1943 BATTLE OF THE BISMARCK SEA WORLD WAR II AUSTRALIAN NEWSREEL LAE NEW GUINEA 77604

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Released by the Australian Department of Information Pictures, this black & white news film is about the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (March 2-24, 1943) which took place in the South West Pacific Area during World War II when aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force attacked a Japanese convoy carrying troops to Lae, New Guinea. Follow-up attacks by PT boats and aircraft were made on 4 March. All eight transports and four of the escorting destroyers were sunk. Of 6,900 troops who were badly needed in New Guinea, only about 1,200 made it to Lae. Another 2,700 were rescued by destroyers and submarines and returned to Rabaul. The Japanese made no further attempts to reinforce Lae by ship, greatly hindering their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to stop Allied offensives in New Guinea.
Opening titles: Cinesound Review Bismarck Convoy Smashed! (:06-:34). March 2, Japanese ships are near Lae, New Guinea. Map of the Bismarck Sea. Planes at the Allied air base. USAF (United States Air Force) and the RAF (Royal Australian Air Force) discuss plans. Writing on a chalk board, Japanese Zeros are in the vicinity. Men scramble and get into a truck. Planes to be used include: P-40 Kittyhawks, Cobras, P-38 Lightnings, Bostons, Beafighters, Bristol Beauforts, B-25s, and Liberators. Planes take off (:35-1:47). B-17 Flying Fortress in the sky. Bristol Beaufighters fly. Allied planes fill the sky. Liberator comes in from another base (1:48-3:00). Allied planes bomb Japanese ships. Ships on fire. Cockpit POV approaches smokey ship. Pilots fire at the ships. Cockpit footage of firing down at the Japanese ships (3:01-4:47). Beaufighters return to base. Back on base, planes are worked on. Cannon shells are lined up. Allied planes take off again. 22 ships were destroyed (4:48-5:58). Cockpit POV of firing at a tiny boat coming to get Japanese survivors. Allied planes fire at anything on the sea. Pilot waves. Pilot takes a sip of water. Chalk board shows list of planes shot (5:59-7:10). Map of New Britain, New Guinea. Officers review maps. RAF pilots. Some of the USAF and RAF are introduced. The men talk and joke with one another. Planes and men (7:11-9:23). End credits (9:24-9:25).
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[@williamallencrowder361]

Much respect for the Aussies, and Kiwis. Great fighters, and even better people

[@MrSnottt]

My dad was in AUSTRALIA AT Brisbane.They showed this film in the local. Movie.The crowd CHEERED when the life boats were shot up. The Japanese were coming for AUSTRALIA.

[@dafyddllewellyn6636]

This film misses the essential part played by the Australian Beaufighters, which were one of the most heavily-armed fighters of WW2. They made the opening attack, at sea level, and the Japanese mistook them for Beaufort torpedo bombers, so turned towards them. The Beaufighters then strafed the bridges of the ships with 20mm canon, leaving the ships with no officers alive to control them. Seconds later, the Americans attacked the uncommanded vessels with skip-bombing. This split-second timing had been practiced on a hulk in Port Moresby harbour. Incidentally, the Beaufighter could "walk away" from a Zero at sea level.

[@johndanger8717]

I believe midlevel bombers attacked first, scattering the convoy and attracting the zeros to that elevation to allow the beaufighters to come in at low level

[@dafyddllewellyn6636]

@@johndanger8717 Believe what you like - you may be correct. I'm taking my viewpoint from having read the manuscript of "Bull" Halloran's book on the subject. He commented that the American crews were not good at the navigation necessary to make a closely-timed attack, so he set up a training exercise for them, on an old hulk in the harbour at Port Moresby (I saw it in the late '60s). This paid off, and the timing on the actual attack was perfect.

[@icewaterslim7260]

Yeah Beaufighters were first in close and also engaged in disabling the deck guns with those cannons which did that and more. That rid the B25's and the A20's of either service, much ( but Not all ) of the AA coming back at them during the skip bombing passes. My dad was in New Guinea only a few weeks before the 3rd Attack Group relocated to the Philippines so he didn't ride on that one. I don't think the 5th USAAF did as much if any of those on the deck risky close-in skip bombing runs thereafter that I'm aware of.. Strafing was faster over an opportune target if you had anything like that kind of firepower to make a single flyover pass effective.

