shows the rescue of a B-29 crew off the coast of Saipan in 1945. The rescue was effected by the crew of a PBY Catalina. It took place on March 5, 1945.

The film begins with shots of B-29 Superfortresses landing at Saipan, presumably returning from bombing missions over Japan. A hand-written slate by photographer L.M. Mark (scrawled on the side of an oil drum) appears at 4:30 indicating that what you’re about to see is footage of a rescue at sea. At 4:50 the fuselage of a B-29 is shown bobbing in the water. Most likely the tail sheared off during ditching. At 7:59 the crew of the aircraft is seen in an inflatable boat being pulled into the PBY. At 10:15 the life rafts are shown empty, bobbing behind the Catalina. At 11:10 are aerials of the U.S. Navy fleet anchored off Saipan and shots of the seaplane base. At 12:37 what appear to be anchors are brought out and attached to the plane. At 14:10 everyone disembarks from the Catalina.

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com