The Fighting Lady (1944)

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] far aloft over the Atlantic seaboard one fine morning in 1943 an imposing force of American naval airpower proceeds to an important rendezvous this force is the aircraft complement of a new carrier fighters dive bombers torpedo bombers with the Air Group commander leading everyone they are flying out to sea to join the ship which will be their floating home and fighting base he's one of many carriers which the American people have built since Pearl Harbor to destroy the enemy in his own part of the world far away and there now is our base powerful history in honor of all American aircraft carriers let us call her the fighting lady against a good solid wind with their tail hooks down our planes come into the broad flight deck of their new home in case the plains book fails to catch the arresting gear there is a series of stout wire barriers number one man on the flight deck just now is the LSO the landing signal officer always a flier himself like all aviators he'd much rather be flying come on in and sit down the plane is out of the group and he waves it off come around another time pilot and we'll take you aboard when planes land they taxi quickly forward out of the way later they'll have to be shifted to the stern and rearranged in proper position for takeoff this is called respawning attack here is our skipper Jocko a veteran Navy flyer Annapolis 1917 he is not impressed by our earnest efforts or the flight deck control officers the skipper calls all hands together and gives us a piece of his mind we'll never be ready for combat unless you flight their crews learn right now to work as a team don't you men realize that before long we'll be in dangerous waters ice to slow bare hands [Music] watch out keep that wing clear get it over to starboard way over to starboard come on get the lead out of your pants now this is the way your deck should look when you're ready for action our ship our fighting lady is enormous wonderful and strange to us from stem to stern the entire ship is a honeycomb of watertight flameproof compartments far below the waterline our engine rooms fire rooms fuel tanks magazines packed with enough assorted high explosives to blow us all to kingdom come the hangar deck is like a gigantic tunnel nearly two city blocks long and wide enough to house for freight trains abreast it'll take us a week month maybe to learn our way around these new surroundings are as mysterious to us as they are cold and impersonal our fighting lady is like a huge floating cave noisy and uncomfortable elevators as big as a tennis court and carry us topside to the flight deck the great superstructure rising amidships is called the island this is truly the ship's nerve center it's fighting brain 85% of us who make up the fighting ladies family are volunteers in this war and never been to sea before we learned our jobs theoretically in intensive training ashore very short while ago we were high school boys and college kids or bank clerks or farmhands or factory workers now we are blue jackets and Marines all members of a naval combat team nearly 3,000 strong in our multitude of new tests and duties as a team for very green curiosity and comradeship and the instinct of self-preservation our great teachers [Music] [Music] some of us have to master the delicate and complicated instruments which control the fire of our five inch batteries the guns that must defend the fighting lady when enemy dive bombers and torpedo planes attack [Music] we train and train to learn our stuff and earn our II for efficiency the fighting ladies destination is still a closely guarded secret no one can hide the fact that we're entering tropical waters our ship seems more friendly and comfortable now we greenhorns feel that a suntan will at least make us look like fighting sailors even our mascot scrappy has been at sea longer than most of us [Music] some of the mystery that has been hanging over us is lifted when we enter the Panama Canal there is a lot of unprofessional nervousness about whether or not we're too big to get through the locks by using lines instead of fenders we do get through as the naval constructors knew all along we would come on hop aboard we're going places for two cents I would the only buddy wants to swap now we stand out into the Pacific and life aboard settles down into monotony here are our aircraft pilots officers all ships company called them the glamour boys they are the men who fly and fight our planes all the efforts of all the rest of us are concentrated on putting these people into the air and getting them back again most of us are hiding a certain amount of nervousness and anxiety many of us are johnny-come-lately reserve officers who only recently learned to fly at Corpus Christi in Jacksonville others among us are specialists who trained at Quonset point Rhode Island reserves are called by the regulars in a friendly way 90-day wonders in return the Annapolis regulars are called the trade school boys but whether Quonset or Annapolis all are bound together in the fraternity a close fellowship of Navy men among the ships noncommissioned personnel almost 3,000 blue jackets and 100 Marines the hottest shots of the air