WW2 colour film of RAAF and US operations in PNG

Liberator3 · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2015 7:02 am **Posts:** 200

This may interest some... a 1940s era colour film taken in Papua New Guinea showing the RAAF and USAAF at Milne Bay....using Hudsons, Beauforts, Airacobras, Beaufighters and Kittyhawks.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/F03628/

bilwor · **Posted:** Tue Jan 26, 2016 9:08 am

I get the notice "Error loading media, File not found"

cooper9411 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 26, 2016 9:29 am

Worked for me. Thanks for the link, pretty cool! :drink3:

dred · **Joined:** Sat May 05, 2007 11:26 pm **Posts:** 154

Worked for me also.

BAJ · **Joined:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:14 pm **Posts:** 126

Worked for me....wonderful qwerky piece

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Thu Jan 28, 2016 6:25 pm

indeed rare footage. i loved the beaufighter buzz shots. landings of type of aircraft shown were obviously pretty dicey w/ all the standing water & ruts in the airstrips.

hang the expense · **Posted:** Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:36 pm

Liberator3 wrote:

This may interest some... a 1940s era colour film taken in Papua New Guinea showing the RAAF and USAAF at Milne Bay....using Hudsons, Beauforts, Airacobras, Beaufighters and Kittyhawks.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/F03628/

Thank you for posting that. Very poinant

Rick65 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 30, 2016 4:41 am

Thanks Phil, this is a timely link for me as I have just been reading " Kokoda Air Strikes" by Anthony Cooper (UNSW Press). This book is subtitled "Allied Air Forces in New Guinea 1942". I enjoyed and gleaned a lot from the book. For example I had never understood how much of the non aviation conflict was directly aimed at getting control of airfields and hence of the territory within their reach. It was also underlined how hard it was to try to fight a crack piloted Zero low over your own cloud covered field.

My first thought was to work out when the AWM movie might have been shot.
The footage seems to have been filmed following the withdrawal of the Japanese from Milne Bay as Beaufighters and Beauforts are featured and these arrived 5?/6 September 1942 almost as the Japanese left.
Flight Lieutenant Donald Charles Stumm was identified as featuring in some footage and he was recorded as being killed in action 3 October 1942 in the Solomon Islands.
So probably Sept/Oct 1942 within only 1 to 2 months after the Japanese withdrawal?

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WW2 colour film of RAAF and US operations in PNG

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