Air Force - Air Field England (1940-1945)

Unused / unissued material - dates and locations unclear or unknown.
Various shots of American air base in England (East Anglia?) Various shots showing typical activity of USAFE (United States Air Force in Europe) air base: bombers taxiing on runway, crews of airmen on jeeps, mechanics on bicycles and even a farmer using horse drawn plough in fields next to air base. Various shots ground crew testing guns and propellers on bomber. Various shots ground crew loading bombs on to plane. Various shots planes landing.
Various shots USAF (United States Air Force) officers in control room looking at maps, including Colonel Carl R Storrie of 387th Bombardment Group. Various shots showing bomber crews leaving on bombing mission: we see them leaving their barracks, piling onto jeeps (some sit on bonnet and roof) and driving to bombers. Various shots crew loading equipment on to Marauder ? bomber ("Tail End Charley"). Various C/Us of cameraman on board bomber checking his camera.
Good C/Us crew on board bomber as plane prepares for takeoff - all look young and nervous. Various shots planes taking off. Various aerial shots of air base. Various shots row of bombers taxiing, taken from one of the planes. More aerial shot of fields, other airborne bombers in formation, gun fire from enemy planes. Good C/U pilot flying plane.
Various shots in USAF control room: American servicewomen (women's USAF?) are moving model aeroplanes around a table map, a male officer writes information on mission board, other officers answer phones and study books More aerial shots landscape (France?), we see planes dropping bombs on coast.
Some shots repeated, also some spacing between shots.
FILM ID:1845.16
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[@laverdanick]

323rd Bombardment Group B-26s. YU-F is 41-34742 Utah Gamecock of the 455th Bombardment Squadron. The 323rd Bombardment Group operated with B-26 Marauders, American medium bombers. They were the first Eighth Air Force Group to fly a medium level bombing mission with this aircraft on 16 July 1943. After flying a total of 33 missions with the Eighth, the Group were assigned to the Ninth Air Force, and they continued to fly strategic bombing missions over Europe throughout the war, staying at Earls Colne, Essex until 21 July 1944, at which point they moved to Beaulieu, England. The 323rd moved to an airfield adjacent to the village of Lessay, France on 26 August 1944 and then moved to an airfield near Chartres, France on 21 September 1944. On 13 October 1944, the 323rd moved to Laon/Athies Airfield from which the group flew missions in the Battle of the Bulge from December 23 -27, 1944 for which the Distinguished Unit Citation was conferred upon the group. On 9 February 1945, the gorup moved to Denain/Pouvy Airdrome where it was stationed until 15 May 1945.

[@cuttersgoose]

B26 marauders , the hot rod of bombers. The early ones had a real short wing span which gave them a high wing load, so they landed at high speeds, and didn’t fly well on one engine... so they redesigned the next model and added 5 feet to the end of the wings. These are the later versions.

[@davidbarrett1487]

Always interesting to look back, we must not forget the people of great courage who fought for us. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 The great spirit, something about those times.

[@ErnaldtheSaxon]

No more brother wars for international finance capital

[@seriousfun213]

This is amazing. Thank you so much!

[@Channel-os4uk]

Martin Marauders, I think

[@cuttersgoose]

Yup....the hot rod of bombers

[@kaptainkaos1202]

So many people complain about music, sounds, whatever added to videos. I think I like them with sound added. It seems quite 1 dimensional with just video.

[@tonysurridge3033]

What happened to the sound?,odd as this is a british pathe news item!.

[@neilewart4347]

Anyone know wh8ch airfield this was

[@trustnobody123]

Probably Earls Colne

[@fightersweep]

Earls Colne. Spent a lot of my time practically living on that airfield, so know it quite well.

[@trustnobody123]

@@fightersweep so much changed now. The pub went last month...

[@fightersweep]

@@trustnobody123 Bird in Hand gone? That's a shame. Spent many hours in that place with a glass of my favourite Ridley's Old Bob. Admittedly, it wasn't the busiest pub in the world, but did have the honour of having a few drinks with some 323rd veterans in there in 92.

[@trustnobody123]

@@fightersweep they sneaked in one day and bulldozered it down... Going to be offices. Had previously been empty after a small fire. Were you in Earls Colne in WW2?

[@mikes7639]

Tokyo bombers

[@cuttersgoose]

No... B25s were used in the Doolittle raid