crewmen aerial Gunners and radio men these boys and the plane captains are the partners of the glamour boys in the air by non flying blue jackets they are called zum pigeons or Airedales because they receive 50% extra pay for flying they're sometimes referred to as the bankroll boys everybody aboard ship backs up the flying group this requires the efforts of all manner of people many of the jobs are far from glamorous all the little tasks and services you find along Main Street must be performed by some members of our carrier's crew well though the fighting lady is a powerful ship of war she is also a sizeable American community this population must be supplied with all the necessities and some of the comforts from home doc Sorenson the pharmacist maid is just like a village druggist next door is our hospital called sick bay there's only a few patients now but soon it is to be filled with our wounded men like these who perform the humble jobs that make life aboard a fighting carrier more bearable the barbers and the cobblers seldom mentioned in communicate they all have a place in our fighting team weeks pass now we are far out into the Pacific which is a very considerable body of water monotony shuts down on us between our duties guessing where we're bound is still our chief pastime will we put into Pearl are we going to iron bottom Bay or maybe even to the Aleutians all such gossip and rumor are called scuttlebutt or a drinking fountain conversation [Music] throughout the ship men get together in little groups to take refuge from the heavy burden of waiting for something to happen [Music] and then one day out of nowhere comes a fast leak tanker we refueled at sea this tells us something this tells us that we are not going to Pearl or any other land base for a long long time [Music] besides our skipper we have an admiral aboard a sea dog who's been a naval flier for nearly 20 years until now only these officers have known where we're to go but now Jocko our captain confers with the Air Group commander and reveals the plan the fighting lady has been ordered to make a strike she will pass through waters where no carrier task force has ventured since the bloody Battle of Midway remember this is 1943 long before we took the Marshall Islands weather studies are made and though this is a daily routine somehow the whole ship senses that something is about to happen even before the news is broadcast to all of us there's a new tension and atmosphere expectancy and then we are told we have traveled more than 7000 miles from Panama so that tomorrow August 30th 1943 we can strike the Jap base of Marcos Island deep within the enemy's ring of Defense's [Music] the evening before our first strike the air group commander briefs all his pilots with maps and the model of our target we are sticking out our next to within a thousand miles of Tokyo to divert the japs attention from other american activities far south and east of marcus those of us who have never before been in battle that's most of us ask a lot of questions of those who have seen action your seat Gunners don't break off until you're practically on the same course and right astern of the enemy then push over fast outwardly we try to seem composed and cheerful but a lots going on inside our minds we question our most inner selves what'll it be like how we take it what we do all right this is the night when a lot of boys write one more letter home [Music] among goes playing acey-deucey in the wardroom is a chubby 23 year old from Eureka Springs Arkansas lieutenant et Stover nicknamed smokey as he's sitting on the far right having flown 50 missions at Guadalcanal smokey has been ordered to take a rest you much rather be flying [Music] before dark on the eve of battle our planes are loaded with bombs and gas so that each plane will be in this precise position for a speedy takeoff we spot and respawn our deck now all is perfect we will strike a dog and now GQ General Quarters [Music] every man on the ship goes wheeze battlestation special place on the fighting team George the barber will pass ammunition Leo the Baker will be asked I look out rank the tailor is assigned to a first-aid station pilots earn their ready rings each squadron provider bomber torpedo bomber assemble separately suppliers get into their flight gear and receive last-minute data and instructions [Music] on the flight deck our first battle dawn awaits us our whole ship is on hair-trigger the fighting lady is hardly 100 miles from the first target of her career these last few minutes before the order for our first action are the toughest time of all a wise man once said war is mostly waiting we learn now what that can mean at last the word comes pilots man your planes ready room 3 Roger pilots man your planes [Music] [Applause] [Music] the fighters take off first to form cover along for the other squadrons and the Bombers heavy laden with destruction the Sun has risen now and our escorts are alert for enemy submarines but the fighting lady steams boldly toward our target to lessen the distance for our planes when they return [Music] the radio plotting room is the electric eye and ear by which the fighting lady detects and keeps tab on all planes and ships for miles around us smokey the fighting