The first few seconds of this World War II-era film immediately identifies it as an official training film from the War Department … and restricted. Produced by the Army Air Forces and photographed by combat camera crews, the film introduces the viewer to “Bombers Over North Africa” starting at mark 00:32, and the Battle of Tunisia. General Dwight D. Eisenhower appears at mark 00:45 to discuss Allied movements in the Tunisia Campaign, which took place between November 1942 and May 1943. (Eisenhower is shown with four stars on his collar, a promotion he received in November 1942 after being appointed Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Forces of the North African Theater of Operations).
From there, the film goes on to provide the footage with “first hand” footage of the combat. At mark 02:05, members of the 321st Bomb Group are filmed as “they use native labor to help fill the tanks of their B-25’s” while ammunition is shown being loaded into turret and waist guns at mark 03:00, followed by an ordnance crew and bombs.
By mark 04:15, the 321st Bomb Group is receiving a briefing as officers are called out during roll call before learning of their next bombing run on the northern Tunisian town of Mateur. Other B-17 bombers will target Sidi Ahmed Air Base. In another briefing, a colonel from the 97th Bomb Group tells those assembled, “We’ve got bastards on the run here, let’s keep them on the run.”
After the briefings, the bomb crews are shown piling into troop trucks and jeeps to be taken to their aircraft across the desert landscape. The film spends several minutes silently observing the aircraft preparing for battle. Among them, a B-17 bomber named Berlin Sleeper II, from the 97th Bomb Group. The scene is juxtaposed as a Tunisian shepherd tends to his flock.
The aircraft are shown flying in formation at mark 13:07, as the film continues without narration. Only the hum of the engines are heard. With a dramatic blast of music at mark 14:09, the aircrafts suddenly are shown releasing their payload. The music swells as the bombs turn the airfields at Sidi Ahmed to ruins.
A debriefing at mark 16:00 shows the relaxed crews detailing their runs, including one sergeant who explains how he shot down an aircraft during the heat of the battle. “Bullets up ’til then hadn’t been very effective. He peeled off over the top of us at about 200 feet. The last burst I fired, well I clipped his tail off. Last I seen him, he was started down,” the gunner matter-of-factly explains.
A crew member from another aircraft adds at mark 16:54, “Yeah, I seen it. After his damn tail blew off he started down in a steep dive and I seen him crash and burst into flames. No doubt about that one.” At mark 18:22, viewers are told that a B-25 crew wasn’t as fortunate. Although this crew downed two targets, their engine was shot out, forcing a water landing in the Gulf of Tunis near the coastal town of Nabeul, leaving them in a life raft for three hours before being rescued.