[@rosslangerak8361]

I noticed the same thing. I also noticed they didn't mention skip bombing. This was a newsreel that would have been shown in theaters shortly after the attack. We really didn't want to clue the Japanese into the tactics we were using. They learned fast enough as it was. The B-25 Mitchells had been modified with six or eight .50 BMG machine guns in the nose. As they approached on a bombing run, they would open up on the side of the ship with the machine guns before releasing bombs. After a bombing run, they would come around and strafe any available ship. I have read that some of the Mitchells would do a strafing run first, and then a bombing run. I believe this was planned so there would always be suppression fire.

[@stuartwald2395]

There are a couple of good books on this battle (by Cortesi and McAuley), and how only a limited number of B-25s and A-20s were trained in the "skipbombing" technique which was so effective in destroying the convoy of reinforcements for the Japanese in New Guinea, but many other Allied squadrons cooperated much more effectively than the Japanese in getting those planes to their targets and hitting other bases without fighter escort (as everything was protecting the skipbombing squadrons). The strafing of the Japanese in the water was not of merchant crews, but rather of the almost 7,000 fresh Japanese infantry troops who were being sent to reverse the recent Allied successes in the area.

[@jeffreycoulter4095]

I love these old films

[@PeriscopeFilm]

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[@model-man7802]

This was truly an allied effort.God bless our Allies from Australia and England.

[@ronaldstrange8981]

Please remember the Americans. Regards from England.

[@carytaylor1415]

Great footage of Beaufighters and Havocs in operation

[@earlyriser8998]

This was a truly decisive encounter

[@TranscendianIntendor]

"Indestructible" is the book I am using as reference concerning acceptance of low level aircraft attacks on Japanese shipments of soldiers, food and equipment. Pappy Gunn is credited with turning bombers and Attack bomber fighters like the B-25, B-24, and even the B-17 into gunships.

[@jiyushugi1085]

What happens when your opponent is reading your mail. (A fact that of course went unmentioned in the narration.)

[@harrymurphey2634]

Here in the USA ... we know about the P-38 Lightnings ... the "Mossie's" .... but not to many know about the Bristol Beaufighters' ... the P-38's where first but not by much ... then the "Beaus'" showed up before the "Mossies' did ... " Whispering Death" ... the Japanese called them ... at that time the Beaus' carried the most armament ... of any fighter plane ...

[@earlshaner4441]

I love watching history 😍

[@JamesWilliams-dj2bp]

The announcer stated 22 ships were sunk while the thumb-nail states 12 were.

[@sg-yq8pm]

The announcer exaggerated, MacArthur liked 'his' achievements to be inflated, there were 16 ships not 22 and 12 were sunk, 20 Jap planes were shot down not the 55 stated and there were 6900 soldiers not the claimed 15000 in the convoy, about 3000 of whom died.

[@George83_Thomas]

“You better duck!”

[@pkamikaze888naur6]

22 ships sank in 2 days, 12 warships and 10 transport ships. Has it been done in anywhere in the world during WW11.

[@pressureworks]

The fun begins. Oh dear.

[@richardnottelmann58]

That is very messed up to go after a lifeboat.

[@earlyriser8998]

it was war. And the survivors would live to fight another day.....so they weren't allowed to survive.

[@skidude1991]

Luckily the Geneva Convention we have today lists shipwrecked people as a protected group, which you can only target if they are engaging in direct combat.

[@skidude1991]

@Percy Harry Hotspur I doubt totalitarian regimes care for Geneva Conventions or human rights, but that does not mean we shouldn't. Western nations should lead by example, or else the conventions will really mean nothing.

[@Daledavispratt]

Very messed up going after moored ships the way the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor too...war is hell and the strongest and most determined win.

[@richardnottelmann58]

@@earlyriser8998 That is why the allies should have taken them as prisoner's of war.

[@edwinparker6732]

Wikipedia gives a good overview en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bismarck_Sea I remember reading that RAAF aircrew were given the option of not flying the missions against the troop barges and life rafts.

[@warrenmilford1329]

I love hearing the Aussie accent at around 9-30. That kind of accent, and use of certain words, is dying out unfortunately.

