WW2 Colour private documentary

[Mike K]

Interesting seeing the scenes of the abandonded Jap tanks at Milne Bay and the colourful camo scheme on them , one of these tanks was in the Narre Warren museum I think. The colour dyes in the film stock appear to have lost some brilliance.

The narration is a tad annoying i.e. he makes little reference or any educated comments regarding the defence of Milne Bay , the Jap landings there and who the defenders were . Who were the defenders anyway ? RAAF P40's maybe. His main remark about Australia "the aussie beer was great ". He says Port Moresby was the only " village " of any size.

[Lang]

I think you are a little tough on him Mike. It is a private home movie, obviously put together and voice overed 70 years after the event. Probably his grandkids made him do it and they put it up on Youtube?

It is not an historical educational doco. I reckon it is better than most private movies done and sticks pretty well to interesting stuff with a minimum of long views of distant scenery or flowers.

He got a lot of "real life" activity that he thought interesting and official camera men would not have bothered with. I think that is the real value of these home movies.

This is a very good story of the Milne Bay battle. Although small in the scheme of things it was the first defeat the Japanese had suffered on land and the first time American troops came in contact with the Japanese in New Guinea (the US Army engineers who had built the first two strips, later added to with a third). The USAAF added to the local defence by the Australian Kittyhawk squadrons by shooting down any Japanese aircraft trying to reach Milne Bay from Buna. American B25, B26 and B17 from Port Moresby and Townsville made a number of attacks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Milne_Bay

Lang

[Mike K]

My comments: Just me being grumpy !

The air war up there in PNG had some noted aces. Richard Bong was up there with the best, I think he achieved the highest score of anybody in the USAAC.

Does anyone know what the tricycle undercarriage transport aircraft are in this AWM movie ? Can't post a direct link , the AWM file number is F01086. Has me stumped this one.

[Lang]

Mike

That film number just comes up troops boarding a ship - no aircraft.

Tricycle transport more than likely DC-4. they also used B-24 Liberators as long range transport. Off the top of my head can't think of other nose wheel WW2 transports. The Constellations came in right at the end.

Lang

[Mike K]

sorry the number is F01806

[Lang]

Mike

It is a Douglas DC 5 which was a development of the DC 3 - same engines but more advanced design. For some reason they never sold a lot of them, probably because there were so many DC 3 available cheap after the war. Some operated in Australia in the late 40's.

Looking for the aircraft with the outer tail fins seen on one of the drops from inside.

Lang

[Lang]

I suspect the aircraft with the outer tail fin is a very early Dc4. They went to a single fin for production.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Lang

Mike

It is a Douglas DC 5 which was a development of the DC 3 - same engines but more advanced design. For some reason they never sold a lot of them, probably because there were so many DC 3 available cheap after the war. Some operated in Australia in the late 40's.

Looking for the aircraft with the outer tail fins seen on one of the drops from inside.

Lang

Thanks for that:

info here http://www.goodall.com.au/australian...uglas-dc-5.htm