Warbird Information Exchange

Does anyone know where this footage (from the John Ford Midway (1942)) was taken?

I am most interested in what the biplane is in the foreground.

It was not taken at Midway as there were no B-18's there. Was this staged after Pearl for the film? Possibly in a scrapyard on the island?

According to Wiki, it was filmed by Ford during the actual battle.
So if you see B-18s there, they were there.
Odd biplane though. Looks like a Fiat CR.42 to me.

According to the same source, Ford had a lot of footage of VT-8, and after their losses in the battle, had it edited into a short silent film (with silent film like titles) and transferred to 8mm home movie film and had a copy sent to each of the families.
Wow!

It would be great to see that footage, I wonder if any of the copies sent to families survive?

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

Could that be the remains of an SOC Seagull? Likely with the wheels installed instead of floats.
https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraf ... rcraft.asp

While a Curtiss is certainly the most likely, the wing struts don't match.
The SOC has "N" units, the ones in the photo look like "II" units.

I can't imagine Ford would need to restage scenes back in Hollywood.

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

I checked my Navy & Marine Overseas Loss List database & there were no biplanes losses for 4 Jun 42 at Midway in it. Is it possible that it was an AAF plane, or possibly that portion of the clip was from the Pearl Harbor attack?

Mac

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WWII Naval Aviation Research - Pacific
https://www.ww2nar-pac.com/

It wasn't at Midway - so my guess, like yours was it was from Pearl...however it looks staged. I am wondering if those were one of the B-18's that were written off as it appears that the plane has been gutted.

I was wondering if it was just at a dump and that was just an old private biplane from the 20's/30's.

Here is the footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa6O5GjUonQ

Years ago, I obtained this footage on DVD from George Gay's grandson and he told me that this is what his grandfather obtained from either Ford and/or the U.S. Navy, as a tribute to VT-8.

This footage was taken at Hickam or Wheeler after the attack for newsreel and documentary use; there are longer copies around showing a soldier putting a torch to the biplane, which is a Douglas BT-2 trainer. There were a few of these oldies left in Hawaii at the time of the attack; one had been cracked up by George Welch the previous May.

Raw footage here, thanks to Mark Allen M for finding it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNxniF4UB9M

Previous thread from 2016:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=63963&p=585592&hilit=douglas#p585592

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Thank you so much! I knew someone around here would know. There were not any B-18's at Wheeler so it must be Hickam unless this was days after the attack - so the next question is, since this was "staged," how many days after the attack was this footage taken.

In the raw footage you can see a guy running around with a torch.