This silent 16mm home movie dates from just after the WWII era and was shot by a member of the U.S. military. Starting at :51 you will see operations at a U.S. Navy seaplane base. We’re not sure where this was located but probably Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Some of the PBM-3 Mariner aircraft shown are marked “SF” on the tail, possibly standing for “San Francisco”? At 3:30 the PBM-3 takes off across the bay. At 6:25 the unit is reviewed by the commanding officer who appears to be a one-star Admiral. The film ends at 9:51 with an interesting sequence, as an old woman begs for coins amid U.S. sailors.
The Martin PBM Mariner was an American patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the Consolidated PBY Catalina in service. A total of 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940. The first PBM-1s entered service with Patrol Squadron Fifty-Five (VP-55) of the United States Navy on 1 September 1940.[3] Prior to the USA’s entry into World War II, PBMs were used (together with PBYs) to carry out Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic, including operations from Iceland. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, PBMs were used on anti-submarine patrols, sinking their first German U-boat, U-158 on 30 June 1942. PBMs were responsible, wholly or in part, for sinking a total of ten U-boats during World War II. PBMs were also heavily used in the Pacific War, operating from bases at Saipan, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and the South West Pacific.
The United States Coast Guard acquired 27 Martin PBM-3 aircraft during the first half of 1943. In late 1944, the service acquired 41 PBM-5 models and more were delivered in the latter half of 1945. Ten were still in service in 1955, although all were gone from the active Coast Guard inventory by 1958 (when the last example was released from CGAS San Diego and returned to the U.S. Navy). These flying boats became the backbone of the long-range aerial search and rescue efforts of the Coast Guard in the early post-war years until supplanted by the P5M Marlin and the HU-16 Albatross in the mid-1950s. PBMs continued in service with the U.S. Navy following the end of World War II, flying long patrol missions during the Korean War.[8] It continued in front line use until replaced by its successor, the P5M Marlin, with the last USN squadron equipped with the PBM, Patrol Squadron Fifty (VP-50), retiring them in July 1956.
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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