[@Jilktube]

3:04 heh bomber bois

[@Jilktube]

This is where 1:02

[@weepweep2225]

🤗

[@blacksheepdog6969]

This was war and those guys getting shot in the water would’ve done the same to our guys.

[@TranscendianIntendor]

Shooting men on life rafts in the ocean? I've read written descriptions of strafing runs where pilots saw close up as bodies were torn asunder by their .50 caliber guns and .20 mm cannons. It is all because a guy named Gunn was separated from his wife and family. He was called Pappy Gunn. He said get down there low with guns and kill them.

[@kensommers5096]

You are wrong. The order was given to take out those rafts so as to stop thousands of soldiers reaching shore and reinforcing Lae an Salamua. If they had we would have suffered thousands more of our own casualties in taking them back.

[@TranscendianIntendor]

@@kensommers5096 If Kenny gave out that order it would have been prompted by what Pappy Gunn was already doing. Yes the justification was the US had to prevent reinforcements. You may have misunderstood me.

[@harrycurrie9664]

I hope the ship with large white markings on its side at 3;42 was a troop ship.

[@victoriacyunczyk]

It looks like either Japanese characters or dazzle camo, not sure if Japan used the latter

[@luckybestwash]

Battle of Brisbane --- I don't expect to see a propaganda film about that

[@harrycurrie9664]

Toyo ( toe-yo) ? always thought it was pronounced Tojo (Toe-joe).

[@user-pe1fb5uz6o]

Австралийцы и американцы расстреливали спасшихся японцев на плотах, это военное преступление. Даже нацисты в подобной ситуации брали англичан и американцев в плен, а не уничтожали с самолётов …

[@robertsettle2590]

Not always!!!!!!

[@agskytter8977]

This film show an organized allied war crime showing the third wave with volunteer pilots with a deliberate mission shooting surviviors in lifeboats and liferafts. Consider this, there is only one incident on record in WW2 where a German uboat did a similar deed and the uboat captain was executed by the allies after the war. From Wikipedia: The sinking Peleus left a large debris field, amongst which were several survivors clinging to rafts and wreckage. This debris could betray the presence of U-852 to enemy aircraft and shipping patrolling the area. Eck decided to sink the wreckage with hand grenades and automatic weapons. The question of whether this "dispersal" order explicitly or implicitly encouraged the killing of the sailors in the water, or whether this was an unfortunate example of collateral damage was the subject of a post-war trial. During the trial, Eck acknowledged he realized that by sinking the rafts, he was denying the seamen a chance of survival. In Norway we have a similar allied war crime in the so called Riegel incident. Riegel was a merchant ship going southband along the Norwegian coast. On 27. Nov 1944 Riegel was hit by British carrier planes and the captain of the ship ran it aground app 200m off shore. The British planes cept on attacking shooting at all lifeboats, rafts and people in the water. End result was app 2500 killed and app 2200 of them were Soviet POWs. I must say, after watching this clip, it seems this kind of organized war crimes were allied doctrine. I thought the Riegel incident was a one off. I also think this clip shows why the American B24 bombed suviviors in the Lanconia incident.

[@1bishw]

I can see attacking barges, but life rafts? If it was the other way around, we'd call it a war crime.

[@TheP3NGU1N]

Might not be an honorable thing to do... but sometimes war isn't honorable. They (the Japanese) would not show any restraint to do the same thing too. They were famous for trying to take out pilots who bailed out as they floated down in their parachute for example.

[@6412mars]

@@TheP3NGU1N damn right fella! give as good as you get!

[@richardnottelmann58]

I agree.

[@1bishw]

But does that make it right? If we fall to their level, what does that say about us. They committed the Rape of Nanking, so we should have done the same thing to them if we had the opportunity?

[@earlyriser8998]

@@1bishw don't mix incidents. Shooting soldiers in a life boat, of a boat you sank, is making sure they don't "live to fight again". Not a war crime. Just savage, fight to the death. The rape of Nanking was despicable and if we had fallen to these depths would be a war crime.

[@cocodog85]

@ 6:20. ah come on fellas! greasing the life boat full of survivors is a heinous war crime...the japans did the same thing but now i'm not indignant about the japans killing our boys in life boats.