East from Arkansas has been put in charge of this room for our big day punched among his assistants smokey is like a super quarterback on a super football team he is in constant touch with our entire air group as our first fighters race in toward Marcus Island they stay low hoping to escape detection by the enemy's radar then they climb suddenly and dive a surprise strafing attack on the enemy's air strips these red balls floating up at is so lazily our anti-aircraft fire there is three times as much of it coming up at us as we can see because only one shell in three is a tracer what looked like fiery Polliwogs our tracers from our own wing guns the AK act is much heavier than expected but through it we go to knock out enemy bombers on the ground all through these battle pictures realized we are looking straight down our own gun barrels these pictures are taken automatically by the same mechanism that operates the guns pictures even shake with the guns recoil our eye is now the very eye of our fighting airplane [Music] the enemy's picket boats and supply ships offshore are thoroughly straight no longer release crap bring rice and sake and munitions into Marcus our bombers flying higher see the island beginning to burn a moment ago it looked like a little Jade trinket a cobalt see as the fighters and bombers swing victoriously away from Marcus Island towering columns of smoke show the thorough job our boys have done back aboard ship smokey is tracking the Flyers with care to be sure that none is missing and that no enemy planes are trying to follow them out to our fighting lady [Music] as our planes come aboard there begins an operation almost as exciting as the attack itself a ballet after battle with the plane directors as dancing masters whirling propellers build a scene with danger but now our crews are trained in a depth [Music] the landing signal officer performs an eloquent Adagio on the fighting lady Stern warning to the rest of the cast to stay off stage until a limping member can be led out of the way [Music] the pilots go below to report to their combat intelligence officers they have hot news good news they tell what they saw and did how many rounds of ammunition they fired how many bombs they dropped what they hit what they noticed at the target that was new and different or that may need hitting again as the reports are added up and our combat photographers develop their pictures the story becomes better and better every single jet bomber on Marcos has been destroyed 80% of the shore installations blasted are set afire hangars radio stations gas dumps ammunition dumps Marcos is now a lovely mess in the radio plot smokey is worried where a plane still up there and he's wondering about them they are ours though delayed by Battle Damage [Music] landing a shot-up plane on the carrier is a crucial test of how well trained how alert steady unable flier is [Music] the fighting lady now has met her enemy in the wardroom the pilots who this morning felt new and nervous now talk like veterans we have been baptized by fire and have survived nicely we of the fighting lady are growing up the Admiral of our task force knows the overall strategy of the whole Pacific campaign to smash straight through Japan's outer network of islands to recapture the Philippines and land on the mainland of Asia thus we will deny Japan supplies from a laya and the Dutch East Indies and leave her far-flung island Garrison's maroon then we will reach out and really help our ally China months after Marcos this campaign as well started our carrier task forces have been in many battles and now early in 1944 the fighting ladies target is Kwajalein at Marshall Islands these are Jap zeroes fighter stream being pierced by our planes and planes from eight other carriers territory to strafing Waja Lane and bombing it apart fighter pilots have improved with practice with the confidence that comes from experience they estimate their range by watching their tracers they hold their fire until our wing gun bullets converge at 300 yards shoot and burst instead of in steady streams which heat up the guns and spend ammunition [Music] [Music] soon have Kwajalein burning very satisfactory after our bombing attacks and heavy shelling by our service ships assault craft filled with Marines and army hit the beaches and very soon after that Raja lean is ours right after Kwajalein word comes to our Admiral that a truck Japan's huge and secret naval fortress 1,400 miles to the west there apparently are some heavy units of the Japanese battle fleet perhaps we can surprise them again the fighting ladies squadron and squadrons from other carriers take off for combat a lot of mouths are dry at the thought that our target is mighty truck the rear seat Gunners looked back in the fighting lady wondering plan and if they will ever return to her [Music] all that we know about truck we know from a few photographs taken by some nervy Marines on reconnaissance just 18 days ago we hear that it is a complex of heavily fortified Islands surrounded by air strips with naval Anchorage's at certain spots among the islands [Music] for the next two days more than 1,000 of our carrier-based planes are going to sweep in on truck in relays the planes appear to blow