43574 1945 USAAF “ WEEKLY DIGEST NO. 72 ” DOUGLAS A-26 BOMBING OF SINGAPORE & CORREGIDOR

This film from March 5, 1945 is of the “Weekly Digest” newsreels released during WW2. It opens with the Douglas A-26; a twin-engine light bomber and ground attack air craft (:44). The A-20 it replaced is shown (:52). In England, a bomber group makes a changeover and prepares to return to its home base in France (:59). The craft’s all-purpose nose is pointed to (1:07). Within the cockpit, the pilot adjusts the controls (1:38) and the instruments are checked (1:43). The square like shape of the A-26 is pointed out as its defining keynote (1:55). The craft is seen in flight (2:05). It was powered by Pratt and Whitney engines (2:17). The A-26 lands at the base in France (2:32). Ground forces conduct servicing on the crafts (2:44). Eight removable .50 caliber package guns (2:52) could be mounted in place of guns. Interchangeable nose types include a lightly armed plexiglass model for bombing missions as well as an attack or strafing nose (3:13). The nose is changed (3:40) and bombs are loaded into the plane (3:44). A wide span of artillery follows (3:52). A few weeks prior, the A-26 struck at Nazi forces (4:14). Here (4:21), they are taking off for another strike against Germany to flatten the Belgian Bulge (4:21). A map points to Zulpich on December 24th, 1944 (4:39) as one craft was to hit the communications center. 250- and 1,000-pound bombs fall upon their target bridge (4:51). This attack directly affected the actions of General George Patton’s 3rd Army (5:07). Arlon, Belgium’s main road from Luxembourg to Bastogne, was another A-26 target (5:25). They were to aid the ground forces in clearing the road (5:34). Aerial footage follows of the attack (5:38). The next segment depicts a delivery of flour in January of 1944 to Castle di Sangrio (6:06). Flour bags are moved into Italian bombers (6:19). Pilots are briefed for the mission (6:27). The target area is zoomed in on near the Sangro river valley (7:05). The flour bags are dropped (7:35). Pacific Theater — Singapore bombings took place from 1944 to 1945 (8:05). B-29’s hit enemy repair facilities in the Singapore Naval Base (8:13). Aerial footage is provided of some of the 67 B-29’s as they dropped 234 tons of bombs on a dry dock (9:07). Reconnaissance mission photos show the dock sinking (9:10). Ships, construction blocks, power houses, workshops and boat houses were hit (9:19). The Nov. 1944 raids on Borneo follow (9:31). On the 24th, two Liberators conducted a routine shipping search over Borneo’s coastal waters (9:40). The 13th Air Force targeted enemy shipping (9:47) and bombs pop along the water (9:53). On December 16th, a 13th Air Force planes hit Labuan Island on Brunei Bay (10:18). Liberators hit a Japanese cargo vessel with 250-pound bombs (10:41). On January 26th, the 13th Air Force struck Japanese installations near Balikpapan (10:45). B-24’s flew low over the Dagang (sp?) river (10:53). Delayed action bombs were dropped at the pipeline bridge near the Balikpapan oil fields (11:00). Strafing along the bridge follows (11:04). B-25 strikes took place in January of 1945 (11:14). The invasion of Luzon had hit its 9th day (11:22) and medium bombers were to now hit Cotabato on Mindanao. The bombers hit their target (11:35). 50 caliber machine guns strafed Japanese installations (11:43). On January 24th, medium bombers hit Siasi Island (12:02). B-25’s strafed and bombed Japanese installations (12:18). On January 27th, a rescue mission was flown to the Sulu region to rescue a survivor of a B-25 which had crashed on the island during the raid (12:35). The flight surgeon is pointed out on the plane (12:55). The rendezvous was to be the Philippine guerrilla headquarters on Tawi-Tawi (13:06). The rescue plane prepared to land as two boats are seen with guerrillas and the surviving crew member (13:15). The burned man is moved onto the plane (13:45). Another pair returning for treatment was a blind Spanish American war veteran and his young son (13:55). B-25’s supplied air support for the mission (14:09). The wounded man is pulled from the aircraft at Morotai base (14:53). In February of 1945 (15:08) Corregidor (15:24) was hit. Bombers dropped payloads on the coastline (15:38), Japanese store houses and barracks (15:49). B-24’s dropped more the following day (16:18) on enemy supply dumps. Naval guns of the 7th Fleet assisted in bombing the island fortress (16:29). On the morning of the 16th, bombers struck and paratroops landed (16:36). Aerial footage of the attack follows (16:53). On November of 1944, 14th Air Force fighters flying over China hit a radar station (17:43). Strafing along the water way (17:49) and planes exploding on the ground (18:04) conclude the film.

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 like: “01:00:12:00

Link Copied

About Us

Thanks for your interest in the Periscope Film stock footage library.  We maintain one of the largest collections of historic military, aviation and transportation in the USA. We provide free research and can provide viewing copies if you can let us know some of the specific types of material you are looking for. Almost all of our materials are available in high quality 24p HD ProRes and 2k/4k resolution.

Our material has been licensed for use by:

Scroll to Top

For Downloading, you must Login or Register

Free to Download High Quality Footage

Note: Please Reload page and click again on My Favorites button to see newly added Favorite Posts.