World War 2 Allied Aviation News Volume 3
British & Commonwealth Air Forces 1942-1945

See the RAF & Allied services in the air and behind the scenes in these exciting and informative films, all produced during World War 2.

RAF Air Front (B&W, 65:00 Restored footage) This series of RAF films documents literally dozens of missions flown by RAF 2^nd Tactical Air Force and Bomber Command over Northern Europe and Germany from the Spring of 1944 through the last days of the War in May, 1945. In fact, there are so many missions that space doesn't nearly permit listing them all here. Suffice it to say that there is more non stop air action in an hour plus of film than we have ever seen before in one place. No talking heads – just planes, bullets & bombs supplemented by maps showing mission targets. There are amazing attack sequences often shot right down on the deck by brave combat cameramen. And, unlike many films of this period, individual units, dates & specific targets are often identified

Just a few of the many highlights: Hawker Typhoon & Tempest fighter/bombers fly “Mandolin” ops attacking tanks, rail complexes, vehicles & targets of opportunity with canon, rocket and bombs, including crucial support for the D-Day invasion; Mosquitoes conduct daring low level precision attacks on high value targets like Gestapo headquarters and high ranking officer billets in chateau, Bristol Beaufighters and Mosquitoes pouncing on enemy shipping along the coast of occupied Europe with torpedo, rockets & bombs, A-20 Boston attack bombers on tree top skimming “Rhubarb” & 'Ramrod” missions over the Low Countries, RAF B-25 Mitchells on 'Circus” missions hitting factories, munitions dumps, refineries, troop concentrations in fast moving low & medium bombing attacks, heavy Lancaster hitting hard targets like concrete U-Boat pens and coastal fortification by day and night missions into Germany against cities like Brunswick and Konigsburg where incendiary bombs quickly spread fires that literally light up the street grid like a road map – simultaneously fascinating and horrific. Late in the war, you'll see Lancaster's drop massive 22,000 llb bombs on fortified port entrances and critical briges & viaducts, knocking them out with one blow, and just days before the end of the war, Lancasters attack on Hitlers “Eagle's Nest” lair at Berchtesgaden, shown as it happened.

The Gen R.A.F. News Magazine, distributed exclusively inside the service
Highlights from issues 1-10, 1942-1945 (B&W, 65:00, Restored footage)
The RAF modifies North American Mustangs intruders for ground attack; Polish air crew take along their mascot “Spot” on night bombing missions, Gibraltar serves as both a strategic airbase and field assembly point for crated aircraft to be distributed around the Med, Allied bombers, including RAF Bostons & Mitchells, bomb the island fortress of Pantelleria into surrender; Hurricane 2D “Tank Busters', armed with two 40mm canon, support the 8^th Army in North Africa; the French aircraft carrier Berne, joins the French Navy in the North Atlantic, RAF Bostons attack steel & armament factories near Dinan, FR in a low level raid, the history & retirement of Coastal Command Lockheed Hudson Bombers, the Free French Lorraine Squadron Bostons in low level raids over their home country, the “Independent Air Force, the first de Havaland Mosquito intruder squadron, choose their own targets, B-26 Marauders hit high priority targets as part of the preparation for D-Day, Blimps patrol the Atlantic, hunting U-Boats, first look at the Australian designed & built “Boomerang” fighter, Transport Command ferries all kinds of fighters & bombers (great pics!) all over the World, “Wooden Wonder' Mosquito fighter-bombers are built in Canada, French Spitfire pilots fly missions over France, RAAF pilot “Guns” has a special good luck charm in his Mustang, German V-1 “Buzz Bomb” missiles are described & shot down by RAF fighters & AAA, First look at the still secret Hawker Tempest fighter/bomber, “the finest piece of machinery to take the air to date, scourge of V-1 missiles, the RAF supports the invasion of Normandy, Group captain Picard, featured in the Classic “Target for Tonight,” sacrifices his life leading a Mosquito squadron in a precision attack on the Amiens jail, freeing hundreds of French prisoners, filmed as it happened, RAF “Hurri-Bombers attack both deadly mosquitoes & the Japanese in the Burmese jungle, the RAF supports the Arnhem air drops in Operation Market Garden ion Holland; RAF B-24 Liberators bomb Japanese targets in Burma, “The Battle of New Years Day” RAF fighters & bombers help defeat the surprise German offensive in the Battle of the Bulge (dramatic gun camera film and many more stories