gently off our bow actually their airspeed is a good 70 knots diving in on truck we again turn on our guns and they're synchronized cameras trucks defenders are aloft and we smack them hard [Music] the hearts that were in men's mouths before the strike began now settle back into place and are singing once more there's something really grand something historic about diving in here on this place which Japan has been building and guarding jealously from all the Japanese eyes for 20 years we dive right in low and take a good look at fighter strips bomber bases and seaplane ramps in an almost vertical dive the pilot may black out or go blind for a moment when he pulls up and out at the bottom but the camera won't black out it cannot see the landing of our own mom or will be up and away before that reaches the target but it records the hits of other planes ahead of us [Music] [Music] we'd hope to find the Jap fleet here but most of its gone some lingering ships including some of their fast fleet tankers we find hiding in sheltered coves [Music] the vessels which we are now strafing are other greed auxiliaries rice boats transports and ammunition ships [Music] with bursts of fifty-caliber incendiaries and armor-piercing slugs we set them on fire rip them open often wide enough to sink [Music] strafing ships filled with TNT is not very healthy for pilots who diet too low but it's hard to tell who's carrying what until the big bang comes returning to the deck at 130 miles an hour with a flat shot away all a pilot can hope to save is his own skin here comes our new Air Group commander he's had a bit of trouble his windshield is blotted with blood and he has to feel his way aboard strafing at low altitude he took a 40 millimeter anti-aircraft burst right in the face more than 200 wounds in his plane a sieve he'll live to fly again some planes will not return but others come back and land somehow anyhow considering the toughness of truck our losses are astonishingly light no time is lost getting casualties below it's a long way from truck to our secret rendezvous in the Marshall Islands someday it can be told just where this is actually it is a magnificent new fleet Anchorage an advanced naval base which we have taken from the Japs and made seat yours now for the first time we who have been operating as separate relatively small task forces see assembled the enormous mass of naval power over 1 million tons of American fighting steel new carriers new battleships new cruisers and fleet auxiliaries in an amount which Japan could never conceive let alone produce that we are able to maintain supply lines over the vast distances of the Pacific is one of the miracles of this war in the comforting presence of so much power we relax and refresh our battle strained nerves [Music] our ships post-office now does really big business letters for us at last from home letters from us to friends and families our sensors know our collective mood our central hopes and thoughts the stuff is really getting out here now I can't tell you much about it but oh boy and the more we get well the sooner I'll be seeing you all hands are cold together our old skipper Jocko has been promoted Admiral our new ones name is Dixie man as soon as I finish talking we are getting underway our fighting lady is now part of what is designated task force 58 as you know our final destination is a place called Tokyo we'll have to fight hard to get there but when we drop our hope at Yokohama I'm going to throw a party all hands are cordially invited [Applause] [Music] [Applause] our task forces are built compactly now around carriers like ourselves with speedy new battle wagons at our side a carrier skipper never leaves the bridge at sea because carriers and their planes are the first to strike the enemy or to be struck by him our aircraft pilots are constantly on call or despite the massive power spread out around us these are still dangerous waters our pilots know this all too well but it doesn't worry them now for their season they know how a lot of new faces among us but most of these men too have been in action at places like Velandia millie jollywood Palau Rob our wake male oh allah our rear seat gunners and radio men are old hands now some of their faces are different too because there have been replacements a lot of them have been made commissioned officers there's a saying in the Navy that you never learn to love a carrier until she gets hurt well perhaps we don't really love our fighting lady but we've become mighty fond of her and almost comfortable almost at home [Music] occasionally our shipboard movies bring us that one thing we trade the most one touch of something utterly American one deep breath of hold like Jocko our new skipper Dixie is an old hell diving Navy pilot their battle caps he and Admiral mature looked like big league baseball managers Northwest we steamed and never before in history as an ocean borne such a weight of naval power not a judgment not of Japan's proud boast Tsushima was there anywhere near the force with which we now assert that this is our ocean this is our air we're seeking a Japanese battle fleet to prove with our cruisers our biggest new battle wagons present we are strong enough to hope really to hope that we may provoke the Japanese fleet into accepting a fight [Music] we're joined by plotting Coast Guard and navy transports the Marines again so another amphibious assault is cooking Oh our patrols have spotted an enemy search plane in a raptor he's a big bird 20 tonne for motored kawanishi seaplane behind we call Emily's miss Emily's a tough old girl right now she's screaming for help and telling Tokyo by radio where we are gal cats are closing in on it Emily [Music] now that the enemy knows where we are and we know he knows our brass hats get together on final arrangements for what may turn into another Midway our objective first of many in our drive through to the Philippines and China will be the Marianas in battles just ahead of us we are to make good use of a multitude of weapons special devices and techniques which have been evolved through the 30 years since the u.s. Navy first took to the air not only did our naval fliers create the aircraft carrier itself but it was they who devised the torpedo plane and invented and perfected dive bombing disposed about our flight deck so that planes can be quickly armed are all manner of death-dealing objects five hundred one thousand and two thousand pound bombs we have torpedoes and incendiaries and the kind of anti-personnel bombs we call daisy cutters [Music] some of our bombs are armor-piercing some for fragmentation others have delayed action fuses to prolong the effect of our bombardment for hours after we have delivered it here are the new rockets which packed the same wallop as a 3-inch shell they weigh a little and because there is much recoil they can be fired from planes on the eve of battle we are told to scrub up to lessen the danger of infection in case we're wound [Music] as well as our bodies most of us prepare our souls always on the eve of battle divine services are held in relays so that every one of our fighting ladies three thousand Sons has a chance to attend [Music] as the eve before battle lengthens there is the usual waiting again we're reminded that war is mostly waiting because all cooks and bakers must soon be at their battle stations they work all night long preparing a hearty meal of steak and eggs for our 3 a.m. battle breakfast [Music] we are being attacked they're being attacked by Japanese torpedo planes giving in after us wing to water all they want is one hit on our flight deck we have nearly 90 planes fueled and loaded with bombs ready for the takeoff each patch of flame is a burning jack in the surprise attack 19 Japs are polished off by our ship's batteries not a single carrier is hit we have been fortunate so now commences another major moment in the fighting lady's career flight quarter sounds in this modern warfare the young plane captains are to their pilots what Squires were two armored Knights of old in this operation typical of many more to come a lot of other fighting ladies will be involved and nearly 2,000 carrier-based planes all of them attacking in air groups like our own [Music] from now on we tighten our belts and steady our hands as our Navy makes progressively bigger attacks nearer and nearer the heart of Japan [Music] and he's posting radio plot tracking down enemy planes and cursing the luck that keeps him out of the air smokey chafes of being grounded on a day like this especially when targets are juicy ones all the Jap air bases and military installations in the Marianas and a special prize package Guam the island which we did not fortify but the Japs dead now comes word that the japs have sent strong air reinforcements to Tinian which flanks blah again our synchronized cameras record as no human eye and memory could record just what our guns and bombs do to the enemy these pictures enable our air combat intelligence officers to assess the damage as we swoop down upon Taniya [Music] [Music] [Music] while our planes returned for more fuel and ammunition the surface vessels take over four digits naval their eyes to prepare the beaches our assault forces are going to hit not only our newest but some of our oldest and proudest battleships are here the Colorado the Tennessee and the USS Pennsylvania flagship of world war 1 winging home to the fighting lady several of our planes crippled make a game attempt to land [Music] now is when the landing signal officer must judge not only the speed of estimate the Battle Damage of claims like these [Music] and flight deck emergency crews firefighters rescue details and medical corpsman exhibit almost incredible courage [Music] the pilot of a torpedo plane has been unable to release his load of incendiaries learning thermite is spilling out at incandescent heat in the planes tanks remain about 75 gallons of high-octane gas men who braved this danger to save pilot and crew deserve every citation they get [Music] in the ready rooms intelligence officers question battle-weary pilots what did you see any Jap carriers in sight are you sure they were carrier-based planes [Music] then from radio plot comes uncomfortable news torpedo planes and dive bombers from enemy aircraft carriers are approaching battle stations our engine room go orders for flank speed which is a few knots faster than full speed in case we need to take evasive action all boilers are lighted to let the fighting lady outdo herself if necessary the engine-room people turn on the heat and the propeller shafts turn like fate in their alleys [Music] fighting lady leaps through the sea honor guard skipper Dixie gears himself for action and so does wise old scrappy and now here they come [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a jet Jill torpedo bomber miraculously keeps coming through our wall of flak he's approaching us fast with a life that must be charmed our Gunners throw everything they've got but still she comes if he ever releases that torpedo he missed us and that the pilot was already dead or his release gear jammed when smokey the pride of Arkansas hears about that one he almost takes off now our reconnaissance has spotted the Japanese task forces this is the moment we've been fighting and praying for every plane that can fly and every qualified pilot is ordered into the air at last smokey gets his chance to fly again Philippine trade wind is tearing down our flight deck our plane spraying forward to rise into it our entire Air Group thunders out behind the group commander now our fighters run into a smoke jet fighters mostly zeros send up to intercept our attack on the Japanese fleet a mad aerial scramble begins which the boys to this day still call the Marianas turkey shoot 369 Jap planes are shot down in this single day - our loss of 22 japanese plane makers have sacrificed strength and firepower for agility their planes disintegrate quickly when you hit them they have no armor plate as ours have nor their gas tanks self-sealing these little monkeys are fancy fliers they think aerobatics can win dogfights whereas we believe in smooth flying and careful shooting and now at last through a late afternoon haze from high altitude our air combat group sites the Imperial Japanese battle fleet these are the first pictures ever taken of a great enemy naval formation like this there it is an imperial fleet crawling around below us in violent evasive action us looking down on them in the seas they think they own some of these Japanese ships are scampering away at better than forty knots when you bore straight down on them they twist squirm [Music] we engage a big destroyer at the bow hoping to shoot out his bridge and he shoots back planning let's go down after that Cruiser he answers us emphatically from the forward turret [Music] [Music] now at 25,000 tons Jeff carrier the Hyatt Aachen class is going to get it watch five o'clock in the camera the lower right hand corner of the screen this big flat top gets it where the turkey got the ax [Music] you touch off some of these babies just watch this and now we come home from the Battle of the Philippine Sea 17 Jap warships have been sunk or severely damaged several of our returning planes have been badly shot up a dive bomber comes in out of gas he pulls off the starboard but knows is over because his wheels are down [Music] this pilot has 73 holes in his plane and his leg almost shot away [Music] to clear the deck for other planes number 30 badly damaged is jettison given the deep-six [Music] watch carefully this man's controls are all but shot away [Applause] he steps out of it smart and now it is time to paint up the scores on this fine morning just a year after being commissioned a fighting lady is beginning to look like a stamp album [Music] she has done her share amassing task force 58 grand total of 757 aircraft destroyed in a two-week turkey shoot but there's another score to add up our own casualties quite a few faces are no longer with us on the fighting lady among them commander Upson skipper of our torpedo squadron lieutenant Pappy Condit Lieutenant John Mian and that fighting his gentlemen lieutenant smokey Stover yes smoke is missing to salute them under their country's play for they were brave they were gallant others will come forward to take their places for the battles we have fought on the seas and in the sky are only the beginning [Music] still hungry for battle will steam our carrier serene powerful unafraid she and her planes will come home again someday God grant but not until a bitter glorious end where she is and we saluted the fighting lady [Music]

Channel: AIRBOYD

Views: 2,276,115

Rating: 4.6755867 out of 5

Keywords: Dauntlesses, #avgeek, Yorktown, Sea, #AVGEEK, military, The Fighting Lady (Film), cockpit, #airboyd, Boeing, history, Fighting, Airbus, chemtrails, airline, Avengers, airboyd, aeroplane, flying, 1944, boeing, NTSB, united, airport, takeoff, airbus, luftfahrt, planes, aviation, states, TBF, CV-10, documentary, FAA, Aircraft, prop, jet, AOPA, u.s., plane, USS, airplane, A-24, navy, pilot, yt:quality=high, Lady, Hellcats, landing, Carrier, Operations

Id: B5JbXRDOP60

Length: 61min 36sec (3696 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/brocollocalypse]

I'm only five minutes in, but already loving the wonderful landing footage in "technicolor" :)

[u/digby5000]

incredible stuff...

[u/brocollocalypse]

All of a sudden 30 minutes in: massive explosion\shockwave, tail ripped of by tailhook, blood covered canopy from flak to the face. Lots of gun cam stuff as well. Amazing footage in beautiful color.

[u/RandomLunacy]

A lot of really good gun camera footage in this thanks for sharing man.